Product management in a Brazilian advertising agency
That's where I started, having the opportunity to learn discovery, working with squads and... yes, fail (but not so fast)!
Believe it or not, my first role in product was at an advertising agency. It was interesting. With 10 years of experience as Journalist, I wanted to breathe different professional air. I believed that advertising agencies in Brazil embodied a spirit of creativity, despite the fact I wasn’t very creative at all.
So, I accepted the position as a Writer, and then I realized that they divided the professionals into squads.
My squad included a Project Manager, designers, myself, and third-party engineers. We worked with a financial product: the client, Embracon, was focused on consortium and aimed to digitize their marketing funnel to attract qualified leads. (If you are unfamiliar with consortiums, it is a specific Brazilian financial way to buy big things, like a house, apartment, car, or even acquire services, monthly paying to them until you receive the ‘carta de crédito’, which gives the user the power to buy your product in cash. The catch is that users only pay an additional fee, not the higher interest associated with financing, and they need to be drawn to receive the ‘carta de crédito’. Sounds like a good option if you’re not in a rush to buy big things.)
Embracon also needed a content strategy to enhance its digital presence. After a couple of months, our team became more involved in structuring Embracon's digital presence. We made a one-week design sprint with the company’s marketing leaders, worked on an MVP, and delegated the engineers to develop a completely new website.
Despite all the effort, we didn’t see much improvement in the next three months. Only after involving Embracon’s operations and interviewing some users, we took a different direction, iterated and saw a boost in qualified leads (15% more than 4-5 previous months).
This journey lasted almost a year. I had the opportunity to learn, meet interesting people who I’ll contribute to in the future and, most importantly, follow a cohesive path into an exciting new career.
I still have a LOT to accomplish professionally, but that experience was special, because the agency also sought innovation (and, in Brazil, the advertising agency model is sooooo outdated).
Considering that the Product Management schools weren’t popular, and Inspired (by Marty Cagan) is only available in English, in 2018, only a few professionals showed interest in transitioning to the role (at least, fewer than today).
Six years later, the demand has increased, especially due to high salary expectations, the possibility of working from home (or hybrid), and the dynamic nature of the role.
Product managent isn’t a fancy role at all, but I understand the appeal of being part of a team, co-creating, analyzing data, interviewing users, and executing. Once you find an opportunity, the journey can be incredible!
With The Next Movement, I want to share part of my product management experience with the whole world, but also talk about career more broadly, technology, good books, and - why not? - philosophy, music, culture, gossips, just like an open diary.
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