"This summer, I joined NaTakallam as a product management intern to launch its new B2C language learning platform. It is currently a critical moment for NaTakallam, as the COVID-19 pandemic has exasperated livelihood challenges for displaced populations while simultaneously increasing the demand for digital learning. While NaTakallam has been able to grow through its innovative offering, it needed a new digital platform to meet the growing needs of the organization and reduce operational bottlenecks. In my role this summer, I worked with the tech lead and cross-functional team to launch their offering onto a new platform, enabling users to seamlessly sign up, schedule, and meet with their conversation partners.

This work included testing the new platform from all users’ perspectives, making key product decisions informed by team and customer needs, leading UX interviews, and developing success metrics for the launch. I was able to directly apply my skills from Intro to UX and Intro to Product Management throughout the summer, and I grew as a leader as I worked across the marketing, tech, and operations teams to ensure the success of the launch.

A challenge I faced was mobilizing the data-driven marketing strategy without a full marketing team or analytics tools properly set up. As a result of my root cause analysis, the team decided to implement a new Google Suite setup to ensure NaTakallam can track its key e-commerce and engagement metrics. While I found my role for the marketing analytics to be more technical than intended, I am grateful for the opportunity to gain new skills in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager that I can take to future product management/product marketing management roles."