“In It to Build It!” Meet NewsCred’s New Head of Product

“In It to Build It!” Meet NewsCred’s New Head of Product

new product features for a quick interview about what goes into building and improving a leading Content Marketing Platform. I was with one brand through an IPO [editor’s note: Responsys was one of the biggest success stories in marketing tech]. Your team receives customer and internal feedback constantly. So for one-off requests and customer feedback, which we love receiving, we always ask clarifying questions: how big of a market will this feature satisfy? I consider whether each product investment will drive high usage and stickiness. If I’m a marketing executive, I want to know whether my team is working on the right priorities and I want clear sight-lines across teams if I need to adjust any marketing plans. The fundamental goal and mission of my team is to meet product market fit as quickly as possible, so we have to ship as quickly as possible and quickly gather as much feedback as possible. What percentage of our customers actually adopted a new feature? And finally, what makes you most excited about working at NewsCred? My team is in it to build it, and it’s so satisfying and humbling — the team really makes such a difference.

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Sharp-eyed NewsCred customers might have noticed a new name on the Q3 product newsletter. We’re lucky to have a brilliant, possible insomniac Vice President of Product here at NewsCred: Tzi-Kei Wong. She took a break from shipping many (seriously!) new product features for a quick interview about what goes into building and improving a leading Content Marketing Platform.

Tell us a bit about yourself—where were you working before joining NewsCred?

I’ve spent about the last decade in both the marketing tech and product space, primarily building SaaS platforms at high-growth companies. I was with one brand through an IPO [editor’s note: Responsys was one of the biggest success stories in marketing tech]. I was also with BrightEdge, the leading SEO platform, and Percolate. When I ran product management for those companies, we were very focused on scaling their platforms and building things from scratch.

What are the core responsibilities of the head of product?

It depends on the stage of the company. At a company our size, we are typically responsible for identifying and crafting a smart product strategy that will get us to product market fit as quickly as possible. As part of that, we constantly take the pulse of what I call the “3 Cs”: customer, competition, and company. What is the profile of our target customer and the compelling reasons for them to buy? How can we compete today versus tomorrow? What is the company’s differentiation, and is it durable? Ultimately, it’s my job to be obsessed with customer value.

Your team receives customer and internal feedback constantly. How do you prioritize all the feature requests and ideas?

The number one skill a product manager needs is the ability to make smart, bold product decisions. If I make an investment on a feature, it needs to appeal to the majority of our market or customer base. So for one-off requests and customer feedback, which we love receiving, we always ask clarifying questions: how big of a market will this feature satisfy? Is it a tablestake? Will it delight our customers? I consider…

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