Alina Rosenthal (McDonough, ’22) spent her summer as a Product Marketing Intern at Microsoft, where she had the chance to work on the Microsoft Surface Devices. Throughout her summer, Alina learned valuable lessons working in a highly cross-functional role and getting the chance to work with lots of peers and stakeholders. During this interview, Alina shared with us her experience as a Product marketing intern, and her advice to MBA students who want to thrive in a product marketing internship.
MBASchooled: What initially attracted you to Product Marketing, and how did that playout during your summer internship?
When I was recruiting for internships I knew I wanted to stay in the marketing space and I reflected on my previous experience to determine what kind of marketing roles I wanted to apply too. Prior to business school I worked for a year and a half in Credit Card product marketing. This role taught me that I loved shaping and launching new products. After spending the summer back in product marketing for devices, I felt the same sense of excitement as I once did with Credit Cards. The summer also confirmed that I love being able to partner with teams cross functionally to shape the narrative around new product launches.
MBASchooled: What did you do for your Product Marketing internship? What project did you work on?
This summer I interned as a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft where I had the opportunity to work on the Microsoft Surface devices. I was tasked with developing a strategic recommendation to reduce the complexity within the Surface 2-in-1 portfolio in order for customers and retail partners to have a better understanding of the different products that makeup the lineup. It was a really fun, relevant, and challenging project!
MBASchooled: What skills were most important to being an effective Product Marketing Intern?
There are many important skills to being an effective Product Marketing intern, however, I think one of the most important skills is customer obsession. In tech specifically, you work very closely with the engineering team to shape the product and the narrative around the product. Being customer focused or customer obsessed ensures that you are helping create and promote a product consumers actually want and at the end of the day that is what is most important.
MBASchooled: What was a challenge that you had to overcome or work through?
This summer while working on my project I met with a lot of different people across the Surface team to gather insight from different stakeholders. I quickly learned that many stakeholders had different opinions on the strategy and recommendation I should propose. This made it hard for me to stay true to my one north star and I began to question my recommendation and I felt a sense of imposter syndrome. After a couple weeks into my internship, I realized that I was brought on to provide a fresh perspective and instead of doubting myself I should believe in myself and in my north star.
MBASchooled: What was an important lesson that you learned from your Product Marketing internship?
An important lesson I learned from my Product Marketing internship this summer is the importance of making connections with your peers. It is easy to get caught up in networking with existing employees, which is important. However, it is also extremely valuable to spend time networking with your cohort of fellow interns. They are the people who will be growing with you throughout your career and I tried to prioritize building those relationships as much as possible!
MBASchooled: What was it like to build relationships virtually? What helped? What was hard?
Building relationships virtually is naturally more difficult than building them in person. Without the organic hallway run-ins you need to be more intentional with your interactions in order to build your relationships. One of the ways I was able to build a strong personal relationship with my supervisor is by proposing that once a month we have a virtual lunch together. This gave us the opportunity to build a relationship and connect outside of our more formal meetings.
MBASchooled:Knowing what you know now, what do you do to prepare in order to be even more successful in your Product Marketing internship?
I would say one of the best ways to prepare in order to be even more successful in a Product Marketing internship is to spend time intimately familiarizing yourself with the product or products you will be working on over the summer. Your internship is for such a short period of time, any time you spend learning about the products and industry in advance will play in your favor by reducing the learning curve and making you stand out amongst your peers.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for MBA students considering internships in Product Marketing?
If you are an MBA student considering an internship in Product Marketing the best advice I could give you is to make sure you are passionate about the product you are marketing. Passion makes all the difference. I was a personal Surface user before spending the summer working on Surface devices and a true advocate of the product. Therefore, spending the summer working on a product I loved was easy!
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