Interview

What’s a mistake you’ve made at work, and how did you deal with it or what did you learn from it?

I’ve definitely sent my share of oops emails because of segmenting or dynamic content mistakes, missing major news events, or miscommunications with stakeholders. There are always two takeaways that make me a little better and a little calmer.

1) The mistake you sent to thousands of people? Each of them experienced it only once. Don’t panic, just be honest and speedy with your response.

2) People love to help. There’s a person on your team who is amazing with process and would be happy to QA. One of your subscribers will give you an hour of their time in a UX interview because they’re invested in your product. Someone in the upper echelons at your company loves to hear about mistakes or ‘failed’ experiments because the learnings are going to make everyone so much better. (P.S. if none of that is true where you are – it’s time to dust off the resume.)

How do you stay inspired or motivated in your work?

Staying mobile. Moving my body outside while thinking through a problem, changing my focus between channels or funnel stages, and opening conversations with people I don’t typically work with. These shifts help me avoid burnout and add energy to my days and weeks.

What tips, tricks, or pieces of advice would give a new Iterable user?

As you familiarize yourself with Handlebars, take a step back from the technical language. Pick a few problems you want to solve dynamically, and write out the ideal situation like you’re describing it to a middle schooler. Then, go through and replace your conditional words (like “if”, “then”, etc) with the Handlebars translations. Bonus: if you get stuck, you can pass your ideal scenario write-up to Iterable support for help!

What does customer experience mean to you and how does Iterable play a role?

Customer experience is all about anticipating needs. I come from a hospitality background and view user experience through the lens of a host; it’s my job to combine what I know about my guest, what I know about my product, and ask the right questions to make their stay as comfortable as possible. If they can turn the admin parts of their brains off, our marketing is succeeding. Outside of the (basically limitless) benefits of having a tool for email, SMS, and browser marketing, Iterable helps me add thoughtful touches throughout the user journey. I can append profiles with important properties, do really granular subscription management, and use Journeys and webhooks to connect users across lifecycle stages and each other.

As a consumer, what brings you joy from a brand’s outreach/communication?

Anything fun. I love when I can see the nerd human behind the scenes, sharing what makes them smile. Give me your gifs, your puns, your outdated slang, and you have a subscriber for life.

How do you stay up–to–date with the latest trends and developments in marketing?

I’m probably biased, but newsletters! I subscribe to as many (well-written) ones as I can: in the industries I work in, from local and major news publications, hobbies I love, and brands that are simply doing fun and beautiful things. The 10-20 minutes I take each day to immerse myself in those voices keeps my brain topped off with inspiration.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

“It’s fine”. This is something my mother says a lot. It really means there’s a solution to your problem, you’re going to make it happen, and the world is not going to end before you do. There’s something incredibly grounding about telling yourself in the moment that, this icky thing that’s happening? Right here, right now, it’s fine.

If one song could play every time you entered a meeting, what would it be?

Any song from the Shrek soundtrack. Every single one is a banger.