mParticle SVP/Head of Identity Solutions on Identity in Product

It was a treat to learn about identity solutions from Todd Schoenherr of mParticle. We appreciate him taking the time to chat with us.

Why does product management matter to you?

This answer should make any product manager smile.

“In growing tech companies, it’s the most important function for a company to be successful. It sits at the intersection of so much. The PM function can make or break a startup or tech company.” 

What makes a great product manager?

Product managers have to keep a lot of plates spinning, all while keeping the customer in mind.

“I think a great great product manager is someone that then excels at a number of different areas. Great product managers, they have to kind of be curious and empathetic to the end-users that they’re ultimately building the product for.

It’s the versatility and being good at so many things, where you’ve got to be building a product that you know is going to be successful in the market. You’ve got to build a product that people are gonna love using it to solve the right problems. You have got to build a product that is going to be commercially successful and strategically and competitively differentiated. Do all that while also, you know, kind of aligning all your stakeholders and doing all that well.”

On his Identity Solutions role at mParticle.

Schoenherr understands the special role he serves.

“My role is a little unique. It’s Head of Identity Solutions, which is really kind of a Product Management role first and foremost, but also kind of heavily weighted to the product strategy and commercialization side of things. My role is really focused on the identity aspects of our product. Identity is something that’s kind of a hot topic in marketing now. It’s really kind of core to a lot of the things happening in martech and adtech the future going forward.”

How does identity play a role in product development?

“Anytime that we do anything online, or increasingly, in any kind of digital-enabled context, whether that’s at a kiosk in-store, or otherwise there are one or more identities present. Or we provide some of those identities. On a mobile phone, if you’re using an app, there’s an identifier that Apple makes available, there’s an identifier that Android makes available. If I log in, I’m providing my email address in a lot of cases. 

So, what I mean by identity is each person has kind of this cloud of digital identities that all have different characteristics in terms of the amount of time that they stick around, the privacy implications of those. For martech and adtech systems, and really any type of system, a lot of fraud and things like that, are heavily dependent on the concept of identity. But from mParticle’s perspective, it’s really how do we provide tools that allow marketers to build these profiles that they can attach customer behavior to and customer knowledge that they have and do all of that in a privacy-friendly way. So, that’s really the focus on identity that we’re providing.”

What’s the biggest asset product managers have today?

Identity solutions are, and will increasingly be, an asset to PMs.

“A data and identity asset, which they have the ability to build now is really, really exciting. If you’re a Product Manager in a brand that is trying to really do anything across the marketing and advertising space and build a martech and adtech stack, that’s what mParticle is helping them do. 

That’s an exciting thing because having that really allows them to provide the best experiences to their customers. And that’s really, really important. That’s the most exciting thing that that product managers have going for them now. The ability to put together a suite of tools that allows them to really do some fantastic things for their customers and provide some really unbelievable experiences.”

Products That Count is proud to partner with mParticle to provide incredible insight from their product-focused team.