Community is more than marketing, it’s about connection

INTRO:

You're listening to CX Confessions, brought to you by Khoros. In each episode, we’ll share the customer experience stories and insights you need — straight from the sharpest minds in CX — to better connect with your customers and create customers for life. Let's start the show.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Hello everybody and welcome back to CX Confessions. I am Katherine Calvert, CMO for Khoros, and I am joined, as always, by my amazing co-host, Mr. Spike Jones, GM of our Strategic Services business. How you doing, Spike?

SPIKE JONES:

Good. Hello from a sweltering September in good ol’ Austin, Texas. Always happy to be here.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

It is good to see you. Hello, from California. And speaking of geography, we are joined by another amazing guest today, Spike, and she is calling in all the way from Amsterdam. It is my privilege to introduce our audience to Ms. Vidya Peters. Vidya is the Chief Marketing Officer from Marqeta. If you don't know Marqeta, you should. It was one of the big IPO stories of 2021.

Marqeta is a new kind of card platform. As CMO, Vidya drives marketing strategy and execution, all of the goodies in there, including brand, PR, corporate marketing events, demand gen. Before Marqeta, she was a leader at Intuit, she was CMO at MuleSoft, and this is a gal who has a very impressive roster, even predating that, with time at Harvard and time at Northwestern. She's giving back to her community in meaningful ways. And we are going to have a great conversation today about community. Everywhere that Vidya’s been, that has been part and parcel of her philosophy as a leader. So we're going to have a conversation about what that means. And we will be talking about the Marqeta story throughout. But again, if you don't know Marqeta, it is a new kind of card issuing platform for innovative businesses, small, medium, and midsize enterprises, thinking about how to take the friction out of payments. So a very hot company that she's the leader of and we are thrilled to have her today. Welcome.

VIDYA PETERS:

Thank you Katherine and Spike, it’s great to be here with you.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

We are so happy to have you here, and I've known you for a little while. MuleSoft and Intuit, you know, obviously legendary names in software. You've worked in the B2B world, in the B2C world. Marqeta plays an interesting sort of intermediary place. Community is this common theme that you have brought to all of your roles and we'd love to dive in and talk about that, and certainly in the last you know, eighteen months or so, with the journey you've been on at Marqeta and also the way the world has evolved, how is community, what is that sort of gold standard for you around community and connection?

VIDYA PETERS:

When I think of the role that marketing leaders are asked to play, we’re very much held accountable to metrics, such as traffic and conversion and sign ups and revenue, and that's wonderful, but I think one of the things that we tend to forget about is that we are the business of people. And people, from time immemorial, have sought out connection, connection with other human beings. And at no time in history has this become even clearer to us than the last eighteen months, with a pandemic where we all led pretty isolated lives that, with the lockdown, with a shelter in place, not having an office space to go into. And now more than ever, we yearn for that connection.

Now, not only is this more pronounced in the last eighteen months, but I think it's particularly pronounced among developers. Developers often are already working in very isolated roles on complex problems that they're trying to work their way through. And what I've always believed in is we're not in the business of selling software, we're in the business of solving people's problems. And if connection is one of people's most important problems, then community is the way to help address that.

SPIKE JONES:

Yeah. I used to have a colleague that I worked with at a creative agency and he said, brands exist for two reasons: solve my problem and make me feel good. And so that's very much true. And so, you know, where you're coming from, especially with the connection aspect and making sure that we're talking about people and taking care of them is very much in the forefront of a lot of folks' minds. But you have such a great, pure, purest approach to it and connecting with those folks, of course, is important in those communities. But it's another thing to do it at scale. So could you talk a little bit about how you do it at scale? And by the way, again, thanks for joining from Amsterdam. I know it's late there. Hopefully you had maybe one glass of wine? But again, thanks for joining us.

VIDYA PETERS:

It's a pleasure and I haven't popped open the wine yet, still Thursday evening, and I’ve got a lot to get through. But I'm so very excited to be here with you. Spike, I think you bring up a really good point, which is people are looking for their problems to be solved and they're looking to feel good, and the beautiful thing about a community is that you can do both with one stone. And when people get together in a community, they are seeking each other out to find answers to problems that they're encountering and they're looking for that connection, to know that they're not alone in that journey and that’s the beautiful thing about community.

Now, how do you actually do that at scale? And how do you do it, particularly in a very globally distributed workforce that we have all become? And I believe that you have to think global with whatever you build and you have to act local because connection, while it can be done at scale virtually, I don't think it ever makes up for that in-person-to-person connection, which I know we will all return to. I am very optimistic it will come back.

And so I'm a big believer in investing in technology and the right platform to do that at scale globally, because you have pockets of people that are working on the same problems on the same issues that you are and how do you harness that collective knowledge, the collective experience across borders to solve those together in a faster, more efficient way? And then how do you actually bring people together locally, whether that's a meet up, whether that's a hackathon, whether it's just to meet and connect and work on something fun together so that you can turn that global conversation into more of an in-person interaction?

SPIKE JONES:

I love that. And years ago I worked on, it was a retail brand, and we created a community online and these people from all over the country and the states got to meet each other, and then we actually paid for fifty, I believe, maybe a hundred of the top super users to come together in person in good old San Antonio, Texas. But it was so cool to see these relationships that were formed online, just, they were just so excited and elated to meet each other face to face, and it really solidified that bond to where years later, the company actually shut down that community and these fine folks opened up a Facebook community because they still wanted to stay connected and be, and hear from each other and play off. But you know, converting that online to offline, I think, is so important and vice versa too, so that's a great point that you bring up.

VIDYA PETERS:

Yeah I'll just share a personal example around that. I am personally a member of a community here in Amsterdam called [Aquadoh] Exchange. It's a group of people that work in the technology space and are interested in, you know solving high-growth problems together. So it's a great forum to ask questions like, hey have you encountered this? Or how do you deal with this? And I was able to make connections online with people that, in an in-person situation, may have taken years to build that kind of network. But it happened instantly online because the forum brought these very like-minded individuals together. But the conversations remained very transactional in the online sphere. They were more around hey, I have a problem, I have an answer. Wonderful. And you sort of know the names and now you have the answers and that's great.

But recently we met in-person and it took the relationship and the chemistry to a whole new level, because you suddenly realize, oh wow, that's the kind of project you're involved in? Wow. That's how you failed? Oh my gosh, I didn't know we were connected to four other people, and wow, what an amazing story you have. Now, that's the level of depth and connection that I don't see happening as easily in an online form and that's why I really believe in the hybrid model, where you get tremendous scale, tremendous reach, instant access and connection online and you're definitely able to get resources and answers very quickly, but if you're really looking for the depth, if you're looking for that emotional connection, there's still no substitute for that in-person interaction.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

I totally agree with that, Vidya. It can't be an either-or, it has to be both, I think. And the reality of the last eighteen months, two years, is that the in person opportunities got fewer, but I do think that those are opening back up. But I think what struck me about the personal story is finding the common problem, right, and and when you, when, I think about Marqeta now, you just led an initiative to launch a developers’ community. I'd love for you to share: why developers? And maybe we start with, tell us a little bit about Marqeta. Like, who buys it? Is it a developer? Is it not? Tell us about the role you play and why developers in particular are so central to your success.

VIDYA PETERS:

Similar to Mulesoft and the Marqeta, and I would assume this go-to-market model may not be so different from any enterprise B2B companies, we generally have a buying center. That may be a C-level executive, that may be a head of pins products. And we definitely have conversations with them about the software and how it can help solve their problems.

But that is never enough, and the reason is is that developers, I believe, are the most important employees you have in a company. They are probably, I mean, no company can hire enough developers. Software is eating the world, you need developers to build software, and every company's most important currency is their development team. And no buyer will make a purchase for a company without turning to their developers and saying, is this a software that you'd be willing to use, to build on?

And so it's not enough to just convince the buying centers that they should make that purchase decision. I honestly believe that to win the hearts of the developers, you have to get them to love your technology, to want to build on it, so that it doesn't just sit as shelf wear once that purchase is done.

And when we think about developers, they are probably one of the more isolated, you know, people in a company. They're often working on these complex technology problems and these problems are divvied up, you know, a hundred different ways, and there may not be a lot of people that they can connect with within their team or within their company on their specific issue. And so we want to bring a forum together where like-minded developers can talk about payments and fintech. It doesn't have to be about Marqeta, but we wanted to create a space where people could ask the questions that they didn't feel they were surrounded by people who could, who could answer that for them.

And it's been amazing. Since we've launched we've had people say, hey, what's a good crash course on payments? What's a good book you recommend? And you know, people stream in with a lot of suggestions or to say hey, where can I find a documentation on how to do A, B, and C and someone quickly directs them there. And what I love about that is, you know, developers only trust other developers, and so one of the big mistakes companies make is they want to get in there and they want to help them and they want to, you know, solve their problems and you know and then sell them stuff, and I think that's the number one way to destroy the trust that developers bring into these forms, into these communities.

And so I love this idea of building a community where developers could gather, like-minded, ask questions and we mostly stay out of the way. If we can be of help, we will, but we're definitely not going to get in there and try to sell to anyone and destroy the whole spirit behind having a community.

SPIKE JONES:

And I love that they don't have to talk about you and your product, specifically, that it's just those like-minded folks coming together. And you know when you talked about it before you talked about really creating a safe space, and a space where they can ask questions that they might not ask somewhere else too because they have those like-minded folks around. So you know creating a safe space is an important thing, but how do you do that? How do you create that safety where people know that they can come in and ask those types of questions and maybe even be a little vulnerable?

VIDYA PETERS:

I think it starts by, not some programmatic effort, but actually very human effort, which is identifying: who are the developers that you can actually reach out to, share the spirit of the community you’re building, and ask them to be a part of it and see if that resonates.

And this is going to go to one of the key failures I've made early on in my career when I launched a program thinking it's a great idea and I actually haven't checked with the people whether they thought it was a great idea. And so always start with the people, start with the developers that you're actually looking to serve and ask them if they want to be a part of this. Ask them about what questions would be helpful for them and then encourage them to be those early people asking those questions.

And then I would say, monitor not with the idea of controlling the conversation, but monitor with the idea of being of service if those questions aren't getting answered. And you know the answer, then you should get in there and answer it. If you can get a product manager engineer to go in there and solve that problem or direct them to a resource. The key here is to be of service and help and do it at speed. And so make sure you're moderating those so that you're keeping the highest quality answers that can be helpful to those developers.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Well speaking of answering questions, it is CX Confessions, we’ll get to your confession in a moment, but we always like to start with this question, which is what is a commonly held belief or industry practice that you really disagree with?

VIDYA PETERS:

You know I see this term thrown around a lot now, particularly as we've become such a digitally-focused business everywhere, right, people, talk about technology, people talk about software, and I think we forget that there are people behind all of this. And I'll tell you just in the realm of marketing and you'll hear, well, that's a demand gen problem and you know that's an ad search problem, and I always have to remind everyone on the team and I want us to just go back to basics. It's a people problem. Which is you inherently, I mean what you're trying to do is try to get another human being to take an action, and so, let's bring it back to basics: who you’re trying to reach and what matters to them and what do you think would be actually helpful to them as opposed to optimizing one bird versus another?

And so I just like to remind everyone that we are back in the people, we've always been in the business of people, and we continue to be that. So don't let the metrics fool you and think that we're just in a game of coin turning or like just turning the knobs, because I think it's always good to be grounded back in the humanity that we're all involved with.

SPIKE JONES:

Absolutely and when it comes to metric, so you know, what gets measured gets done, and metrics are important to all of us, but different metrics are important to different folks. What do you, when you think about the data behind the community, the data that goes into the community, even you know these conversations you're having with these folks that influence the community, what kind of data are you looking for? What's important to you?

VIDYA PETERS:

I think data is a very helpful compass to know whether you are making progress against the strategic vision that you set out. And so I think of strategy and metrics as part and parcel. You can't have one without the other. Now some of the metrics may be qualitative, sometimes, depending on the strategy and vision you laid out, but it's always important to have both together.

And so whenever we're having a vision or strategy session, I often ask the question: How will we know we have achieved that? What are the key metrics? Sometimes I actually start with the metrics, and I say well if I want to achieve this metric, what do you think are the right strategies that can help us achieve this? But they're very much part of the same conversation and it's something that you have to then come back to. I think it's really important to do it on day one. And I always say this because it's very easy to look back on history and write sort of the metrics that show how successful you were. But if you truly want to make, you know, long-lasting impact, real impact, then I think you have to start with the strategy and metrics on day one and then hold yourself accountable. Because you want to get to the right place. You don't want to justify how you got where you did. Which is often the business that people are in.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Well, I think, I mean, I think, that's so, that's very insightful, right. It's really another way of saying we need to know where we're going to then build out the strategy and the tactics. And so the data in that example, of a measure really just says: this is the destination, and now we can build the tools we need to get there. Well, sometimes we know where we're going, and sometimes we don't always get there. So it's confession time. What is a hard lesson you've learned in your journey that has helped you to be the successful leader you are now?

VIDYA PETERS:

One of my most mortifying experiences was when I made the switch from consulting to an operating role. If you’ve ever been in consulting, you realize, at least I was like this, I felt like, I know the answer to everything. I mean I can figure it out. This is easy. It's as easy as three bullets on a slide. And then I went into my first operating role and I was like yep, great, I got the answer, I just gotta implement it and the money will start coming in, cha-ching. And I had ownership of this product and I thought, wouldn't it be great to, you know, when a customer signs up for this product, this is you know way back when at the beginning of my career, I said it would be really nice to send a piece of mail to the new customer with everything about their product. They could keep it at their desk. It would be so helpful, and I remember that I launched this and it hadn't even been two weeks, but one of the customers shot a YouTube video of the collateral I sent and ridiculed it.

SPIKE JONES:

Oh no, no.

VIDYA PETERS:

So, it was also like the amount of time he had taken to actually dissect it.

SPIKE JONES:

Oh, no.

VIDYA PETERS:

And it was on YouTube — it may still be on YouTube. I will never forget the sheer pain I felt of my stupidity, but you know it was a very important lesson learned which is, I may think many things are good ideas, but the question is, my customer may not.

And so the value of knowing your audience — the human beings you're looking to reach — and getting feedback early and not assuming that we're all the same. It's amazing, but you know, theoretically, we all know we're all not the same and that we have different preferences and we like to be served differently and yet when we are doing the work we quickly assume that the way we work is exactly how everyone else would want to work.

SPIKE JONES:

Oh, goodness. I'm being told that video has been deleted and can no longer be found, so don't go looking for it. So, but thank you for sharing that, you know, sometimes it's the things that we learn early on and even throughout our careers that might not go very well. Those are the things we build those huge successes on in the future, too. So I'm always fascinated by missteps, because I know I've had quite a few throughout my career too. So thank you for sharing.

This has been great. This is a lot of great information. I know it's been super useful to me and our listeners as well, but we also before we go — or let you go to go have that glass of wine, we want to make sure we get to know a little bit more about you, the person, Vidya.

So we have five quick questions. We call it the quick-fire confessions that we'd like to ask you just to get to know you as a person a little bit more. So I'll kick it off by asking you: what's your first concert

VIDYA PETERS:

First concert, 1993, Bon Jovi came to Mumbai.

SPIKE JONES:

Ah, yes.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Wow!

VIDYA PETERS:

It was Bon Jovi’s first time in Mumbai and it was my first concert and I loved it.

SPIKE JONES:

Wow, that's, Bon Jovi’s a good one.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Oh, that is incredible.

VIDYA PETERS:

We didn't have many options, Spike, it's not like that was a good one or a bad one. We had a concert show up there and we were all going.

SPIKE JONES:

It didn't matter who but Bon Jovi, that's not, that's not bad. That’s not bad at all.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Was it massive?

VIDYA PETERS:

It was massive. It was so massive. I can still feel the heat in my bones when I think about it. It was so crowded. It was so hot. And all I remember is Bon Jovi got up on stage and he said, “Mumbai, it's just like New Jersey!” And I'm like, really? I’m like, that’s probably his opening line at every concert, but I thought it was sweet of him to say.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

That’s great.

SPIKE JONES:

That’s good.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Somebody told him to connect locally, I guess, so that's his line, yeah. What was your first job?

VIDYA PETERS:

My first job was as a teaching assistant, doing research on authors for an English teacher. English lit. And so this is pre-internet. I mean, or the internet was like mostly just available in the library, so I had to go to the library and like pull out these books and write these descriptions and then photocopy them for the class — to start, it was a very, you know, good old research skills. The old fashioned way where it took like an hour or two to find out about an author. It wasn't just a simple Wikipedia page back then.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Isn't that amazing? Book reports used to be a project. You had to go to the library. But you're an engineer by training, right?

VIDYA PETERS:

I'm an engineer by training, mostly because I went to a very liberal arts school in Salt Lake City and where we read a book a week and I almost had too much of liberal arts, and I was like, I can’t, I can’t. So I swung the pendulum the other way and I went straight into engineering for college.

SPIKE JONES:

Wow. But good life skills, for sure. So, if you weren't doing this, what other profession would you attempt?

VIDYA PETERS:

You know, I always, when I think about the people that influence me the most of my life, early teachers, and I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this, but I just admired some of my favorite teachers so much they — I still think about the way they taught and how much, you know, I learned, and I think it's just such an amazing skill. So if I wasn't this, I think I would have loved to be like a middle school/early high school math teacher — pre calc, I think, before calculus.

SPIKE JONES:

That's fantastic. My mom was a teacher, so that's pretty cool.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

That is very cool. What is your favorite app on your phone?

VIDYA PETERS:

The podcast app. I listen to podcasts every day, all the time. I think, especially since the lock down, because you know it's just so great to multitask if you're doing stuff in the kitchen or you're puttering around the house. But I listen to you know, BBC has the documentary podcast series, Making Sense With Sam Harris, This American Life, pretty awesome. Radio Lab.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

CX confessions.

VIDYA PETERS:

CX Confessions.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Subscribe and like, right?

SPIKE JONES:

Fantastic. And then finally, what is your biggest indulgence?

VIDYA PETERS:

Chocolate every single day.

SPIKE JONES:

Any particular kind?

VIDYA PETERS:

All kinds.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Better chocolate over there, right?

VIDYA PETERS:

Such great chocolate over here. Such great chocolate in Europe. But I love dark chocolate and anything with hazelnuts. So that's definitely an indulgence. But I also love Italian food, so tons of carbs. I'm, and it doesn't help to be in Europe for that, because I mean it's such a heavy carb-based culture with bread and pasta and all of that in between. But those are my indulgences. Not good during a lockdown. Not good during a pandemic.

SPIKE JONES:

Fair enough.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

We've heard worse. We've heard worse on this podcast. Yeah.

VIDYA PETERS:

But it's very comforting. It's very comforting. I will say that.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Yes, yes. I thought, I’m not certain, I should put an asterisk on this, because I am not certain, but I thought there was plenty of research that chocolate’s kind of good for you? Oxytocin, super food? I don't know. Anyway, yeah, comforting. We all, we need comfort in these times.

SPIKE JONES:

I've heard that about liquor, so, I agree. I agree. I like that research, keep it coming, right?

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Right. Vidya, we knew this would be a fantastic conversation, and it was. Thank you for sharing your perspective. We talked about human connection. I love the thought on winning the hearts of developers and how often that gets overlooked. That is very wise. So, thank you for joining us. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on community and connection. It starts with the people, just like you said, and we are happy to get to know you.

How would people get to know more about you if they wanted to? Should we, where could we follow more about Vidya?

VIDYA PETERS:

You can follow me on LinkedIn and on Twitter. I'm the only Vidya Peters in the world, so.

SPIKE JONES:

Whoa.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Wow.

VIDYA PETERS:

As far as I know.

SPIKE JONES:

I was going to make a nerdy reference like to The Highlander, but that would probably fall flat to most the audience, but there can be only one. There can be only one.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Awesome. And if you want to learn more about Marqeta: Marqeta.com. No “u,” M-A-R-Q-E-T-A dot com.

VIDYA PETERS:

Well done, Kathrine.

KATHERINE CALVERT:

Thank you. All right. Well, thanks everybody for listening in. We appreciate you and we look forward to our next conversation. Talk to you soon.

KHOROS

Your customers expect to be understood — their likes and dislikes, their history with your brand, and their communication preferences. But so many companies struggle to connect the dots of the interaction across their own teams and channels and its creating customer experience challenges and disasters. That's where Khoros can help. Khoros is the award-winning customer engagement platform built to turn those siloed interactions with your customer into enterprise value. Khoros works with more than 2,000 of the world's leading brands and powers more than 500 million digital interactions every day. Khoros is the award-winning platform for digital-first customer engagement. Ready to create human connection across the digital customer experience to create customers for life? Learn more at Khoros.com.

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