June 2023

After my time as a content creator and then a product manager, this quarter marked my first time taking on a more ‘big-picture’ kind of role as the director of operations for the integrated marketing communications class. If you aren’t already familiar, this class is structured in three levels

1. Small teams of content creators
2. Product managers who manage those teams
3. The executive team that oversees the product managers

Now that I have taken the class three times, I have seen and gotten familiar with all three levels of work and management that are involved in the marketing communications process. It was an interesting adjustment going from a product manager to being an executive team member, as I had gotten more used to doing hands-on work on products, but I now had to take a step back.

The past few months have been extremely rewarding as I have gained a great amount of knowledge and experience from managing two content creators in Applied Integrated Marketing Communication. From my time, a few lessons stand out to me. These being, to be welcoming and open to all questions, and to be helpful in as many instances as possible. Additionally, to make sure that you are helping those you are managing, learn from your successes, and most importantly your failures. Finally, the last important lesson I learned is to be patient.

I feel that these lessons are incredibly important for every manager to know, as through these you are able to bond with your team, encourage growth, and find success in the tasks you are attempting. In order to showcase this, I will use the coming paragraphs to break all these lessons down.

“It’s easy to go through the motions but really f***ing hard to do the work.” (Dan Purdy). Having the pleasure of taking IMC for two quarters at Western Washington University, it has taught me so many things about what it truly means to be a marketer and a professional. Moreover, this past quarter I became a Product Manager (PM) and learned just how intricate leading people can be. As you begin to navigate life after school or wherever your journey takes you, there are some lessons and takeaways from this quarter that I would like to share. I have the hopes that what I have learned from being a product manager can help others as well.

Three months ago, I stepped into a new role in my Integrated Marketing Communications class as Managing Director. Being self-assured as I am about IMC, I quickly outlined my responsibilities by learning from my predecessors and previous 6 months of  IMC. While those responsibilities do still pertain to my role as Managing Director, I have only begun to understand my place as Managing Director on the Executive Team in the past couple of weeks. My goal is to share those lessons with you so you can continue to build on my knowledge. Whether that be for WWU’s MKTG 488 IMC class or running a marketing team at your agency.