Pros
Product Marketing (like product management) is a difficult role. Becasue we sit at the center of marketing, product, and sales, we have to influence and build respect with our cross-functional teams. Over the past year, I feel we've really improved these relations on all fronts. The level of dedication I see from everyone in the marketing team is absolutely inspiring. Dee is a powerhouse of a product marketing leader and single-handedly upleveled our team to be more strategic and thoughtful, instead of reactionary. JJ is the most emotionally intelligent CMO I've worked for and has created an environment of psychological safety which means that I can challenge myself and my team to uplevel and do better. When she sees a problem, she thinks "how can I help" instead of "how can I get rid of this person." It's a breath of fresh air. I can see myself at Actian for a long time moving forward.
Cons
A lot of our processes and systems could be improved. For example, I think operations and change management functions could be hugely beneficial for Actian as a whole. There can be a lot of "janky" processes.