Collaboration

Throughout my 7+ years navigating diverse landscapes, across various industries, I’ve encountered a number of ups and downs that have shaped my work habits. I refer to them as the Three C’s: Communication, Collaboration, and Curiosity. These principles have helped me thrive in environments my younger self could’ve never imagined navigating through. I credit them for their simplicity and power. 

Collaboration, to me, embodies different strengths towards a unified goal. In opportunities requiring cross-functional collaboration across different departments, my approach is to bring diverse skills and perspectives for efficient problem-solving and progress along our roadmap.  

Working on the TT-DL10 Smart Lamp project at TaoTronics was an example of integrating methodologies to enhance our cross-functional collaboration. Initially, when I joined the Product Marketing team, we were tasked with introducing a new product into a booming market place on amazon. While there were a plethora of ideas, the landscape seemed a little fragmented. Working with C-suite executives, we streamlined our direction to officially define and present our product adoption model. 

The collaboration among our marketing managers and me began by distilling consumer insights, gathered from our pilot programs and data analysts, to construct a product roadmap for delivering and refining its future lifecycle. Introducing an Agile framework as our methodology, the Product Owner, Design teams, and smart home engineering department were synchronized in defining key metrics (KPIs), minimum viability benchmarks (MVP), and Go to Marketing (GTM) strategies. 

The process was structured around daily scrums where stakeholders and product teams were empowered to voice their perspectives. We discussed, iterated, and fine-tuned each step of the development process while proactively anticipating potential roadblocks. Notably, the engineering department made significant contributions, leveraging their smart-home industry acumen to expedite the product marketing process. Their swift updates and transparency helped facilitate our community through newsletters, user guides, and marketing collateral. I credit a significant amount of TaoTronics’ successful launches to the collaboration between engineering and product managers. 

This, along with several other collaborative journeys, highlighted the impact of synchronizing goals and hosting diverse set of talents to ensure a successful launch of hardware products or SaaS packages. While this was one of a few experiences where collaboration was optimal for a product launch, I learned that it isn’t just about coordination, but rather a unity in reaching milestones efficiently. It’s wasn’t just a task to talk to other departments but a partnership of skills to create more effectively to reach a unified goal.