Eddie: Welcome to episode 37 of the web joy podcast.
I'm your host Eddie.
And in this podcast, we interview guests about their origin story and
what makes them excited and joyful to be part of the tech community.
I hope you enjoy today's episode.
I said, I'd never get a Peloton with Sonya Myrie.
Welcome to the next episode of Web Joy.
I'm excited to have Sonya joining us today.
Sonya, say hi to everyone listening.
Sonia: Hi listeners.
Nice to be here.
Thanks for having Yeti.
Eddie: Absolutely, my pleasure.
It's a pleasure for me to have Sonya on because I was working
with her at Glassdoor before.
She left us, but that's okay.
Nothing against you.
No.
Um, but it was a sad day.
Really enjoyed working with Sonya, so it's glad to just be able to
catch up and chat and have this time.
Yeah.
I know who you are, but the listeners don't, so if you don't
mind, just kind of share who you are, what you do, where you work.
Brief
Sonia: intro.
Yeah, sure.
Hi, I am Sonya.
I used to work with Eddie at Glassdoor.
I work in product marketing.
I lead a product marketing team at Intercom, which is another
B2B tech company in the Bay Area.
And I've been at Intercom for almost a year now.
A little less than a year.
So still, still kind finding my way.
Um, and I've, my career has been in all various marketing roles.
I've studied marketing in college, so I feel like I'm one of those, those
few people that actually, you know, am doing the thing that I studied in, in
undergrad, which makes me way less cool.
I think . But yeah, I have been in various different types of marketing
roles, haven't always been in tech.
That
Eddie: is interesting.
So you kind of went to college for marketing, got into marketing.
How did that transition go from kind of general marketing to marketing in tech?
Right, and doing product marketing as opposed to just kind of marketing
Sonia: in general.
I worked, my first job outta college was at Craft Foods.
I was a brand manager, which was really cool.
I got to work on really iconic brands like craft Mac and Cheese.
I worked on a one steak sauce craft barbecue sauce.
Really.
Um, yeah, to your point, like very traditional C P G marketing where.
As a marketer in those types of companies, you are actually seen
more as like a general manager, um, kind of the way product managers
are seen in tech companies.
You're kind of like the c e o of, of a product.
But that's where I learned a lot of fundamentals of how
to work cross-functionally.
Cause you're working with folks in finance, people at the plant,
manufacturing, the product supply chain.
Truly like cross-functional role with a lot of general management, but.
Marketing where you're figuring out how to talk and position about position a
product, um, how you actually distribute it, how you work with retailers like
Walmart and Target to actually get it on the shelves and thinking through pricing.
So I actually learned a lot of the fundamentals of product marketing, um,
in that more traditional marketing role.
I knew that I didn't, C p G wasn't like, I'm, I'm kind of at
Health Net, and so like I knew.
Working in processed foods wasn't like my, my calling forever, but learned to wrap
a lot of really great foundations there.
And so made my way over, um, and took the world to consulting into a little like
brand strategy consulting for a while.
And then that's kind of when I transitioned to tech.
And I'm happy to talk more about like how I meet that transition, but, I feel
like a lot of the foundations I got in that, like those early days that craft
are like things that I use every day, even in a completely different industry.
That's awesome cuz I
Eddie: was kind of wondering Yeah, like how different was it to do product
marketing, you know, in a non-tech company in the traditional sense versus product
marketing in, in a more of a tech thing.
But it sounds like there are, there are loss and.
Sonia: Yeah, I mean, it's pretty different in that like in a more traditional
company, like C in C P G, like you are the playing that product manager role.
So you're figuring out how is our product performing?
And, and as a product marketer, you should know all those things.
You're just not as like accountable or responsible for those things.
And I actually, personally, I like being in more of a supporting and
contributing role, like working closely with our, my product manager on those
things as opposed to like N C P G.
I mean, if, if the plant shuts down and stops making craft mac and
cheese, like that's also your problem,
Oh no.
We don't have those problems in tech.
We can ship our product a lot easier.
You know, when I, when I wanted to, when I was working on a new brand of barbecue
sauce, it took me like a year and a half.
To convince our VP that we needed to create a new line at a
manufacturing plant just to make a new flavor of barbecue sauce.
And so I think that's, that kind of speaks to the, like, I knew I didn't wanna be
in packaged goods forever, cuz it just moves at a, a much different pace when
you can just add a new line of code to your, your software and then ship it.
It's just a, it's just a different, you know, sense of speed that you.
There are a lot of similarities in that you're solving some base, some
of the most very fundamental questions in terms of like, who's our customer?
What is the problem that we're solving for them?
How do we, you know, help them understand that our product service offers the
benefits that they're looking for?
How do we frame those benefits?
And then how do we get it out into the hands of our customers?
So a lot of the questions are fundamentally the same, whether
you're selling like noodles.
Or sales marketing support software like I
Eddie: do now.
Yeah.
I guess like you said, people, people have needs and they think about
those needs the same way you're just looking at different needs.
Right.
And you're fulfilling different needs.
Well, cool.
What is it that, like you said, a lot of people go to college, they end up
deciding, Hey, I'm not interested in this thing, and they actually, you know, make
a turn and they do something else and you didn't, which well you said, you know,
might make you kind of boring, I think.
It shows that there's something that has really captivated you about
product marketing, and so I'm just curious what keeps you excited?
Right?
What has kept you in it kind of this whole
Sonia: time?
I think I really enjoy, like, I think this is gonna sound so lame, but like,
if I wasn't a product marketer, I think the next job that I would really wanna do
is like being a, like a pure researcher, like I Gen, I genuinely enjoy like doing
primary re, like getting to talk to customers, hearing the way that they talk.
There are problems doing that with 20 customers.
Like dissecting the themes out of that, figuring out where there's commonalities
and where there's differences, and where there's segments or groups
of customers that are the same.
And so I really enjoy that type of thinking and more of that
kind of like getting really underneath what people are saying.
Like, I think I could've, I would've been really interested in like therapy
or psychology or something similar to, I don't have, like, I have the patience for
that, but I think, yeah, the connection to people and really trying to understand
the challenges and problems that they have is really interesting to me.
And has like, is at the, pretty much the core of any marketing
skill that you're gonna do.
I think there's, you know, roles out there in marketing.
You're gonna be in marketing analytics or SEO or content that are much more
like, you know, data focused and a product marketer, you, you certainly
need to know how to work with data and how to frame that and craft a story.
But like as a product marketer, you're much more of a.
jack of all trades, like wear a lot of different hats, which can be one of the
really challenging parts of the job.
But for me, I really like having that flexibility.
I think if I was like a marketing analytics person where I was just
like optimizing a funnel and trying to get as many leads into the top
of the funnel and converting them.
And not to say that it's not strategic, but you're like you have a craft
and that craft is is kind of bound.
Whereas in product marketing, like.
. If you look at my calendar, I'm in meetings about pricing and packaging,
and then I'm talking to r and d about, you know, what the roadmap looks like,
and then I'm working with our social team on how we, you know, what we're gonna
be saying when we launch a new product.
And so I really enjoy that cross-functional, like variety that I get.
That's cool.
Eddie: One of the things that we often talk about in this
podcast is what brings us joy.
So taking a little bit of a, a shift away from your journey, I'd
just like to ask like, Hey, what is it something that kind of brings
Sonia: you joy?
I was mentioning this earlier, but I, so I'm a, I'm a mom.
Um, I have a 20 month old and before I had a.
I should just say one and a half , not 21.
. I feel like that's very confusing for people to have to do the math
and in their ties, almost two.
I think that before I had a kid, I was like really just an active, like
I hiked a lot and did yoga, but I feel like when you have a kid, you
tend to be confined, especially in a pandemic to your house a lot more.
And so I, I said I would never get a Peloton, but I did it.
I broke.
I was like, I need to be able.
Do fitness in my house and that was one of the options available to me.
Um, and so I got a Peloton and I recently, there's a app called Apple Challenges.
It syncs with your, with your Apple Watch and there's different like groups that you
can join and it like tracks your exercise and your steps and you can basically,
like I'm in a group of like a bunch of Bay Area moms and we're like climbing the.
Of other Peloton users and Apple Watch users.
I think there's like a high degree of overlap between like I have a Peloton
and I have an Apple Watch . Obviously.
It's been really fun.
It's been really motivating for me to just like open up the challenges
and see like there's, I'm in a, my group is, my cohort's like eight
people and like my goal is just to not be number eight for the day.
Eddie: That's a good
Sonia: goal.
Yeah, it's been motivating.
Forced me to get on my Peloton and you know, I know that the Peloton company
is going through, they're going through quite a lot of challenges actually.
That's a, that's something that like, is just very interesting to me.
Just tracking the company's like trajectory right now and just, you
know, just seeing what they're up to is I, I think, really fascinating and
I have a few friends on their product marketing team and just interesting to
chat with them about what they're up.
I used to kind of laugh at those kinda like gamification, not
laugh at them, but just, I never really needed that motivation.
But I think now being a mom where I could like easily, you know, put my kid to bed
and be like, oh, I just wanna lay down.
It's a really good source of motivation for me and it's, it's really simple.
So, I'm really
Eddie: enjoying that.
So you feel like you didn't need as much of that motivation before, cuz
you probably, you know, had more time available and things like that, but
, Sonia: more sleep available
Eddie: for sure.
Yeah.
So, okay, so now that you kind of are feeling the, the sleep crunch
and the time crunch, it's like you have that little thing on your
wrist like taunting you, like, hey, yeah, you don't wanna be in last.
Sonia: Oh yeah.
I never had an Apple watch before I became a parent.
This is probably the worst advertisement for being a parent . But yeah, I didn't,
wasn't really into the whole connected fitness thing before, but now I like
really enjoy seeing my stats on the Peloton and I try to break my record
and I think I'm a fairly competitive person, , and so I don't know why.
I guess I was never into it before.
. I really like being able to see like, like my resting heart rate over the
past six months has gone down and it's, it's like super motivating to stay up
and health, health and wellness is like really, really important to me in general.
Um, so it's a good way to stay on top of it for sure.
Eddie: That's interesting.
Yeah, it, I find it interesting how.
Some gamification.
Things do work and some don't depend on the person.
Most gamification stuff doesn't work on me.
for some reason.
I don't know why, but, um, du lingos gamification has worked for me like.
I am on like 352 days of Spanish right now, and thank you.
And it's like, no, gamification stuff has worked on me, but for
some reason I am like, I'm like, I will not let this streak break.
Like I'm gonna keep my, my Spanish streak.
Sonia: Yeah.
I feel you on this.
That's how I am.
The Peloton has a similar streak situation.
Like there's a little blue check, you get a little blue check for every day and
it's like, I ha see, you know, they show you a month at a time and I see like blue
check, blue check, blue check, and like the thought of one not being checked blue
is like really, really scary to me now.
But yeah, I'm not the type of per like, getting badges and points and yeah,
that's like less, less interesting to me.
But give me like a box that I have to check and I will get it.
Eddie: That's awesome.
That was really cool.
Yeah.
I think one thing that helps me, I have an Apple watch and I don't
tend to focus too much on the rings because there's no rest days.
So if you lose one day, your streak is broken.
Yeah.
Du Lingo has occasional rest days that you build up by, like you get points
when you do stuff, and then that gives you a freeze, and then the freeze gets
you a rest day if you accidentally.
So I like that.
I think I have a problem with the streak programs that don't give you any
breaks because it's like, that's just
Sonia: impossible.
Yeah.
And that's not like, especially if you're thinking about like health
and wellness, like you mm-hmm.
, you need to have a, and like Peloton, there's ways to like work the system.
They have like meditation and they have stretch, like a 10 minute stretch and like
you can, you know, that's good for you.
You should stretch on your rest days.
But I That's really cool that they have, so do you basically have to
be like, today's a rest day and then you pay in points or something?
Or how does it work?
Eddie: So you have to stock up on refills so you can get like two freeze refills.
Mm-hmm.
. And so you just basically have them as long as you've paid for them
with your points, you've got them in your little backpack or whatever.
And so then if you miss the day, , then it'll use that freeze, and then it'll
message you like in a push notification like you've run out of freezes.
Like, you better do it.
Or it's all for, not
. Sonia: Oh.
Oh, wow.
Well, next time we'll have to do this interview in Spanish because
I am also, I'm actually reading children's books in Spanish.
Right.
They're, they're not like awesome toddler books.
They're like, like probably a fifth grade level.
Um, my, our, our nanny for our.
Um, only speak Spanish and I, I'm like a, I would say I'm a solid,
you know, advanced beginner, maybe like early inter intermediate.
Um, but she like recommended that I read some books in Spanish that are,
they're crafted so that they use the same like 200 words over and over again.
So it's like a very boring, like it's, you don't read it for the plot . Yeah, but it.
I guess a studied approach for learning a language that if you are exposed to, if,
if you know, like I think it's something like 150 to 200 words in a language, you
know, 90% of the things that you need to say, I'm totally getting these numbers
wrong, but something along those lines.
80, 20 year old, and so I've been reading those books and it's
been really helpful because it's.
Using the same words over and over and anyways, next time we'll have to
do this in Spanish and see, see how
Eddie: it's going.
There we go.
I, I probably wouldn't be able to, to do half of the conversation
in Spanish, but I could try
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, as we wrap up today, one thing we always love to do is we
love to support each other and hear like, what are people up to?
Right?
Is there anything that you're involved in or that you're working on that you'd
like to share that people might find?
Sonia: I am part of a community called Share Bird.
It's a, they have a community of product from product
marketers and product managers.
It's a great community where you can, um, there's a lot of AMAs and a lot of really
good insights that I feel like you can't get on other kind of community forums.
Uh, people are kind of giving really candid responses for how
they approach certain situations.
I use it all the time if I'm like, I can't, I, how do other people approach,
you know, influencing the product roadmap?
I, I, that's a bad example.
It's a great forum.
Um, and I've done a few, uh, AMAs, um, in the past and I'm doing one actually
in a few weeks, which will be great.
Um, my topic is on actually how product marketing and product management work
together and how they're different and how they're similar awesome sort of thing.
So if you're interesting in product marketing or product management,
that's definitely one to check out.
But yeah, there's a lot of really great product marketing leaders on there sharing
insights, and I think it's a great way.
Like learn from others at other companies and, and kinda how
they're approaching things.
So, um, that's my plug for, for that.
That sounds
Eddie: good.
Well, Sonya, thank you so much for joining us today.
It's just been a pleasure to, to chat, see what you're up to,
kind of catch up and uh, yeah.
Thank you for joining
Sonia: us.
Yeah, thanks for having me, Eddie.
Happy to chat anytime
Eddie: Thank you for joining us for episode 37.
I said, I'd never get a Peloton with Sonia wirey.
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as well as a link to Sonia social media accounts in the show notes.
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