Jennifer Kelly

Good advice, whether you're starting your career or adjusting your path. "Self-awareness is key in determining the right fit for your career. You have to honestly assess the aspects of your work that bring you joy and energy. And you need to identify your strengths and areas in which you may not excel."  #careerdevelopment

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🎙 We launched Episode 1 of "Next Gen Builders" TODAY— take a listen. Please rate it, leave comments, and share it with your friends. Details are linked in the blog below. Today, I told our CPO Francois Ajenstat that he could quit his day job and go all-in on hosting podcasts if he wanted to. For the record, I'm not really encouraging him to quit. He simply impressed me, and I'm a tough critic. For context, he has an impressive 25+ year career and tenure leading and working on big-name products like Tableau, SQL, and Office. On paper, he's exactly the caliber of "big deal" that I knew we'd want for our next CPO. Though he's too humble to say it that way himself. I shouldn't have been surprised. To be fair, Francois started just as I was headed out the door on leave, and I hadn't had the chance to interface with him before I left. I'll be completely honest...he's a pretty big data guy. So, I was nervous he was going to be a boring podcast host. But he's not! He's a natural. Aside from his hosting ability, what struck me most about our brief conversation was that when I told him how great he was, he admitted something to me. He's nervous about hosting. At that moment, I felt reassured. It's refreshing to hear vulnerability from someone who's "made it" to the top. Leaders are typically so buttoned and pressed. Earning stripes takes confidence. So when someone whose career I admire shows me the opposite—it makes that C-suite feel so much more approachable. And that's the same mentality that makes Next Gen Builders special! There's so much openness and vulnerability about how the most successful builders broke through and the hard-earned lessons along the way. It's inspiring. In Episode 1, he speaks with Sarah Franklin CEO of Lattice (and former CMO of Salesforce). Did you know she created the Trailhead/Trailblazer concept at SFDC? And before that? She was once in the middle of a company taking risks, trying to find fulfillment in her job. That speaks to me. And we hope it speaks to you, too. There's a few lessons in this short story: 1️⃣ Great work happens outside of our comfort zones. 2️⃣ Great leaders practice vulnerability. 3️⃣ And, great podcasts happen at Amplitude. Be sure to listen!

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This guide by Michael Applebaum is one of the best product marketing guides that I've seen written. Concise and practical. Thanks to Stage 2 Capital as well. #ProductMarketing #PMM

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What I'm tinkering around with this morning: Google Vids. 🎬 🤗 You come in with a raw idea - doesn't matter from where. A story prompt. An existing doc. A slide deck. This thing takes that concept and helps you shape it into an explainer video worthy of sharing in just a few mins. Here's how it works... ➡ Throw your idea at it like you're pitching a story. ➡ It expands it into a draft storyboards, narratives and templates. ➡ Audio? Your voice or it can generate a narration for you. Conversational? Friendly? Authoritative? Whatever fits the content you're building. ➡ Mix in your own footage or pull from the stock library. And, you're done! Availability:  It's ready for Google Workspace Labs and Gemini Alpha users. Wider availability coming soon! Full product details here. I'll try to get a sample video up soon, too. https://lnkd.in/d72Up8bv #google #lifeatgoogle #ai #products #storytelling #video

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📣 Hey friends! After a year and a half, 3 rounds of fundraising and building out the design practice at MotherDuck I'm ready for new opportunities! I joined as the Head of Design and the first hire back in fall 2022, and helped shape what design means for the company. I hope you can feel the 'ducking' awesomeness through the product and brand. Now, I'm looking to explore head of design or staff roles in early to growth stage companies and even larger organizations. Can't wait to connect with compassionate founders seeking a design leader versed in UI, UX, IXD, UXR. But first, let me share some startup lessons I've learned over the last 14 years: 1. 🗺️ Have a clear vision A clear vision, articulated and illustrated through design, is a powerful tool. It's the magic that unites your team and customers, helping them SEE where you're going. Design leaders, in sync with the CEO and CPO, can bridge the gap between user expectations and their dream come true. 2. 💎 Quality matters when it matters With limited resources, small teams need to be strategic. A design leader should understand when to focus on the details or backlog them. Foster a culture of experimentation and user feedback. Remember, even as an SME, you might have bias. Listen to your users carefully. 3. 🌟 Lean into your super powers Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is key. If you have the right team, rely on their technical abilities instead of trying to be an expert at everything. It’s tough when you're small, but encourage adaptability and ownership. 4. 📂 Get organized Small messes grow into big ones, which turn into big expenses. Establish clear processes for documentation, meetings, note taking practices and sharing information. Standardize things at the company level and stay organized to scale efficiently. 5. 🤗 Lead with compassion Trust is hard won and easily lost. Leaders who put their ego aside and lead with compassion create a more open culture. Deep relationships, compassion, and a willingness to take a hit for your team will reap rewards in the long run. 6. 🙋 Know your users Get to know your customers and users. Invest time and money in foundational research around their needs and use cases. Share insights and find themes. Eventually, you might have a research function to do this at scale. Until then, let your users lead the way. You'll be amazed at what you learn. 7. 🥳 Have fun If you’re not, you’re not in the right place, find the team that will make you happy, healthy and hoping for more. If you’re constantly stressed, losing sleep, or finding yourself in the hospital for stress induced blood clots then you need to get out. Find partners that get your craft, respect it’s value and hold you up. Life is short, love those around you and make the world a better place. If you’re a compassionate founder with a goal to make amazing things with amazing people let’s design a better world together. https://raphaelhyde.com/

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-- You can now book me as your fractional CMO -- Most brands out there don’t really need a full-time CMO — they just need solid, no-BS guidance to get where they want to go. I've been lucky to start and scale brands like Feastables with MrBeast and MANSCAPED, helping them hit some pretty wild growth targets and driving billions in revenue along the way. Now, I’m stepping in as a Fractional CMO through Intro to bring that same energy to anyone who’s looking for a smart, flexible option to tap into my thinking, and my " do-ing" - I'm extremely hands on. Now, I’m offering 1:1 subscription mentorship through @Intro to help you. Here’s a few things I help with: ✔️ Nailing vision, brand positioning, strategy & GTM. ✔️ Partnering with creators and influencers + TikTok Shop & Affiliate. ✔️Less paid media, more viral organic content. ✔️ Building growth levers that does what they're supposed to. ✔️ Making sure your paid performance actually pays off - with killer creative and split testing. ✔️ Scaling a team that knows how to win. I'm in great company on @Intro alongside other CPG folks like Tara Hannaford (Former VP at Casamigos), Mitchell Krupp (Liquid Death & Saint James Tea), Marty Bell (Vacation® & Poolsuite), Ashvin Melwani (Obvi), and @Roman khan. Taking on just a couple of new brands for October/November: -

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"What one piece of advice would you give your former self, given the chance?" 🤔 I've been asked this question a few times in interviews, and it turns out the advice I'd give to my former self is the same advice I give to someone today who is earlier in their career: ✨ Recognize what *you* offer. ✨ It's not just about what's on your resume. Or your education. Or your past job experience. It's about the intrinsic qualities that define *you.* The so-called “soft” skills, often labeled as "nice to have" are the same ones that make incredible employees and, particularly, incredible leaders. These human-centric skills—empathy, problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication—are critical in business, and they're all important in leadership. (That’s especially true as the world becomes more AI-driven.) Great leaders can spot these strengths in their teammates and seek to bring in those who demonstrate these soft skills, which benefit the team and drive better outcomes. And since human skills set us apart, especially as AI takes on a bigger role—don’t downplay those skills. Embrace them. They'll continue to matter. And, as I always tell my mentees: Be your authentic self—#authenticity matters. ✨✨✨ What advice would you give to your former self? I love hearing people's responses.

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💔 Laid off? Struggling to find work? Wondering what’s next? It’s a tough time out there. All over the world, people are being #laidoff, jobs are harder to come by, and the uncertainty can feel overwhelming. I know this because I’ve been there—four (yes 4) redundancies in three years taught me just how brutal the job market can be. But here’s the thing: that final layoff? It gave me the push to try something different. I was introduced to a program in Sweden called Starta Eget through Arbetsförmedlingen, which gives you the tools and support to start your own business. It’s not a solution for everyone, but for me, it was a game-changer. Since launching my business Tjena | Professional Wing People in March 2023, I’ve been sharing this program with others. And after a chat with Abel, I realised it’s time to put it all into one place. This isn’t just about Sweden—many countries have programs to support budding entrepreneurs. If you’re reading this, I urge you to check what’s available in your country. ✨ Why I’m sharing this: If you’re feeling stuck, this might be the opportunity you need. I’ve put together a simple guide to help anyone considering taking this step: ✨ How I navigated the Starta Eget process (and avoided common mistakes) 📚 Official resources to keep you on track 🤔 Why this might—or might not—be for you 📑 Ready to explore your next step? https://lnkd.in/d__B4urR This guide isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about sharing what worked for me, in the hope it might work for someone else. If you’re in #Sweden—or wondering if your country has similar support—this could be worth checking out. Let me know if you find this helpful, or share it with someone who might need it. And if you’ve been on a similar journey, I’d love to hear your story. We’re all in this together. 💛 Happy connecting, Shaena 🌟 #Entrepreneurship #CareerChange #Networking #StartaEget #JobSearch #PayItForward #Tjena #WingPeople

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Just a handful of ways I've used generative AI for my job this week (Claude 3 Sonnet via Amazon Bedrock): 1. Develop and iterate concepts for video (to build a storyboard with a team) 2. Chat about a specific website asking for ideas for UX improvements for specific KPIs/metrics 3. Prioritize those ideas into actionable next steps for my specific role 4. Source examples for survey questions/responses based on specific goals 5. Find the right question types for my survey (in this case, likert scale) Good times!

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Posted on Substack today: I can see the exciting, creative possibilities of a world where humans and AI co-exist. I suppose I’m still optimistically (perhaps naively) dreaming of a world in which our technology is there to protect us, to enhance us—to make us more creative, better.

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“Wow, that was dumb”. I catch myself thinking this more and more about the things I did as a fledgling product marketing manager. (Although I try not to be too hard on myself because #growth). Here are 3 mistakes I made early on in my PMM career: As a PMM, I knew I needed to understand the competitor landscape but I didn’t realise that some competitors mattered more than others. As a result my team and I invested a ton of time on horizon competitors rather than understanding competitors on our customer's shortlist. If your customer doesn’t know about them, don’t waste precious hours here. Rather invest time in deeply understanding that shortlist and how you stack up against it. Tip: Listen to sales calls. Feature overload. I felt like I needed to understand our product on a deeply technical level in order to do my job. The word ‘product’ in product marketing threw me for a loop and I felt like I needed to get into the weeds. This meant I couldn’t zoom out to understand our holistic offering and fell into the trap of feature marketing too many times. Know your customer AND your consumer: I also knew I needed to understand our customer, so I climbed into customer feedback on specific features and how customers used our product. While this brought me closer to product, it was not as important for me as a PMM as it would be for a product manager. What I didn’t realise fast enough was that it was my job to understand our consumer aka our customer BEFORE they bought: their alternatives, pains, motivations and concerns and how our product addressed this (so that we could find more customers like them and replicate the sale). I love the PMM role and I don't think I'll ever stop learning on the job. Other PMMs: what are the A-HA moments you’ve had since you started the role? #productmarketing

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When your design partner becomes your product's compass: How listening to practitioners shapes Avery? Huge shoutout to Diederick Kavelaars for showing what true design partnership looks like 🚀 Beyond just product feedback, he's: ✨ Challenging our landing page messaging (in the photo) ✨ Reshaping user experience ✨ Pushing us to think deeper about TA teams' needs ✨ Going above and beyond to improve every touchpoint Here's what we're learning: the best products aren't built in isolation. They're shaped by practitioners who: ❇️ Live the problems daily ❇️ Care enough to speak up ❇️ Push for better solutions ❇️ Refuse to accept status quo Avery is being built differently: ❌ Not by founders who think they know. ✅ But by TA leaders who actually know. To all proactive TA leaders out there: The hiring process needs improvement. You can either observe from the sidelines... Or help shape the solution. Which one are you? 🧐 P.S. Special thanks to design partners like Diederick who choose to be part of the change, lucky we have your support 🙏

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As it's #GreatBigGreenWeek and I'm in the business of digital content, I wanted to highlight that sustainability isn't just paper straws and unplugging your monitors. I've posted about how a lot of content is digital landfill. Two-fifths (41%) of marketing spend is wasted. This means there are a lot of campaign pages, landing pages and SEO articles adding to your company's carbon footprint. Focus on outcome over output with goal-driven, insight-led content architecture. Need help making your web and app work smarter? Get in touch [email protected] #contentstrategy #contentdesign #digital #SEO #userexperience #sustainability

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I keep thinking about something Daniel Ek of Spotify said this week at Acquired podcast live. “Talk is cheap. Building is expensive”. He took the "talk is cheap" mantra and turned it into a virtue. (You could tell everyone was taken aback -- including the hosts!) 🤯 He argued that dialogue and discussion are actually the most affordable ways to test ideas, get feedback, and develop potential solutions. My take: in today's fast-paced world, where "move fast and break things" is often the default, there's not always enough room for thoughtful debate and conversation. Ek suggests that taking a step back and investing more time in discussion can lead to better decision-making and ultimately, a higher ROI. Spotify has adopted this approach, intentionally slowing down and making fewer, but bigger bets. This allows them to allocate their resources more effectively and focus on what truly matters. How do you think about "talk is cheap, building is expensive"? Do you believe in the power of thoughtful discussion and debate, even in the fast-paced world of tech and startups?

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You’ve finally figured out product-market fit, and your Head of Growth quits. You come out of an amazing investor meeting to a brutal Glassdoor review. You’re invited to speak on stages and podcasts, and you’ve never felt more like an imposter. Your company has had its best quarter yet, and you haven’t slept a full night the whole time. Running a company is an emotional rollercoaster. 🎢 That’s why, as a trained psychotherapist, I support founders in learning the tools to level out the ride—an essential skill set that few talk about. In this free one-hour, interactive session, I’ll share my expert insights and science-backed tools to help you: 👉 Navigate the startup roller coaster with confidence 👉 Scale your company with less drama and more ease 👉 Manage your mindset for smoother, more effective growth Grab your seat now! Our session starts TOMORROW Friday, August 23, at noon EST. Registration link in the comments.

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Hey! It's me. If you're curious about Core Web Vitals and want a simple explanation of what it actually means and how it impacts your website and business, watch below.

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OK, OK, I know - I'm a marketer so it's in my best interest to collapse into the fainting chair at the idea of a company 86'ing its whole marketing team. So here's a different take. It's not that marketing, per se, is somehow a magical art without which a company must inevitably shrivel and die. Rather, it's that most, if not all, people can only think about things from one perspective at a time. So if you're asking me to be a salesman I'm thinking about how to close THIS deal THIS quarter, because that's where my incentives are - it's unreasonably to ask me to think about whether it might be strategically a better move to skip this deal...but if my job was marketing I'd be more open to the strategic skip and likely flippant about the importance of its closing this quarter. Most of us, if we're honest, don't fully understand the scope and complexity of each other's roles. But understanding that a person with a different perspective, and different set of incentives, can offer a view that you just can't generate on your own right now is tremendously valuable. Elon - you may be a genius, but you're going to miss having someone see things from another angle and helping you not to make easy-for-everyone-else-to-see missteps ;) https://lnkd.in/ghMXF8ec

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