Why I’ve Decided To Learn Marketing As An Engineer

I’ve been focusing on building products without understanding Product/Market Fit or my Customers

Wes Eklund
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read
Figuring out Product / Market Fit

The acceleration of startup businesses and new products to try has become increasingly dizzying. Everyone wants to become another “Silicon Valley” startup. We live in such an exciting time where anyone’s idea or concept can be materialized into full businesses within hours.

This has been a particularly exciting time for me, as a Software Engineer, seeing how binary data of ones and zeros gets converted into exciting innovation for society.

With all this excitement, it’s been frustrating for me to figure out how I can exactly fit an idea that I have into the market. I’ve built several interesting products with vigor, only to fall short on getting my leads to convert.

Heck, forget converting, I have trouble getting people to even check out my product.

I’ve been searching for a way to bridge the gap between my product and my customers. Since there’s also a dizzying amount of courseware, it’s difficult to decide the right instructors and curriculum.

From free to paid courses, what’s the right path to understand product/market fit?

One platform that I hadn’t considered using for this skill set was Udacity. I became familiar with them a few years ago taking their free Android courses. Having seen content from their other courses like Artificial Intelligence and iOS development, I was extremely impressed with how comprehensive but cutting-edge their content is.

To then find out that Udacity announced a Digital Marketing Nanodegree, I knew I found the right avenue to solve my skill set challenge.

I like the fact that’s it’s a paid course, which sets enough barrier to entry to ensure I take the course seriously.

In this unique program, I’m able to run live campaigns on major marketing platforms. I’m learning and applying new techniques, analyze results, produce actionable insights, which then allows me to build a portfolio of work.

In addition to the great content, there’s supportive mentoring and a rigorous project review with expert partners. Udacity’s partners are all on the cutting-edge of digital marketing expertise, which is really helpful to ensure the course content is up to date.

This piece is part of an assignment from Udacity’s Digital Marketing Nanodegree

Wes Eklund

Written by

I ❤️ building things and making them grow. Software Engineer, Machine Learning nerd, and agent of lean business tactics📊. I also love good Bourbon 🥃

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade