Interview with Global Marketing Programs Manager at JetBrains by Michael Vinck
Today, the blog JetBrains is not an ordinary post: Maria Antropova, the head of the marketing research team at JetBrains, interviewed Michael Wink, who works for us in the role of Global Marketing Programs Manager (and from his answers it is clear what kind of post it is). Some readers of our blog (especially those who write in PHP) may know Michael from his previous area of ​​responsibility in JetBrains.
Reference: Mikhail Vink has been working in JetBrains since 2012. He joined the company in the position of Product Marketing Manager (PMM) in the PhpStorm team. Now he is engaged in debugging various processes in marketing. He graduated from LETI program "Computer Security and Information Security." In the past - the owner of your own web studio.
With Misha, we call up on Skype, since two and a half years ago he transferred to the Munich office. Hereinafter italics - approx. the interviewer.
')
Misha, hello. I would like to start from the time when you have not worked in the company, because almost every employee has an interesting story about how he got into JetBrains. Share your?
Yes, this is a really interesting story. Many of our employees got into the company after completing the “classic” path: first 239 (Presidential FML No. 239), then the St. Petersburg State University mat-mech. When I first got settled, and my profile appeared in the corporate network, many employees thought that I was my brother. He just studied at 239 and on the mat-meche. That is, according to the standard course of events, it was logical to assume that this is it. But it was me who studied in a regular school and further on at LETI. It happened.
Can you tell us more in detail how it happened? Perhaps we should go back to student days?
Probably even earlier. I began to look for the first job in the 7th grade. First he helped in the summer at the father’s computer company, replaced the secretary. Then I decided to find something else, but they didn’t take me anywhere except Oriflame. I did not want to work at Oriflame, because, according to rumors, young people involved in this were often beaten in the process. Somehow I made my father an online store and got a laptop by barter. I understood that I could do this. I sent about 30 resumes, made a test task for one company and got a job as a junior PHP developer. He worked for them for a year and a half remotely, and then went on to freelancing. There were more features. This freelance flowed smoothly into my first own company.
First? There were others?
Yes, I had a total of three companies. All were somehow connected with the development. The first then smoothly turned into the third, which was engaged in the development of software, web services and consulting. The second was born from one of the projects on the development of advertising automation systems. By that time, as I was about to leave the business, we confidently occupied several niches related primarily to the real sector of the economy: information products for marketing and selling auto parts.
Many people do not like work “on uncle” and consider their own business to be the ultimate dream. How did it happen that you left your business in someone else's business?
In service development, it became boring, because projects and customers were essentially the same. But I didn’t have my own ideas about creating my own real product or the idea of ​​a grocery business. At some point, I met the founder of the GameChangers project , Sergey Dmitriev ( not to be confused with Sergey Dmitriev, the founder and president of JetBrains ). He told me: “We have GameChangers, just for you.” I didn’t really understand what it was about, but I went to an interview with Veronika Vetrova, and they took me. It became interesting to me how a normal grocery business in IT is being done and not only. I decided that I had to sell my companies and go to a normal place to work.
Do your companies exist now?
Now there is no, as I said, the first company was reborn into the third, in which I had a partner. I sold it to my friends, and they integrated and assimilated it into their process. The second company was opened for the project, the project ended, the company was closed. Everything that happened at the time of the sale to a third company, became for me an additional argument to why I do not want to have my own business.
Apparently, it was a very busy period of life. What advice would you give to people who want to do business in Russia?
I would give advice to study the materiel and understand how to secure yourself in advance within the framework of the realities that actually exist, especially at the moment when the business grows to a little bit significant volumes.
You came to JetBrains to PMMa, why not a developer?
I don’t reach the developer level in JetBrains, and I’d just not be a programmer.
Not hard to work with programmers?
Easy because he is close to programming.
What was the most difficult thing in your first year at JetBrains?
Learning to wait: not everything I want is done quickly. We have not only product teams, but also divisions that primarily solve internal tasks (design teams, researchers, internet marketing, etc.). Everyone has their own priorities. And my priorities are not always put in the first place, which is absolutely normal for a large company, but as a representative of a small business it was difficult for me to get used to it.
You worked as a PMM for a long time, how would you define the main task of a person working in this position? I know that each in its own way formulates the answer to this question, it is interesting to know yours.
PMM is a person who has to think about the product business, be an attorney for the users of the product within the company and the team.
Does this mean you had to communicate with users a lot?
Yes, it was almost a permanent part of the work. We went to some markets through the community.
PhpStorm is intended for PHP developers. How would you describe the main specifics of this market?
PhpStorm audience and, for example, WebStorm has a low threshold for entering the programming language for which the IDE is intended. Logging in to these languages ​​is easy and cheap. Learning curve is very different from languages ​​like Java and C #. This increases the company's responsibility for learning to use the body. Those who are just starting out don't know much. The same PhpStorm for them is redundant, and you need to teach users to use its capabilities, so that the tool brings more joy.
A year ago, you became involved in new tasks, transferring your business to PhpStorm Anna Lebedeva. What problems are you solving now?
I work on several projects, they differ greatly in content.
The first is the various activities on the plug-in ecosystem, the plugin repository. The second is the adaptation of marketing strategies and activities for the development of new markets in specific markets. Those where you need to adapt marketing and sales strategy. The third project is technical integration and automation related to user support.
Can you give an example of a specific market?
For example, the Asian market has a very large cultural specificity. There is a weak penetration of the English language (you can see detailed statistics here , for example), localization is very important. We recently returned from a long business trip, all presentations were in local languages ​​using a translator. Companies there prefer to buy from local distributors, so resellers have a huge influence on the choice of product users. Also in China is traditionally a high level of piracy.
What do you think is the most significant event in the software development industry in the last two years?
There is no one event, everything happens evolutionarily. Technology is rather a product of evolution, not revolution. Even if there is a new technology, to create real projects on its basis, time is needed, and it is not always possible on a living product. Interestingly, there is a long shift towards cloud services. From what can be seen in the trend of IoT (Internet of Things). There is a huge number of devices, a series of hacks has recently shown how vulnerable this area is. The explosive popularity has led to the market of companies that traditionally made things and were not familiar with computer security. More data leaks are happening. But this is not something revolutionary.
What do you think, how will the development market change in the next 5 years?
You can only speculate. There is a feeling that the development market is not changing very quickly. If we are talking about IDE, then JetBrains is already 17 years old, and more and more often there are predictions that the development market will go to the clouds. A good example is GitHub and many server products, products for team work. It is said that IDE will die, but it does not. In the next 5 years, there will be no major changes in how programmers work. There will be a more intense transition to cloud tula, in addition to the classic desktop-based IDE will develop Cloud IDE. New languages ​​are emerging: such as Kotlin. But Kotlin also develops evolutionarily, it appeared a few years ago and is improved with each version.
Recently, the IT-related media industry, and just users of social networks, is concerned about the wide dissemination of artificial intelligence. Rumor has it that robots will replace people, and this will happen not only at the supermarket box office, but also in intellectual areas. How do you think the prospect of such a replacement for programmers is real?
The development market is unlikely to change what robots will be. Artificial intelligence - the theme of the last year, but in reality, the technologies that are used for decades. Just computing power increased, and it became possible to apply these technologies in more areas. Robots have been around for a long time; many things can be replaced with them. In Germany, a study was conducted on whether clerks could be replaced by automation. Conclusions: it is possible to replace about 51%, but not necessary, it is not clear in this situation what to do with people. Interesting tests with unconditional income. True, they did not do this in Switzerland , but they are still testing it in Finland and discussing it in the USA . Perhaps unconditional income is what we are heading for. But in those markets where cheap labor, people will remain in the ranks.
Here we are already immersed in the field of social philosophy and are moving away from IT itself. Maybe it's not bad for people to continue working?
If we are talking about countries where labor is being exploited, especially children’s, then this is hardly good. In economically developed countries, this is not the case, and the very idea of ​​unconditional income implies the continuation of work by many people, but at the same time guarantees them a minimum level of income to encourage them to change jobs to a more suitable one for them without fear of losing money for renting an apartment or food. After all, a happy and productive worker contributes much better and more successfully to the economy.
But when you realize that these changes will be with you, it becomes both uncomfortable and very interesting. In general, changes in the employment market (and unemployment) will entail tremendous changes, primarily in education.
I recently listened to Esther Wojcicki , a professor from San Jose, and she talked about an alternative model of education: about what you don’t say about what students should do, they should understand the topic in practice. In general, the paradigm of how children and adults learn is going to change soon. This is already happening and even scaling. When I was going to move to Munich, I really liked the GameChangers, they attract really cool experts and thought that it would be nice to organize something like that there.
And now I go to the CDTM as a free listener - this is similar to GameChangers, and there such programs were created at universities in 1998. These programs are designed to cover the knowledge gap that exists between graduates and accomplished professionals, experts.
Since we are talking about expertise. Returning to work at JetBrains, what are your knowledge and skills as the strongest?
First, organization, structuring of what I do. I write a lot. I like to prescribe everything to put it in my head. It also allows you to retrospectively assess how well decisions were made.
Secondly, the love of numbers. I will not say that I think well, but I like to do it myself. We once discussed with you, it was easier for me to first calculate some things on my own, so that you (the marketing research team) checked the calculations and made your predictions. This saved a lot of time, since I could not demand from you as deeply and seriously to understand the market of PHP-development and the specifics of the product, at the same level as myself. I hypothesized, believed, came to you, tested, and it was a super fast strategy.
What motivates you?
Basically, these are internal motivating factors, and, first of all, boredom. It became boring - I went to do something new. At the interview, our HR director Natasha Chisler asked me what will happen when I get bored with JetBrains? It is good that the company has the ability to switch between projects, so it will hardly become boring at one time. In addition, I am pleased to do people well. But external factors are not very important for me. There are people who need a positive feedback, without it they dry up - this is not about me.
If you had the opportunity to go back to the times of studying at the university, what would you spend more time on?
I would do the same. As I said, we have many of a particular school and university. I had another way. If I went to the mat-mech, I would not be engaged in business. First, I would be kicked out quickly because of absenteeism. Secondly, from Peterhof ( there are hostels and academic buildings located there. It takes 40 minutes to get to the final metro station of St. Petersburg ) you are not hitting business meetings. I like what happened.
Reference: Mikhail Vink has been working in JetBrains since 2012. He joined the company in the position of Product Marketing Manager (PMM) in the PhpStorm team. Now he is engaged in debugging various processes in marketing. He graduated from LETI program "Computer Security and Information Security." In the past - the owner of your own web studio.
With Misha, we call up on Skype, since two and a half years ago he transferred to the Munich office. Hereinafter italics - approx. the interviewer.
')
Misha, hello. I would like to start from the time when you have not worked in the company, because almost every employee has an interesting story about how he got into JetBrains. Share your?
Yes, this is a really interesting story. Many of our employees got into the company after completing the “classic” path: first 239 (Presidential FML No. 239), then the St. Petersburg State University mat-mech. When I first got settled, and my profile appeared in the corporate network, many employees thought that I was my brother. He just studied at 239 and on the mat-meche. That is, according to the standard course of events, it was logical to assume that this is it. But it was me who studied in a regular school and further on at LETI. It happened.
Can you tell us more in detail how it happened? Perhaps we should go back to student days?
Probably even earlier. I began to look for the first job in the 7th grade. First he helped in the summer at the father’s computer company, replaced the secretary. Then I decided to find something else, but they didn’t take me anywhere except Oriflame. I did not want to work at Oriflame, because, according to rumors, young people involved in this were often beaten in the process. Somehow I made my father an online store and got a laptop by barter. I understood that I could do this. I sent about 30 resumes, made a test task for one company and got a job as a junior PHP developer. He worked for them for a year and a half remotely, and then went on to freelancing. There were more features. This freelance flowed smoothly into my first own company.
First? There were others?
Yes, I had a total of three companies. All were somehow connected with the development. The first then smoothly turned into the third, which was engaged in the development of software, web services and consulting. The second was born from one of the projects on the development of advertising automation systems. By that time, as I was about to leave the business, we confidently occupied several niches related primarily to the real sector of the economy: information products for marketing and selling auto parts.
Many people do not like work “on uncle” and consider their own business to be the ultimate dream. How did it happen that you left your business in someone else's business?
In service development, it became boring, because projects and customers were essentially the same. But I didn’t have my own ideas about creating my own real product or the idea of ​​a grocery business. At some point, I met the founder of the GameChangers project , Sergey Dmitriev ( not to be confused with Sergey Dmitriev, the founder and president of JetBrains ). He told me: “We have GameChangers, just for you.” I didn’t really understand what it was about, but I went to an interview with Veronika Vetrova, and they took me. It became interesting to me how a normal grocery business in IT is being done and not only. I decided that I had to sell my companies and go to a normal place to work.
Do your companies exist now?
Now there is no, as I said, the first company was reborn into the third, in which I had a partner. I sold it to my friends, and they integrated and assimilated it into their process. The second company was opened for the project, the project ended, the company was closed. Everything that happened at the time of the sale to a third company, became for me an additional argument to why I do not want to have my own business.
Apparently, it was a very busy period of life. What advice would you give to people who want to do business in Russia?
I would give advice to study the materiel and understand how to secure yourself in advance within the framework of the realities that actually exist, especially at the moment when the business grows to a little bit significant volumes.
You came to JetBrains to PMMa, why not a developer?
I don’t reach the developer level in JetBrains, and I’d just not be a programmer.
Not hard to work with programmers?
Easy because he is close to programming.
What was the most difficult thing in your first year at JetBrains?
Learning to wait: not everything I want is done quickly. We have not only product teams, but also divisions that primarily solve internal tasks (design teams, researchers, internet marketing, etc.). Everyone has their own priorities. And my priorities are not always put in the first place, which is absolutely normal for a large company, but as a representative of a small business it was difficult for me to get used to it.
You worked as a PMM for a long time, how would you define the main task of a person working in this position? I know that each in its own way formulates the answer to this question, it is interesting to know yours.
PMM is a person who has to think about the product business, be an attorney for the users of the product within the company and the team.
Does this mean you had to communicate with users a lot?
Yes, it was almost a permanent part of the work. We went to some markets through the community.
PhpStorm is intended for PHP developers. How would you describe the main specifics of this market?
PhpStorm audience and, for example, WebStorm has a low threshold for entering the programming language for which the IDE is intended. Logging in to these languages ​​is easy and cheap. Learning curve is very different from languages ​​like Java and C #. This increases the company's responsibility for learning to use the body. Those who are just starting out don't know much. The same PhpStorm for them is redundant, and you need to teach users to use its capabilities, so that the tool brings more joy.
A year ago, you became involved in new tasks, transferring your business to PhpStorm Anna Lebedeva. What problems are you solving now?
I work on several projects, they differ greatly in content.
The first is the various activities on the plug-in ecosystem, the plugin repository. The second is the adaptation of marketing strategies and activities for the development of new markets in specific markets. Those where you need to adapt marketing and sales strategy. The third project is technical integration and automation related to user support.
Can you give an example of a specific market?
For example, the Asian market has a very large cultural specificity. There is a weak penetration of the English language (you can see detailed statistics here , for example), localization is very important. We recently returned from a long business trip, all presentations were in local languages ​​using a translator. Companies there prefer to buy from local distributors, so resellers have a huge influence on the choice of product users. Also in China is traditionally a high level of piracy.
What do you think is the most significant event in the software development industry in the last two years?
There is no one event, everything happens evolutionarily. Technology is rather a product of evolution, not revolution. Even if there is a new technology, to create real projects on its basis, time is needed, and it is not always possible on a living product. Interestingly, there is a long shift towards cloud services. From what can be seen in the trend of IoT (Internet of Things). There is a huge number of devices, a series of hacks has recently shown how vulnerable this area is. The explosive popularity has led to the market of companies that traditionally made things and were not familiar with computer security. More data leaks are happening. But this is not something revolutionary.
What do you think, how will the development market change in the next 5 years?
You can only speculate. There is a feeling that the development market is not changing very quickly. If we are talking about IDE, then JetBrains is already 17 years old, and more and more often there are predictions that the development market will go to the clouds. A good example is GitHub and many server products, products for team work. It is said that IDE will die, but it does not. In the next 5 years, there will be no major changes in how programmers work. There will be a more intense transition to cloud tula, in addition to the classic desktop-based IDE will develop Cloud IDE. New languages ​​are emerging: such as Kotlin. But Kotlin also develops evolutionarily, it appeared a few years ago and is improved with each version.
Recently, the IT-related media industry, and just users of social networks, is concerned about the wide dissemination of artificial intelligence. Rumor has it that robots will replace people, and this will happen not only at the supermarket box office, but also in intellectual areas. How do you think the prospect of such a replacement for programmers is real?
The development market is unlikely to change what robots will be. Artificial intelligence - the theme of the last year, but in reality, the technologies that are used for decades. Just computing power increased, and it became possible to apply these technologies in more areas. Robots have been around for a long time; many things can be replaced with them. In Germany, a study was conducted on whether clerks could be replaced by automation. Conclusions: it is possible to replace about 51%, but not necessary, it is not clear in this situation what to do with people. Interesting tests with unconditional income. True, they did not do this in Switzerland , but they are still testing it in Finland and discussing it in the USA . Perhaps unconditional income is what we are heading for. But in those markets where cheap labor, people will remain in the ranks.
Here we are already immersed in the field of social philosophy and are moving away from IT itself. Maybe it's not bad for people to continue working?
If we are talking about countries where labor is being exploited, especially children’s, then this is hardly good. In economically developed countries, this is not the case, and the very idea of ​​unconditional income implies the continuation of work by many people, but at the same time guarantees them a minimum level of income to encourage them to change jobs to a more suitable one for them without fear of losing money for renting an apartment or food. After all, a happy and productive worker contributes much better and more successfully to the economy.
But when you realize that these changes will be with you, it becomes both uncomfortable and very interesting. In general, changes in the employment market (and unemployment) will entail tremendous changes, primarily in education.
I recently listened to Esther Wojcicki , a professor from San Jose, and she talked about an alternative model of education: about what you don’t say about what students should do, they should understand the topic in practice. In general, the paradigm of how children and adults learn is going to change soon. This is already happening and even scaling. When I was going to move to Munich, I really liked the GameChangers, they attract really cool experts and thought that it would be nice to organize something like that there.
And now I go to the CDTM as a free listener - this is similar to GameChangers, and there such programs were created at universities in 1998. These programs are designed to cover the knowledge gap that exists between graduates and accomplished professionals, experts.
Since we are talking about expertise. Returning to work at JetBrains, what are your knowledge and skills as the strongest?
First, organization, structuring of what I do. I write a lot. I like to prescribe everything to put it in my head. It also allows you to retrospectively assess how well decisions were made.
Secondly, the love of numbers. I will not say that I think well, but I like to do it myself. We once discussed with you, it was easier for me to first calculate some things on my own, so that you (the marketing research team) checked the calculations and made your predictions. This saved a lot of time, since I could not demand from you as deeply and seriously to understand the market of PHP-development and the specifics of the product, at the same level as myself. I hypothesized, believed, came to you, tested, and it was a super fast strategy.
What motivates you?
Basically, these are internal motivating factors, and, first of all, boredom. It became boring - I went to do something new. At the interview, our HR director Natasha Chisler asked me what will happen when I get bored with JetBrains? It is good that the company has the ability to switch between projects, so it will hardly become boring at one time. In addition, I am pleased to do people well. But external factors are not very important for me. There are people who need a positive feedback, without it they dry up - this is not about me.
If you had the opportunity to go back to the times of studying at the university, what would you spend more time on?
I would do the same. As I said, we have many of a particular school and university. I had another way. If I went to the mat-mech, I would not be engaged in business. First, I would be kicked out quickly because of absenteeism. Secondly, from Peterhof ( there are hostels and academic buildings located there. It takes 40 minutes to get to the final metro station of St. Petersburg ) you are not hitting business meetings. I like what happened.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/325820/
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