Preparation

Example of ambiguity

(used with Jayme) how to manage partners at Quizlet: originally started with monetization but was not replicable; navigated away from that model to a more growth-oriented model. That one is paying more dividends. Had to research and find top players and then establish connections and convince them to work with us. Also started the global partnership effort, spending time evangelizing partners in general as they are not necessarily seen as strategic.

Questions for Yung Leem, Technical Account Manager, Chrome OS

1. How do you typically work with the partnership manager? 2. What is the mix between innovation and bug fixing? 3. What do you most wish for in a partner alliance manager? 4. What development process does Google use?

1. Favorite/least favorite Google product

a. Google calendar i. Love love love, don't use anything else. Have multiple calendars, so easy to schedule, never miss anything, integrate with google meet, etc. b. Google meet c. Sheets/Slides i. Can't do some things I used to be able to do in Excel/Powerpoint like builds/animations were easier in Powerpoint

1. Specific problem I have solved

a. HP - Mossberg reviews, etc. i. Situation: Symantec included many, many pop-ups/interstitials on the HP image according to their usual method of nagging customers; HP had seen reviewers start to mention these types of annoyances negatively and reviews drive purchases ii. Task: Placate HP product while still giving Symantec the results that they need iii. Activity: 1. Understand what the stakeholders need to see, what their goals are and what the various scenarios are 2. Research what reviews tend to focus on, how they are completed, etc. 3. Pull together results from Symantec side - number of subscribes vs. each pop-up 4. Run some tests to decrease pop-ups on some systems to gauge results with minimal negative effect iv. Result: 1. Symantec agreed to stop pop-ups for the first 10 days; this covered the typical review window and did not significantly impact their sign-ups; in some cases actually helped; decreased notifications by 30% w/o materially affecting subscriptions

1. Failed a deadline

a. Quizlet - Print promotions i. Situation: Publishers were to include Quizlet in their curriculum to accelerate acquisition ii. Task: Get publishers to include Quizlet in their print releases iii. Activity: 1. Identified content 2. Examined printing schedules 3. Created content and promotional copy, etc. iv. Results: 1. COVID - this threw a wrench into most printing plans so the promotions that were supposed to be in-print did not happen a. Did have online promotions which got more visibility due to remote learning

4.)There are 2 million businesses on Apps/GSuite. Let's say you were tasked to design and build a customer support operation for our Apps/GSuite customers. How would you proceed?

Assuming you mean how Google would support these customers: I'd set up a different operation for business customers than for consumers. Maybe even have tiers of service depending on what you pay or the size of your operation/your value to Google. A large enterprise customer may have a dedicated team for customer support, whereas a smaller SMB would share this support team with many other like businesses. I would look at the data to determine what kinds of issues typically arise and be sure I had a team in place to address those concerns, while at the same time feeding these issues back to engineering. I would make sure I offered support in various touchpoints to meet the customers' needs - some like to email, some like to research on the web, some like to chat, some like to talk to a live person. There's nothing more annoying when being forced to call and go on hold to wait for an answer when you just want to send an email and get an answer later. I'd have a protocol for 'triage' like in an ER - identifying right away mission critical situations and putting more workers on that issue. I'd have a trained team at all touchpoint levels and make sure they were confident enough to be empowered to make decisions so customers wouldn't have to go through many levels - some levels would still be in place, obviously. I'd try to offer incentives to keep these trained employees in place - they are often the first line of contact between Google and the customer and shouldn't be taken lightly. I'd have to figure out what kind of pricing - do we sell support packages, maybe if you've purchased a certain amount you don't have to pay, you can buy a plan or just go time-and-materials. If you buy a plan we can throw in preventive services. I'd look at what the competition was doing. I'd monitor the results and continually tweak the team - cost analysis would be a big deal as well, but you need to look at more than just a standalone customer service group - this done right really impacts the entire company in soft dollars. I would look at regional needs and be sure I could offer 24/7 for everyone unless it was cost-prohibitive. Assuming you mean a support application for customers to purchase: I'd work with existing customers to see what they needed, what did they feel was lacking. What are the other leading apps out there today, what do businesses like about them and what do they not like. How can we do it better? Maybe have a scrum to brainstorm and figure out what is missing. Can it be added cost effectively? What is the time to market? Create a go-to-market plan, NPI, etc.

Failure:

Best Buy/Geek Squad and wiping the build. Huge issue with Symantec and with HP, we ended up being less able to combat so ended up amending Symantec contract - put in data points so we could try to track how many units were being wiped, what % were seeing the startup screens to get to a win-win. We had a competitive advantage but that only lasts for so long and others were seeing the space and coming in to it. Ultimately as barriers to entry changed I worked to manage the decline so that we could milk that cash cow and delay the decline....still on the build today (although it is McAfee - that is the last thing I did before I left; they asked me to stay to complete that negotiation). Control what you can, manage what you can't.

Framework

Look at 3Cs, 4 Ps Company/Competition/Customer and Product/Price/Promotion/Placement Where are we in the BCG matrix - high growth? High share?

1. Specific problem I have solved

1. some cases actually helped b. Quizlet - ingest publisher content i. Situation: Quizlet grew from code originally devised by a 15-year-old and was always focused on students and teachers; system was not designed for large partnerships. I was bringing on top educational publishers like Pearson, Macmillan, Oxford University Press, etc. ii. Task: I needed to find a way to get this rich, curriculum-aligned content onto Quizlet in the most efficient manner "be an owner" iii. Activity: 1. I made sure I thoroughly understood all of the current ways to create content on Quizlet 2. I made sure I thoroughly understood all of the components of the publisher content 3. I met with many stakeholders on both sides to understand what the appetite was for devoting resources to this 4. I put together a plan that would maximize results with minimum work; it was not the ideal solution on either side, but it was a viable compromise a. I ended up sourcing a lot of javascript from stackexchange, etc....I had to get really creative to fill in the gaps b. I also used Quizlet's biannual hackweeks to further the project along, getting work done (like custom audio import) outside of the normal rigorous product scheduling iv. Results: 1. I was able to create over 20K sets for publishers using a combination of a rudimentary engineering tool, contractors from Upwork and online resources. 2. I created a guide that is now used throughout Quizlet and I continue to be a content creation expert within the company - I even presented to 11K US teachers in our "Unconference" as a side gig.

How would your boss and co-workers describe you

1.1. Dedicated, resourceful, a mentor -willing to share, collaborative - not competitive, the 'glue'; good at finding the commonality and bringing two sides together. Also should say creative, able to analyze the situation and come up with ideas for example... Rahim/Esteban/Meredith recent example

What do you know about the company

1.1. Google has been a leader in the internet space for so long, I love the emphasis on machine learning and moving forward. I also like the environmentally conscious approach, moving to the cloud saves energy, etc., love that Google is using sustainable resources. I love that Google embraces all types of employees, as long as you are smart and inquisitive and willing to be a forward thinker - and doer. over 70% revenue from ads

Where do you see yourself in 5 years

1.1. Hopefully still learning! Would love to be seen as an expert in my field - I was at this status at HP and was often consulted in

Why should we hire you

1.1. I bring a wealth of experience in managing third parties in a variety of settings - enterprise, b2b, consumer, etc. I have experience with hardware, networking and software as well as the business side. I can model scenarios and use data to select the right answer. I am comfortable interacting with all levels and functions of an organization. I am inquisitive and always looking to learn something new, I will bring that perspective.

1. Why do you want this job?

1.1. I enjoy working in a fast-paced environment. I love managing partners as it gives me the chance to represent all of a company to a third party. You have to know all aspects of the business to be successful. Google is a great company, environmentally conscious and inclusive and those things are important to me.

How do you lead?

1.1. I lead by persuasion - I research the opportunity to make sure I've thought it out and then use what I know to convince others that it is the right approach. I like to be able to show through data analysis, to back up what I'm saying. For example I was able to get the third party to change the user experience looking at results by instance and optimize the interaction by reducing touchpoints but still keeping the same revenue.

Why is there a gap in your employment?

1.1. I left HP for a couple of reasons. I needed to care for ill family members and it was unclear how long that would take. Rather than keep HP hanging I figured it would be better tofr them if I left. They asked me to stay as long as I could under the severance plan and I did. 1.2. I used the time off to really double-down on my volunteer work. Ive always been really involved in my childeren's schoosl, at a higher strategic level as well as hands-on. Most recently I've been doing all of the marketing for the high school academic foundation - go-to-market for several evetns and general donations. The print person, web person and social media person all report in to me. I'm on the exec board and work closely with other team members and school and district adminstrators.

What are your weaknesses

1.1. I'm too much of a team player sometimes - I don't toot my own horn. I'm more focused on the results than getting credit for it, I need to be better at marketing myself! Also I take my job personally sometimes.

1. What is your greatest professional achievement?

1.1. Keeping Symantec h appy, successfully renegotiating the agreement 1.1.1.Managers from Compaq came in and took charge of the agreement - I dissented but the dollar signs were too much 1.1.2.As it turns out, and as I knew it would, it was too much. I knew the security business was waning and not continuing to grow. There were many forces impacting it. I was steamrolled by the managers and vowed to make the best of it. 1.1.3.The partner came back within the first year of the three year contract and said they weren't seeing the promised results and wanted to default on the agreement 1.1.3.1. This was a huge risk, we already had several products we couldn't pull them out of. Managers wanted to take the hard line but I was able to convince them that we needed to mend the relationship and go back to what the original terms were. 1.1.3.2. I was able to bring the sides together and get to a compromise that was more win-win like we had had in the past, I used the data to determine what was realistic and we looked at scenarios to determine what was likely. The director started taking my lead instead of the VPs from Compaq and we were able to renegotiate and keep the third party on board. It was really tough, there were a lot of hurt feelings. 1.1.3.3. While on the surface it may have looked like we lost money by renegotiating, in reality had they pulled out we would have lost so much more - all of the re-work on units that had unlicensed software, the publicity, the difficulty to get another partner to step in at even close to the same rate. What was a 3-year, $1B agreement turned into a 3-year $6-700M with more fluctuation / less guarantee - but saved the product line market share which is intangible.

Example of a stressful situation and how I handled it

1.1. Knowledge is calming to me. I always try to take a deep breath and tehn learn more about the situation. I like to understand what is driving the players. That helps inform my decision of how to move forward. I am also a big fan of going for a run or to one of my boxing classes - helps get the destructive energy out in a constructive way and I often come up with some great ideas during a long run. 1.2. A stressful situation that I had at HP was during one product introduction where we had a late bug and hp wanted to pull the third party product. I quickly pulled a team together from the third party and we were able to work out a solution to include a previous version of software and do an online update upon activation. The engineers wer able to test this and verify it would work so I saved them from pulling the product. I gathered the right team to solve the issue and made sure everyone thought about alternatives.

Tell me about yourself

1.1. My Instagram description is 'creative in an organized way' - I think this describes me really well. I like to create new ways of doing things, such as when I created a new RFP process to find HP's security partner, yet it is also important to me to bring order to chaos, I love the challenge of bringing together disparate teams and goals and making something cohesive out of it such as when I managed the out-of-box experience for HP's personal systems products, both consumer and SMB. I had to coordinate the needs of the third party and engineering and product marketing and retail.

What are your greatest professional strengths

1.1. Relationship building - I can understand what customers/partners need to be successful, I can put myself in their shoes to see it from their perspective; then I use that to enhance the relationship 1.2. Persuasive communication - I am good at putting together presentations, at analyzing data to support an approach 1.3. Ability to work cross functionally - I can relate to all functions - engineering, product, pr, legal, finance; i am a quick learner and pick up on things 1.3.1.For example, the out of box user experience 1.4. I don't get siloed, I can and enjoy taking a bigger perspective

1. Tell me about a challenge or conflict you faced at work and how you dealt with it.

1.1. There was retail conflict with our security partner. It was rumored that retailers were wiping our pre-installed software off of units before giving them to customers. They would then install their own software instead. Our partner was paying to be on the box and argued that this wasn't right. They had smartly put tracking info on the preinstalled software to see if it was being activated. 1.1.1.I was ale to use this data in the renegotiation to come up with a better guarantee payment that was more inline with what was actually happening. 1.2. I was stuck I the middle etween product markeitn g and the third party for the user experience. Product marketing wanted clean desktop and the third party wanted lots of contact. I was able to find out what was really dirivng product markeing 1.2.1.I worked out a deal to put a one=year sub on high-end products and got a great deal from the third party, this inimized pop-ups for the first year of oewnership 1.2.2.I also minimized popups during the first week of ownership, this is how long reviewers had the product so pop-yps didn't figure as much into the general product line reviews. 1.2.3.I created a cross-functional team to manage the customer experience for each new product line. I led this task force and included people from all sides to make sure we wer complying iwht the agreement and also doing the best we could to have a positive customer experience. I.E., testing messaging, etc.

Questions

1.1. Would this position manage one partner or several? Would it work mostly on the enterprise side or also SMB? I.e., what is the scope 1.2. What do you like about working at Google? 1.3. Google is usually mentioned as a 'third' in cloud services. Is your goal to be #1 or #2 and ow? Is Enterprise or SMB more important to you? 1.4. Does Google embrace partnering or is it a necessary evil? 1.5. Are there professional development opportunities? 1.6. Is there ability to move cross-functionally? 1.7. What is a challenge you think I'll face in this role?

Influenced a key stakeholder:

Could use the Mossberg thing to get product to allow Symantec pop-ups, could use matt to let us try the MS Teams share Goal: get resources to explore hypothesis that stronger integration with MS Teams would lead to acquisition Factors: limited resources/small company; historical avoidance of working with LMSs, less emphasis on teachers Strategies: gathered data, analytics showed strength of teacher as a channel, MS Teams growth/UK mandate - timing is important; show how the trade-off in learnings vs. resource would not be huge; design already existed, just needed to add Pushback: Quizlet mission is for students, not for admin/schools; but this is a channel to introduce students to Quizlet.... GTM - BTS plan, links on web pages, custom landing pages, blog posts, inclusion in our Unconference, webinars, partner at conferences, include in our booth, press,....channel spiff, mdf, on-box, in-box, stickers, reviews

Ex: Imagine that you are tasked with improving customer satisfaction from 80% to 90%, without any additional resources or tools. How would you go about doing this?

Customers like to feel heard. I'd start by listening to their feedback and seeing what could be incorporated into what we were already doing. Arranging for an executive to visit top customers can go a long way to making them feel special. I would make sure that customers had clear knowledge about what kinds of support were available to them already. Maybe create a cheat sheet for where to go and who to call, etc. To help them get to the right place the first time without wasting time getting the runaround. I'd also look at any data we had on customer satisfaction and do some correlations to see if we could figure out what the drivers were. For example I did a study with Princess Cruise Lines and the driver was food. Then spend efforts on that.

Question

Does Chrome OS offer exclusives to OEMs

5.) We have a goal of increasing revenue X% from existing customers. How do you approach growing revenue the day you walk in?

Existing customers are the bread-and-butter of a company. They serve as references to get other new customers - they took a chance on you, make it worth it to them. For years at HP I was responsible for growing revenue/slowing decline from our installed base of proprietary systems. It is important to see what drives these customers so that you continue to develop what they need - chances are, if you create something they need and want to purchase, others will need it too. I'd approach different levels of accounts - maybe a dedicated account plan for customers of a certain size and then a more generalized plan for smaller customers. For large customers, what are they currently paying for, what is their current deployment. What else are they doing, maybe in a hybrid environment. Can we convince them to migrate more to the cloud. Do they need services to help manage what they are currently doing, can we do a cost analysis to show them that it would be better for them to outsource it to Google. Can we partner with other current vendors to create synergy for both of us to get more business. Listen to the customer, what are they telling us. Show them what other customers their size are doing and the results they are achieving. I would cross-sell different apps, or move them to a different place on the stack. Encourage them to port more parts of their business to the cloud. I would consider adding storage options, backup options, as their business grows. Can we add services? Can we do joint development? We could customize something for them and then sell it to other customers as well to leverage the expense. For smaller customers, I'd create a plan of how to approach - a go-to-market plan to generate leads from existing customers. Can we see that there is a new partner we should add to our stable, and then publicize it? User conferences are really popular, can we show them all the new things that are coming and convince them they need to be ready for it. Can we get key influencers to endorse our products so that we can generate more sales into existing accounts. Create a sales tool - if customer has X, sell them Y. If they have X and Y, look at Z, etc. Have a contact plan for these customers so they feel connected to Google, that we don't go away just because they've already purchased. Have a feedback mechanism that we actually monitor and respond to. Commission some primary research to pinpoint needs and be sure we are creating the right product and service portfolio to meet them. Look at pricing, are there ways we can make adding add'l offerings more attractive - if we aren't spending for customer acquisition, can we give a discount to price sensitive customers. Often it seems that the new customers get all the deals, and this can be frustrating to existing customers.

Ex: Suppose a client comes to you with [xyz business problem]. Walk me through the steps that you would take in order to find a solution. How would you approach this task? What types of data and metrics might you want to gather before determining your strategy? How would you evaluate whether your approach was successful?

First I would listen to the client. I would assess what type of issue it was and make sure I had the right team to address it. I would look at what solutions Google had and if one didn't fit perfectly I'd see if we had a partner that could fill in what was needed. I would consider going on-site (depending on scope) to experience first-hand what the issue was to make sure we had full understanding and were solving the right thing. Somethings one issue masquerades as another. I'd look at the magnitude of the issue, can the customer quantify the cost of the problem. That helps us to figure out what kind of budget we can work with to solve it. Or, if it's an opportunity they want to pursue, run some financial models to see what the upside could be. Look at various scenarios. Depending on the issue, I'd ask to see any logs that could be evaluated to determine where the problem originated. Are there certain functions or routines that seem to trigger it. Have we seen this issue before, can we leverage from previous solutions. How often does it happen, how much is it costing them. At what level of the stack is it happening. Replicate, test, etc.

3.) Give me an example of a detailed, 1 year plan for a new customer (new to Google Cloud Platform).

First I'd establish an implementation team made up of constituents from the customer, Google and any vital third parties. I'd make sure to have necessary functions represented. Then I'd work with this team to put together an implementation plan - based on their business needs, the type of cloud implementation, are they putting a mission-critical system or are they using this for a new venture. What is their tolerance for risk, their budget, what kind of internal knowledge do they have, do we need to bring in an outside consultant or offer our own services. Scope out the effort involved realistically and plan for contingencies. Plan for testing at all levels, maybe try a small beta of a portion of what you are porting. Test each step, validate performance, do any processes need to change. Then have a schedule for moving data and applications. How are you going to move the data, are you going to port apps or begin using new cloud-based ones. If it is mission critical you may want to replicate both environments for a while before switching completely. Then tweak it once you've got it there, what are the measurements, key success factors so you can evaluate the implementation, how do you keep moving forward.

Question for Maureen

How do you work with the channels team? Do we give MDF?

Why am I right for this job

I have worked at companies like HP that have a more intuitive-based product development process (like Apple) and Quizlet which is very data/experimentation driven. I understand the differences and how to find the commonality.

Ex: Come up with a very basic business idea (e.g. selling textbooks online) and explain how you would track and optimize your return on investment.

I would create an app for errand scheduling. You could input all of the errands you needed to do that day and it would spit out the route that was the most efficient, most timely, etc. Then you could pick which one you wanted. I would track how many were downloading this app, I'd consider offering it for free and then selling ads based on the errands that users input. If they didn't put in a specific gas station, say, we could offer up gas stations that paid for ads. As long as it didn't add to the time, etc. We could offer special incentives to go a bit farther, people may do it for a deal. Then you could track the use of that deal to know if the customers used the app to go to that vendor. You could use that data to modify ad fees.

6.) What is your favorite Google Cloud product? What are some things you could do to minimize the cost of support? How would you assess the success of your support operations?

My favorite Google Cloud Product has got to be GSuite. It fosters collaboration it is open for everyone - we use it in my non-profit work, I use it for my family, the kids use it in school. To minimize support for so many different usage paradigms, I'd create a knowledge base so most users could help themselves. A lot of users really don't want to spend time on the phone if it isn't necessary. I'd look at what kinds of issues were being searched the most and try to incorporate those into easy answers on the support website. I'd also use it to determine if there were key issues - like the iphone calendar app freezing - to see if the product needed to be updated. Foster users helping each other. Offer blogs on helpful hints, you could collaborate with outside bloggers to write them and then just review - it's a win-win. Create live support options such as chat and have excellent training, try to minimize turnover. While monitoring the amount of time an agent spends with any one person is important, it shouldn't be the only measure. Maybe have different team members take a day a couple times a year to staff support centers so they can experience first-hand what kinds of calls are coming in. Look for economies in where support reps are located, but keep it mostly local for customer satisfaction. Use the cloud to have reps work from home. Support is successful if you have repeat customers. If those customers become evangelists. You can ask customers to answer surveys about their support experience, but you need to look at the kinds of customers who will be willing to do this.

2.) What would you say are the biggest risks to Google Cloud Platform (security, user data, privacy)? ...RECOMMENDED: research large scale data analytics and network security standards

Security is always an issue, whatever is built can be hacked. There are hacks every day that we hear about and obviously ones that we don't. I think Google has made huge advances in security like two-factor authentication, etc. Sometimes the security threat comes from the user or the network, so safeguarding the entire stack is important, and doing that when Google doesn't necessarily own all of it can be challenging. You need to balance ease of use with the security needs. It can't be so onerous. Machine learning, facial recognition, etc., are helping to bring this to reality and Google is at the forefront. I think another risk is availability - if you've moved your whole mission-critical business to the cloud, you are going to want 24/7 availability. Look what happens when air traffic control goes down. Businesses can't have this happening. Google can show that moving to the cloud lessens this concern from having something on-site. Partnering with the right tools can also help this - for example, there is so much data out there that the logs are just exponential - having the right analytics can make it easier to pinpoint what is going on - again, a service that a cloud provider can provide.

What am I most proud?

Symantec in start-up, content for BTS/convincing to go free

1.) Imagine your boss gave you a project to complete with an unrealistic deadline, how would you approach this problem? (Give details)

There are a couple of ways to approach this. First, I would make sure I absolutely understood the opportunity that the project was solving. I'd ask clarifying questions to understand what was needed and why it was needed at a particular date. Then I'd think through it to see if there was a different way to approach it that would maybe take less resources/less time and try to get that approved. Barring that, I'd ask for more resources by doing a cost analysis - does the benefit of delivering the project on time outweigh the cost of the added resources to make it happen? Is there a piece of the project that is more important, can it be split? Sometimes you can pull in another team who also sees value to get the extra resources in someone else's budget. I'd put together a project plan estimating how much time each phase would take to complete successfully. I'd work with my manager to prioritize, to deliver the most impactful pieces of the project. Finally, if necessary, I'd use the work I pulled together for these options to argue for more time.

Question

What is Fuchsia? Will it replace Android/Chrome?

Ex: Give me an example of how you utilized your analytical ability to solve a problem at work. What was the result?

While at HP we were grappling with the issue of how often to engage with the potential customer. These customers were already HP customers and HP product marketing was very concerned about their experience. The third party, however, was paying dearly for the opportunity to interact with these HP customers and wanted to maximize instances. I knew the third party had data on click-throughs and results of those click-throughs so I asked for a report of which instances generated the most sales. Looking at these results I was able to convince the third party to increase the time between instances after a certain point and give the customer the option to not see the messages again. This made product marketing happy and didn't substantially affect third party sales.

Specific goals I set

a. Quizlet - access code i. Situation: I had inherited a monetization program of charging publishers to put content on Quizlet; we had one strong initial player but it ended up not being replicable due to specific features of that particular partner ii. Task: Sunset this program - I set the goal for myself to try to keep all of these partners on Quizlet; could I convince them to make their content freely available iii. Activity: 1. I prepared data for them about their usage 2. I shared positive Quizlet reviews, product roadmap, usage 3. Set up exec-level reviews with each partner 4. Explained the legal aspects and timelines involved iv. Result: 1. All but one of the partners decided to make their content freely available, including the large initial partner 2. We are now seeing great usage of this content and partners are happy about it as well

When have you lead a team?

a. Quizlet MS Teams experience i. Situation: We needed to grow our international users at a faster rate than we had grown domestic through word-of-mouth; Microsoft was pushing to be stronger in the education space and saw Quizlet as an opportunity; the pandemic was changing education everywhere 1. Add'l background: Quizlet was averse to putting a lot of work into integrations w/o data; but w/o the work, there was no data ii. Task: Leverage Microsoft's willingness to work with Quizlet to accelerate awareness; leverage UK gov't mandate during COVID which we didn't know how long it would last; convince Quizlet to do the work iii. Activity: 1. Gather data: google analytics, periscope, etc. see the traffic that is being driven by GC and MS Teams, etc., today working with data science 2. Look at industry forces, MS Teams and GC use rising dramatically because of COVID 3. Pull together stakeholders at both companies, understand what the needs are and explore the opportunities 4. Evaluate options with country team, MS team, product and engineering to understand which would give the best results for least resources 5. Leverage stakeholders to prepare an executive presentation to convince CEO to let us try this for acquisition and learnings 6. Implement the solution: pull together a team of engineering, product marketing, MS engineering, marketing to get it done iv. Result: 1. Implemented in time for UK back to school; integrated into BTS comms; MS promoted in two top industry conferences 2. Seen over 130K shares which conservatively could lead to over 1M sessions....learnings are continuing

1. Specific goals I set

a. Quizlet: 6 int'l partners in 6 months i. Situation: Accelerate international growth to jumpstart traditional word-of-mouth channel; this is easier said than done: publishers are notoriously slow-moving and have really long print schedules; books remain in use for many years ii. Task: Get educational publishers to promote Quizlet to their students and teachers iii. Activity: 1. Determine which publishers were the most likely to have impact: research, analyze existing sets to see what texts they correspond to 2. Look at test-taking environment in top countries; analyze top Quizlet searches 3. Identify the right contacts within the targeted companies and find their contact information - not always easy! Develop an effective message to reach out to get a response 4. Create a presentation to evangelize Quizlet to show how it can benefit the publishers 5. Work on Quizlet end to be sure we could ingest the content should we get it 6. Work with legal to create a template agreement to speed up negotiations iv. Result: 1. Exceeded my goal in signing partners - got over 9 under agreements 2. Met my goal in getting content on Quizlet in 6 months (for BTS) 3. Set up well for long-term partnerships Partner content drove 4x the sessions of user-generated content and avg study time was longer.

When have you lead a team?

a. Symantec in start-up experience i. Situation: Symantec and HP were pushing for different things; HP was concerned about user experience to retain share and Symantec needed to see strong user acquisition to validate what they were paying us - even though HP had knowingly signed up in the agreement; product was backtracking a bit ii. Task: I needed to come up with a solution that would make both sides happy (rather than just enforce the agreement/shove it down their throats; I had the long-term relationship in mind.) iii. Activity 1. Understand the drivers of both sides; talk to the stakeholders to get their priorities, what was going to make them successful 2. Intimately aware of contractual obligations (I negotiated so I knew) 3. Looked at any outside market drivers 4. Gathered available data 5. Put together a team of stakeholders and set specific goals for the team to work towards including experience, number of screens, time to complete, deadlines, etc. Added design to the team iv. Result: 1. I did such a strong job of pulling together the team of stakeholders and discussing how we could both accomplish what Symantec needed while retaining a great customer experience I ended up leading the entire team to complete this initial start-up experience 2. Made it on time, no negative feedback

Questions

· Is there a 'wall' since Google also makes PIxelbooks? Are OEMs reluctant to share? Are we reluctant to share? · Are there other managers for these same partners in other product areas? IoT, etc. How do we interact - is there an overall global owner? · How is forecasting done - top down or bottoms up? Do we have input into setting the goals for the OEMs we manage · You are strong in education, what is the next market to conquer - more SMB or Enterprise or both equally? · Modern computing alliance - are we actively recruiting for this

In general, to answer a question

· Make sure I understand · Narrow the scope/make assumptions · Go through steps I would take to solve/approach the issue o Identify stakeholders and talk to them o Look at outside forces / industry events/trends o What is our position - strength? Growth? Are there risks to various approaches we could take? o Are there examples of when other teams have done similar things? What worked and what didn't...i.e., don't reinvent the wheel, improve upon it o What resources are available - budget vs. timeline; do we need to run scenarios to make sure this is worth doing and at what scale · Once I have the background and know what each stakeholder is looking for and what my boundaries are, formulate a plan - check back with stakeholders to be sure it meets their needs sufficiently or that they understand the reasons for compromise and support them · Line up team to execute - cross-functional, add any new stakeholders necessary

Self reflection

· Something I learned that made everything else easier? I love managing partners; I want to be in the middle, I like being the expert on the partner and on my company and fostering those relationships; once I focused on these types of roles I was much happier; I like a good mix of interaction with others and also investigation/research/thought · Achievements - solitary or teamwork? Mostly teamwork, being in alliances it is rare that I do anything completely on my own · Solving problems or pushing the discussion forward? That is a tough one, sometimes they are the same thing. I mostly enjoy bringing two sides together with a shared vision. · Most rewarding job? Doing the education laptop for HP and visiting classrooms to see how it was being incorporated and how it helped every student learn and pinpointed issue that the instructor could address...also really enjoy bringing great content to students at Quizlet, I get these thank you all the time and it makes me feel good that I am helping · Best team I ever worked with - I was part of an experimental self-managed team at HP which I loved. I enjoyed all aspects of trusting each other and trading off executive responsibilities. Everyone shared and worked together to achieve the teams goals.

Why Google?

· The people - I know that this rigorous screening process has built an amazing team of creative, smart and humble workers and I would be so excited to work alongside them and learn from them. o Can be nerve-wracking but payoff is huge o Creative, intelligent, inquisitive, open people · The products - I am a Google fan, I use obvs. Chrome browser, Wifi, Google Suite, YouTube....and I've seen so many amazing things come out of Classroom, Ads, Search, Analytics, etc. I believe that Google products are very accessible and have seen firsthand how they have improved educational access and just general knowledge. It is important for me to work for a company that is doing good. · This opportunity really speaks to me. I have had great experiences at HP in Enterprise, SMB, consumer and also laptops, servers, telecom/video. I have loved my time at Quizlet which is so different, freer in some ways (less regulation, broader scope of effort) but harder in others (scarcer resources which need to be fought for at every turn)...spending time in a large manufacturing organization vs. a small web-based one. I think Google really takes pieces of both of these experiences and melds them together and I am interested to see how that would help me to learn. · It can be challenging to find a position that both speaks to my skills so that I can hit the ground running and yet also provides significant learning opportunities. · Such an interesting time in the industry as hardware and software etc are converging....people who never would have seen themselves using technology are using it; it is becoming more intuitive through machine learning, AI, etc. so you don't have to spend a lot of time learning in order to benefit....it is infiltrating so many new aspects of life and it is a challenge to do this the right way; I think google as a company is so well-poised to navigate this change

What skills do I have that particularly lend themselves to this role (i.e, role-related knowledge):

· Understand OEM schedules and channels o How they have exclusive product for each channel and it can be difficult to compare across o Retail, Sis, distributors, ISVs, etc. o Process they go through to set product features (trade-offs of battery, ports, weight, etc.) o Their segments they need to serve · How to convince them to include more Chrome for more segments o Share our product roadmap o Building contacts within the OEM, stakeholders, execs · Build a program o Symantec start-up, really through the years built up the entire beyond-the-box program before focusing on Symantec o Partner strategy to serve Quizlet's needs - still figuring it out....started and owned the content program, now developing a global program working with TikTok and YouTube. o Recruit ISVs that are necessary, can help drive · Marketing/GTM o Joint product o Promotions/placement o Measurement o Communication inward/outward · Exec level o Continued endorsement/support o QBRs, knowing which information is relevant to share and how to structure the meeting · Navigate ambiguity o This is basically all of the partner program at Quizlet. I have had to set my own strategy and get the support and resources. Can't sit around and wait to be told what to do - especially with my level of experience, I am expected to lead/drive and forge new paths. I carve out time to stay up on trends, industry events, etc. How does this impact Quizlet? I regularly look at data. A lot of it is in communicating with key stakeholders - I am good at sussing out who those with influence are and focusing on them.