In this blog post, Emmanuel Nwosu takes us through his internship experience at Motherboard, sharing the lessons learned along the way. From failing fast to earning great feedback on impactful projects, he provides a complete account of his growth as a Product Marketing Analyst at Motherboard.
Can a single internship change your worldview about a subject? In my case, at Motherboard, it was a resounding “YES!”
My journey with Motherboard can only be described as an adventure—filled with uncertainty, challenges, discoveries, connection, and transformation.
In early 2023, I found Product Marketing to be the holy grail of marketing as it showed the perfect symphony between product, people, place, and revenue. This piqued my interest and I began to immerse myself in research, and eventually readied myself to be job-tested.
As any entry-level marketer, I started actively looking for internships around August when I found Motherboard. I wanted a place where I could afford to fail fast; Motherboard gave me that opportunity. They're a very dynamic startup team with lots of talented people who are ready to guide you, and be patient when you fail. It was the perfect environment for early career growth.
I came across the Motherboard Internship announcement in a marketing community a friend had recommended. I applied for the role of a Product Marketing intern; it was a simple form fill, so I expected to hear back from the team.
Motherboard adopted a three-phase screening process for the internship program. It was the most grueling interview process I'd encountered so far. It felt like an odyssey that wouldn't come to an end.
The phases included assessment, an interview with the CEO, and a final interview with the Product Growth Manager. For the assessment, I was tasked with creating a simple strategy document for achieving product growth verticals. I was really excited to work on this.
Afterwards, I received an invitation to have a chat with the CEO, and for the first time since the process began, uncertainty crept in. I thought I had fumbled the interview with Lekan Olude when we started. However, I heard from the team again and was invited to a final interview with the team's Product Growth Manager–Lade Falobi.
I was thrilled to be accepted into the Motherboard Internship Program—it was a surreal opportunity. Finally, I could dive into real marketing! I was also excited about the project autonomy the company promised.
I remember my onboarding process all too well. During the onboarding meeting, Lekan provided us with a comprehensive overview of Motherboard—its model, products, and operations. And I remember thinking silently in the meeting, “this man is a genius!”
A marketplace for multi-variety employee benefits is not something that's been done right before in this part of the world. Seeing how Lekan and his team were navigating this impressed me. Everything was on point—design, marketing, product, and engineering.
I was introduced to the entire team, including the management leads who played crucial roles in supporting and guiding us. As a Product Marketing analyst, I was in the care of Lade. Throughout the week, I familiarized myself with more company-wide documents detailing Motherboard's operations, customer priorities, PR playbook, past marketing campaigns, PRDs, and more.
My first meeting with Lade provided insights into the product marketing department—the tools, communication practices, and strategic objectives. It was an enlightening experience, and by the end of the week, I was entrusted with project responsibilities for the upcoming weeks.
I undertook two projects at Motherboard: enhancing SEO capabilities and building a public vendor page for our merchants across different categories—let's codename the second project "Osprey."
At Motherboard, we embraced an autonomous approach to our projects, taking full ownership and accountability. While we were expected to have answers about our projects, collaboration remained essential, and we could always seek assistance from senior colleagues when faced with challenges.
My next step was to deliver a Vision Document. I'd never done this before—at least not in this setting. So naturally, I was a little finicky on how to even get started. Fortunately, Lekan provided a template I could use. I produced my vision document for my projects, and while it earned me a shout-out from my manager for spotting a crucial error in my research, the document failed to meet expectations. As an early-career person, feedback should be your bread and butter. And this is something the humans at Motherboard excel so well at giving—the word use, structure, and empathetic delivery.
On the project “Osprey,” I received candid feedback from Lekan and Lade that I'd totally missed the point with what we were trying to do. At that point, I learnt my first lesson: ask questions. There are more than a million ways to get things done (unless you're flying a rocket or doing something more methodical); never assume the one way you know is the right way to go. After another meeting with Lade, things became clearer and I ran with a new, adopted vision.
On the SEO project, I collaborated with the Design team to implement minor website changes, such as creating slotted error pages and fixing text disparities on the blog. These enhancements improved our page load speed by +10 on desktop and +9 on mobile, addressing a UX issue.
Regarding content, I didn't contribute much as we already had talented in-house content marketers. I think one thing that has worked so well for Motherboard is Lekan's undeniable genius in finding culture-fit hires. Generally, I think startups must learn this to save themselves from unimaginable pain.
Soon, I turned my focus to Project Osprey after my new vision document was approved. I first created a design layout for the project and then a PRD to present to all stakeholders in the company so the feature is prioritized.
Besides the solo projects I worked on, I collaborated with other analysts to automate the collection of health information profiles from employees, streamlining a process previously done manually by our BD team using Sheets.
During my interactions with the other analysts (fellow interns), I saw the power of collaboration first-hand and I learnt another lesson here: always create a convenient co-working space for every member on the team so that ideas can thrive.
I learned a lot from brainstorming with my colleagues and I particularly enjoyed being part of the team that worked on the Motherboard Christmas Perk Report, led by our superstar, Sophie. In this role, I interviewed employed Nigerians to know the perks they preferred they got from their employers during Christmas—and how employers can use these insights to reward employees. What we hoped to achieve with this was to create a system that allows employers to create a proper work compensation structure for their workforce, and effectively reduce employee turnovers. I also worked on the chart designs that laid the foundation for our designers to work their magic for the final result.
Altogether, these experiences led me to form great working relationships and connections with my colleagues—especially those on the product growth team.
Some of my biggest takeaways from working in my first role as an analyst in a B2B2C company is to:
In my final interview with my manager, Lade, she asked me a question: “what is the goal for you one year from now in your career?” I responded, “I want to learn a lot – how to do a lot – and reach mid-level marketing professional status by the end of 2024.”
Motherboard has certainly provided the pathway to make this happen. I learnt how to use a few tools on the job, like Mixpanel for product tracking and analytics. But importantly, I picked up so many other skills like documentation, effective collaboration skills, and product ownership, and I think I've improved my analytical eye a little. These are all core skills I'm sure I'll put to good use often as I continue my personal quest to bring amazing products that make life better to humanity. Thank you, Motherboard!
