Retrospective: Growth in 2023

As I look back at the success I've had in the past year, I'm proud to admit that 2023 was a fantastic year for growth.?

In under a year of officially becoming a PMM, I drove the marketing for a major update to the Ads Incentive Program, a program that rewards our streamers (on a global scale) for running video ads. A big highlight was co-hosting global internal webinars to equip our internal teams with the information they needed (these webinars encompassed all major territories: NA, LATAM, EMEA, and APAC). The success of which was so unprecedented that it unlocked a new path for me: an expansion from leading marketing not only our ads vertical, but also for products within our commerce vertical as well (hence my title change).?

I carried this momentum with the GTM strategy for Hype Chat (a naming convention I pushed for with Brand and Product); Hype Chat was a net new way for viewers to directly support their favorite streamers and gain more recognition in busy streams. Our marketing was successful, but after a comprehensive review of user feedback and engagement, we decided to pivot 4+ months later to deprecate the product. Which meant I also led the marketing strategy for the sunset of a product I built and executed the marketing for (a rare opportunity). That's not all: I lead the launch of a major update for our Cheering/Bits product. In migrating over the core pinning feature of Hype Chat into Cheering, it also paved the way for an UX update; Cheering and Bits is one of Twitch's oldest, and primary monetization offerings for the platform.?

In parallel in building the GTM for Hype Chat's sunset: I took the initiative to build, manage, and participate in all of our monetization activations at TwitchCon Las Vegas. This event is one of our largest community touchpoints with both streamers and viewers; it is a celebration of the service and the "magic" that can happen on the platform. These activations (which included products outside of my purview) consisted of 2 panel presentations and 2 roundtable discussions with the community. From sharing excitement over Splatoon's Splatfests, sharing my learnings in building my own brand and live streaming content, as well as understanding streamer's biggest pain points on a more 1:1 level... it was an irreplaceable experience for me.?

Immediately after the update to Cheering, I drove the launch of a flashy new monetization product: the End-of-Year Bonus Round (which is still live as of the posting of this). This was a promotion, filled to the brim with opportunities for viewers to save and celebrate their favorite communities. The promotion incorporated all of our major monetization offerings on a global scale: Subscriptions, Cheering/Bits, and Hype Trains. My favorite components included a cohesive visual design reminiscent of 90s mahou shoujo anime, a surprise bonus gift for Cheers, as well as a secret collab with Rockstar Games (which is credited to Grand Theft Auto, an IP I grew up with). This is built on top of the success we had from our SUBtember promotion, but with a power level over 9000. Within hours of the promotion launching, we saw a streamer destroy the all time record for Hype Trains (which are powered by Cheers and Subscriptions) - even surpassing superstars who previously held the record like Kai Cenat or EliasN97. I'm incredibly excited to return in the new year and assess the product's success to continuously iterate on best practices for our product launches.?

Throughout the year: I also supported smaller scale product launches that significantly improved our video and display ad offerings (for both our community and advertisers); which included an abrupt all hands on deck initiative to close the year. Examples included: Ads Manager, Automatic Ad Spacing & Frequency, Auto Snooze, Chat Countdown Timer, Mirror-C, Skyscraper, Brand Lift Studies, as well as activations in-product and within our Creator Home content ecosystem.?As a side note: I continuously pull from my background in leading CRM, my time in reinforcing new project management processes, and my experience working on a web development team to offer better ways to improve the tools and processes we have as a PMM team at Twitch.

Additionally, I've had opportunities to address the Marketing and Monetization orgs, as well as the entire company, via presentations to promote our products and partnership potential. I've supported our executive team via several 1P livestream productions as well. These activations are important to both gain more visibility within the company, but also to add a empathetic angle and boost greater team camaraderie.

Ultimately, I am overjoyed to be able to help streamers grow their communities. The best products are always built with the end user in mind, and a big component that is overlooked is the marketing (both to foster short term adoption, but long term sustained engagement). I could go on for days about this, but I'll save that for another post.?

For myself and for my family (which includes my mods and content co-collaborators), Twitch remains a big deal. As someone who's been playing video games since I was roughly 3... working in the industry remains a dream come true (shout out to my Discord and FFXIV/Halo/Fortnite/WZ/Apex static).

Big thank you to my direct manager Andrew S. , who continuously finds opportunities to help me shine and grow. I of course want to thank my fellow PMMs for their support, as well as the squad of cross functional partners I work with on a daily basis. I would also be remiss if I ignored all of my previous managers, mentors, team members, coworkers, and family members who have contributed to my success in some shape or form thus far.

Thank you, I appreciate you all.

Excited to hit the ground running in 2024, if only to see what other accomplishments are possible in this current arc of my career.

And of course - this is still not my final form.?