{"id":7071,"date":"2019-12-03T09:39:18","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?post_type=limelight&p=7071"},"modified":"2021-01-19T06:43:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T14:43:57","slug":"the-limelight-theo-brazeau-product-manager","status":"publish","type":"limelight","link":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/limelight\/the-limelight-theo-brazeau-product-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"The Limelight – Theo Brazeau, Product Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Limelight series focuses on employee culture across the iSpot organization. Follow along as we take a closer look at the real people behind one of the most comprehensive TV ad catalogs and more.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This month we interview Theo Brazeau, Product Manager\u2014and learn about his journey through a fast-evolving tech start-up like iSpot.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Theo
Theo Brazeau, Product Manager<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is your current role at iSpot.tv?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a Product Manager, which mostly means I help plan and drive the products on iSpot\u2019s road map. On a more day-to-day level, I\u2019m either in meetings or Jira (or both) working on anything from rollout plans to initial wires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did your background lead you to iSpot?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I have an English degree from the University of Wisconsin and took a job as a writer at a healthcare trade publication straight out of college. It was the worst job I\u2019ve ever had (and I\u2019ve been a janitor at a manufacturing plant). So, I quit and moved to Seattle on the advice of a friend. I accepted the first job I could, which, and I still can\u2019t believe how well it turned out, was on iSpot\u2019s Editorial team. From there I was eventually promoted to Editorial Manager and then moved onto Product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the typical challenges you face in your role?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As no two days are ever the same, the \u201ctypical challenges\u201d are always changing from project to project. But at a high level, identifying the \u201chow,\u201d \u201cwhy\u201d and \u201cwhen\u201d of a given project or product presents the greatest challenges. Otherwise, the hardest thing is wrangling people into a noontime lunch meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the most exciting part about your role?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Watching something come together from the \u201cwouldn\u2019t it be cool\u201d phase to actual launch. I also probably shouldn\u2019t say this, but there\u2019s a part of me that likes fires\u2014there\u2019s something exciting about the scramble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were an early employee of iSpot– how has your previous experience in one department influenced your work at your current department\/position?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

My work on the Content Ops team (or Editorial, when I was on it) has influenced me in probably every conceivable way. However, what most comes to mind is how I think about downstream effects. Something as seemingly simple as changing the title of an ad or merging duplicate commercials can have serious ripple effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During your time at iSpot, the company and the TV ecosystem as a whole has changed quite a bit. How has that impacted your role at this high growth tech start-up?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to grow with the company as we engrained further into the advertising industry and learned a ton in the process. It saved me a lot of money by not having to go to grad school. But really, it feels like just about everything has changed in some way or another, even the building itself. Gone are the days of wandering vacuum salespeople and the solitary Johnny Cash collage that served as our only decoration that came with the old building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the most rewarding\/ best perk of working at iSpot?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This is an easy one. The best part of any role that I\u2019ve had in the organization has been my coworkers. I like you guys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":7074,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463],"acf":{"expiration_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/limelight\/7071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/limelight"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/limelight"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/limelight\/7071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispot.tv\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}