Q&A with Magdalena Georgieva

I'm a Product Manager at HubSpot, a marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA. I started my career at HubSpot on the marketing team, where I was focused on content creation and running inbound marketing campaigns. After 3-4 years in marketing, I transitioned to the Product team because I wanted to impact the product decisions we were making and learn about building software from some of the most talented people in the industry. I now work with a team of software engineers to take our segmentation and automation tools to the next level and empower marketers to do the best work they can do.

Software / hardware

In my current product management role, I spend a lot of of time in Trello to prioritize ideas and assign tasks. When it comes to prototyping and user testing, I've been using Adobe Fireworks and InVision. I have a lot of Google Docs at all times and like to use them for drafting product announcements, taking notes from user testing, outlining action items, sharing soundbites with other teams, etc. I cannot work without listening to music, but keep switching between a few platforms, including Spotify, Songza, Grooveshark, and Pandora.

Ideal work environment

I think the ideal work environment should include spaces and tools for collaboration. We have actually done a pretty good job at building those out at HubSpot! There are whiteboards and markers everywhere, unbookable rooms where we can have quick meetings as needed, and standing desks whenever we want to move around. Right next to my desk there is a professional coffee machine that makes delicious espresso, so the invigorating aroma of coffee lingers softly. It's a space where I would go work at on the weekend.

Work inspiration

To develop a creative mind, one needs to make associations between seemingly unrelated items and see a pattern that wasn't immediately obvious. That is why I try to surround myself with people who have diverse interests. A lot of my inspiration comes from talking to others - exchanging ideas, finding out what excites them, and putting myself in their shoes for a moment. I also make it a point to participate in different activities, from volunteering and visiting museums to blogging and attending tech events, and they expose me to new ideas.

People you admire most

There are a lot of people at HubSpot who I look up to and want to keep learning from - Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot's co-founder and CTO; David Cancel, HubSpot's Chief Product Officer; Christopher O'Donnell, GM of our Inbound Sales product; Mike Volpe, HubSpot's CMO, and the list goes on. Outside of HubSpot, I admire Paul Graham for the work he has done with YCombinator and helping give birth to so many innovative start-ups. I'm also a big fan of Maria Popova, the founder of Brain Pickings and other remarkable projects, and Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur and academic, whose writing I greatly enjoy.