that one time I ran Product like a Marketer and vice versa 🫡

Fun fact! In high school I was in ~ gestures around ~ 8-9 clubs a school year plus I played sports (if you know me personally this is definitely not a surprise)

As an adult it’s fair to say I have kept that up by embarking on endless side projects throughout the years and my wide interest in many things (see podcasts, nonprofits, sports, production, coaching, you name it really)

Let’s play some catch up for the new folks in the room

• I majored in graphic design…originally I wanted to work in music but iTunes said lemme blow up the industry right quick

• After running my own business for a few years after college I jumped into the startup world and immediately went hold up hold up I wanna do more than design

• At my first startup, I quickly tore through every role in marketing wearing every hat plus a beanie

• Then I fell hard for product marketing (xoxo). I did that for a few years and then entered the Product world and to say that was a crash course would be an insane understatement.

Brb going to Product

Ngl running Product was wee bit intimidating at first. I had some context as the product marketer in the room but learning how to literally PRODUCT MANAGE an enterprise SaaS product was a new world for me. But I took that opportunity and ran with it, literally, it was a marathon and a sprint ™️

Right away I knew, alright well, I’ve been on the other side so how can I do this in a way where it would help each stakeholder and be efficient af. My brain moves fast and Product at the company I was at was dare I say…Speed Racer meets Dom Toretto quick. (see: we had to rebuild the whole platform within 90 days tysm)

Aha I got it.

I am going to run Product like a Marketer.

I am going to give the why and context behind every decision:

• every Jira ticket…

• every stakeholder ask…

• every “fire”…

• the use case of the request…

• the customer impact and the pain point it solves…

tl;dr did that until I didn’t and today I still contract for companies and do it for fun because it’s wonderfully natural for my brain. Product and my brain are a match made in heaven. I move fast and see things in Epics and Stories so it just ✨works✨ not to mention I delegate like a beast.

You should see me use my PM skills in IRL (to my family and friends I am sry and I love u)

We Back

Running Product (plus getting hit with every single bug, stakeholder ask, and fire) gave me trauma (am I joking?) but also the best organizational and project management skills I could ever ask for.

Now that I am back in the Marketing saddle (this joke is hilarious for someone who’s afraid of horses) I find myself using PM skills and tactics to get things ~ done ~

For example! Sizing of tickets and epics is a gd send and sprints are wonderful. I implore more marketing teams to try this. I was used to sprints as a designer and tbh it’s a great way to gauge the team’s output but the sizing of projects and tasks is must-see TV.

Wait what does that mean? I shall explain.

In the Product world, you story point to size things based on “lift” involved aka how long something would take to accomplish. So when you’re sprint planning (a sprint is a set period of time, usually 2 weeks) you can plan for team output based on the story points assigned of each ticket (aka task). Ideally you don’t pack in multiple large ass tickets into one sprint because that’s literally not possible.

Now that I am back full-time in Marketing. Sizing was a need not a want.

I kept it simple and did it with a scale of 1-5 and have it as a required field on all tasks.

Example of the sizing I implemented on my team (if you’re in Product and reading this please note I am keeping it lowkey and fun so be cool)

5 - this would take you a whole work week if you could fully focus on it without other projects or a calendar of meetings to take you from it

4 - could knock it out in a couple days with meetings on the Cal

3 - honestly could do this within a day or two even with meetings

2 - I could do this same day or within 48 hours, heck maybe even during a meeting or two

1 - I could do this rn while you’re talking to me

Managers, you don’t want one person working on multiple 5s at once. Ideally its one 5, and 3 and under in a two week timeframe (see: sprint) but more on that in a future newsletter.

Okay this ended up being longer than I wanted it to be so stay tuned for part 2 and other ways I run marketing like Product and vice versa.

Farewell!
have a great day 🫡 pls wear sunscreen!

Oh btw I started a girls youth basketball program ⚡️ and we're looking for sponsorships and donations btdubs. Go Charge!

PS: here are some random tools I like rn and they have no idea I included them in here so this not hashtag ad.

Paage - skip the lengthy email with multiple links and send your prospects a Paage like so 

Ramp - how did this platform not exist before? it’s perfect.

Equals - this got me into spreadsheets which says a lot

👋🏼