1. Tell us a bit about yourself and what your role is at Gainsight.
My name is Riana Upton and I’m on Gainsight’s product marketing team.
You could say I’ve really leaned into the idea of “Shoshin” (one of Gainsight’s values meaning, ‘a beginner’s mind’) during my time here. During my three years at Gainsight, I’ve gone from content marketing to product marketing which has given me an amazing opportunity to learn from and work with so many great Gainsters.
On paper, I’m an Associate Product Marketing Manager. It’s my responsibility to take Gainsight CX to market. However, if you’ve been to any Pulse events, you’ve probably seen (or heard) me helping to bring Nick’s parody song ideas to life.
Whether I’m taking products to markets or songs to stage, I’m always looking for the next way I can make an impact while having fun doing it.
2. What does your day-to-day look like?
As a kid, I loved the game Rush Hour. It’s a puzzle game where you maneuver a red car through different “traffic challenges” until it reaches the exit. Being in product marketing is like playing your way through Rush Hour. It’s my job to strategically move parts into place so each launch or release can successfully make its way to market. As such, my day-to-day varies.
It’s a highly cross-functional role so on any given day I’m meeting with members of our product team to learn about what’s ahead on our roadmap. After that, I’m off to speak to sales reps to learn more about how our messaging has resonated and how deals have played out IRL. Then, I’ll meet with Marketing to discuss content and campaign strategies so we can effectively get the word out to customers and prospects.
When I’m not on calls, I’ll put on Nora En Pure’s latest Purified episode and work on creating collateral for the next release or researching competitors, market trends, and innovative ways to share our product with the world. Just as no two challenges in Rush Hour are the same, no day is like the other in product marketing—no wonder I enjoy it so much.
3. At Gainsight, we believe customer success is a company-wide priority. How do you drive customer success in your role?
Customer success isn’t just the responsibility of our post-sales Gainsters, it starts the moment someone discovers Gainsight.
In my role, we need to know the customer and product inside and out and, more importantly, we need to make that information digestible for other teams so they can do their jobs more efficiently. Our product marketing team develops and maintains personas so our marketing and sales team can identify the best possible long-term customers for our product.
On the flip side, we work with our product team and customer marketing team to make sure we convey the “why” behind each release and helping customers expand into different products. Like a switchboard coordinator, we’re relaying information around the company to make sure everyone has what they need to ensure our customers are successful from the start.
4. Do you use the Gainsight platform to do your job? If so, how?
Is it weird that I’m more excited about this question than the karaoke one? Probably because we’ve recently been doing some exciting things with Gainsight’s Journey Orchestrator (JO). We recently launched a new application, CX Center, and used JO as part of our go-to-market launch within our install base.
We used the product analytics in Gainsight PX to narrow down a list of recipients for the campaign and also incorporated an in-app engagement (shown above) as one of the touchpoints. I also use Scorecards and C360 in Gainsight to confirm that customers that would be good candidates for content before reaching out.
5. Childlike joy is one of Gainsight’s values. Share a fun fact about yourself or your go-to karaoke song?
Ever since shelter-in-place, I’ve found myself asking Alexa (shoutout to Gainsight for arguably the most useful Gainaversary gift ever) to play songs on a weekly basis just so I can belt out to them. My go-to song is “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence but with the holidays around the corner, Mariah Carey is also fair game.
6. What’s your favorite thing about working at Gainsight?
Gainsight has cultivated a very open environment that’s made me feel comfortable enough to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. I’ve had the opportunity to expand my skillset on and off my resume. Shoshin hard at work 😉
