Q&A with Stephanie Kwok (Reforge) 🥇
Marketing career development, leadership 101, and when to say "yes"
Hi there 👋
A big thank you to Stephanie for the wisdom she shared in this interview. You all are going to love it! Stephanie and I both spent a fair amount of time at a single startup — 6+ years for her at FanDuel and 6+ years for me at Buffer. Her notes about career development and saying “yes” really resonated. OK, no more spoilers. Enjoy the interview!
Wishing you a great week ahead,
Kevan
(ᵔᴥᵔ)
Thank you for being part of this newsletter. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world and my time at Oyster, Buffer, and more.
Say hi anytime at hello@kevanlee.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Interview with Stephanie Kwok of Reforge, ex-FanDuel, ex-MSG Sports
Stephanie Kwok (SK) is an incredible marketing leader I had the pleasure of connecting with through my time in the Reforge Marketing Strategy course (a highly recommended course, if you haven’t taken it yet). She’s fantastic and someone I greatly admire. She’ll be launching brand new marketing programs with Reforge this fall. Come take one with me! You can say hello to Stephanie here on LinkedIn.
The history of Stephanie
Education
BA in Political Science from Stanford
MBA from Harvard Business School
Experience
Sr. Associate @ The Parthenon Group (2008-2011) - Advisory and consulting for private equity, corporate, and public sector clients
Summer Fellow @ the Special Olympics (2012)
Integrated Marketing Manager @ Madison Square Garden Sports (2013-2015) - Led marketing efforts for the New York Knicks 🏀, New York Rangers 🏒, and New York Liberty 🏀
New Customer Segment Manager → VP, Strategy and Operations @ FanDuel (2015-2021) - FanDuel is an online sportsbook and casino known for its daily fantasy sports and betting. Stephanie began as New Customer Segment Manager, then progressed to Sr. Manager, CRM & Strategy; Director; VP Engagement & Retention; VP Customer Marketing; and VP Strategy and Operations.
Executive in Residence @ Reforge (2021-present)
Q&A
1. How do you explain what you do to your parents, friends, kids, or non-industry people?
SK: I’m currently an Executive in Residence at Reforge, and that’s been a little harder to explain to people who aren’t in tech!
At its core, what I do is teach growth and marketing to leaders and aspiring leaders in tech. It’s a “practical MBA” — I have an MBA, so I feel like I can say this! — or the on-the-job training that you often don’t actually get because your company’s growing too quickly and hasn’t had time to invest in this.
The EIR role is a temporary, part-time role for execs at a transition point in their career, so I’ve also been able to spend time ramping up my coaching and advising practice.
My last operating role was at FanDuel. I was there for six years and ran teams across marketing, growth, strategy, and operations. FanDuel started as a daily fantasy sports company, and most people had no idea what that was. It became a lot easier to explain when sports betting started to legalize in 2018. It turns out lots of folks have placed a $5 bet on the Super Bowl, or taken a trip to Vegas with friends for March Madness!
2. What does your morning routine look like?
SK: Back when I was at FanDuel, I was a “wake up and get to the office early to get some work done before the day of meetings starts” kind of person.
Now that I’m at Reforge (where a lot of folks are on Pacific Time) and working from home, I wake up a bit later.
At the start of the pandemic, I was going straight to my computer, but fortunately I’ve gotten into some healthier habits over the last two years. I start my day with coffee at the dining room table, where I feel really lucky to have a beautiful view of the Hudson River, and I spend a few minutes journaling (the Five Minute Journal has been a game-changer for me).
Once I’m at my desk, I go through my to-do list for the day and start by knocking off a few emails and other simple tasks that need to get done that day, to warm up. Then I’ll usually have 1.5 to two hours blocked off to focus on a particular project, such as working on a case study for a Reforge event - like the one Kevan and I just worked on together on product marketing for the Marketing Strategy program!
3. Can you share a photo of your phone’s home screen, your computer desktop, or your browser window?
I’m a zero notifications person (though I don’t think I’ll ever get to Inbox zero, sadly). I keep my messaging and personal stuff on my home screen, and I try to keep work apps on a second screen to add some friction to checking Slack / email constantly!
I always have my desktop clear. Any files on my Desktop are temporary and I file them away or delete them.
Too many tabs open at once overwhelm me, so I use bookmarks religiously to find what I need depending on the project I’m working on and stay organized. Most of my bookmarks right now are for Reforge; HK Fridge is a mutual aid initiative I run that tackles food insecurity and food waste.
4. How do you measure success in your role?
A large part of my role at Reforge is to put on great events for our members that help them to understand and apply Reforge content where they also get great access to experienced operators in tech.
Reforge loves feedback, and we collect feedback from our members after every single event. I’ll look at satisfaction across different components: the program content, the case study, if I did a good job leading the event, etc. All of the EIRs are a bit too competitive, so we look at this right after the event, and probably a bit too closely :)
At the end of the day, my role is to make sure members understand the content and how to apply it, so when I feel like I’ve really hit the mark is when I get a direct message or feedback that the way we put a case together or the way I explained a concept during the event really hit home for them or led them to that “aha” moment; or when the answer to a question helped directly with solving a problem at work.
I’ve always really enjoyed working through challenges with individuals 1:1, which is one of the reasons I’m drawn to coaching.
5. Which work project are you most excited about right now? Can you tell us a bit about it?
Over the last few months, I’ve been working with Reforge on developing a new program, Marketing Leadership.
While I love the functional parts of marketing — brand, product marketing, growth (which we cover in the Marketing Strategy program) — what I’ve always paid particularly close attention to and really loved is the how of work getting done:
the operating rhythms and processes (I know a lot of folks are allergic to this word, but I think good process is a game-changer)
designing your org the right way
figuring out who to hire and how
These are the questions I get a lot from Reforge members and companies I work with:
Who should my first marketing hire be, and how do I evaluate them if I’ve never owned this domain?
How do I work with partners like Finance and Product?
How do I get the support I need from Product to drive Marketing OKRs forward?
I’m constantly getting pressure from the Finance team - how do I manage this relationship?
I spent a lot of time at FanDuel building all this out, so I’m really excited for the program to launch (it launches in the Fall, starts October 5) and hope it can be a helpful resource for other marketing leaders or aspiring leaders. You can see more detail on what we cover here (note: if you’re not a Reforge member already, you need to apply by September 16 in order to take the first run of Marketing Leadership in the Fall).
Here’s a sneak peak of the Marketing Competency Matrix we developed to help with hiring. I think it’s also a really useful tool to think through career development. In the program, we walk through step-by-step how to properly scope a new role, using the matrix as a tool.
6. What are three staples of your "media diet"?
I probably do too much scrolling of the social media apps.
LinkedIn can have good, short-form content: I particularly enjoy Adam Grant on leadership and culture, and Elena Verna on all things growth.
I’ve also recently started subscribing to a few newsletters: I really like Andy Johns’ blog on mental health, and Adam Fishman recently started a newsletter where he likes to stir the pot with plenty of hot takes - and obviously Kevan’s newsletter, too!
I used to read a lot of books, and I’m trying to get back into that habit. I tend to go for pretty heavy topics so I’m trying to work some lighter material into the mix. Not that these fit that bill exactly, but a few recent favorites have been Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner - so many of the experiences she writes about growing up Asian-American struck a chord - and The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, on trauma and the body’s reaction to it.
BONUS: How did you get your current job?
I took a Reforge program - the original Growth Series - back in 2017 when I was starting to take on leadership roles at FanDuel. I almost didn’t take it: I’d missed the signup deadline and the program was running during the NFL season, our busiest time of year at FanDuel. Fast forward to 2021, Reforge founder Brian Balfour looked for Reforge alums to reach out to about a new role they were exploring at Reforge. That role didn’t end up being a fit, but it meant I was on their radar when they looked to bring on a Marketing EIR a few months later.
My advice is to explore as much as you can (especially earlier in your career), take on new opportunities, and be open to where they take you. Obviously you can’t - and shouldn’t! - say yes to everything, but I think of every conversation as a new connection formed, a new topic I’ve learned about, and maybe most importantly, a new person who now knows about you - and you never know what new opportunity that can lead to, and when.
Coming back to my path to Reforge: it definitely wasn’t a straight line. If I hadn’t signed up for Reforge back in 2017, if I hadn’t said yes to an exploratory conversation back in 2021 - the EIR role at Reforge may have never been on my radar, and I may not have been on Reforge’s radar.
A question that isn’t as common anymore, but used to be, was:
What is your 10-year plan?
I’ve never been someone who has had my career path charted out, and I used to be very self-conscious about this - I felt like I should have a clear goal.
As I’ve progressed through my career and as I’ve talked to others about their paths, I’ve realized this has been the case for a lot of other marketing leaders as well - and I’ve come to see it as a key ingredient in my success. I’ve been open to new opportunities when they came along - opportunities that might have felt riskier and I probably would have said no to if I had had a clearer long-term career vision and goals.
So if you ask me where the path will take me next: I’m not sure yet, but I’m looking forward to it!
About this newsletter …
Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. If you enjoy what’s in this newsletter, you can share some love by hitting the heart button at the top or bottom.💙
About Kevan
I’m a marketing exec who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster (we’re hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer, Polly, and Vox.
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