Thank you so much, Valentina. That was a great introduction. Hi. I'm Samara. This is Marie.We've already been introduced, so

that that takes a lot of time.

Yeah. We don't need to do that anymore. Again.

And we're here to talk about cross functional collaboration and internal networking, which is a fantastic way to further your career and to help you identify different parts of work that you could ultimately be really interested in and help to just grow your career overall. So I

I think a great place to start is Yeah. Is is how we met. Yeah. Exactly. So tell us more how you met finance.

How I met finance.

So exciting.

Yeah. I mean, we had a very, a very fun meet cute. We are a media and entertainment technology company, so we'll use a a typical media, structure called a meet cute. So we were at an off-site together a few years ago in San Diego, and, you were sitting a few rows in front of me. And I don't quite remember the context of of what came up, and I just started a new role at the company. I've been with the company, since 2013, but I was starting a new role at the time. And I remember you you turned around in your chair, and you looked at me and you said, we need to talk about contribution margin.

And I looked at you and I nod and I said, yes. Yes. We need to talk about contribution margin. And from there, it's been a magical partnership ever since. We've worked on a lot of different projects together that have, helped to deliver tremendous value to the organization, build better products, and help to speed decision making across the organization and reduce a lot of complexity in our work. So, Marie, what what are some of the projects that come to mind that we've worked on over the last few years?

Yeah. So a project that we did again a few years ago was to develop a product portfolio that would go into our different systems. So we have a lot of products at our company, and we track performance through different system, financial, planning, Salesforce, etcetera. And so, we worked with Samara on that, and it was a lot of products, a lot of technical information, and hard for us to understand coming from a non tech background. Mhmm. And we had that great partnership with Samara where she was explaining to us with different technology and making sense of it, and that helped a lot in translating, I would say, you know, the very tech language into more the day to day work. And it was also great to be able to approach Samara and, you know, not be afraid of any technical terms and find an ally in in you.

Yeah. And and it helped the product side as well. So we had been going through a number of mergers and acquisitions at Experian over a period of of many years, and we needed to consolidate this product portfolio, which was thousands and thousands I think tens of thousands of products at the time. And we'd never taken the effort to go through it. And you could go through it from the lens of product by saying, oh, these are the products that we sell today. These are the products that are still relevant in the market. But we also need to look at it through the lens of revenue and contribution margin and and all these other financial elements that were not very common to me at that time.

And what as much as I know, Marie, you and your team learned about products and technology, I and a lot of the product managers who I partnered with on this project, we learned a tremendous amount about how we financially structure our work, how it is reported to the street, how we attribute revenue, how we manage contribution margins Yeah.

And allocations. And that helped us make much more informed decisions about how we were going to not just restructure the product portfolio, but have it be more relatable and purposeful to our work and also be contemporary to what the company wanted to achieve. And that's work that we still do incremental work on regularly over the last even the last few months, we've even touched on it where, it's just been a really great partnership to make sure that our product portfolio is is meeting the financial needs of our business. Yeah. Mhmm.

And also what we I mean, we try to do with this exercise is to have business leaders such as Samara or other people in our organization understand the financial, profitability of each line of business and product lines, which

is

becoming more and more important in today's world. Yeah. And so, again, it was a great partnership between finance and product to get to this to this outcome.

Yeah. And and for many product folks, you know, product managers come from lots of different areas and and lots of different disciplines. You can come up through sales. You can come up through marketing. You can come up through support. You can come up through engineering. You can come up through, corporate functions. And not all product managers have the same baseline skills. You know, we all don't go to business school and get MBAs. So be having this relationship with Marie and her team made it really easy for me to ask a lot of the questions that I had about our products and and their financial health and how we can leverage different financial instruments like capitalization or different ways we could structure our budgets and different ways that we can structure our budgets and different ways that we can look at, maybe delay hiring certain roles or moving different types of things around into different places.

That armed me with a lot more tools and a lot more skills to be an even more effective product manager and product leader because I was developing a lot greater fluency in the financial language of our product, which at the end of the day Yeah. Our products should be generating revenue and be contribution margin positive. And without really knowing where to start with that, you know, having Marie as a partner in that to help guide that took a lot of stress out of of my day to just know that I didn't have to be an expert in finance. Just like finance didn't have to be a technical expert in all the products that we developed, but to really rely on them from a partnership perspective, that's been incredibly helpful for me and and incredibly helpful for all of our product managers here at Experian. Yeah.

And I think along those those lines, we wanted to arm business leader and product leaders like you and probably, you know, some are on the go to with that financial acumen Mhmm. To basically elevate the discussion about innovation Mhmm. And, new products and and keep that financial aspect and have probably more gravitas. Yes. You know, when you build a new business, when you build a new product, at the end of the day, it has to have an ROI. Yeah. And so I think if you have if you understand how the return on investment work and how you can pitch it, it's it's much more powerful than, you know, sometimes having basically innovation without profitability.

Yeah. And that's another project that we work on regularly is, figuring out, not just revenue forecast and partnership with sales, but what are the true costs of building some of these amazing ideas that we have, and how and when will they become profitable? Yeah. And what is it going to take to manage that investment? And what are some KPIs or milestones that we have to stack hands and align on to make sure that that product is moving and trending in the right direction? And when it's not missing those KPIs and not missing those those milestones or it is missing those milestones, how do you redirect that? And and how do you create a system that allows you to, course correct and make changes in real time without completely having to redo the whole fundamentals of of what you're trying to do?

I think another partnership area that we have that we've been able to model very successfully across the successfully across the business is showing our G and A functions or our general and accounting functions, legal, marketing, facilities, IT, other types of roles within the company, that when you do reach out with a simple question, right, or you're not sure where to start or what to do, reach out and ask questions.

Yeah. Like, find someone in those departments who can help you figure things out. There's this falsehood within the product management world that talks about you're the CEO of your product, and that's not really a true story because you're relying on so many other groups that you do not have direct command and control over. You don't directly manage. You're gonna have to find ways to partner with those those groups and those folks to build successful products. So, we've been able to model this great relationship with Experian, and that's also transcended into, similar collaborations that we've built up with legal, with IT, with other groups across our company to just show that that there is a lot of strength in, and value in collaborating across your own company.

And we know that networking can be really, really hard. And and, you know, if Marie didn't turn around to me and saying, like, we have to talk about contribution margin, I'm sure you would have met at some point, but it really broke the ice. And I think also as women in a technology company, it gave us a lot of commonality as well to saying like, hey, we we really should talk and see how we can support one another. We're both vice presidents at this organization as well. And we know that that's an important thing to model for, junior members and new people who are coming into the organization to say, like, no, we will stand up for, you know, ourselves. We'll support one another. We'll support the the the junior ranks and help them find their footing as well.

And I think that's something that's been, I've been really grateful for and and really have appreciated about our partnership over the last few years.

Yeah. And and we were when we were preparing that, you know, that talk, we were reflecting upon the fact to really develop the network of allies

Mhmm.

Outside of your core function. Yep. And, you know, if you can I mean, doing that with women could be a bit easier because I think we tend to show that we're more vulnerable and we're more approachable? I mean, obviously, we, you know, we should do that with men too. But starting with the network of women and really trying to learn from them Yeah. Without fearing of being silly. Yeah. Because, you know, when you don't know anything about product, you're like, oh, am I asking dumb questions?

I still count on my fingers. So and I've said that to her many times. I'm like, please don't make me do math. Like and and and and I think that that vulnerability is really important to feel like you're in a safe space to say I don't know Yeah. Without fear of judgment or without, fear of feeling like you're in a diminished role or you're you're setting yourself

up for failure. Yeah. Yeah. So it's really setting up that safe environment where you can go and ask questions and really learn about cross functional business. Yep. And then then you can really leverage on, you know, what you learned, you know, from marketing or product or finance to become a more rounded leader as you develop your career.

Yeah. Absolutely. And and what are some of the things that we're gonna work on? I mean, we can't talk about what we're gonna specifically work on next, but when we think about our roles at the company and and what lies ahead, what are some ways that you think we can continue to extend and, encourage this kind of partnership in other parts of the organization?

I mean, I think that we have, I mean, we can still do a lot in terms of how you look at innovation Mhmm. And how you understand the path to profitability and how we make those new line of business more profitable. Mhmm. And also how you understand from other functions that sometimes are not very visible but have a lot of impact on on the business. I mean, one area is legal. Mhmm. I mean, especially when you work across different, geographic zones, you have very different legal environments. Yes. And so it's very important as a product leader of of finance leader that you understand you understand that. Yeah. I mean, similarly, marketing really understand your user base because each market is different and and, again, leveraging the knowledge of your colleagues Mhmm.

To understand how the customer sets how it's it's different across, geographical area is is key

as well. Yeah. And I think that's a great point. And and when you think about innovation, especially when you think about it through the lens of finance, there have been so many changes to r and d tax credits, at least here in The US, and trying to leverage and look at different ways to, fund that spend Yeah. And to, you know, guide it to a place of profitability or a place where you can realize that investment over time. That's definitely not something I would ever even think to consider or or try to understand for myself. So, again, whenever you feel like you're you're you should know something, I'm talking about the shoulds. Right? Like, you should know this. It's like, not necessarily. You know, take that brave step and reach out. You know, I I and I know that networking in general can be really, really intimidating.

I'm generally a very introverted person by nature. So sometimes just taking that first step and asking that first question can be really hard. It will do so much benefit to you and your career by just reaching out and across. And if you're having a hard time figuring out who who to talk to, you know, talk to your manager, talk to other colleagues, and and just reach out. I know at least at our company, it's very rare if ever somebody doesn't respond or, you know, offers to help when you ask for help here. I think our culture has always been one of helping one another navigate a lot of the complexities of our business and understanding it. But if if you feel like you're you're a little shy about it, you know, be vulnerable in the moment and just saying, hey, I I'm I'm new to this organization or I'm new to this role.

I'm working on this new project, and there's a a few things that I'm just not a 100% clear on. I'd really appreciate your insight to what we're working on. It pays tremendous tremendous dividends when you do that, and it also demonstrates to others your willingness to put yourself out there, even if it's in a very safe way of just networking within your organization. It it speaks volumes to the people who matter and and to the people who will be ultimately deciding on how your career trajectory will look at a company. Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's also understand how much people are thinking value without telling the curiosity of mind. And so asking questions and learning about what you don't know

Yes. It's actually, people appreciate a lot. And and and and I think that it it it's really a big trend in your career if you keep that curiosity of always investigating and and asking about what you don't know. Yeah. And and and leaders actually would appreciate that rather than somebody who doesn't ask any questions, doesn't go out of he or or her comfort zone and just stays there without asking any questions.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's impossible given the complexity of business and technology these days for anybody to know everything about everything. You know, I was just on a call with legal this morning talking about, you know, a variety of different topics, but there was one thing that kept saying this word memo. Well, we have a memo, and it's a short memo or a long memo. And I was just like, what's a memo? Like, I'm thinking it's like this briefcase that, like, somebody secretly hands off and it's this clandestine thing. It's like, oh, no. No. No. No. It's just a checklist of things that you have to do. So sometimes even a simple question like that, even if you have it in the room and and you just don't know, it's it's just good to ask because there's so much language and terminology and acronyms and and, you know, speak that we have in our day to day where it's really easy to go out go in and out of meetings and never quite know what people are talking about.

So even a good way to kind of practice vulnerability is to ask that seemingly stupid question in the meeting of saying, what do you mean by that? Or can you give me an example of what that looks like? That helps to kind of break that that kind of cycle of feeling like I can't ask that question or I can't introduce myself. It's a small step to, you know, having that that, that brave moment of being saying, hey, I don't understand this. And who should I talk to about that? And then maintaining those connections. So Marie and I have monthly one on ones. Even if we don't have anything that we're working on, we've still been meeting monthly for years.

And there'll be months that go by where we don't have a project that we're working on together, but we still maintain that relationship. And I think that's another thing that, folks tend to not recognize in networking is you have to care and feed for your network. You have to constantly develop your network. You need to stay in touch with folks. And that takes energy, but it gets a lot easier over time the the the more you do it. I know we're just about at time. What are some final thoughts that that you have about?