Janine Pelosi, Chief Marketing Officer, Zoom
Moderator: Jen Wieczner, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2020: One on One: Do You Zoom?

Janine Pelosi, Chief Marketing Officer, Zoom

Uncategorized

While so many of us are working from home, we talk to Zoom about the responsibility of powering work in the pandemic, responding to unprecedented demand, and the challenges that come with so many people depending on its product.


Janine, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. So you are the chief marketing officer of zoom. Um, but from what I've read, you haven't actually needed to do a whole lot of marketing over the past few months. Um, so what have you been doing? What is your, what is your job until now? Yeah, I mean the last probably nine months has obviously been wild for all of uh, you know, humanity, frankly and really early on, you know, I made a conscious decision that this is not a time for sales and marketing. It was the time for supporting our community and our customers because it became uh, you know, overnight necessary infrastructure for so so many people. So ensuring that we're creating content that were, you know, understanding all these new use cases in buildings for that has really been our focus. Yeah, we've all been zooming so much recently that a new term that I'm hearing lately resumed the Teak. How do you combat that and get people to keep their camera on and engaged? You know, I think keeping the camera on and engaged is actually what helps you get through that, right. I mean everyone's craving these human connections, right? And not sitting in an office by themselves in their home, wherever they are. Uh, and so, you know, I try and get out, take a few meetings outside, take them on a walk and you know, I'm not ashamed of that. You know, I'm the first to say, hey, I'm out on a walk. So I'm going to be on video where I'm not going to be on video, but you have to like the lines have learned so much between, you know, what is work, what is life in the balance? I think any of the way that we thought of that in the past now feels so foreign because it is just a fluid environment throughout anyone's day and different. You've got to you've got to find what works for you. I know from, for myself that I've done zoom weddings, zoom yoga classes, zoom, happy hours. Um, what else is there to do on zoom? Are you envisioning new use cases as we kind of get used to this being our um, you know, reality for communication over the next, who knows how many months? I think you just nailed it right? It's it's communications. Right? And so whether that's for work or personal life or your fitness. And so we actually just announced on them. So funny you you framed it that way, which is a platform that's going to allow for content creators. Uh think about that yoga teacher, somebody that has a business uh teaching speech therapy all of these things and connecting them with pro sumers and consumers, uh, that want to really take part in their class. So if you think about what has been brick and mortar, a lot of small businesses have frankly suffered, um, as of late. And so this is an opportunity to allow them to really drive their business on a platform that will allow them to, you know, make money for their knowledge and provide that knowledge transfer and a great way to consumers. So on Zoom, how is that different from the zoom that we've just been using? You know, sometimes it's free, um, up to 40 minutes. How is on zoom different than that experience? So it's the same product experience that, that folks are used to. And it just makes it easy to have all of these events all in one place. So a consumer can come in, you know, maybe they're looking for a cooking class or they are looking to have their taxes done or take that yoga classes mentioned all of those. And then having those great integrations that allow for payment functionality. Uh, some fun ways to um, to play with the needing different backgrounds and such so that you know what you talked about earlier that fatigue, you can have that different different uh, interface pension payment option. So is this something that will be a paid product or what's the business model there? So, uh, for, for folks that want to put content up, they can charge for their fast, maybe they charge $10 per person or maybe it's free, but that's really going to be up to the person that is putting their content up on the platform. One thing I know that you've been dealing with that a lot of other parents are dealing with is um, you know, now that school has started, kids are on zoom. Um, a lot of people are doing remote learning, including I believe your daughter um, hundreds if I'm right, 100,000 pools are actually using zoom for classes. What tips and tricks do you have? You know, to keep kids actually focus and um, you know, I guess reduced some of the pranks that kids might might have in mind with zoom bombing, you know, their math class or whatever. Yeah, I mean it really, it really depends on the different use case of being able to pin video, turn on and off, the ability to have a virtual background, right? They can be really helpful, but if you are a fun, you know, teenage boy, we want to change it every every five minutes, that might get annoying to your teacher. Uh and so things like the waiting room passwords, those are so simple. My my seven year old is going in, plugging in all of the all of her different classes and the meeting codes and the, you know, the passwords for each. And it's just a pretty amazing thing to see. So both keeping the classrooms safe as well as providing that functionality for teachers so that they can run the classroom in a really organized manner. Have you guys done made any changes to the product to make it more kid friendly? So I would say uh the answer is yes, but when I think about changes is thinking about things like what was the default setting versus what wasn't and you had to go in and so really we've been doing a lot there, there's so many features out there to help these teachers. Uh you know, the kids actually, they are the easy ones. I mean the amount, you know, how quickly they're able to pick up. Technology is something that I've really been, you know, uh you know, kind of, it's kind of mind boggling frankly to see how quickly they can adapt, but for the teachers it's a lot of education for them. So over the summer for example, we did a two day summer academy where we went through all the different features, all the different use cases and they were able to really spend time before that were started to set up the classroom environment that worked well for them. Can you talk a little bit about um you know what some of those other use cases um you know, might be, you know, what are there going to be more, you know, activities, you know, I guess what our teacher is going to be working on, um what can we expect to see um or do on zoom uh you know, as families with in the next few months? Well, I mean, I think, you know, for both the classroom and for families, you know, events, events that we're used to seeing In person and having a physical experience for our either fully remote or very much hybrid. Right. Some kids are back in the classroom, some are choosing to still stay at home and if I'm a teacher, I have to manage both of those use cases all in one classroom as we think about, you know what the world is going to look like as we start to come out of this. I also really believe that it's not going to go back to the way things were before 100%, it's just gonna be different. And so there will be a hybrid functionality. it won't be as described that the virtual event is kind of a side hustle to something that's physical. It is going to be a prominent part of any experience moving forward. So that hybrid experiences where we're really working on these new use cases and ensuring that the product is up to par for what's being asked. I'd love to hear a little bit about, you know, your tips and tricks and some people always complain about, you know, resting zoom face these days. What do you do to kind of present your best self on the, I mean, I think lighting is, is definitely important. You know, one thing to note, I'm in an office that has a large french door here. Um, so in the morning my lighting is going to be completely different than it's going to be in the afternoon. So having extra lights around that can, that can help with that. Uh, and then also if need be just grabbing the last talk and go into another place. You know, if you're able to in your, in your house, your apartment, uh, trying to have lighting in front of you. So a window, which is actually nice because folks want to look outside, they want to be outside these days. And then, as mentioned earlier, also just getting outside, right? I think people are craving different visual experiences. Uh, and then that leads to the last, which I think is one of the most fun, which is changing up your virtual background. So trying to do that throughout the day. Maybe it's a certain mood urine a cause you're trying to support and you can really have a lot of fun with that with your virtual backgrounds you mentioned earlier, you know, integrating things like walked into your workflow, even on zoom and doing calls. I think you guys have rolled out some new features designed to encourage just that, you know, and keeping kind of like more wellness routine into your day. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, absolutely. So we've partnered to thrive global that is really um, you know, reminding folks if you will to get up and get out and get some exercise right. Um, we have other wonderful partners that are, you know, integrating into different fitness app from such that will be coming out soon. And I think, you know, really taking the time for self care and forgetting what you need to done is going to be critical. And so we're going to make sure that we we listen and we we want to go to adapt the product to make sure that it's delivering that can you tell us a little bit more about the fitness acting? I mean, are we going to be coming from the telethon soon or what does that look like? I don't know what it looks like just yet. I think we're right in the cuts were in the middle of listening to our customers. So, you know, we want to hear all of this feedback, uh you know, and we want to take those ideas and integrated into the best steps that we can possible. So it is a possibility then that, you know, that's coming the zoom from the treadmill, zoom on the bike or, you know, whatever it may be, even during work meetings, we're gonna have to wait and see. We're gonna have to wait and see. Well, um just to finish up, I wanted to ask you a little bit about, you know, life after the pandemic. Um You know I know you have said that you were an in office person before all of this and now you're using your product probably at least as much as anybody else's. Um How does how does zoom integrate into the workflow beyond this? Are we going to be done with in person meetings and business travel? Is this what meetings are or what is your vision for that? You know, I don't have a crystal ball, but what I can tell you is that I believe that there is going to be hybrid model to what you've seen in the past. I I think there's always a silver lining and for me that's the innovation that I'm seeing many different companies popping up solving for use cases that frankly didn't exist in the past. But yeah. Do I think that there is still gonna be that need to help on a plane, don't have an hour long meeting and be home by dinner. I don't know that you're going to see that as much. Um, do I think that there is a need for in person relationship building? Absolutely right. We're craving that we need that, you know, humans are meant to be, you know, in a packed with others and so, uh, you know, I think it's going to be a combination of both. But I do think that, as I mentioned with uh, you know, the classroom where they have folks that are in the class and then at home, I do think there is going to be more of that and it's going to open up, um, and provide an equitable playing field for knowledge no matter where you are in the world and I think that's what I'm most excited about. Well, jimmy, thank you so much for this time, and it's a pleasure to speak with you. Pleasure to secret, do you think for having me? Mhm. Mhm.