On the job with Lindsey Wilder, Product Marketing Manager

At Uber, Product Marketers bridge the gap between product managers and corporate marketing to help bring what’s new to life for users worldwide. They have a seat at the table to influence strategy and decisions that make our products inclusive, impactful, and disruptive. No one knows this better than Lindsey Wilder, a 4-year Uber veteran who leads our New Verticals Product Marketing team, helping people get anything you might find in an aisle at your local grocery, pharmacy, liquor store and more delivered directly to their doorsteps.

What makes Product Marketing at Uber different?

“At Uber, Product Marketers have direct input at the front end of product decisions and planning because we understand core users’ needs. Product Marketing serves as the voice of the customer in key tradeoff discussions and works tirelessly to ensure that Uber’s apps continue to get smarter and even easier to use. I joined for the opportunity to work with some of the greatest Product Marketers in the world, learn directly from them, and solve some of the most interesting problems of our time––that’s also what keeps me here today.”

What has been one of your proudest moments?

“In 2019 we were trying to scale Rider-to-Eater, the strategy of cross selling our core rider base to try Uber Eats. Through testing, we found that some of our top performing messages were anchored around ordering food delivery through the same account that you use for Rides. The insight was that consumers wanted to order food on the go and use the core Uber experience. To make the product more effortless for these consumers, we worked with the product team to build a lightweight experience allowing Riders to directly order Uber Eats without leaving the Uber app.  

This was the first time we pushed for the “super app” experience we have today. I worked on the messaging and positioning and partnered with our PR team to plan the launch. My favorite nugget that I’m still proud of to this day is that we were able to sneak an easter egg for the tech team into the launch comms. The internal product code name was Xiaolongbao which is a type of soup dumpling. The idea behind the name is that the dumpling looks delicious on the outside, but there’s a fun surprise of filling or soup inside which is the same as ordering from Uber Eats while using the Uber Rides app. The assets we shared showed the ordering flow of actual Xiaolongbao from a favorite restaurant in the Uber app, which the team thought was a total coincidence.

Those types of early launches precede media to help get the narrative going and get people asking the right questions about our strategy. It has really taken off and evolved!”

How do Product Marketers grow and develop at Uber?

“I believe that growth and development should not only be focused on a specific milestone, like getting promoted, but also on the skills you’re building to get to that milestone. It’s about working on products that are impactful, learning and growing as you go, and broadening the scope and complexity of your work. In Product Marketing, we use core competencies to measure our skills and there’s a really clear progression timeline to help people get where they want to go. It clearly maps the skill sets and scope that you need at each level. Personally, I’ve been lucky to have consistent leadership and advocacy, not to mention the opportunity to work on really interesting, high-impact projects. I think success is measured by your sphere of influence, growing scope over time, and direct impact on disruptive products, which leads to career growth and promotions.”

What do you look for in anyone joining your team?

“We look for insightful marketers with strong skills across various business acumen, the ability to think through consumer experiences and user journeys, develop messaging and positioning, skill at putting together a coherent strategy, and of course a firm grasp at measuring it. That said, we aren’t looking for any one type of person––we’re trying to identify the next wave of talent and how we can bring them into Uber and grow them into the next generation of Product Marketing leaders.”

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