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Celonaut Spotlight: Divya Krishnan, Director of Product Marketing, NYC
What makes working in the Product Marketing Department at Celonis such a unique experience? What makes you proud?
I really love product marketing because it gives you a unique opportunity to influence several different things. You’re shaping the narrative of how the company talks about the product and the strategies it uses to sell. You also influence the nature of the product roadmap. At Celonis, Product and Product Marketing go hand in hand - there is an immediate and tangible impact on what we build and what we sell.
On a more personal note, as it happens when I joined I knew nothing about either product or marketing (I was a management consultant prior to Celonis). Within one year of having joined, I’d managed the launch of two execution applications. At Celonis, there is a really fast cycle from build to launch. When we have an idea, we have the drive and energy to make that idea come to life really quickly. Everyone is always all in to make that happen.
What advice would you give to less experienced professionals who are just starting their careers?
Don’t feel that the roles you’re currently aware of are the sum total of all the jobs out there. There are new jobs being created all the time. Keep staying aware of new developments. For those interested in product marketing, great product marketing is about simplifying complexity - whether it’s complex products, complex market landscape, or complex narratives. There are a number of books, blogs, and podcasts focused on B2B SaaS that do a great job of providing frameworks and provoking new lines of thought about how best to do this, but in my view, this is the essence of product marketing and what it’s most important to get right.
Which key qualifications should applicants have to join the Product Marketing Department?
Candidates with a variety of different backgrounds including Solution Engineers, Product Managers, and even consultants, can make great Product Marketers. There are typically three things I look for: a love for product, strong written and verbal communication skills, and the strategic chops to think through messaging, positioning, and go-to-market strategy. It also really helps to be a proactive learner and to be able to quickly teach yourself things that you're uncertain about. No product or market stays the same, so we’re always learning to stay on top of our respective domains.
What does a typical day at Celonis look like for you?
Though I'm located in NYC, my typical day starts early because I'm in a global position. I usually have calls with our product team to talk about the product roadmap, future demos, and features, and meetings with analysts. The other part of the day is spent with Business Development Reps, Account Executives, and Solution Engineers to support sales cycles and get feedback directly from customers and our sales teams about the product and our sales collateral. The bulk of my time goes to creating and refining messaging, positioning, and sales collateral. Our work is incredibly cross-functional and spans across Product, Sales, Marketing, Analyst Relations, and others.
Describe your team at Celonis in three words.
Tight-knit. Strategic. Scrappy.
Which of the Celonis values matters most to you and why?
My favorite value is #WeOwnIt. My team’s scrappiness comes from the core idea that if something is missing, you just do it. Everyone feels a sense of accountability and responsibility for getting things right for the customer. We say, “I am going to create this even though it’s not my direct job responsibility because I know that it’s going to have the right impact on what the company really needs.” That is something that you feel really strongly about as the lifeblood of the company. I think there are a lot of people at Celonis who would agree with me if I said, “If my individual workstream has succeeded, but the overall goal has not, then I have obviously failed.” We are all accountable for our work as a whole. Divya joined Celonis in 2019 as a Product Marketing Manager in the US and has since been promoted to Director of Product Marketing. She earned her B.A. in English Literature and her B.S. in Decision Science from Carnegie Mellon and previously worked in management consulting driving finance and procurement transformations for Fortune 500 companies. In her free time, she loves to cook, run, and travel and can speak basic French. She loves to travel to New Zealand and grew up spending time in Berlin. Outside of Celonis, she is the founder and CEO of an organization called Ask Smarter dedicated to teaching women and girls how to negotiate more effectively.
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