Join Shannon Duffy, the CMO at Asana, as she takes us on her journey from pioneering the cloud, CRM, and software revolution at Salesforce to spearheading a remarkable transformation in the way people work at Asana. Shannon's expertise as a technology marketing veteran shines through this episode, and you'll gain invaluable insights on the power of fearlessness in pursuing big ideas and the resilience needed to learn from mistakes.
Quote:
“Be fearless. I think I was so in my own head like, ‘Oh, I’m different. I came from an acquisition, I don’t know.’ What I learned throughout my tenure at Salesforce is that people wanted different things. Salesforce supports bold ideas and doing things differently, not the status quo.”
Episode Timestamps:
*(02:00) - Ohana Origins: Shannon’s introduction to Salesforce
*(6:30) - What does the Ohana mean to Shannon?
*(10:00) - What’s Cooking: Shannon’s career post-Salesforce
*(13:30) - Future Forecast: What’s in store for the Salesforce ecosystem?
*(15:00) - Advice for aspiring CMOs
*(16:00) - Lightning Round!
Sponsor
Inside the Ohana is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.
Links
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Inside the Ohana. This episode features an interview with Shannon Duffy, chief Marketing Officer at Asana. Shannon leads asana's global marketing efforts including corporate product growth, revenue, and engagement. Before Asana, Shannon was Executive vice President, cloud and Industry Marketing at Salesforce. There she guided messaging experiences and go-to-market strategy for their [00:01:00] flagship products. A technology marketing veteran Shannon knows fearlessness to chase big ideas and having resiliency to learn from mistakes along the way will take you far. In this episode, Shannon takes us on her journey from being on the forefront of the cloud CRM and software revolution to radically transforming the way people work for the better at Asana. But before we get into it, here's a brief word from our sponsor. Inside the Ohana is brought to you by qualified. Qualified is the pipeline generation platform for revenue. Teams that use Salesforce intelligently grow your pipeline by understanding signals of buying intent and having real time conversations. Learn more over on qualified.com. So please enjoy this interview between Shannon Duffy, chief Marketing Officer at Asana, and your host Dan Darcy.
Dan: Welcome to Inside the Ohana. I'm Dan Darcy, chief Customer Officer at Qualified, and today I'm joined by my great [00:02:00] friend Shannon Duffy. Shannon, how are you? I'm doing great. Hello. I want to dive right into our first segment. Ohana Origins. So how did you discover Salesforce and start your journey?
Shannon: I like to say that Salesforce discovered me, Dan, and that's because I was acquired by Salesforce in May of 2010. And my company, a little tiny company called Jigsaw, was the first, like real. Business or people acquisition at Salesforce had done, up until that time they had done, you know, technology or some tuck-ins, but we were like a full fled business. And we were one of the first course many since many huge acquisitions since then, but we were the largest back in the day.
Dan: Well, I mean, gimme some of the details like, you know, what year was that? What was your job, your title, like your initial impression?
Shannon: So, so many things. So that was May 10th, 2010. That date is seared in my brain and I was like director of marketing. We had like an eight person marketing [00:03:00] team. I was the lead. So many impressions. I was so like overwhelmed. People were welcoming but also questioning. And I, I tell people like Salesforce really, cuz Salesforce at that time wasn't big. I think Salesforce was 3000 people, maybe 4,000 people. But you had like product marketing and PR and demand gen. And I remember people would be like, well who does product marketing? I'd be like me. They're like, who does pr? I'm like, also me, who does demand gen? I'm like, still me. And they were just like, what? Like we don't understand. So that was kind of my, my first impression, but also just being so impressed about this company that had been such a force, even back then in the industry to kind of be inside and see how they operated from a marketing perspective was just, Really, really exciting for me back then.
Dan: Well, you know, for the listeners and the viewers out there, jigsaw obviously was an acquisition company, but then rebranded. So what was the rebrand name?
Shannon: We rebranded as data.com. Yeah. And that, you know, we bought the Euro, we need a huge sort of Dreamforce launch around it. Yeah. data.com. And I hear allegedly that maybe data.com will come back for some [00:04:00] other products someday update. So I don't know. Stay tuned.
Dan: Yeah. I mean, it's always about the URL. So glad we got that.
Shannon: You know, it's a good, it's a, it's a great URL actually. Yeah, and Marc was the one that bought it, which was very a good marketing move.
Dan: Of course, it always is. All right, Shannon, it's time for you to brag a little, because I know you've had a lot of incredible success during your time at Salesforce, but what's one of the biggest successes you've had while working with Salesforce or something that you're really just proud of?
Shannon: I don't wanna say that, that no one expected me to be successful, right? Like I was this rando from the small company that we bought and I'm like trying to figure stuff out and I, I worked on data and then I worked on Parda and then I worked on Marketing Cloud and I worked on platform. And then by the time I left, you know, earlier this year I was running all of product marketing. And so I just feel very proud that the company trusted me enough. To give me more challenges and helped kind of do my unique brand of marketing across all of our products. I'm very proud of that.
Dan: Let's take the opposite side of the spectrum. What would you say is one of the biggest lessons you learned?
Shannon: I learned so many lessons. I, I mean, I'm definitely the marketer I am today [00:05:00] because of Salesforce and because of Mark and all the, the great ventures I had along the way. I think my biggest lesson is to be resilient despite all the successes that, you know, no one's journey is linear, and I got some feedback and some setbacks and there were failures along the way, and at any time I let that get into my head and stepped out, I wouldn't have continued to have that trajectory.
Dan: Well said, because I think it happened, it does happen to all of us. It's, it's just something that just continues on. I mean, I, I obviously share in that, you know, in that path.
Shannon: We used to talk about it. We had moments together back in the day. Right?
Dan: Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, if you could go back and talk to the Shannon that just started out with Salesforce, as you were coming on as an, you know, through Jigsaw, what advice would you give to yourself?
Shannon: I would say be fearless. I actually thought about this a lot and I would say be fearless. I think I was so again, in my own head and like, oh, I'm different. I came from an acquisition. I don't know. Yeah. And what I learned throughout my tenure at Salesforce is people wanted different Salesforce support, sort of bold ideas and doing things different, not [00:06:00] always the status quo. And I wish I had more confidence in myself earlier on in my career to be like that from the beginning versus having to evolve in that through various different situations.
Dan: I love it. Be fearless because it's like, your idea is, is just as great as the idea next to you.
Shannon: So, right, and the fearless and the resilience go hand in hand, right? Because sometimes you're fearless and they're like, Nope, that's wrong. I mean, one of, I think, honestly, the first words that Mark ever said to me was, I see what you're saying, but you're totally wrong. And he said it in a kind way, like it wasn't a bad thing. But again, if I had been like, oops, well I'm done. Like, where would I be now? But I was like, oops. I'll give you another idea someday that you might not like, but I'm gonna keep trying. Yeah, your list. Resilience.
Dan: I love it. I love it. So I wanna ask you about the meaning of Ohana, because I asked this of all my guests and everyone describes it a little bit differently. But what does Ohana mean to you?
Shannon: I think what's fascinating to me about Salesforce is there is this concept of friendly competition or cooperation or whatever that word is. Like there is a level of competitiveness, which in a lot of ways it's a good thing. It [00:07:00] pushes us to be better. But if you are having a bad day or if you need something from someone, the organization will rally around you at the same time. And so again, like we're all these, this group of people are working together to do something bigger, to change an industry, to market and sell in whole new ways. And sometimes there's, again, some competition or some, some tension that that creates, but the things that really, really matter, The, the PE people will step up and they will, they will help and they will do more work and they will go outside of their way to help you. So that's kind of what it means to me.
Dan: I love it. Well, you know, Dreamforce is coming up and I know we're gonna get into where you are now, which is at Asana, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in the next kind of segment in piece. But Dreamforce, as you know, is something that we would live and breathe every single year, and it was a big event and. And both you and I are not there as part of Dreamforce anymore, but I want to like ask you, do you have any special Dreamforce moments or stories?
Shannon: Is that like, there are so many, there are so many, and some that probably are not appropriate for, for [00:08:00] podcasting right now, but yeah. I, I love Dreamforce. Like Dreamforce is that like, you're so tired and you're delirious, but when you're done you're like, oh my God, I did this and everything from like being in the office. On a Sunday or at nine o'clock at night, having conversations about like, which version of Cody the Bear do we put on a slide all the way to like dancing on stage at concerts to, my favorite Dreamforce story is one year when I was working on Part Out, we had the cast of Silicon Valley at an event. Yeah. And that was when Silicon Valley was like the show, right? Yeah, but I, but I think it was like a show for, but like, For like tech people was the show, like other, I'm sure other people watched it. And we had this event and we did not realize we were gonna get the amount of interest. And so we literally had people lining up, like the police were called, like to see the Silicon Valley people. And we had the cast, you know these, these guys that play these, you know, characters. And they were like, what's going on? Because we needed to get police to escort us from one building to the other. Cause there were so many people. They're like, is, are these people here for us? I was like, you don't realize [00:09:00] in our industry how much this show means to us. They're like, dude, we live in la. No one even knows who we are. I'm like, welcome, welcome to the Bay Area Tech. You're rock stars here. Welcome home. That's awesome. Yeah, exactly. Like that's amazing. So that's one of my favorite dream poor stories.
Dan: I, I love that because, you know, it's funny cuz. I always used to tell people I had a hard time watching it because we lived it every day, and I know it is something big, but, and everyone was like, is that real? No, it felt like a docuseries. It didn't feel like a show. Like I know. Yeah, I know. I mean, and what's funny for people who don't recognize, they actually, you know, the, the writers of Silicon Valley would come to the different tech companies and find these stories, and then they would be, get displayed in this, uh, anyway. I know, I, I digress. But it was, yeah. Great. So that was a great, great draw. What a great draw, though. I mean, of like getting people to come there. So I, I know Saana is part of the Salesforce ecosystem as well, but are you looking to attend Dreamforce or, you know, is Asana gonna, you know, like, I don't know if you are, like what are you looking forward [00:10:00] to?
Shannon: We're so, so, you know, Dreamforce is a force in the industry. It's one of the world's largest tech conferences. It is. It is where you go. So we are working on sponsoring, exhibiting, because, That's where I think the industry goes to, to see who the vendors are and how people who are using Salesforce can be more productive, which is right in our sweet spot.
Dan: Well, let's get into our next segment. What's Cooking? So Shannon, you're now the cmo, the Chief Marketing Officer at Asana. Let's, I want you to talk about how you got to where you are now and what your journey has been like to get to your current role.
Shannon: Yeah, so I had a great run at Salesforce. I was there 12 years. I loved it. I learned so much, and I'm so grateful for Salesforce for teaching me so many things and making the marketer, me, the marketer, I was, It was fan fascinating being a company like Salesforce that literally was changing an industry and cha like it was a revolution in a lot of ways and changing the way, you know, software and people use software and how they use [00:11:00] software to connect with customers. And I think for me, like I, I was very picky about where I was gonna go and when I found Asana, it was such a natural next step for me because I had been on the forefront of this revolution around cloud and CRM and no software. And I look at what we're doing as Asana is radically transforming the way people work for the better. How do you make work more productive? How do you make, make work more enjoyable? And I was like, this is perfect. This is the next step for me. I see how this is the next changing force in the industry. I see why every company is going to need this and I can take all the amazing things I learned at Salesforce. And put it to, you know, a different model, a different type of software that is completely complimentary to Salesforce and not competitive in any way. So that, that's kind of why I joined and why I was really excited about Asana.
Dan: Well, what challenges then are you seeing now, and like how are you applying what you've learned really at Salesforce to those challenges?
Shannon: So I think we're creating a, I don't wanna say we're creating a, a category, cause the category exists. I think so many companies are just doing things the old way. Yeah. Using [00:12:00] spreadsheets and Google docs and, and things to that. That's how we work. I mean, that's how we worked at Salesforce a lot of the time. And Asana is, is revolutionizing that. We're like, how can you look at work differently and how are we facilitating cross team collaboration and how are we making sure that the work that people are doing lines up to company goals and objectives, right? Like that's really meaningful, like mm-hmm. So, so the challenge is how do I make sure I know everyone knows that they need it? How do I make sure every company know that they need it? That there's a better way, it's not just about, you know, spreadsheets. It's eliminating work about work and it's freeing you up so you could focus on the things that are important and having this sort of underlying, you know, platform or layer that facilitates these connections across the organization.
Dan: Well, what, what is next then? And, and how are you guys shaping the future?
Shannon: We are doing a lot. So AI is huge for us. The, the great thing about Asana is our underlying technology, the work grasp makes ai, um, sort of seamlessly added to our product. And if you think about ai, everyone's talking about, well, how do I use AI to make my work better? Well, guess what? Asana has that built in, [00:13:00] right? So if you're struggling with like, how do I use AI for work? Buy Asana, cuz we have it for you built in and you could use it right away. So that's gonna be huge. I mean, it's huge for everybody. It's particularly huge for us and in this space.
Dan: Well, let's get into our final segment, the Future Forecast. What do you envision as the future of the Salesforce ecosystem?
Shannon: The Salesforce ecosystem is going to continue to expand. I mean, when I joined Salesforce and you were already there, it was, we had what Sales cloud, service cloud platform, and kind of data.com and look at, look at where it is now with marketing and commerce and you know, c D P data, cloud tech, technology analytics with Tableau, slack for, you know, communication. It's just gonna get bigger. I think that anything that you kind of need. To sort of run your business or have that 360 degree view of your customer, Salesforce will have kind of built into their platform.
Dan: Well, can you give us a prediction of what the future of Asana looks like?
Shannon: [00:14:00] Implement AI so fundamentally and so deeply, it's going to be a completely seamless experience for all our customers. Gonna help them be more productive, it's gonna help them get work done faster, and it's going to help them foster really deep connections and collaborations at their company so they grow faster. I'm so, I am so excited. And our c e o Dustin is just such a, he is an expert in AI in a way that I feel really, really lucky. Like, you know, when I joined Asana, you know, all of a sudden kind of AI came outta nowhere and I feel so lucky that I joined a company that has a c e that is such an expert in this space and is so passionate about having it part of our product, but also done with sort of like principles of what it means and how AI plus humans work together, not sort of one or the other, or one displacing something else. I feel really, really lucky about that.
Dan: What I love about your story is that you started with data and now you're back in back data. You know? Now we're back. Yeah. Yeah, we're back. Especially, I mean, with training, you know, obviously these big learning models and [00:15:00] especially in the world of like how you think about, you know, transforming work with Asana. I think that's really awesome. What advice do you have for aspiring marketing leaders?
Shannon: Be flexible. I think if you're going to excel in marketing today, you have to be constantly willing to pivot and you have to be looking at what's happening, looking at the trends, looking at what people are buying, looking at the macroeconomic conditions, and you have to be constantly looking at your marketing and being like, does this resonate with the buyer? Is this relevant now? And that can be really hard. I think you need to be very data-driven, but also creative. And so when I, when I talk to people like marketing leaders, I'm like, assess yourself on the various different skills that you need. Creativity, you know, messaging, being data-driven. And if you rank lower than like a three out of five in any of those, make sure you're hiring to augment you and give those people sort of the autonomy empowerment to build out that aspect of your, your marketing org.
Dan: Before letting you go, let's have fun with a quick lightning round. Secret skill, not on the resume.
Shannon: I know all the moves to Britney Spears. I'm a slave for you dance. I know you didn't know that about me.
Dan: Yeah, I did. I mean, is that on YouTube somewhere?
Shannon: No, it's actually not. No. You feel like that's very late at late at night when those moves happen. Yes.
Dan: Exactly. Come out. Yes. In the keynote room especially. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Best way to spend an evening after work.
Shannon: I honestly, I really love tacos and margaritas and Mexican food, and if I could go to a Mexican restaurant with friends and just sit and gab and drink margaritas, that makes me very happy. Very simple lady.
Dan: Well, I'm a huge fan of Celia's and San Mateo, so huge shout.
Shannon: I went to Celia's yesterday! And so great.
Dan: Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Yeah.
Shannon: I went the Menlo Park one.
Dan: Oh, that's nice, nice, nice. All right. Favorite brand of anything?
Shannon: Sephora. I, I love Sephora, the makeup shop store and I, I, it's, I almost like [00:17:00] have an addiction there. Like I, I need some sort of like special v i p card. I go there. So much happy space.
Dan: I think I have a feeling I know what this answer to this next question is. You just run front row against your dream event. What is it?
Shannon: Britney Spears and she'll tour again. Mark my words. Yes.
Dan: Yeah, I know. Oh, free Brittany. And she has been freed. Yeah. So, well, Shannon, this has been so much fun, but before I let you go, I would love. For you to let the listeners know where they can find you, and if there's anything else you'd like to share or plug, like your open role.
Shannon: I'll say so many things. You can find me on LinkedIn, Shannon Sullivan Duffy, or Shannon Duffy as@asana.com. I would encourage you sign up for an Asana org. It's free and you will literally transform the way you work and connect your goals and collaborate across teams and. That's it, that's all I ask you.
Dan: Awesome. Well, I, I loved hanging out with you, Shannon. Thank you so much for the call today and, and really appreciate your time. Always a pleasure.
Outro: Inside the Ohana is brought to [00:18:00] you by our friends@qualified.com, the conversational sales and marketing company that's on a mission to transform the way B2B company sell. Go to qualify.com to learn more. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to rate and review it and tell a friend. Thank you for listening.