Atlassian - Product Marketing Manager, Confluence
What Do You Know About Our Company's Target Audience?
-Confluence is a B2B product for companies, teams, and workspaces of all sizes, all industries, and all team functions. (From startups to Fortune 500.) -180k users in over 190 countries -Decision makers in IT, HR, Project Management
ROLE - Set strategy and build demand-gen content for email, paid ads, and landing page upsell campaigns.
-Demand-gen - drive awareness and interest for products/services through content -Email drip automations that help boost activation and early adoption -Retargeting campaigns and "Winback" campaigns for lapsed users
How do you resolve conflict?
-I would take the person aside and discuss the issue privately. I listen actively to make sure I understand their point of view, and work with them to develop a solution together. Even if we don't always agree, we can always try to meet each other halfway. -I always appreciate different viewpoints from my own. When someone has a different opinion, I listen carefully to what the person says and utilize that feedback. -e.g. I once had a teammate who got really offended by another team member's joke. I could tell that it was impacting her work so I pulled her aside for a chat to see what was going on. I made sure to understand her point of view, and then pulled that other team member aside with her to hash out the issue. We discovered that both had different interpretations of the joke and that it wasn't meant to be offensive. By facilitating the discussion, we were able to meet in the middle and resolve the conflict from that.
What are you looking for in a job?
-Mentorship and professional guidance -Opportunity to learn and grow and the opportunity to make real impact to the business -Culture and awesome team
What's the most difficult part about PMM?
-Product market fit/positioning, differentiating your product from competitors -People don't really understand the role or responsibility or the value that PMMs provide -Competing priorities from multiple stakeholders (since PMM sits between marketing, sales, and product)
What do you like most about product marketing?
-Product marketing is a role that intrigues me because it's centered between marketing, sales, and product, so it's a cross functional role that wears lots of hats and gains exposure in various departments, which is great! I like working with different teams to be able to see different perspectives, and I think that it'll allow me to become more well-rounded in my skills. -Includes both analytical and also creativity/strategic skills. Specifically, I'm excited to help create stories that users can connect with. -Running a product launch is really exhilarating and I think that product marketers are able to provide real and visible impact to the business. There are so many parts to product marketing so there's never a dull moment. The opportunities to learn and challenge myself are endless.
Describe a time when your team or company was undergoing some change. How did that impact you, and how did you adapt?
-Something that I do every week is update marketing cost projections for my team but before this became my responsibility, it was actually my manager's project that I just ended up taking over. Because she was going on maternity leave, she was training someone else on our team to do it while she was out but this person had just announced that she was resigning just 3 days before my manager left, so everyone panicked. I knew that the team was swamped so I volunteered to take ownership of it, and I was able to learn it in the 3 days before my manager left. I made sure to get all my questions answered before she left and I even practiced it on my own time to ensure that when it came time to do it, I was fully prepared and familiar with the whole process so that the transition was seamless which allowed the team to run business as usual while my manager was on leave. -Our company had just just gone through an acquisition so we were in the process of combining our UA teams. This was during covid so it's hard to feel like a real team when everyone is spread out. To better integrate them, I set aside time with each new member to introduce myself to them personally to get to know them better and also to identify ways that we could collaborate with each other. I've found that this eased the transition much more smoothly.
How do you increase user engagement/optimize conversion funnels?
-Streamline user journey through A/B testing and refining campaigns based on successes -Curating the (onboarding) flow based on the persona/user in mind for higher engagement -Consistent research on customer/market/competitor to say relevant
How did you adapt to WFH and what are your thoughts on it?
-Transition to wfh was pretty seamless - everyone on my team is responsive, easy to reach and eager to help, and has proven to be just as efficient in our work vs in the office. Biggest part I had to adapt to was just getting used to my set up at home and finding a set up that was ergonomic and working around the few instances when I had conflicting meetings with roommates -I really appreciate the flexibility that wfh gives us and it's definitely a luxury that I will not take for granted. WFH allowed me to move across the state while still being employed so I am really grateful for that.However, wfh just doesn;t compare to working in the office and I miss catching up with my coworkers/small talks. Also, working in the office just makes it so much easier for collaboration. You can pretty much pop a question to anyone whenever and be able to get a response asap but with wfh, it requires setting some time up for it or waiting for someone to respond to their slack message (difficult to get immediate answers) -Would be comfortable with a hybrid model (wfh some days, few days in office)
What's your greatest strength? (Detail-oriented)
-We work with external partners like agencies that help us run our campaigns on Facebook. Before these agencies launch our campaigns, they would need to send over assets for us to approve and I would be the point person for that so I'll review everything prior to approval because there are sometimes mistakes/inconsistencies in the assets they send us (tracking link, personas, creatives, copy, misspellings, or the messaging/branding doesn't resonate with product), so I'll send them notes/feedback of what we would need for the revisions -One of our product offerings include a credit card where you can use it to earn cash back towards a tax-free college savings account. Because the credit card is run by Barclays, they have stricter guidelines and require that we send them assets if we want to promote the credit card (to be approved within 10 business days). You can imagine how long the back and forth time could take especially if there are lots of revisions to be made. Need to be detail oriented and make sure that what we send off doesn't have any mistakes, otherwise the entire process gets backlogged and we need to wait another 10 days. To make things more efficient, I'd reach out to team members who've had content/assets previously approved and so I'll use these approved assets as a reference when creating my drafts. I've found that this helped to reduce the back and forth time and made the approval process much more efficient/streamlined.
Tell me about a time when you had to rely on written communication to get your ideas across to your team.
-Whenever we have ideas for new product features, we need to write a Jira ticket for it to be a part of the dev cycle. When doing so, I make sure to write my tickets thoroughly, providing as many details as possible in order to minimize error and vagueness. I've found that including as many specifics as possible has reduced the back/forth time and has overall streamlined the process much more efficiently. -I'm responsible for updating marketing cost projections for my team on a weekly basis as a way for us to monitor performance, make sure that we're pacing on budget for EOM, and also to provide stakeholders and C-level executives with a weekly email update on UA performance. In this email I include a snapshot of high level performance metrics and because it involves a lot of data, It could be overwhelming and confusing to those not involved in the day to day of UA, so I highlight key trends and explain why we're seeing the trends that we're seeing. In doing so, I provide a narrative to go along with it and help make connections between different data points to come up with a cohesive story that makes it easier for others to understand.
What are your top values when working at a company?
Awesome people/teamwork Feeling appreciated Career trajectory/opportunity Product Innovation
What's your greatest weakness? (Focus too much on details)
Because my day to day involves looking at a lot of data, there are times where I get lost in spreadsheets and overanalyze smaller metrics. I've found myself spending a lot of time trying to dig into why a metric for a campaign significantly dropped on a specific day, so I'll try to dig into the issue more granularly to figure out the root of the issue. The reality is that the competitive landscape changes all the time so these types of fluctuations are natural. As long as the overall performance is stable, the other smaller metrics really don't matter as much, so I've learned to check in with myself at regular intervals to refocus and pull myself out to see the bigger picture every now and then. That way I can avoid getting so caught up in the smaller details and I've found that this has helped to improve my productivity.
ROLE - Write and produce content/collateral for B2B campaigns; you'll work with designers to produce noteworthy assets.
Created content in the form of an article for our Swagbucks blog about a competitor of ours (MrSurvey), used to rank in SEO. Also create content in the form of ad copy.
Tell me about yourself (elevator pitch)
Currently based in SF, I was born and raised here, and I recently moved back here after living in LA for 7 years. I was in LA for my undergrad at UCLA and after graduating, I landed my first job at Prodege which is an LA-based company and I've been working there ever since for over 3 years now. For context, Prodege is the parent company of various cash back rewards sites with the flagship brand being Swagbucks. It's very similar to Rakuten where you can earn cash back and free gift cards for doing activities like shopping and taking surveys. I actually started off on the sales where my primary focus was on ad operations and account management, then switched over to UA which is the team that I am currently part of. I am currently the Associate Manager of Growth Marketing and my role heavily focuses on using ad platforms like Google paid search to acquire new users for all of our consumer brands (new user sign ups, app installs, browser extension installs). Another big focus on my role is increasing user engagement by improving conversion funnels and streamlining the new user journey from acquisition, activation, and retention. My favorite part about what I do is being able to create strong user engagement but rather than a role that's growth marketing focused, I am more interested in doing so in a product marketing role. Growth marketing is very numbers heavy and I've found that I've been wanting to find a role with more balance, something that not only includes data but also something with more creativity and strategy, and I feel like I'd have a lot of potential to do so with this role, whether that's preparing for product launches, crafting the messaging/positioning of a product or creating content that users can really resonate with. I also believe that my experience in growth marketing can be easily transferable, and I know that the role is looking for candidates with growth marketing experience. Based on what I've heard from Shana, the role seems to be a good mix of metrics/creativity and a role where she was able to really learn and grow from (which is ultimately why I decided to apply for this role).
RESUME - Manage an average of $400k in monthly marketing budget across all paid advertising platforms
Each month, I was given an average budget of $400k in marketing budget to spend towards paid ad platforms. I'd allocate the budget based on where we are seeing the highest efficiencies and highest performance and also depending on what channels that are in highest demand. Poured most of the marketing dollars set aside for ad platforms into Google paid search but also leaned on FB/IG, Pinterest, Taboola, Snap, display when there is more appetite for additional volume. We'd also prioritize US first, then international markets.
What is growth marketing?
Growth marketing is about finding scalable marketing strategies/solutions to grow your business efficiently in a way that provides incremental value. It involves experimenting on every part of the user journey and using data to improve conversion funnels to ensure that new users don't just drop off and continue to provide value and generate revenue throughout their customer lifetime (LTV)
ROLE - Drive customer, market, and competitive research to guide campaign strategy and influence positioning and messaging.
Helped develop personas for new target audiences to after on Swagbucks with FB agency. I'd also conduct competitive research to get a better understanding on what competitors (Ibotta, Rakuten, SurveyJunkie, Buyer's Guide) are doing and how we can stay competitive in the landscape.
What's your greatest weakness? (Hard time saying no)
I have a hard time saying no whenever people outside my team ask for help and so I sometimes end up taking on more than I can handle. I consider myself to be a team player - I don't want to let people down and I want to be someone that others can always rely on, but I find myself getting overwhelmed when my workload piles up trying to juggle everything, and this eventually leads to a burnout. To help myself improve in this area, I've started to set more realistic expectations for both myself and the people that need my help. Instead of always agreeing to help others without hesitation, I now ask follow up questions about the deadline, urgency/priority level so that I can properly gauge whether or not I can complete the request on time and. To make things more efficient, I'll also set up some time to train others how to do things so that they can do it themselves moving forward instead of them always having to come to me.
Why Atlassian?
I heard about the opportunity from my friend Shana, who's only said great things about the company culture and about how much she's been able to learn and grow with the company ever since she was an intern. My company uses Atlassian products religiously (Jira, Confluence, Trello) so I'm familiar with these tools and use it in my day to day and I think they're really great for project management. I also think it's really admirable that Atlassian is so big about the company values and I think it says a lot about how much the company cares about the employees. Atlassian value of "Play, as a team" really resonates with me. I grew up playing team sports so teamwork is a big value of mine and it's great to see that Atlassian echoes the same values for its employees as well, and how your products are meant to empower team collaboration
RESUME - Lead A/B testing initiatives on pre and post sign up landing pages, analyzing experiment data and leveraging analyses to improve registration conversion rates and activation rates
I helped identify where we were seeing the largest drop offs in the user journey and then ran A/B tests to tackle each stage of the funnel. This included trying out different landing pages to improve CR and different onboarding flows to improve activation rates. There was a lot of trial and error but by analyzing the data, I was able to determine what worked, what didn't work, and reiterated new versions of campaigns based on successes we saw. We would run these tests for at least a month or at least until we had enough data for the results to be statistically significant.
Biggest lessons from your last job?
I learned to not be afraid to ask for feedback from your team or from your manager. They want you to succeed! To be able to learn and grow in my role and in my career, I need to be able to see other's perspectives and utilize other's constructive feedback as an opportunity to improve myself. It can be intimidating to ask but if I don't know, how will I know what I should improve on?
Describe a long-term project that you managed. How did you keep everything moving along in a timely manner?
I often work with BI to create new reporting tools and so we'll submit Jira tickets for the request. They have other tickets in their queue so they are often backlogged so sometimes these tickets can get lost in their queue and don't get completed until months. What I do to prevent the ball from dropping is setting weekly calendar reminders to check in on the progress and following up with them regularly for status updates. If they have roadblocks, I'll go out of my way to making sure that they have everything they need to build these reports.
Why should I hire you?
I show up to work every day with a positive attitude and I come hungry to learn. I am eager to absorb as much info that is thrown my way and am unafraid to take on challenges. I am a team player who is committed to both the team and also the work that I do and I pride myself in doing the best I can in every project that I take part in.
What are some strategies you use to learn new skills?
I take hand-written notes, then type it out to help retain memory and so that I have a study guide. I then review notes the same day I write them for better memory retention while it's still fresh, and ask questions if I don't understand.
RESUME - Spearhead the launch and expansion of a new portfolio of paid user acquisition campaigns, utilizing data-driven insights to drive 45% YoY growth in new registrations across paid search, display, and social
I was brought onto the team with the goal of scaling int'l markets. Prior to me joining, my manager didn't have enough bandwidth to do so. I did this by setting up time to meet with our international team regularly to strategize and also to familiarize myself with the unique demands of each geo. From there I conceptualized new international campaigns that we could launch and I'd work with our design team to spin up new landing pages for these geos. Once these campaigns were launched, I dedicated some time every week to do a deep dive analysis to find ways to scale these campaigns more efficiently, whether that's testing different bidding strategies or trying out different landing pages or copy. I also met with our Google rep biweekly who was able to provide suggestions on best practices to optimize our campaigns. Within a year's time I was able to scale new international sign ups by 45% (500k regs in 2020 to 750k regs in 2021, Jan-Jul)
Tell Me About a Project You Worked on That Failed or Didn't Meet Expectations. What Happened and What Did You Learn?
I was part of a team project that was trying to mimic something that our competitors were successfully doing. We wanted to give it a try and we were given a limited test budget and timeline to make it work. What ultimately led to the project's downfall was poor communication. It didn't have clear goals set in place to start so it wasn't at the top of anyone's priority so things slipped through the cracks frequently. Various instances of miscommunication became a roadblock to the project's progression. Ultimately, we ran out of test budget before we were able to make it profitable due to all the backlog. Learned that not all projects will be a winner but at the end of the day it's important to establish clear expectations at the very beginning so that everyone is aligned on the same goals.
What type of manager do you work well with?
I work best with managers who can trust me to do my work without micromanaging me. I also appreciate it when my managers are willing to invest time in my growth, whether that be giving me feedback on what I'm doing well in, what I can improve in, or setting aside time for weekly one on ones to catch up.
Can You Talk About a Cross-Functional Project That You Worked On? What Was Your Role and How Did You Contribute to the Impact and/or Success of the Project?
I worked behind the scenes of an experiment that was used to provide the company insights on how we can save some money without hurting new user retention and LTV. It involved many departments to bring to life and I helped facilitate everything on the operations side of it. We ran the experiment entirely on Google paid search traffic, working with the design team to spin up new landing pages, working with email marketing on the content for these new email templates, and working with dev to implement test treatment for test groups. I also worked behind the scenes to launch the campaign as an A/B test on Google where half of the users got test treatment. I was also responsible for monitoring experiment progress and compiled a daily dashboard and refreshed it every day, presenting findings to stakeholders in a way that was easily digestible. Was among the main facilitators of the whole experiment from campaign operations to data collection and I think it was successful because we walked away with actionable insights on next steps.
What is your ideal working environment?
I'm comfortable working both independently and also in fast-paced team settings. I like working independently for heads-down work but I like being able to strategize in team settings where we can collaborate and bounce ideas off each other. Ideally I'd love to get to the point with my team where I'm comfortable enough to provide and receive constructive feedback. When I accomplish goals with a team, celebrating together as a team feels so much more rewarding than celebrating alone. My energy is also extremely influenced by energy from others so I love working with a team that is passionate/motivated and can hype me up about my work!
Tell Me About a Time You Explained Something Really Difficult (Technically and/or Logically Difficult). What Was Your Approach and How Did It Go?
I'm responsible for updating marketing cost projections for my team on a weekly basis as a way for us to monitor performance and to make sure that we're pacing on budget for EOM. In addition to this, I'm also responsible for crafting an email that provides stakeholders and C-level executives with an update on UA performance. In this email I include a snapshot of high level performance metrics and because it involves a lot of data, It could be overwhelming and confusing to those not involved in the day to day of UA, so I highlight key trends and explain why we're seeing the trends that we're seeing. In doing so, I provide a narrative to go along with it and help make connections between different data points to come up with a cohesive story that makes it easier for others to understand.
RESUME - Develop weekly user acquisition marketing forecasts and projections to predict early cohort performance and communicate key trends to C-level executives
I'm responsible for updating marketing cost projections for my team on a weekly basis as a way for us to monitor performance, make sure that we're pacing on budget for EOM, and also to provide stakeholders and C-level executives with a weekly email update on UA performance. In this email I include a snapshot of high level performance metrics and because it involves a lot of data, It could be overwhelming and confusing to those not involved in the day to day of UA, so I highlight key trends and explain why we're seeing the trends that we're seeing. In doing so, I provide a narrative to go along with it and help make connections between different data points to come up with a cohesive story that makes it easier for others to understand.
ROLE - Develop GTM plans and run product launches.
Identify problems in market and positioning products as a solution. Work on sales/marketing enablement and with the end-user in mind and create demand-gen content to stay relevant.
What You Think About the Messaging on Our Website?
In general, marketing for B2B/enterprise companies usually have a reputation for being stodgy, dry, and bland. For Atlassian, that is certainly not the case and the marketing/messaging defies all my preconceived notions/assumptions about B2B/enterprise companies. It's fun, colorful, easy to read, witty, inviting, and refreshing. Because of that, it feels more personable. It feels like a coach trying to help you find the best ways for you to work with your team.
Collaborated cross-departmentally to promote campaigns to existing consumer user base through the deployment of sitewide placements and execution of email marketing and push notification initiatives
In order to maximize the amount of conversions on our highest performing campaigns, we need to put it in front of as many eyeballs as possible, which meant working with the promotions team to secure premium placements to gain maximum exposure. Because there is limited inventory of placements, we had to find a good mix of placements to promote them on the Swagbucks site as well as on email and push notifications. Worked with the promotions team to schedule these placements and also the email marketing team to push out the actual emails for promoting these.
What Are Some Ways You Build Relationships With Fellow Employees?
In the office, I'd have coffee chats and have lunch together, or even go on walks and hangout after work (happy hours). During WFH, I attend non-work related Zoom calls (virtual bingo and virtual happy hours). In general, I try to be as genuine and open minded as possible and let my own personality speak for itself. Realistically, I can't expect everyone to be my best friend but I've found that being open minded, showing positivity and demonstrating my eagerness to learn has been my greatest advantage when building connections.
ROLE - Partner with growth and product teams to drive onboarding activation, upsell, and monetization initiatives.
Increased activation rates by curating onboarding and postreg flows based on the specific user/persona in mind in a way that'd increase their chances of engaging with the site. We'd redirect users straight to a certain page after signing up (rather than home page).
What's your greatest strength? (Interpersonal Skills/Communication)
Interpersonal Skills -My current rIole is extremely dynamic in the sense that I get to work with multiple teams both internally and externally on a daily basis which requires a lot of cross-collaboration. To minimize any room for error, it's also crucial to have consistent and effective communication, and I think that that's something that I do really well in, whether that's in-person, Zoom, Slack, or even in my Jira tickets. Some examples of effective communication that I turn to include: -Asking questions for clarity -Being thorough in writing -Following up on action items -Keeping others posted on status updates -Being open minded and taking constructive feedback as an opportunity for improvement -Being an active listener and contributor to group brainstorms.
Tell me about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it was a hit.
Introduced an idea for a new product feature for Swagbucks that allows users to bookmark activities so that they can refer back to it at a later time. Swagbucks can be overwhelming because there's so many things to look at and things to do, and the search bar isn't a great tool to rely on. Oftentimes activities like surveys can take up to 20 mins and users may not always have time at that moment to do it. Hard to find things so bookmarking was a cool feature that I introduced. When I pitched the idea to the product manager, I received push back. However, after providing my reasoning as to why I think it would be valuable and providing mockups on why I think it would be a nice feature to have, he agreed with my sentiments and decided to queue it up as a prospective project to work on for future product enhancements. It was successful because I was able to convince the product manager to get on board with this new idea.
Tell Me About a Time When You Were Able to Influence a Decision Made by Another Leader.
Introduced an idea for a new product feature for Swagbucks that allows users to bookmark/save activities so that they can refer back to it at a later time at a centralized location. Swagbucks can be overwhelming because there's so many things to look at and things to do, and the search bar isn't a great tool to rely on. Oftentimes activities like surveys can take up to 20 mins and users may not always have time at that moment to do it. Hard to find things so bookmarking was a cool feature that I introduced. When I pitched the idea to the product manager, I initially received push back. However, after providing my reasoning as to why I think it would be valuable and providing mockups on my vision, I was able to convey the value of this feature and he decided to queue it up as a prospective project to work on for future product enhancements.
What do you know about Confluence?
It's a collaboration wiki tool for workspaces that allows teams to share knowledge and information. I'm most familiar with using it as a project documentation tool so it's been as a type of "handbook" for teams looking for more info on a particular topic. I think it's great how it doubles as a project collaboration tool for teams to set goals, action items, and take notes. I also like how it's compatible with other Atlassian tools like Jira to make projects more seamlessly integrated. I also like how it incorporates some elements of social media (tagging others in comments, subscribing to content you choose) -Break down team silos -Organize everything in one place -Turn conversations into action -Build a culture of teamwork
RESUME - Curate the new user journey and workflow for paid marketing channels including creative ideation, landing page optimization, onboarding enhancements, and product improvements
It's important to cater the user's journey depending on who we're targeting and what their interests are. Different personas will resonate with different value props and so I'd customize every step of the user journey based on the specific user in mind. For example, if we were running a survey-focused campaign, I would work with design to create landing pages with a hero image of someone taking a survey and include copy that speaks to that. I would also cater the onboarding flow so that post sign up, we'd redirect users straight to a survey-related page, rather than just the default home page. Being able to dictate the flow in a way that is customized to their interests is crucial in getting them to engage with the site which increases their chances of activating early on.
RESUME - Launched 200+ affiliate marketing campaigns by managing the production timeline from inception to completion
Launched a high volume of campaigns that we referred to internally as offers. These were affiliate marketing campaigns where we promoted our client's affiliate links on our sites as a way to help them drive conversions, and we would then receive commission for it. Offers/campaigns came in all different shapes and sizes, some examples include Disney+ free trial, Hulu/FabFitFun subscriptions, or even app installs for Robinhood). We were in charge of the full campaign production timeline from start to finish (sending IOs, working with design to create assets, creating copy, setting up tracking, testing the campaign to make sure everything tracked/we were receiving commission for conversions, etc)
How do you relieve stress?
Listen to music, light a candle at home, go on walks, take small breaks, talk about it.
Product Marketing Strategy
Messaging & Positioning - Lead the development of product positioning and messaging that differentiates others in the market Product intelligence - Understand the product functionality and benefits deeply and translate into compelling narratives that resonate with advertisers Market Intelligence- Maintain and improve our knowledge of buyer personas and competition through qualitative and quantitative analysis Competitive Intelligence- Be a domain expert on the competitive landscape Launches - Lead launches from ideation to refreshes. Partner with key stakeholders to ensure the smooth role out of product, content, tools, and processes Voice of the Customer - Partner with Product Management to influence roadmap based on customer, sales, and market feedback
How would your manager/coworkers describe you?
My SVP would describe me as someone who always shows up to work with a positive attitude, someone who is hungry to learn and eager to absorb as much info that is thrown my way and unafraid to take on challenges. My colleagues would also describe me as a team player who is ready to step in when help is needed. I think that they'd also say that I am someone who shows a lot of commitment (showing up for optional Zoom hangouts) and brings uplifting energy to the team
Tell me about the first job you've ever had. What did you do to learn the ropes?
My first role was at Prodege in ad operations. To learn the ropes, I was open-minded, asked questions, networked and made connections, took notes, and showed my team that I was willing to learn.
Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it?
My manager went on maternity leave after 6 months of me joining the team so I was under a lot of pressure and felt like I had big shoes to fill since I was taking over all her responsibilities while she was gone. At the time when she left, we were really starting to rebound from Covid, and we were starting to ramp up on spend significantly. Before, we would collaborate and strategize together on how to scale spend but since she was gone, it allowed me to take the reins and I learned through trial and error. It wasn't easy but being uncomfortable in this situation really forced me to learn on the spot and adapt to face the challenges. I utilized my resources (Google reps, my notes, her notes, quick Google searches, my best judgment), when I got stuck. I didn't always make the right calls but I learned from my mistakes. I also tested out different bidding strategies to scale spend in a way that was efficient. In the first month she was gone, I was able to scale spend efficiently by 60% MoM.
Why are you leaving Prodge?
My manager who was my main mentor left so I'm reporting to my SVP now and because he's the head of our department, his schedule is always filled so it's hard for him to provide the same level of 1:1 time that I had with my previous manager, which is something that I really value and I feel like I can truly excel when there is good leadership and mentorship. I also just moved to SF and so my current company is based in LA. Once the current climate of things gets back to normal, I would like to be able to have the opportunity to go to the office and collaborate with team members in person if I wanted to.
Devised campaign strategy, analyzed campaign performance, and implemented campaign optimizations to maximize account growth and retention while ensuring that client obligations and KPIs were met
Offers are incentivized so strategized on when to pull back/ramp up on payout. Very similar to how we adjust bids on ad platforms, we had to adjust payouts. We had other offers competing against each other, so we had to find the most optimal ways to promote our highest performing offers on our site since inventory is limited. It's about finding a good mix of placements to promote on the site while also making sure that we don't sabotage our other clients' offers.
Atlassian Values
Open company, no bullshit Build with heart and balance Don't #@!% the customer Play, as a team Be the change you seek
ROLE - Partner with customer lifecycle and paid marketing to optimize our campaigns and launch new ones.
Optimize paid campaigns as part of my day to day and find ways to improve retention. I also run many small A/B tests to get a better understanding on where our largest drop offs are, conduct A/B tests that tackle each stage in the user journey, and reiterate new versions of our campaigns based on the successes we see.
Sometimes it's just not possible to get everything on your to-do list done. Tell me about a time your responsibilities got a little overwhelming. What did you do?
Part of my role includes assisting another team outside of my own to launch campaigns because they're short-staffed, and I used to work overtime to clear up their queue of campaigns ready for launch before the next day. I started to realize that clearing up the queue every day was simply not sustainable, especially when I had other more urgent priorities to complete from my main team. To workaround this, I requested that we come up with a tiering system for these campaigns where they would label them based on priority (high, medium, low). That way I was able to allocate my time more efficiently so I'd launch the higher priority ones first and then get to the lower priority ones when I have more down time. Not only did this relieve my stress, but it also helped me be more efficient and productive with my time.
Tell me about a time you were analytical.
Part of my weekly routine includes checking our dashboard on activation rates for all UA traffic. I once noticed that activation rates significantly dropped for app traffic but desktop and mobile web seemed to be fine. My first instinct was to go through the new user flow on the app myself to better understand the situation. Turns out that there was a release that negatively impacted the mobile app experience and it was glitchy. I flagged it to my SVP and the mobile team so that they were aware of the situation, who then were able to fix it on the same day.
How does Prodege relate to Atlassian?
Prodege brands have a membership based model so it's similar to Atlassian's subscription based model. Users on Swagbucks don't pay a monthly fee but in the same sense that once they sign up, they become a part of a loyalty/membership program. So rather than products where they just purchase once and then bounce, we provide the user the opportunity for continued engagement in a way that generates revenue for the business throughout their customer lifetime.
Why are you interested in product marketing?
Product marketing is a role that intrigues me because it's centered between marketing, sales, and product so it's a cross functional role that wears lots of hats and gains exposure in various departments, which is great! I like being able to work with different teams and I think that it'll allow me to become more well-rounded in my skills. It's also a lucrative role with increasingly growing demand and lots of potential for growth, especially in the Bay Area
What is product marketing?
Product marketing is the process of bringing a product to market. This includes deciding the product's positioning and messaging, launching the product, and ensuring salespeople and customers understand it. Product marketing aims to drive the demand and usage of the product.
GTM (Go-to-Market Strategy)
Sales Enablement - Develop highly differentiated sales plays to support revenue objectives across sales verticals, and enable sellers to successfully execute Marketing Enablement - Work closely with growth marketing, campaigns marketing, industries marketing, and partner marketing, to deliver messaging in successful marketing campaigns Content Development - Build compelling content that resonates with ad customers based on role, company size, vertical, or top challenges
What are your short term/long term goals?
Short Term -Pivot into product marketing and be able to do so for a product that I truly believe in, and one that is always striving for innovation. I want to learn a whole new skillset revolved around product marketing and GTM strategy, understanding market/customer/competition, and be able to put it into practice every day. I'd like to driving successful product launches in the form of increased activations where I am able to provide real value to the company Long Term -I'm hoping to take on a managerial role where I can mentor others and provide guidance in their professional career. I've been really lucky that I've had a manager who was a great mentor to me. I know how much of an impact she played in helping shape me as a professional as well as an individual and I hope that I'd be able to do the same for others and is something I'm excited about.
Tell me about a time you had to be very creative/strategic in order to meet all your top priorities.
Sometime last year, we were suddenly given a significant increase to our marketing budget so there was a huge appetite to allocate that towards ad platforms. We were capped out on our existing campaigns so I had to come up with creative ways to spend it efficiently. In doing so, I launched a whole new set of campaigns that targeted a wider audience of users beyond our usual targets that were just interested in taking surveys (bread and butter). I started creating campaigns that attracted mobile gamers, fintech enthusiasts, users who were looking for side gigs, long tail keywords (more broad but cheaper) and more. I also created iterations of campaigns that were successful in the US for international markets as well to maximize on growth. I was able to scale spend 60% in the span of 1 month in a way that was both efficient and creative.
RESUME - Monitor paid marketing metrics and execute campaign optimizations through marketing cost reallocation, campaign-level bid and budget adjustments, creative and ad copy testing, and audience targeting and suppression
The competitive landscape is always changing in digital marketing so we need to make sure that we are able to adapt and stay relevant in the market. I regularly monitor performance to make sure that KPIs/metrics (CAC/ROAS/RPU) don't suddenly drop off and I'll make adjustments as necessary if they do. Some optimizations I do include negative matching irrelevant and non converting keywords, changing bid strategies, making bid/budget adjustments, refining our targeting, refreshing creative/copy to overcome ad fatigue. I would also run a competitive analysis on Spyfu to see what our competitors are doing as a framework for our optimizations.
Give me an example of a time you managed numerous responsibilities. How did you handle that?
UA is a lean and scrappy team so I find myself always wearing multiple hats. Because there are a lot of moving parts, priorities tend to shift every week. Crucial to stay organized and it requires a lot of prioritizing, multi-tasking, and time management so that nothing slips through the cracks. Prioritize tasks based on importance, deadline, and how long it takes to complete so that I can allocate my time accordingly. Some tools I like to use are Google Calendar and Trello. I use Google calendars to plan out my weekly agenda and to keep track of upcoming deadlines. I use Trello to keep track of all the projects I'm working on and I like how it serves as a visual aid in a way that's easy to read. I'm also someone who likes to have multiple tabs open at once but I like to keep it organized by using the grouping tabs feature on Chrome to categorize them in a way that makes sense and condense them when I'm not using them so that I don't get overwhelmed. -e.g. Launching new campaigns, getting new partners onboarded, competitive research, conceptualizing new creatives and lps, monitoring performance of paid campaigns, optimizing campaigns, sponsoring/championing Jira tickets whether it's a request for new product features from dev or new reporting from dev
How do you stay organized/manage projects?
UA is a lean and scrappy team so I find myself always wearing multiple hats. Because there are a lot of moving parts, priorities tend to shift every week. Crucial to stay organized and it requires a lot of prioritizing, multi-tasking, and time management so that nothing slips through the cracks. Prioritize tasks based on importance, deadline, and how long it takes to complete so that I can allocate my time accordingly. Some tools I like to use are Google Calendar and Trello. I use Google calendars to plan out my weekly agenda and to keep track of upcoming deadlines. I use Trello to keep track of all the projects I'm working on and I like how it serves as a visual aid in a way that's easy to read. I'm also someone who likes to have multiple tabs open at once but I like to keep it organized by using the grouping tabs feature on Chrome to categorize them in a way that makes sense and condense them when I'm not using them so that I don't get overwhelmed. -e.g. Launching new campaigns, getting new partners onboarded, competitive research, conceptualizing new creatives and lps, monitoring performance of paid campaigns, optimizing campaigns, sponsoring/championing Jira tickets whether it's a request for new product features from dev or new reporting from dev
Why are you pivoting from UA/growth marketing to product marketing?
What I like most about what I do is being able to create strong user engagement but rather in a role that's UA/growth marketing focused, I am interested in doing so in a product marketing role. Growth marketing is very numbers heavy and I've found that I've been wanting to find a role with more balance, something that not only includes data but also something with more creativity and strategy, and I feel like I'd have a lot of potential to do so with this role, whether that's preparing for product launches, crafting the messaging/positioning of a product or creating content that users can really resonate with. I also believe that my experience in growth marketing can be easily transferable, and I know that the role is looking for candidates with growth marketing experience.
RESUME - Optimize new user conversion funnels from acquisition, activation, adoption, and retention through consistent, rigorous campaign testing and refinement of new user flows
While a large part of my focus was user acquisition, another big part of my role is improving conversion funnels as a way to maximize the value that these new users bring to the business, so really, trying to increase user engagement to the point where they reach activation and retention. In doing so, I helped identify where we were seeing the largest drop offs in the user journey and then ran A/B tests to tackle each stage of the funnel. This included trying out different landing pages to improve CR, different onboarding flows to improve activation rates. There was a lot of trial and error but by analyzing the data, I was able to determine what worked, what didn't work, and was able to reiterate new versions of our campaigns based on successes we saw.
RESUME - Execute session-based monetization campaigns and email drip campaigns to boost lower funnel engagement and early user adoption in shopping verticals, increasing shopper MAU by 28% YoY
While the large majority of spend is allocated towards UA campaigns, we also have another category of campaigns that we describe as "session-based monetization". While UA is focused on getting new users to sign up, "session-based monetization" takes on a different approach specifically for our shopping verticals. Even if the user doesn't sign up, we can still try to monetize that traffic when they click on our affiliate links which allows us to earn revenue when they shop and make a purchase. For those users that signed up, I helped create shopping focused email automations that helped guide them through our conversion funnel with a shopper persona in mind. We'd introduce them to value props like coupons/promo codes, new user bonuses for shopping ($10 for $25 purchase) where we'd phrase it like a coupon, and recommend stores they might like. These email automations were a success and we saw a 28% YoY lift in shopper MAU (1,200 to 1,600) after implementing it.