Biggest Challenges Faced by a Vice President of Marketing at Old Pal
Katie's biggest challenge as Vice President of Marketing at Old Pal, a smaller company, is balancing "being forward-looking and focusing on strategy" with the significant amount of daily operational tasks, including "writing creative briefs and giving real-time feedback to designers," which is a common experience in startup environments. This requires a constant juggling act between high-level strategic thinking and hands-on execution, unlike larger companies where responsibilities are more distributed.
Executive/Leadership, Project Management, Communication, Teamwork, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Katie Skinner
Vice President of Marketing
Old Pal
Georgetown University, 2013
N/A
English
Cannabis
Communication and Marketing
Scholarship Recipient, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Balancing multiple responsibilities in a smaller team environment is a significant challenge. Unlike larger companies where responsibilities are distributed across more people, VPs of Marketing in smaller companies like Old Pal are involved in more day-to-day tasks such as writing briefs and providing real-time feedback.
2. The role requires a blend of strategic thinking (forward-looking, focusing on strategy, encouraging the team to think long-term) and tactical execution (daily tasks, checking in with team members, handling emails). This balance is crucial and can be challenging.
3. Working in a startup environment presents unique challenges compared to larger corporations. The need to manage a variety of responsibilities and tasks simultaneously is a common experience for those in startup settings, requiring strong organizational and time-management skills.
Transcript
I think one of the most challenging things about my job is just balancing my responsibilities.
For larger companies with bigger teams, there's a lot more responsibility distribution. This allows people to focus on a smaller set of tasks daily.
Our teams are quite small, so a VP of marketing at a much larger company probably isn't as involved in the daily execution. They likely wouldn't be as involved as I am with writing creative briefs, giving real-time feedback to designers, and attending many specific meetings.
I still do a lot of day-to-day work to keep things moving. I think it's challenging and a little unique to balance being forward-looking, focusing on strategy, and encouraging the team to think further ahead. This includes creating space for brainstorming and checking in on the people I manage outside of meetings.
There's a long list of things that need to be emailed, typed up, and simply done. I hope I do an okay job balancing it all. I do think this is something many people in startup environments experience: it is quite a bit to balance.