Summer & Fall Internship 2023
My Role
Product Design Intern
Team
Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC)
Duration
10 months
Date
May 23 - Ongoing
My Impact
Strategic Feature Selection
Identified and implemented 3 distinctive features, creating a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for the product.
Audience Builder Enhancement
Implemented an innovative grouping system for the audience builder feature resulting in a 30% increase in the no of audiences built using the feature.
The Stagwell Marketing Cloud Team's Vision
The Stagwell marketing team envisioned the development of a comprehensive tool that caters to all the diverse needs of marketing experts.
Introduction to Marketing
Marketing, involves a dynamic process of creating, curating, analyzing, and strategically displaying advertisements to the right audience. However, before delving into the creative process, it is crucial to have a profound understanding of the target audience for a brand or a specific ad campaign.
Key Challenges & Opportunites
Limited Targeting Focus
Existing tools in the market primarily focus on ad creation, campaign management, and analysis. While these software solutions can identify target audiences, they come with limitations.
Meticulous data search
Marketers often meticulously navigate research platforms to gather relevant data to ensure that the personas align with the characteristics of the target population.
Understanding the problem space
What I did?
Engaged in understanding of the problem space by reading existing documentation, engaging in discussions with the Product Manager (PM), and key stakeholders to grasp the intricacies of the challenges at hand.
Takeaways
Media Studios’ primary objective is to streamline and enhance the entire process of running ad campaigns, catering to the diverse requirements of multiple brands.
The Target Audience for Media Studio are:
-
Individual Digital Marketers
-
Marketing Agencies
-
In-house Marketing Teams of Brands
.png)
Understanding the Needs & Challenges with Ad Campaign Creation:
What I did?
Conducted user interviews with individual digital marketers and marketing agencies helping to identify pain points and user preferences, forming a solid foundation for subsequent design decisions.
Takeaways
.png)
For building audience markets need demographic, psychogrpahic, transactional and location based data.
For the target audience the marketers want to understand their application usage patterns, average time spent on applications, hours when maximum audience is using different applications.
Conducting Competitive Analysis on Industry Standard Products
What I did?
Analyzed industry-standard products Google Ads, Meta Ads, DV360, Yahoo DSP to understand the strengths and weaknesses of existing solutions and identify if any of these tools effectively addressed the challenges faced by our target users.
Takeaways
Precise targeting features are universally crucial for marketers across platforms. Versatile ad formats like carousel ads, programmatic buying, and native advertising are widely adopted
Despite advanced targeting options, some marketers face challenges in reaching highly specific niche audiences, especially in industries with limited online presence.
Designing 2 Features for Media Studio MVP
What I did?
Conceptualization, design, and implementation of two essential features for Media Studio.
Takeaways
.png)
Marketers can define and refine their target audience based on a variety of parameters, including demographics, psychographics, transactional behaviors, and geographical locations.
Marketers gain a deeper understanding of the preferences, behaviors, and engagement patterns of their audience. The audience insights empower to make informed decisions, refine strategies, and create more compelling ad campaigns.
Design Challenges
Navigating the complex landscape of developing features for Media Studio brought forth various challenges that demanded innovative solutions and thoughtful considerations. Two key challenges were encountered during this development journey.
Understanding Varied Usage Patterns of Marketing Experts
Navigating the Diversity
Existing tools in the market primarily focus on ad creation, campaign management, and analysis. While these software solutions can identify target audiences, they come with limitations.
User Testing
Employed a user testing using think-aloud method, by asking users to perform tasks to gain comprehensive insights into the varied needs & preferences of our target audience.
Ensuring Functionality and Design Cater to All Target Users
Balancing Act
Striking a balance between functionality and design to cater to the diverse needs of all target users presented a complex challenge.
Usability Testing
Adopted an iterative design process, refining both functionality and design based on user feedback & usability testing results obtained from time on task method.
My learnings
Unveiling the Power of Iterative Designs
I Immersed myself in an iterative design approach throughout the product development journey. Recognizing the iterative process as a catalyst for continuous improvement, enabling designs to evolve based on valuable user feedback.
Navigating Remote Collaboration
Embracing the nuances of remote work, Utilizing digital collaboration platforms and maintaining consistent communication channels has been pivotal in fostering a sense of connection and efficiency within our distributed team.
Navigating Stakeholder Relationships
I Acknowledged the importance of securing stakeholder buy-ins at various project stages. Effective communication, presenting well-founded insights, and aligning design decisions with organizational goals are crucial elements in gaining and maintaining stakeholder support.