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Marketing is in the Middle: Elizabeth Quintanilla

The final person in the series is a person who tirelessly given back to the product marketing community and just the community in general – Elizabeth Quintanilla.  Within 30 seconds of meeting Elizabeth you’ll know that she brings passion and energy to ANY effort she applies herself to.  I first met her at a product camp and have been actively watching her tweets since then.

Elizabeth isn’t just a leader in the product management and marketing community, she devotes her time to improving Austin and works to advance efforts locally as the social media ambassador of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GAHCC).  The other cool thing about Elizabeth is she might be able to be technically called a rocket scientist with a long stint managing products for the Jet Propulsion Lab.

What marketing roles have you had and in what markets?

Surprisingly, I had a strange start to Marketing.  My first taste of product management was a systems re-engineering project at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  It was my job to solicit requirements on how over 200 engineers how and wanted to actually use a software system used to navigate all current robotic missions at JPL.  After graduating with my UT-MBA, I had another product manager role within a product group of IBM’s WebSphere.  In 2009, I decided to start a woman-minority owned marketing and community outreach firm.  Since then, I have worked with government, high tech, small family business, and restaurants.

When you look at your career in marketing, what activities have you found most interesting/challenging?

What I really enjoy is the creative part of marketing – ranging from storyboards to the full video creation.  Also, I enjoy finding all the analytics based on the customer metrics and presenting them in a digestible format for the small business owner so they can see the impact of their marketing activities.  Some have described me as a creative analyst.

With my background in technology, my first client engagement in the food and beverage market was a challenge because of the rapid ramp time to address their unique concerns.  I had to remember all my experiences of having that part-time high school job.

Based on your experience what activities do you think get the most return?

Speaking and teaching; volunteering my skills with non-profits; building relationships that generate referrals based on volunteer, presentation, and coaching activities.

What do you feel is the most important component of a successful marketing gig?

Executive Buy-In – there must be acceptance from exec team for bringing in an outsourced marketing resource and provide timely relevant information.

How have you seen organizations change in the last 3-5 years to better support the needs of product marketers, product managers and communications teams?

Better realignment between where product managers report to (Development, Sales, or Marketing) and the overlap in teams.  Move to an agile adoption where each of the teams have 30, 60, and 90 day plans.

If you could design the perfect corporate environment for a marketer to be successful what would that be?

One where the Execs buy in to the process and if I could get a little more dreamy, daily stand ups through the organization to improve communications.

How far is this from reality?

I see an increase of adoption within marketing teams and leadership teams, but it still requires work for most companies.

So what’s next?

More teaching small business, and working with interesting clients as a marketing gunslinger for me.  For the industry, a steadfast movement away from big ideas, tech and products and alignment with the needs of the markets.

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Web: EQ Consultants

Blog: elizabeth-quintanilla.com

Twitter: @equintanilla

Many thanks to Elizabeth for her participation.  What a positive note to end the series on!

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February 16, 2011 by
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ProductCamp Austin: Ready for learning, networking and sharing

PCA10 is just a couple of days away and I’m feverishly tweaking my content to help move the discussion for the proposed Town Hall session on Social Media.   Ultimately, I’m just ready to see some of the discussions already up for voting because there are some interesting ones proposed in each content area.  If you haven’t been to a ProductCamp before, one of the hardest things to do is to pick the presentations which you want to vote for.  Every product camp I’ve been to has had more topics of interest to me than I’ve had stickers and PCA10 should be no different.

There are many reasons to go this weekend, but learning is the big one.  I’m excited to see old friends, meet others IRL who I haven’t, but the ability to learn and network with a group of people who have different experiences and viewpoints is the key reason for me.

If you are interested in a session on Social Media and how to leverage social media to improve your products and their effectiveness in your market space, I’ve put up a session for consideration.   Here is an overview of the proposed Town Hall discussion – There’s No Such Thing as a Social Product, Only Social Product Managers:

With all the focus on social media and the opportunities it affords organizations, there is still very little traction in many sectors and roles. While marketing and communications, pr and other functional groups in technology companies have rapidly embraced social platforms and tactics, the evidence indicates that the majority of Product Managers are less likely to use social options to improve products, engage the market and identify new problems to solve with their solutions. This session will examine the state of product management and social media, while identifying 3 key takeaways which you can put in practice tomorrow to improve your understanding of buyers, your customers and the problems waiting to be solved.

Travel safe to Austin and see you Saturday!

March 24, 2010 by
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