.png)
One of my biggest lessons from taking the Integrated Marketing Communications course was the development of a Creative Strategy. For the longest time, I thought that a creative strategy and a creative brief were two terms used interchangeably. It wasn’t until many weeks later in the quarter I learned that the creative brief is simply just one part of the creative strategy. My professor Dan Purdy told us that the creative strategy consists of three parts: creative brief, message strategy methods, and sample executions. It was crazy to me that the creative brief was just one part of the creative strategy since so much information went into this one section. The creative strategy was further explained and broken down. My professor gave the class an analogy that made understanding the difference so easy. The analogy compared the creative strategy parts to the process of cooking or baking. The creative brief section is the ingredients, the message strategy methods is the recipe we follow, and the sample executions are the testers of the final product.
Another mistake I made as a content creator was not breaking my tasks down enough to be obtainable. As I was working my way through the production cycle of making these big documents or content, sometimes when a particular section seemed too difficult to start, I would entirely ignore it until the very last second. To overcome this obstacle, I learned how to use the tool of a , where I was able to break down big tasks into smaller and smaller tasks to appear less daunting and more achievable. By doing this, I was also able to feel a sense of satisfaction every time I moved a task from the "Work-in-Progress" list to "Done."
Throughout my time as a content creator, I have also learned the importance of keeping consistent with the brand or image I am producing work for. I am now more cautious and attentive toward integrated brand elements through everything I may produce. For example, in creating a professional brand portfolio for myself, I ensured to use the same fonts and colors across everything along with placing my logo, brand name, and tagline everywhere. I have learned the importance of integrating the elements to result in more awareness and liking of content. As seen below, my entire portfolio and website are consistent throughout in the usages of fonts, colors, and the repetition of my name and logo. Click below to see my portfolio!
Since then, I am beyond grateful for everything I have learned and experienced as a product manager. It taught me so many valuable lessons about working alongside people, how to go about teaching a concept, and miscellaneous life lessons about patience and communication. By being a product manager, I was able to reinforce all of my learnings of being a content creator in the course Integrated Marketing Communications. Furthermore, through my time as a product manager, I grew immensely closer to my professors, peers, and university program which is something I never would have imagined.
With all of these lessons that I have learned, I would love to thank my amazing team of content creators: Thomas Blans, Leyla Dang, and Audrey Johnston for working with me throughout the quarter. I am so incredibly proud of the work that they have produced. I also want to thank my executive team: Kyle Berg, Gavin Bohling, Matthew Edwards, and Kaitlin Simpson for leading me through the process of how to be a good product manager, along with my peer product managers who learned beside me. Lastly a special thanks to the WWU Marketing Program, specifically my professor Dan Purdy who believed in me to take on this role.
.png)
A few months ago I started as a content creator for the and was then later on named to be one of the product managers for the following quarter. As my time as a product manager is coming to an end, I begin to reflect on some of the lessons I have learned.
This quarter I had the great privilege of being a product manager for a team of three content creators consisting of Thomas Blans, Leyla Dang, and Audrey Johnston.Throughout the winter season, I have watched them grow and learn as marketing professionals. As each sprint goes by, I am constantly so proud of the content that my team has produced. We planned, produced, and promoted an email newsletter called “Marketing Waves” for the WWU Marketing Program specifically targeted toward alumni.
Walking into my first few meetings as a product manager, I knew that I had to set a plan for everything I wanted to go through with my content creators. To do this, I planned all of my meetings either on Notion or on paper, depending on what I had access to during my planning. I listed out everything I wanted to discuss and then went into detail about the little things I had to teach. I quickly realized in the moment of teaching that teaching is hard. Especially as someone who bounces around thoughts so quickly and is easily forgetful, I oftentimes found myself saying phrases like “Oh- Remember when we were just talking about so and so a few minutes ago, well I forgot to mention this!” No matter how detailed my plans were and how well-prepared I thought I was, it was never easy. It was also very difficult for me to execute my thoughts verbally well in a way that my content creators would understand. I always knew what I wanted to say in my head, but actually putting it into words was also extremely hard.
With being a product manager, I learned that although I may be the “authority figure” in charge, I am however not in control. This meant that I was limited to managing and leading my content creators to produce deliverables. I am out of control of things such as when my creators do work, the amount of work they do, and the quality of work that is produced. This lesson was a big one for me to learn since I wanted tasks to be completed as soon as possible, especially since I was once a content creator, I knew the amount of work that would pile up if work was not done promptly. Through this lesson, I was able to further encourage and remind by team about the due dates and soft expectations that I had for the sprint.
My last lesson learned is to take the risk. During my time as a content creator, not once did it ever cross my mind about wanting to be a product manager. That all changed when my very own product manager at that time Nhan Ho was giving me some feedback and asked me “Are you thinking about being a product manager next quarter?” Funny enough, I flatly told her “No.” She then continued to tell me about how she thought I would be a really good product manager and that I should think about it. Over the next few days, my conversation with Nhan was constantly coming back up in my head, forcing my to really think about if being a product manager is something I really wanted to do. It was a tough decision since it meant that I would ultimately be postponing my graduation by a quarter.
After a few days of pondering and talking to some people about what I should do, I decided to give it a shot by telling my professor Dan Purdy that I was interested in being a product manager. I was still unsure about whether or not I really would become on though since I knew a few other students who were also interested. I waited a few weeks and one day I got the message that I was nominated, I quickly accepted the offer and there my journey as a product manager began.
.png)
Two quarters ago, I played the role of a content creator in my Integrated Marketing Communications class for the Western Washington University Marketing Program. I then became a product manager last quarter, and this most recent quarter I was a part of the Executive Team as the Director of Marketing Technology. I now conclude my journey within the Integrated Marketing Communications class as I move on as a graduate.
As the Director of Marketing Technology, I worked alongside five other team members playing particular roles: Managing Director, Creative Director, Director of Operations, Director of Analytics, and Director of UI/UX. As members of the executive team, we all worked together to prepare and resolve any upcoming issues our product managers and content creators would encounter. Concluding my time managing a marketing team, here is what I have learned.
When it comes to working with multiple teams like teams of executive members, product managers, and content creators, it is important to encourage communication across all teams. The way that the class was structured was two separate classes splitting up the content creators from the product managers and executive team. Because of this, it was more difficult for the executive team to directly communicate with the content creators. This obstacle was navigated by providing a system where the executive team would communicate to product managers who would then deliver these messages to their content creators. It was learned that people are forgetful when receiving a lot of information and so oftentimes these messages or notes would be written on sticky notes.
As previously mentioned, the class was separated by the roles in which people were playing. Because of this, silos inevitably are to be formed among the groups of people who go through the class or work in groups together. During the first few weeks of the quarter, the executive team quickly observed many silos amongst ourselves and among others. Through many icebreakers and opportunities outside of work, we overtime were able to break these silos down slowly. Even though we put in great effort to break the silos down quickly, it took us some time to even realize that people viewed us, the executive team as a silo ourselves. In managing a marketing team, we tried our best to be as active and engaging as we could in our overall Teams channel, meetings, and networking events.
As I graduate from the Western Washington University Marketing Program, I hope to apply all of the lessons learned as a content creator, product manager, and executive team member in my professional career. I lastly want to thank my professor Dan Purdy for allowing me to be a part of this class for my last three quarters of undergrad, and to my amazing executive team members Mia Crum, Anu Domingo, Jazmin Muratalla-Sanchez, Cailin Thompson, and Fred Warfield who made this the best experience.
