Who is behind our “Notes from Outside” project? Get to know our Brand Manager Stephanie!
Stephanie joined komoot back in 2011, when we were still in diapers. She is one of our “longest serving” team members, having gone from editor to editor-in-chief to the Brand Manager she is today.
Her heart beats for rocks, roots, trails, and the mountains. She can be found out in nature at every opportunity, whether on one wheel (ask her about MTB unicycling!), two wheels, carrying two tiny feet or with two hands on the rock face. When she can’t be outside, Stephanie is probably reading or writing and dreaming up the next adventure.
We sat down with her to see what she is up to these days.
Hi Stephanie!
Tell us a little bit more about yourself. Could you introduce yourself in a few sentences?
What do you do @ komoot?
I’m a brand manager and currently am responsible for our adventure email Notes from Outside and product update communications. Before I took on this role in 2022, I was the Editor-in-chief for Collections.
What is the most exciting thing you are working on right now?
Notes from Outside. The email series explores the idea of “adventure” through first-person stories from people in our community.
Which other teams or experts do you mostly interact with?
Apart from speaking to the brand squad on a daily basis, I’m in touch with our ambassadors and community members for Notes from Outside and product teams for product communications.
What was the biggest impact you and/or your team had on komoot?
In the early days of Collections, I created the quality standards, processes and trained our freelance editors for the job. Many of these are still in place today and most of those editors still work for us — which is probably a good sign 🙂
More recently, as a brand manager, I was in charge of creating a new platform and process for product news, which is still ongoing and will hopefully quench the thirst of our users for tech talk.
Last, but not least, Notes from Outside is being sent to millions of people per issue. It is my passion project that we keep getting great feedback for.
What aspects of the komoot culture do you enjoy most? And why?
Everybody who works at komoot burns for the same thing: Being outside in nature and enabling others to go out and explore as well. Which is very motivating and does have connective power, seen best at our Gatherings — which are super fun and a big part of it.
Do you have any funny stories from a Zoom call?
During one of our remote gatherings during the pandemic, I joined a talk about the joy of watching professional cycling. At one point, my then baby daughter hit the push-to-talk space bar and everyone heard a very eloquent “da da da”. I have disabled push-to-talk since then.
Komoot’s mission is to make great adventures accessible to all. What does adventure mean to you?
It’s not like a big part of my job in 2022 was to think about this exact question for our Adventure is campaign, haha. I’ll stick with my very first answer: Freedom.
What do you like to do in your free time?
During most weeks it’s bouldering and gravel cycling, mountain unicycling and sport climbing when I’m in the mountains. That and watching the little toddler explore the world.
And last but not least, which of these do you prefer?
Beach or mountains?
Mountains
Summer or winter?
Summer
Morning or evening?
Morning
Hiking or cycling?
Cycling
Home office or coworking?
Coworking
Thank you Stephanie, we are looking forward to another “Notes from Outside” issue and see you around!
