Let’s dive deep into the field of marketing to learn more insightful details on how other people carry out their responsibilities. A broad category, marketing has numerous subcategories. Therefore, gaining a knowledge of how others contribute their valued abilities might help us improve as well.
This time, we’re meeting Archbee’s Delia Ene, the Product Marketing Manager. She can certainly capture our attention with her deep expertise given her more than ten years of experience in Saas.
Introduce yourself and tell us about your current position and about the company you are working for.
I’m Delia, a product marketer at Archbee, a documentation platform. Archbee helps software and technology companies easily build, publish, update and collaborate on product documentation, developer guides, and API docs.
We believe that documentation is a team sport and our mission is to turn documentation from an afterthought into a growth lever.
What’s your backstory and how did you get where you are today?
I’ve worked most of my professional life in B2B tech and the last 10+ years in B2B SaaS. I think it’s an excellent industry to be in. There is a positive vibe, with innovation and learning as top priorities for many. It’s also very international, making me love it more, especially since my family is mixed, so “foreign” takes a new dimension.
Have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
I had been in a comfortable position for many years, and I did not dare to make a move. Until I did. The pandemic was terrible for the planet, but on a professional level, it opened doors for me. It gave me a safety net.
The first year was fantastic. I felt I could fly. But that context changed (shocker!), and I had to look for the next opportunity.
I quickly realized:
– How much I had learned in the past year;
– How many more opportunities lay ahead just because I had leapt;
– How much people care and want to help.
I found not one but three gigs in one month. I was flying again.
What platform/tools do you use in your daily marketing tasks?
We’re dogfooding, so I use Archbee for our client-facing product documentation and as an internal wiki.
I could then go into a very long list of tools: HubSpot, Asana, Slack, Airtable, Chartmogul, Figma, Miro, several product/ web analytics tools, Customer.io, Wynter, and Grammarly. And there are others that I don’t use so often, for example, we use HubSpot for ongoing customer surveys, but I had to use SurveyMonkey for a more particular pricing survey that HubSpot or Airtable couldn’t support.
My favourite is Asana (after Archbee, of course, ?), and the most useful is Wynter because it helps me test messaging super-fast on a well-targeted B2B audience.
Another good tool which I always recommend is InnerTrends – product analytics with pre-built reports. If you need product insights and you’re not data savvy (like me), you’ll love it.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources? Tell us your favourite quote of all time!
I had an opportunity to go for a product marketing position, and – while I had done bits and pieces of what a PMM does – I had never had this full role and needed some structure.
The CXL product marketing mini-degree was a lifesaver – and I complemented that with another course on PMM from the Growth School. While CXL offered self-learning, the Growth School offered live sessions with mentors and peers. I’m still in the middle of CXL, but both courses have brought me tremendous value from day one. I feel much more confident in my job because of these resources, and I’m also tapping into the Product Marketing Alliance community.
“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” by Jim Rohn. This is a quote that I’ve thought about a lot lately. It’s only partially true, but I like the idea that you should proactively look for a better company in your life to be greater together. It also means that those people should have complementary skills.
What are your goals for the next projects, programs, initiatives etc.?
My goal is to keep learning and to keep getting new skills (besides marketing, I also learned to bake sourdough bread, but who hasn’t during the pandemic).
What is the best part of your job?
Talking to customers. Hands down. And the team daily at 5 pm.
How do you maintain a work-life balance?
I don’t ?. I’m totally obsessed with my work. Saturdays are dedicated to learning, so I have Sunday to rest and completely disconnect. Luckily I work from home, so I am close to my family, and we have meals together also during the week, which is lovely. And my kids are grown up, so they’re quite independent.
Plus, I have a decent daily routine – a bit of sports in the morning, a break at lunch out in the park, and Mon-Thu I am not watching TV in the evening and doing something else instead, away from computer screens. At least I try!
What is the best advice someone ever gave you?
- Aim to have at least one known factor in the “role – industry – people you work with” trio. If all three are new, it’s hard.
Funnily enough, I am in this position right now, and what I did was take these courses on PMM to bring the role into more familiar territory, and learn about the industry as much and as fast as possible.
- 15 minutes of exercise, every day. If you don’t have time for more, do these 15 minutes.
- Always apply the advice to your context, and follow your gut feeling, especially in life-altering decisions.
This last one is my advice to myself ?
Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deliaene/