Spark and Hustle
Welcome to Spark and Hustle. The podcast that ignites your inspiration and fuels your hustle in the dynamic worlds of career and entrepreneurship. Join our host Karina a marketing junkie, on a journey of exploration, conversation, and empowerment.
In each episode, we dive deep into stories of professionals, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders. Discover the spark that ignites their journeys and the hustles that propelled them to success.
Whether navigating the corporate ladder or building your empire, follow Spark and Hustle for inspiration, practical advice, and occasional humor. Get ready to spark your ambitions and elevate your hustle game.
We believe in the power of connection. Join our community on Spotify, iTunes, and Instagram to share your experiences, learn from others, and become part of a supportive network of dreamers and doers. 🚀✨
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Spark and Hustle
Henry Wang From Google to YouTube: A Product Marketing Manager Mock Interview
Discover the secrets of standing out in product marketing interviews as I swap roles and become the interviewee with Henry Wang, a former Google product marketing manager turned YouTube sensation. Get ready to master the art of storytelling from this insightful exchange, where we unpack my journey from co-founding an e-commerce business to becoming a product marketing manager at Collinson. You'll learn how to craft a compelling career narrative and highlight your unique superpowers, like customer empathy, to make a memorable impression.
Next, we unravel the complexities of stakeholder alignment and user insights with a case study that transformed a lounge management system. Hear about the real-world challenges of managing stakeholder relationships and how user-centered design can drive innovation. Discover how a live dashboard improved operational efficiency by 30% and how teamwork led to a 40% increase in product adoption, thanks to an unofficial research team that prioritized user needs and data-driven decisions.
In our final segment, we explore innovative strategies for targeting off-peak travelers. You'll get exclusive tactics for identifying and segmenting audiences, from remote workers to retirees, to personalize your marketing campaigns. We share the power of influencer collaborations, content optimization, and loyalty perks to drive engagement and bookings. With a focus on growth and connection, we leave you inspired and equipped with strategies to enhance your marketing efforts as we step into the promising horizon of 2025.
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Welcome back to another episode of Spark and Hustle. First and foremost, happy New Year, everybody. I hope you all had a fantastic start to 2025. And I want to take a moment to thank each one of you for being part of Spark and Hustle throughout 2024. It's been one year exactly that we started the podcast. Your support, feedback and engagement had made this journey so meaningful and I'm so excited for all the conversations and stories we'll be sharing together in 2025.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is slightly different. Usually, I'm the one asking the questions, but this time the tables have turned. I recently had an incredible opportunity to be interviewed by Henry Wang, a former Google product marketing manager, who now creates amazing YouTube content about product marketing. His content has been so helpful. It actually helped me get my job within product marketing, so I'm very thankful for his inspiring content. For those who don't know Henry, his career journey is as inspiring as his content. He studied history in college and started his career at a law firm, initially considering law school. Considering law school, however, he realized it wasn't the right path for him and he pivoted and dove into books about management, consulting and investment banking. From there, he interviewed at Google, goldman Sachs and Deloitte and ultimately landing a role at Google in their policy division. While at Google, he took on a 20% marketing project on the side, spending two years honing his skills before transitioning full-time into product marketing. Now Henry is dedicated to sharing his wealth of knowledge through his YouTube channel, helping aspiring product marketers navigating the field.
Speaker 1:In this episode, we did a mock-up interview for a product marketing manager role at Collinson, where I currently work. In the interview, we go over a few questions, including a case study over Bookingcom. It was an insightful experience to sit on the other side of the table and reflect on my journey. I'm thrilled to share this episode with you, not only to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what the mock-up interview is, but also to showcase Henry's expertise and passion for helping others.
Speaker 1:So, whether you're interested in product marketing, looking for career insights or just love hearing inspiring journeys, this episode has something for you. Let's dive in and, once again, here's to an amazing 2025 filled with growth, learning and all the hustle and spark you bring to your own journeys. Thank you for being here. Hello, welcome to Spark and Hustle, the podcast that ignites your inspiration and fuels your hustle in the dynamic worlds of career and entrepreneurship. I'm your host, karina, a marketing junkie on a journey of exploration, conversation and empowerment. In each episode, we dive deep into the stories of professionals, entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Discover the spark that ignites their journeys and the hustle that propel them to success. Whether you're navigating the corporate ladder or building your empire, follow Spark and Hustle for inspiration, practical advice and why not? Occasional homework. Get ready to spark your ambitions and elevate your hustle game. We believe in the power of connection. Join our community on Spotify, itunes and Instagram to share your experiences, learn from others and become part of a supportive network of dreamers and doers.
Speaker 2:Karina, thank you for doing this mock interview. It'll be super helpful for those who are watching. For today I'll ask five common product marketing questions. Some of them are behavioral and one will be a case study on how you approach a marketing strategy. My first question is the most common one, which is to tell me about yourself.
Speaker 1:Perfect, Thank you. I'm currently a product marketing manager at a company called CollinSend. They're based out of London and at CollinSend I drive go-to-market strategies and I also build scalable processes for products like lounge management system. It's a system software used by different airport lounges throughout the world and right now it's being used by over about 45 lounges in the region. Then my background blends a little bit of the corporate marketing and entrepreneurial experience.
Speaker 1:I co-founded an e-commerce business that ran successfully for five years and then that's where I pretty much honed my skills in customer insights, messaging and strategy. I've also worked in different campaigns and did a little bit of a social media strategy than now currently the product launches and helping companies build a strong market presence. My goal is to continue creating an impactful product strategy, driving user adoptions and then further developing expertise in market positioning, especially in customer-centric industries. Also, outside of my day-to-day role, I host a Spark and Hustle podcast, and that's where I focus on stories of career and entrepreneurial growth. Then I also serve in the Board of Empowering Women as Leaders as their marketing director. Ewl is a nonprofit that focuses on helping other women reshape their lives. Thank you for that. You did a good job of explaining what you do and sharing some of your background.
Speaker 2:Maybe two small points that could make the answer even better would be one share a linear story of your background to your current role. I think you did that. You started with I am a product marketing. My background was this I did this, I did that, I did that, I did that, I did that, I did that. I did that. You started with I am a product marketing. My background was this I did this, I did that. But if you pen frame it into a story like, hey, I'm a product marketing Before I worked in customer service, I was really interested in this part about product marketing that led me to become the product marketing manager today and my superpower is that's the second small point, which is highlight part about product marketing that led me to become the product marketing manager today.
Speaker 2:And my superpower is that's the second small point, which is highlight one thing you're really good at, or one or two things, so you can be like hey, my superpower is customer empathy. I really love figuring out what the customer problems are, bringing those insights to inform the strategy and then making sure that resonates with our customers. That would make it make you a little more unique, because I think if you try to just say, hey, I like to do messaging strategy, all this stuff. You're up a jack of trades versus hey, I'm really good at this one thing.
Speaker 1:Thank you, very good feedback that I will take in consideration, for sure.
Speaker 2:My second question is can you tell me about a product launch that you led? Yes, A successful product launch.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course. So within the current role that I'm in, in the same product that I mentioned on the earlier question, which is the launch management system, I led the launch of major enhancements of the LMS, which is the system which helps the operators streamline operations, and the goal was to increase adoption and engagement with this tool, particularly focusing on its new UX, ui improvements and key features, such as pre-booking, waitlist, passenger flight information. I developed a go-to-market strategy, collaborating with product UX, ui and then also the launch partnerships teams. Together we worked on aligning the messaging and then I also created the product positioning, the customer enablement materials and then launched the communications to ensure operators fully understood the value of what these updates were going to be for them. As a result, the adoption increased by 100% within only six months and the customer feedback highlighted the improvement, efficiency and the user satisfaction within the platform. The success also caught attention by other stakeholders in the region, so now we are looking into implementing the product within EMEA regions and then hopefully eventually ABAC as well.
Speaker 2:Nice. And now can you tell us more about how did you position the product and what were some of the main channels you used to drive customer adoption?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 1:So the way I positioned the product was really focused on the value that we were giving these launch operators, so positioning it in the difference of what the current systems they were already using, which a lot of them were manual systems.
Speaker 1:So by having an automated process for them it was going to be way better streamlined operations than having everything being in one single platform instead of them having different notepads or many processes that they had. So I positioned it by differentiating what the current systems they were using to what we have to offer them. And then one of the main channels I used was webinars. So hosting webinars with these launch operators keeping in mind that one lounge operator can have more than five lounges that they own, so they have significant staff members and training all the staff members at the same time was a challenge. So the webinar really helped with covering all of the lounge operators within all of their staff in their different lounges. Another channel that I also used was email marketing. So creating materials such as product on a page or one pagers to shared training materials with the staff was another of the channels that I used.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Overall good answer. You did a good job of sharing what you exactly did and the Goja Mighty emotions, and you answered the follow-up question well, which is how did you actually do it? My only small point of feedback is maybe in the future, if you can marry the two together hey, this is what I did. Also, this was our positioning. These are the main channels we leverage. If you just combine the two answers into one so that the first time someone asked a question they don't have to ask the follow-up question, that would be great. Otherwise, good job, great feedback. Ask the follow-up question, that would be great.
Speaker 1:Otherwise good job, Great feedback.
Speaker 2:My next question is can you tell me about a time when you uncovered a key customer insight?
Speaker 1:Okay, I hope it's a great, but I'll continue with this story of the same product because I really am loving working with this product and it's been a great success so far.
Speaker 1:So I'll continue with the lounge operator and user interviews. So, because we worked on improving the system and working on all these features, then I thought how do we know if what we're doing is actually working and how do we get the feedback? When conducting UX UI research for the LMS, I noticed launch operators were struggling to track guest occupancy during peak hours. So my goal was to uncover the pain points and identify a solution that addressed the operator's frustrations. I organized and led user interviews across the region in different markets and collaborated with our research team. Then I identified that the operators were lacking real-time visibility into the occupancy levels, which was causing the operational inefficiencies to the occupancy levels, which was causing the operational inefficiencies. Based on those insights, which were critical, then we prioritized building a live busy indicator dashboard and post implementing this dashboard. The operators reported 30% improvement on in managing the lounge capacity, enhancing the customer experience during their peak hours?
Speaker 2:And then, how can you tell me more about how were the interviews? Yeah, tell me about, maybe. What was your aha moment as you were interviewing these subjects?
Speaker 1:Yes. So during the interview I did a section of live scenario questions. So giving okay, you have two passengers walking in the lounge at 3 pm afternoon on a Saturday night, Can you walk me through how you would check them in and what would you do after checking them in? Would check them in and what would you do after checking them in? So, by seeing these real life scenarios of the mock-up questions, that was when the aha moments clicked, when I realized staff wasn't doing certain steps or they were clicking on buttons that they weren't supposed to. So I believe the aha moments came when I implemented a section with real life mock-up questions.
Speaker 2:Got it and then so the main, so the insight that you uncovered was a result of them saying that it was a problem or a result of you finding out oh, this is a problem.
Speaker 1:It was the second one a result of finding out that they had a pimp. It was both. I would say it was a little bit of both, so they would mention it. And then I also uncover even more insights when doing the question. The live scenario questions.
Speaker 2:Got it? Good answer? No real feedback here. More insights when doing the live scenario questions Got it Good answer? No real feedback here. You did a good job of outlining the process and the insight. My next question is can you tell me about a time when you had to work with challenging stakeholders?
Speaker 1:Yes. So with this current company, consent, I worked on launching the different updates for the launch management system, and there were different priorities between the product team's roadmap and then also the feedback from the end users. My challenge within a project like this was to align with stakeholders and ensure both user needs and product objectives were met. To solve this problem, I facilitated numerous cross-functional meetings to communicate the research findings and really emphasize on how the user's feedback aligned with the long-term goals of the business. I provided the quantified data that I got from the different interviews to show how certain UX UI changes would increase the adoption, and then this approach brought alignment across different teams and then leading to prioritize the features that satisfy the needs and stayed true to our roadmap. As a result, the product updates were well received and then the adoption grew another 40%.
Speaker 2:Can you talk more about what was the challenging aspect of working with these stakeholders, maybe? Who are these stakeholders and what did they not agree on? And then, how did you bring them together?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I would say the main two stakeholders would be the product team and then also the partnerships team. So in order to conduct this interview, it takes time out of the lounge staff and we have to be really careful on how we approached the lounge operators to know if they could give us, lend us, a staff member, either a man, somebody in a manager role, or either somebody in a receptionist role or was the one that was using is using the system every single day for so many hours. Now, let's keep in mind that some of these lounges are busy 24-7. So really coordinating between the product team and the partnerships team to figure out how I was going to coordinate these interviews with the lounge operators was a big challenge. So I grabbed everybody into many cross-functional meetings and I asked them just gave me one or two that I can interview and we can prove the different insights that we can gather from this. So we did a proof of concept for the interviews before they allowed me to escalate into interviewing more lounges.
Speaker 2:And who had the ownership over, I guess the lounge operators. Was it the product team or the partnerships team?
Speaker 1:The partnerships team, but also because the research team was volunteers of the product team. We don't in the company. There was a challenge there because there's not such a official research team, so we also had to use the resources of some of the product colleagues, like the product manager or the UX lead to join the interviews, so also taking time out of their day to volunteer to join. And it it was so successfully that successful that we officially not officially but we built our own research team without being official to the company, but we're doing it out of our time volunteering.
Speaker 2:So, prior to maybe doing the first proof of concept, how did you get them to get on board with the idea? Yeah, it would take resources out of the teams. How did you convince them that, hey, this is a big enough priority that it's worth testing?
Speaker 1:It wasn't a big challenge to commence, just because our company doesn't do that much research. Thankfully there were newer colleagues that haven't been in the company as many years as I have. So I explained to them the different products that we've had. I've explained to them the little research that we've done, so by proving them that we can only know how successful product is going to be by doing the feedback loops. So I gathered them together and said, hey, we've never done this type of research and if we really want to improve on our technology and product and innovation, we must do this type of research. So I think just showing them the historically of what we've done in the past which hasn't been much, unfortunately and influencing them to make a change so we can be better, it was the way that I influenced them.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:They were products, Of course. They were interested on doing the research. So then we can also work on how we can better our products.
Speaker 2:Mm Got it and yeah, this was helpful. Great answer. I think you went into a lot of detail. I think the only feedback I have is yeah, again, if you can explain those earlier into your answer. Maybe you've said maybe I would say, set up the context a little more. So maybe you could start by saying hey, our company, we're not very, we haven't done much customer research. I thought it was a good idea to do it. Got the partnership, a lot of teams together. The challenging aspect was resourcing right. But then you propose the idea of a proof of concept and through the proof of concept it would be a good testing bed to see if you wanted to scale it up. Got good results. Both teams appreciated the insights and then from there you were able to get them on the same page to get more customer insights. So I think if you can just provide a little more context, more highlight on the problem with why they don't, they are hesitant, and then your solution yeah. So what? I understood.
Speaker 1:Just so I'm clear of what I understood. Give the context, so what I understood. Just so I'm clear of what I understood. Give the context and then also work more on my structure, on how I'm going to answer after giving the context.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say that the structure would be provide a little bit of context on the problem or the situation, Highlight why this was an issue for stakeholders. So the resourcing is the challenging aspect and that provide your solution, which is proof of concept. Bringing those insights back to the stakeholders, getting them aligned. I think that would be the solution. So, three parts context, problem highlight, solution highlight.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:My last question is let's do a case study. Just wanted to see how you would approach solving a marketing problem. So let's say you work at brokingcom and they they're experiencing a lot of seasonality, right, they're getting a lot of booking during the summer, but in non-summer months engagement is dropping. How would you create a marketing strategy? It doesn't have to be a go-to market, it's just a general marketing strategy to drive bookings during off-peak periods. Okay, during off-peak periods.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I think I would start using the identifying target audiences, then I would go on into segmenting the messaging and campaigns and then incentivizing the bookings and then, lastly, optimizing the content and the channels, and I'll talk a little bit more about each one of these. So, when identifying which target audiences can we focus on, based on the off-peak seasons, I think I would focus more on price-sensitive travelers, so travelers who are looking for offers, deals. I would also focus on remote workers, who have the flexibility to be traveling, and then I would also focus on the retirees, so people that have retired and have the freedom, flexibility, flexibility of their time. And then, of course, families who, again I can mention at the beginning, are looking into a year-round affordability for travel. So I think those would be my audience that I would identify first for creating this marketing strategy. Then I would work on segmenting, messaging and different campaigns for these specific travelers. So really highlight the benefit of the off season for Taiwan is but yeah, so favorite crowds, unique experiences and then maybe even lower cost for these off-peak seasons because there would be more incentivizing deals. Then I would run a personalized email campaign for each one of these audiences with recommendations on quieter the destination, not so many popular places, destinations. So really showcasing those hidden gems, locations that they can see, and I would probably do this through targeted social media.
Speaker 1:And then, whenever I say incentivizing the bookings, probably introducing a loyalty perks for off-season. So it could be a loyalty program for these off-season travelers and it would be free upgrades, maybe partner with some local businesses to bundle different experiences like tours or dining discounts, mainly the experiences, as I mentioned, and then I would optimize the content and channels, probably launching some other channels would be launching blog posts and videos as well for top travel spots for the month of what's in off season, probably September or October, right before after summer, before the holidays. So really focusing on highlighting the top travel spots for x month. And then I would probably use paid ads with geo-targeting and retargeting as well, to convert into the website visitors. Then I would use another channel as influencers, probably so travel influencers that will emphasize on those off-season perks. I believe this strategy creates a year-round value that builds customer loyalty and positionsbookingcom as a go-to platform for traveling planning beyond the peak season.
Speaker 2:Really like your structure and organization of the content. Would love to explore a few of the channels you mentioned. Email blogs influence them live today as a way to reach your target audience price sensitive people, remote workers which channel would you focus on if you wanted to go after, say, remote workers?
Speaker 1:so for remote workers, I would probably do the travel alert influencers, because a lot of these influencers that's what they do for their full-time jobs, so they're on the go, working remotely. So these the sentiment, not the sentiment, the connection that they can get with the audience of the remote workers and the influencers being always working remotely as well as they're traveling I think the connection would be more tied together and they will be more there's a word for it and I went blank More, not understand sympathy, synergy, maybe. Synergy, but I would mean like a connection, because they're both doing similar things at the same time, they're both working remotely. Just one is being a travel influencer showcasing all the different places, and the other one it's probably doing other type of work. That is also for remote workers. I would use influencers.
Speaker 2:Influencers Got it. And then let's dive into that a little more. How would you measure? How would you know if your influencer campaign is successful? And maybe before that, like what would you? How would you think about which influencers to work with Big influencers, small influencers or a combination? And then how would you measure if they're driving results?
Speaker 1:Yes, because I've already worked with influencers in the past, travel influencers specifically.
Speaker 1:Depending on my budget, of course, I would try to do a mix of micro and macro to do some testing and see which one performs better.
Speaker 1:Based on my experience, micro influencers have performed the best, so probably maybe trying one macro and one mic and more a few micro influencers then again based on my experience. Experience this channel has been mainly for awareness, so really looking into showing the experience of what it's like to travel off peak season and bringing that awareness into the audience's eyes. Now there are a couple influencers that I know are the top performance for lower funnel. So for converting, then I would try to go back to the ones that I know that perform that will give me those KPIs of conversions. So I would think I would track the engagement that they've had, the awareness and then any probably cost per acquisition that we would do if they were doing any paid push advertising through their own, through their own influencing for conversions are you thinking of like a referral link or like a coupon code, like how are you going to track how much revenue or how much booking this influence brought?
Speaker 2:Yes? So I would say coupon codes for sure, yes, and then referral links as well. You gave a really good macro overview of how you would do the Bookingcom campaign. I like that. You talked about your target audience with their pain points, and you also mentioned the value propositions right, unique experience, less pricey. Your target audience remote workers. You have people who are cost sensitive, and then you've made out a pretty good general marketing plan blogs and all the different channels. The only thing that I think you could make it even better would be to prioritize your channels, because obviously, blogs, paid influencer email that's a lot of channels. So if you can just be like, hey, I would focus on these two or three channels and go a little bit into detail on what you mean, maybe influencers, micro influencers, email campaign it'll be like a drip campaign around the different months right to your existing customers. So I think that would be the only small maybe I cut out.
Speaker 1:So I think that would be the only small, maybe I cut out and, based on your experience for a case study like this, which three channels would you focus on?
Speaker 2:So I think what I would have focused on would be I wouldn't have given the same answer as you in terms of the macro level, but be a little more specific. I would say hey, these audiences, I would focus on remote workers, right, because price sensitive audience. That could be like the evergreen campaign. Remote workers could be a little more targeted. And then you can be like I want to focus on maybe two types of content influencer marketing, because that's a great way to build outreach, and maybe you can talk about what about creating our own video content.
Speaker 2:Two types of content influencer marketing, because that's a great way to build outreach, and maybe you can talk about what about creating our own video content? You don't over rely on influencers, because you also created your own video content. And then you can be like I want to look at what's trending, countries that are trending or activities that are trending, then build content to tie that to travel, and then you can just rip off of that. And then the interviewer will be like oh, okay, this is our general plan. And then she said, if she has limited resources, she would focus on this segment with this type of campaign.
Speaker 1:That's really helpful to hear from you.
Speaker 2:Great. Thank you so much, camino, for sharing your answers and giving everyone an insight into what an interview might look like. Thank you so much, and I think this will be helpful.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to do the mock-up interview and I hope it helps somebody else during their interview process. Thank you so much for tuning in to this special episode of Spark and Hustle. It was such a unique experience to be on the other side of the mic and participate in this mock-up product marketing manager interview with Henry Wang. I truly appreciate his feedback on all the questions answers and I hope this feedback is helpful to you. I also hope this episode gave you valuable insights into product marketing, career growth and the importance of constantly challenging yourself to level up. A huge thank you to Henry for his time, expertise and for creating content that helps so many people navigate their careers with confidence. If you're not already following him on YouTube, I highly recommend checking out his channel. He's a wealth of knowledge and an incredible mentor in the product marketing space as we step into 2025,.
Speaker 1:I want to thank each of you for your support, encouragement and for being part of this journey with me. This year is a fresh start and I'm looking forward to bringing you even more inspiring stories, insightful conversations and tips to help you spark your passion and hustle towards your goals. If you enjoyed this episode. I'd love it if you could share it with someone who might find it helpful. And, as always, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review or send me a message if there's someone you think I should interview or a topic you'd love to hear more about. Here's to making 2025 a year of growth, opportunity and connection. Until next time, keep spiking your hustle and I'll catch you in the next episode. Bye for now.