My long and eventful journey
(Defunct)
2014—2020
Key Impact:
- Developed high-touch Google Students social media campaigns, increasing quarter-by-quarter impressions by 48.3% from previous year, resulting in 19% in traffic to Google Students’ job site
- Built and executed first social media campaign for annual Grace Hopper Conference; generated 10.1M impressions globally
- Reduced media inquiries by 78% by creating streamlined tools for Google Students’ social strategy
Product Marketing Skills: Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Campaign Management, Lead Generation, Brand Awareness, Data Analysis
Transferable Skills: Project Management, Communication (Written & Verbal), Process Improvement, Stakeholder Management, Event Planning
Key impact:
- Supported YouTube, Partnerships, Cloud, Marketing and Sales; promoted twice before pivoting internally to Talent Programs
- Led two recruiters through utility process overhaul for Cloud staffing and created scheduling dashboard to boost productivity with an 84% decrease in average time to schedule; dashboard has since been adopted company-wide
- Drove diversity-focused hiring efforts through four events across east coast and in partnership with business clients and external events teams, resulting in 18 niche hires within nine months and a decrease in average time to hire by 69%
- Directed diversity sourcing efforts and coached recruiters on how to develop effective Boolean search strings, resulting in 14% of all candidates sourced advancing to onsite interviews compared to average (5% passthrough rate)
Product Marketing Skills (Relevant Transferable Skills): Market Research (Candidate Sourcing), Competitive Analysis (Talent Market), Employer Branding (Recruiting Events).
Transferable Skills: Project Management, Process Improvement, Training & Development, Mentoring, Communication (Written & Verbal), Time Management, Stakeholder Management, Negotiation.
Key Impact:
- Spearheaded nine recruiting and employment branding events; engaged over 700 attendees from underrepresented backgrounds with 100% of post-event survey respondents indicating likelihood of considering employment with Google
- Analyzed demographic data sets from 17 Latino professional organizations to make business critical decisions on partner acquisition efforts, resulting in 28% increase in Latinx pipeline representation across six core teams
- Organized cross-functional team across Google's public relations, communications, legal and programs teams to forecast and capture Google's brand sentiment across 52 external partner organizations
Product Marketing Skills (Relevant Transferable Skills): Event Marketing, Employer Branding, Stakeholder Management, Data Analysis, Market Research, Competitive Analysis
Transferable Skills: Cross-functional Collaboration, Project Management, Communication (Written & Verbal), Strategic Planning, Relationship Building, Diversity & Inclusion Advocacy
2021—2022
Tally-t was a startup incubated at The Wharton School. It offered a cloud POS and store management platform for independent grocers in Philadelphia. It was acquired by Mercatus after I left and no longer exists.
I worked with the founders as a Product Marketing Analyst while an MBA student to build my marketing chops in-between classes.
Reason for leaving: Received a full-time offer to stand up the Product Marketing function at Zola after graduating
Key impact:
- Generated $541K in GMV by driving a targeted email and demo campaign for 20 SMB grocers; converted 8 accounts by localizing POS messaging and tying QR-based features to reduced shrinkage and 10+ hrs/week saved
- Boosted demo-to-deal conversion by 30% by building a sales enablement toolkit—custom ROI calculator, objection-handling script, and vertical-specific one-pagers—that helped founders tailor pitches to independent grocers' margins and pain points
- Supported $1M in seed fundraising by building TAM/SAM/SOM models and drafting GTM slides used in investor pitches
- Cut stock-outs by 20% and saved 10+ hours/week in manual inventory tasks through customer insights and onboarding redesign
- Led pilot rollout across three grocery stores, conducting in-store interviews and usability testing to uncover onboarding friction, which informed QR scan flow redesigns and reduced time-to-activation by 25%
2021
Received return offer; declined to stay closer to tech and pursue product marketing
Key Impact:
- Managed $1.5MM budget to execute national sampling program for Cascade Platinum, targeting Millennial and Gen Z households and projected to increase total household penetration by 3% by FY24/25
- Conducted mid-tier value interception analysis to address 17pt decrease in purchase sentiment and presented findings to senior leadership; created sell sheet enabling activation with projected 8% increase in sales by customer/retail teams
- Generated media support plan and creative assets with agency partners for five messaging campaigns addressing consumer behaviors and attitudes around dishwashing
- Discovered competitive disadvantage in base tier distribution causing -4% growth in fair share of new households via Nielsen Analytics; recommended recovery strategy to customer teams
2022—2023
Solo Product Marketing Manager
Reason for leaving: Company missed revenue targets due to market conditions (inflation in 2023 weighed heavily on our ICP); part of a 40% RIF that included most of marketing team
Key B2C Impact:
- Spearheaded lifecycle campaign spotlighting vendors, and optimized user journeys for marketplace discovery using behavioral insights, increasing conversion rates by 18%, repeat bookings by 12%, and generating $730K in incr. FY22 revenue over six months
- Grew registry adoption by 14% and reduced customer complaints by 30% after leveraging NPS verbatims to advocate for development of standalone gift import page, and refreshing messaging and positioning for browser extension enabling 3P gift adds
- Led SMS and email A/B testing in collaboration with Growth, Creative, and Lifecycle to refine registry promo messaging for early funnel signups, resulting in 9% increase in lifecycle CTR, 6% boost in user conversion, and generating $429K in incr. registry sales
Key B2B Impact:
- Championed engineering development and led launch of role-based access control (RBAC) after capturing detractor insights from vendor interviews around data leaks, reducing PII-related security incidents by 41% and cutting vendor attrition by 17%
- Generated 22% growth in SMB signups after executing GTM strategy for Vendor Vault, a cloud-based booking product for wedding vendors to securely manage user inquiries and data; positioned to differentiate market perceptions around security
2023—2025
Founding Product Marketing Manager
Policygenius is a leading digital insurance marketplace that simplifies buying life, disability, and other insurance products. It was acquired by Zinnia, a B2B SaaS provider of life and annuities technology solutions. My start date marked the full integration of Policygenius into the Zinnia ecosystem.
I was initially scoped to work on B2C marketplace initiatives, but quickly transitioned to B2B SaaS product marketing to address core business challenges post-acquisition. I ultimately split my work between marketplace and enterprise workstreams.
Reason for leaving: Impacted by 90% RIF targeting Policygenius, precipitated by post-acquisition management change (my manager and the CMO left before the RIF)
Key B2B impact (Zinnia):
- Led GTM for Zahara, driving $2.5M in sales by positioning its blockchain-based ledger as real-time observability layer that reduced breach investigation time and enabled CTOs at insurance carriers to trace policy changes and isolate compliance risks
- Established GTM council (made up of CMO, CPO, VP of Sales) after tracking, quantifying, and communicating approval bottlenecks to leadership, reducing feedback cycles by 71% (from 14 days to 4 days)
- Delivered 22% increase in upsell conversions and $1.8M in incr. FY24 revenue by redesigning three-tiered pricing strategy for Zinnia's AI Market Insights add-on, aligning API access, compliance features, and usage metrics to maturity stages
- Enabled sales to secure $4.2M in pipeline growth and onboard one of the world's largest and oldest banks as a design partner for Zinnia Market Connect after driving RFI creation in collaboration with sales engineers and redesigning pricing to be modularly tailored to the firm's annuity distribution goals
- Equipped sales with enterprise-ready enablement tools (ROI calculators, demo scripts, objection-handling one-pagers) that shortened deal cycles by 28%
- Streamlined analyst RFI response, reducing completion time by 40% and improved submission quality, directly contributing to Zinnia's advancement from Everest’s Rising Star ranking to Top 50 Life and Annuity Insurance Provider within one year
Key B2C Impact (Policygenius):
- Led GTM for TermVest+ IUL to deliver 15% lift in post-beta conversions and $3.2M in FY24 sales by optimizing onboarding funnel with educational content derived from user interview insights around emotional, conceptual and confidence-related friction
- Doubled cross-sell disability coverage conversions for term life customers within one quarter by leveraging CSAT insights to create personalized policy add-on recommendations, resulting in $640K in incremental premium sales
- Collaborated with growth to drive 22% ROAS on paid media campaign for Child Term Rider policy add-ons by developing persona strategy that tiered “new parent” segment, targeting three ICPs with feature-relevant positioning and messaging frameworks
- Collaborated with content marketing to position Policygenius (Pg) as a thought leader in digital annuity transactions, driving 27% increase in organic traffic to the Pg research blog and boosting SEO ranking to 2nd place for equity-indexed annuities (EIAs)
2025
Founding Product Marketing Manager
Reason for leaving: Product strategy and leadership changes led to disbanding of product and engineering functions; impacted by 30% RIF along with most of the product managers and engineers I worked with.
Key Impact:
- Led launches for Alerts, Wallet, Free Search, and Multileg Search features in 100 days, driving 14% increase in free-to-paid upgrades; established nurture and conversion playbook, boosting paid feature awareness by 29% through tiered lifecycle messaging and in-app product tours via Pendo
- Produced 12% MoM lift in Premium subscription upgrades by driving development and launch of Multileg Search feature, leveraging Sprout Social analysis of Reddit and Instagram to surface rising demand and secure product and engineering buy-in
- Reduced Amex Business cardholder churn by 2% QoQ and boosted point.me product adoption by 18% by aligning API-powered alerts and wallet-sync features to Amex’s travel portal and premium benefit engagement strategies
- Drove 23% QoQ engagement lift and 19% increase in MoM CTR on credit card deals by building and scaling triggered lifecycle series based on flight searches, surfacing personalized points strategies and card-based redemption case studies
- Streamlined engagement roadmap prioritization by reducing manual feedback processing time by over 60% after building VoC engine with Insight7.io, triaging sentiment analysis across 849 support tickets, weekly CSAT/NPS, and 290 travel advisor transcripts
Present
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Just a few samples
Launch & GTM strategy
A Zinnia case study
Led full-funnel launch of Zinnia's flagship B2B SaaS platform to generate $2.5M ARR while building product marketing infrastructure
A Zola case study
How storytelling, UGC, and meeting consumers where they are transformed the launch of a free product into a LTV growth lever
A point.me showcase
Shipped four product features (Alerts, Wallet, Free Search, Multicity Search) in under 100 days while establishing playbooks for release emails
Customer insights & funnel optimization
A Policygenius case study
De-risked launch to unlock $3.2M in sales by diagnosing and designing out hidden consumer friction in onboarding journey in beta
A Zola case study
Integrated historical data with fresh insights to deliver comprehensive product, merch, and marketing recommendations for Zola's registry, driving 14% increase in adoption
Sales enablement assets
Sizzle demo
Product: Zahara; used in booths during insurtech conferences (I did not personally produce this demo, but I did supply value prop messaging)
Brand & growth campaigns
Organized a vendor spotlight series showcasing Zola’s top partners and crowdsourcing the best questions couples should ask. By interviewing vendors and couples to surface actionable tips and partnering with Social and Lifecycle for execution, drove an 18% YoY lift in vendor marketplace conversion. Campaign posts below:
ZOLA on Instagram: "So you're ready to find your (other) perfect match. You've looked at hundreds of vendors, discovered your faves, and are ready to find your perfect fit. But...how do you reach out
72 likes, 3 comments - zola on June 5, 2023: "So you're ready to find your (other) perfect match. You've looked at hundreds of vendors, discovered your faves, and are ready to find your perfect fit. But...how do you reach out? Whether you're an email pro, or are technologically challenged, reaching out to vendors isn't like emailing your work bestie. So if you're ready to make the first move, save our easy template w/ tips to reach out to your future dream team.".
Optimized paid media for Child Term Rider add-ons by segmenting new parents; lifted ROAS by 22% through collaboration with Lifecycle, Content, Growth, and SEO.
Created Vendor Vows by packaging Zola’s vendor SOP into a public pledge—ensuring consistent, inclusive standards across our marketplace. Co-wrote vows, organized the Pride Month social campaign, and contributed to Zola’s response to the 303 Creative ruling. Campaign posts below:
ZOLA on Instagram: "Vows: It's not just for you & your partner. That's why we ask every Zola vendor to commit to our Vendor Vows. We are proud to celebrate & support all of our couples along their w
69 likes, 11 comments - zola on June 7, 2023: "Vows: It's not just for you & your partner. That's why we ask every Zola vendor to commit to our Vendor Vows. We are proud to celebrate & support all of our couples along their wedding journey and have curated a team of vendors that feels the same. So, swipe through to see what every Zola Vendor vows to stand by. And want to spread the love? Tag a Zola vendor you want to highlight who has gone above & beyond with theirs. (Photo Credit: @sylvie
Thought leadership & content contributions
Google Docs
Securing_Accelerating_PAS_Zahara_Tech White Paper 4.24.pdf
Authored targeting technical buyers RE: Zahara, detailing its security architecture, compliance framework, and scalability to support enterprise life and annuity providers. Used during nurture phase in sales lifecycle.
Affiliations, professional memberships, & education
Management Leadership for Tomorrow
Career Prep, Class of 2013
MBA Prep, Class of 2020
Professional Dev, Class of 2021
National Black MBA Association
Member, Class of 2022
T. Howard Foundation
Fellow, Alum; Class of 2012
Gates Millennium Scholarship Program
Scholar, Alum; Class of 2010
Ron Brown Scholarship Program
Scholar, Alum; Class of 2010
- 👨🏾🎓 Stanford University, Class of 2014 | Bachelor of Arts (BA), Sociology
- 👨🏾🎓 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2022 | Master of Business Administration (MBA), Marketing & Operations Management
Podcast appearances & affiliate spotlights
Ready to connect?
I'm available for consulting, fractional, and contract opportunities. I'm always on the lookout for more product marketing peers, mentors, and community engagement opportunities. Young professionals and career switchers—don't be shy!
📍 Washington, D.C. Metro Area
Email: shawntdye@gmail.com
