Q&A with Paige O'Neill, CMO at Sitecore

"Success for marketers is defined by the ability to deliver experiences that are aware and adaptive to individual customers’ specific needs, in a way that is seamless to the end-user."

M7: What is your favourite part of working at Sitecore?
PN: I love working with organizations during times of change, and there’s a lot of that going on at Sitecore. We are in the midst of a complete marketing transformation at Sitecore that starts with our top-level messaging, augmenting those messages more towards the marketing department. We are doing this through a new visual identity and branding, an expansion of our demand generation function (which is scaling to map to new personas and go-to-market areas), and, finally, a complete digital transformation leveraging Sitecore’s technology to build a new version of our website and align our digital channels to the customer journey. It’s truly a thrill to be a part of.

"Consumers’ expectations outpace companies’ abilities; most organizations are still early in their efforts to transform the business for a digital world."

M7: What do you consider the biggest challenges for a CMO these days?
PN: Marketers have had to accept a heavy truth: it is up to consumers, not them, to decide when, where, and how to engage with their company. Success for marketers is defined by the ability to deliver experiences that are aware and adaptive to individual customers’ specific needs, in a way that is seamless to the end-user. In many cases, though, consumers’ expectations outpace companies’ abilities; most organizations are still early in their efforts to transform the business for a digital world. Getting there will take an investment in technology, and we’ll see marketers rely more on things like channel-agnostic services, machine learning capabilities, and data management systems. But marketers are also going to have to rethink their people and processes, so they have the right training and organizational design to make sure they can leverage the power of those technology investments.

"Marketers have to rethink their people and processes, so they have the right training and organizational design to make sure they can leverage the power of technology investments."

M7: The past year has seen Sitecore hiring four women in executive leadership roles. Is the gap between the number of men and women at Sitecore shrinking? How do you see it?
PN: Our CEO, Mark Frost, has always had a passion for diversity and bringing women into senior roles, and it’s been great to see him implement his proactive approach to inclusive hiring at Sitecore. As a result, diversity representation is definitely on the upswing - although we prefer to think of it as more than just a numbers game. Rather than having a quota for female hires, we focus on setting benchmarks that will ensure an equal representation of potential candidates for any position. We’re also taking a top down/bottom up approach to ensure that leadership is setting the right example, while every department is just as engaged in diversity practices.

M7: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self?
PN: Speak up! Articulate your professional goals and don’t wait for someone to notice you and hope they will give you an opportunity. There’s no way for those around you to know what you want, if you don’t vocalize it. I think a lot of time women in particular think if they work hard, someone will notice them, they will earn that promotion or be selected for that exciting opportunity, but I know from personal experience that making your career ambitions known, can pay dividends.