“Think Less About Twitter, and More About Our Clients” interview with John Lee.
If you’re unfamiliar with our project, Diving Into the Bay Area Work Culture, read our intro here
Company Snapshot
Twitter, Inc.
Founded in 2006
Mission: To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.
Headquarter: San Francisco, California
Employees: 3860 in 35+ offices around the world
Meet John Lee
Title:
Lead Brand Strategist @Twitter
Background:
Native Marketing Strategist. Before joining Twitter in 2014, he worked in the Marketing Team for digital agencies Webtrends, Horn Group and Acronym Media, Inc.
3 Words That Describe You:
Curious, Strategic & Clumsy
What Advice Would You Give To Millennials ?
Be you, do you. Whatever makes you passionate and whatever you authentically care about the most, let that shine through. Because that is what people respond to and connect with.
People can connect when you are real so maintain that, but at the same time be humble, learn as much as possible, be teachable, take feedback. Take all that and put it out in the world in a way that is you. Do not try to be someone else, because people won’t connect as well.
Our Takeaways From The Conversation with John
Innovation Challenges
John believes that innovation is strategic. He said one of the challenges is to understand and connect the information to navigate around it, in order to seize and create innovation. “Innovation for the sake of innovation is not interesting”.
At Twitter, John leads a team of creative, strategic and tech experts dedicated to build bespoke marketing strategies for Fortune 1000 brands. Therefore, one of the main challenges he faces, is the ability to build empathy with his clients/customers and to be a support and help them understand the ever-changing digital landscape. In his words he needs to “Think less about Twitter, and more about our clients”.
Collaboration & Creative Processes
When John described his team and way they work, everything had a sense of collaboration and great communication. Not only within the Brand Strategy Team, but also with their clients, to whom he started referring to as partners.
His team focuses on creating value. He explained to us, how the way they work emphasizes on connecting with their clients, with their emotions and passions. He also referred to the importance of building trust and understanding the client’s context and business challenges. All these inputs are key to building a solid foundation to develop custom brand strategies from there.
Work Culture
One of the first things John told us when we met him was: “I have the best job in the world”. And the way he continued to talk about it, we could really see that it was true. John told us that Twitter is constantly working with their culture. He described a culture of transparency, hustling and conviction for the company’s mission (to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.)
About his team, he referred to a culture that cares about developing people and great leaders, where coaching and feedback is given on a daily basis. He talked about the importance of being proactive, planning different scenarios and try to anticipate things that might go wrong.
Co-written with Helene Schalck
Thank you John for your time and sharing your passion for your work.
