Tell me about your journey that lead you to QuotaPath?
So many Paths! (no pun intended). I studied Design and Public Relations & Communication in college. I started my career as a designer at a large agency working with well-established brands across all sorts of industries. From there, I went and worked in-house at a SaaS company as a product designer and asked to transition to marketing when that team was created. I am happiest when I’m able to work on several projects and contribute broadly, not just delivering on design, but also copywriting and overall strategy.
I was freelancing full-time when I saw that Ralph (Head of Design) posted a part-time marketing role in the Philly Design Slack channel. I had heard a lot about Ralph, we’d worked at and interviewed at several places around the same time, but never synced to working together. After 5 years of our paths almost crossing, I wanted to meet him. So I reached out and asked if he’d like to get lunch.
The Marketing Designer role looked interesting because I was freelancing at the time and some part-time, steady income sounded great. We got lunch and hit it off. After that, I did the design challenge, which I really enjoyed because I was able to combine data visualizations skills I had from my intern days, illustration, branding and creative marketing. It was kind of a perfect storm of things for me.
What was your interview process like?
The interview process was an informal lunch at The Foodery in Rittenhouse, Ralph and I chatted about design, personal interests and the role at QuotaPath. I believe the other side of the story to be Ralph leaving feeling confident that I’d fit the role and he wanted to hire me — and I felt the same, I wanted to work with him. The process remained casual. The meeting with Ralph face-to-face for an impromptu interview was followed by a phone screen with Darby (Product Marketing Manager). And then a call with AJ (CEO) and with Graham (Head of Growth). Everything was done remotely, so that was really nice. The process felt quick.
Tell me about QuotaPath’s design challenge.
The design challenge was to create a social ad and a product email. The prompt had suggestions on copy but it was pretty open-ended and there were a couple of options for me to choose from depending on what sparked my imagination and my vision creatively.
The ad prompt had messaging that said, “Eat sushi in Japan, not the gas station.” So I designed a sushi roll that had been turned into an illustrative earnings chart. I like that opportunity because I felt like I could really display my creative chops, and illustration was something I was interested in developing skill-wise. For the email, I have a lot of experience from my time working at an email marketing company and agencies. The copy was about a pretty standard product update, so I jazzed it up by creating a .gif for the ad which had a little bug getting squashed. I’m still proud of both of the executions and would like to roll the concepts into something else someday! But next time, with a better understanding of the brand and guidelines.
What’s your favorite part about the culture at QuotaPath?
The people. I’m pretty sure everybody else answered similarly when asked this question! But really, everyone is so friendly and passionate and a little bit different from me, so I feel like I’m always getting a new, interesting perspective that challenges my way of thinking. And that’s true for conversations on a professional and personal level. I’m constantly learning stuff from others, and I love that.
Explain your role at QuotaPath. How does your skill set fit onto the marketing team?
So tying this back to when I had bounced between agencies and SaaS software, I feel like Quotapath gives me the opportunity to contribute a lot and grow. Design is something that comes naturally to me – I can whip things up quickly. But, I also think I have more strategic value to add in copywriting, coming up with campaign ideas, and other marketing knowledge that I’ve just absorbed through various channels. Design has always been a priority, but I enjoy doing those other little things.
With our mighty startup marketing squad, I think we complement each other and have a great balance of diverse skillsets. We somehow manage to get lots of sh*t done and people don’t realize how lean our team is. I was at a conference in December, and someone had asked to meet with me for a mentorship opportunity. She thought I oversaw a creative team of about 20 people and was shocked to find out it was just three of us behind everything QuotaPath produces marketing-wise.
What’s the communication style on the marketing team?
It’s pretty fluid. I feel like I talk to them all day, every day. Though Slack and in person, video conferencing. We’re very in touch.
What about the tools you use on the marketing team?
So many tools! I use the Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, Slack, I take notes in Evernote, listen to Spotify all day, use Zoom to connect with and see our remote friends, calendar, HubSpot, Asana, Clubhouse, etc. It’s a large stack, but staying organized helps me produce the best work I can.
Also books, which is a different kind of tool. I’m reading “Obviously Awesome” right now. It’s a great read, but I wish I could read faster. It’s hard to carve out time for that. And not to forget, a pen and paper. I bought sketchbooks for the first time in a while when we were redoing the onboarding emails. I always think I can do everything digitally in Illustrator, but it’s really way more effective for me to start on pen and paper.
What excites you most about the work QuotaPath is doing?
I see a lot of potential in the tool. When I was contract and freelancing, I was using it to keep track of my own pipeline and income. I was able to level-set easily against my monthly income goals. Having not been exposed to anything sales-related prior to working at Quotapath, I didn’t know about this whole world. It’s pretty fascinating though. I enjoy what we call “hacking” or “breaking” Quotapath to find other uses for it. I think it is so powerful and can be helpful for all kinds of people who may not be in traditional sales roles. I think anybody who uses spreadsheets, or markets or sells in some way, can find value in it.
If you could give advice to anyone who is looking to grow their career as a designer, what would it be?
Make sure to look at and absorb things, really study design in the real world – why and what things work, why certain decisions were probably made. Look at billboards and display ads, movie posters, books. I find it interesting to notice and point out those principles because they repeat themselves so often. A strong foundation like that will really set you up for success in whatever you want to do. It’s a low effort way to absorb constant inspiration because design is literally everywhere.
Tell me about your best experience or day at QuotaPath.
My favorite days are when something ships and I get to track the response to it. Whether that’d be an email campaign where I’m checking open rates and click-through rates obsessively. Or, when I finally figured out how to link all our systems to attribute sources our users come from. I love watching the #new-user Slack channel. The Girl Scout cookie post by AJ kept me buzzing for 2-3 days. I like understanding what’s resonating and getting a better understanding of salespeople and the content they’re looking for. And of course, seeing something I had a hand in being successful is always really exciting.
