Lessons from Craftsy and Custom Song | Tory Gray & Heather Kaeowichien

This week I spoke to Tory Gray, the CEO of Gray Dot Company, and Heather Kaeowichien the Product Management Director at Gray Dot Company.

They both have a wealth of experience working in product and engineering at companies like Craftsy, Custom Song and YourMembership. They now use their experience in product and engineering teams to get SEO strategies and roadmaps executed at organisations like Spark, Strapi and Uncorked Kitchen.

In this podcast, we discuss:

• How they both got into SEO
• How they both found themselves working in product
• How they crafted product roadmaps
• How they communicated projects to developers
• How they worked with developers to get things done
• How they’ve applied what they’ve learned at The Gray Dot Company
• The top 3 skills they’d teach themselves if they could do it all again

Tory’s recommended top three skills:

• Data analysis - How can we use data to tell stories that resonate with an audience and prioritize our recommendations based on business impact?
• Communication - Being able to communicate with multiple stakeholders in the business.
• Storytelling - Crafting a story to meet your audience's needs and get it to resonate with them.

Heather’s recommended top three skills:

• Minimal Viable Products (MVP) - Ensure you’re not letting perfection hold you back; releasing things into the world lets you improve.
• Showcase your work - Constantly communicate what you’ve done to different teams; don’t just get stuck at your desk.
• Insert yourself - You are in a role where every team’s work impacts your work, so don’t be afraid to step in and understand what teams are doing.

Where to find Gray Dot Company

Website: https://thegray.company/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrayDotCo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/graydotco

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GrayDotCo