A Day In The Life - Melissa Wong ('20)
Education:
Singapore Management University
Previous Employer:
Grab
Day in the Life in:
Business Development Manager, MBA Intern
Company:
Zillow
Location:
Seattle, WA
SUMMER OVERVIEW:
I am interning at Zillow this summer as a Business Development Manager, MBA intern. The business development team in Zillow cuts across all functions and products; as the product teams focus on solving “right now” issues, the business development team helps the company look ahead, determine and scope out potential partnerships or new projects in the pipeline to support company growth.
For this summer, I am helping Zillow develop their strategy roadmap for ancillary services (e.g. property insurance, home warranty, moving services) that Zillow could prioritize and ultimately provide for their customers across Zillow Offers and their real estate online marketplace. I identified a suite of ancillary services and am assessing each service on certain metrics like margin opportunity, whether the service enhances the customer buying experience and whether Zillow could ‘win’ in that space. To make succinct and relevant recommendations, I have had to speak with both internal and external stakeholders to understand the nuances of each sub-industry and determine how each could fit into Zillow’s customer journey flow.
All Zillow MBA interns (Bizdev / PM / PMMs) are given a project that they own. At the end of 12 weeks, the final deliverable is a powerpoint deck with the insight I have gained, along with my final recommendations. There will also be an opportunity for me to present my deck to managers of the relevant business units.
Aside from actual work, Zillow has been very committed to ensuring that we are learning and enjoying ourselves as much as possible. This summer, I have had the opportunity to attend multiple intern speaker series sessions with C-level executives, as well as social events such as a boat cruise and a river tubing trip to Leavenworth!
COMPANY CULTURE
Zillow holds dear 6 core values – Act with Integrity; Move Fast, Think Big; Own It; Zillow Group is a Team Sport; Turn on the Lights; Winning is Fun. Everyone is always willing to help where they can and generally very open to sharing what they are working on. The environment is chill, and people typically leave by 5pm.
SKILLS AND RESOURCES UTILIZED:
Leverage connections (both internal and external) that the rest of the business development team already have, to get the data I needed for my project
Tap on the expertise and experiences of other teams within Zillow to better understand products and customer insights, which were very helpful in guiding my thinking and final recommendations
Storyboarding and presentation making skills
INSIGHT/TIP:
With such a broad project scope, I found it useful in the first few weeks to form my own presentation structure and storytelling arc. Working within my framework was very helpful in keeping me on track.
Business development involves meeting with many stakeholders from different parts of the organization as well as external partners. I always took time to prepare questions for my meetings beforehand to help facilitate discussions, and always made sure I provided context at the beginning of each meeting, so everyone was aligned.
Learn to read the room well – is the person you’re talking to big on details or prefers high-level brevity? Tweak your meeting/email styles accordingly for the best results.
DAY IN THE LIFE SUMMARY:
6:45-7:45am: I am very fortunate to have been allocated corporate housing that is just across the street from the Zillow office. As one of my outside-of-work summer goals, I leverage the time savings from my 5-minute commute, to work out on weekday mornings.
9:00-10:00am: I arrive at work – I usually grab a breakfast bar (sometimes a hot chocolate too!) from the pantry, that I eat at my desk while the computer starts up. I also check my work calendar to recap the meetings that I have planned for the day. I have my weekly 1-on-1 check-in with my manager today, and I prepare any questions or updates I have for him.
10:00-10:30am: My manager enjoys being kept closely in the loop on my progress – mainly so he can help to link me up with any external or internal stakeholders that might be useful in helping me collect the data that I need for my project. It is a good check-in: my manager really liked the structure and storytelling arc that I came up with for my presentation! 😊
10:30-11:00am: I work on my project deck (this is pretty much what I do whenever I’m not in meetings). I incorporate some of my manager’s feedback, continue the sub-industry research, and reach out to some co-workers on the product team that my manager recommended to get some quantitative data that I need for market sizing.
11:00-12:00pm: I head down to the 36th floor with some other interns on my floor to attend one of the intern speaker series with C-level executives. Today, we have a Q&A session with our CTO. Interns get to ask him anything, from the company direction to how he got to where he is. Interns from the other offices can also get in on the action through BlueJeans and can ask their questions through Slack.
12:00-12:45pm: Lunchtime! My team doesn’t have the tradition of eating together. I signed up for MealPal (a monthly lunch subscription service), so I collect my lunch and meet with one of the other MBA interns to catch up.
12:45-1:00pm: I have a 1pm call arranged with a home inspection company to get industry market insight. I will taking the call on my own, and I prepare and consolidate the questions I have for them.
1:00-1:30pm: I conduct the call with the CEO of a home inspection company over BlueJeans. It is a fruitful discussion – I managed to get the information I needed for my project while being careful to not over-promise on any potential partnership opportunities down the line.
1:30-3:00pm: I continue working on my project deck. I also prepare meeting minutes from my earlier call with the CEO of the home inspection company, that I send to my manager. The objectives of the minutes are not only to keep him updated, but he also uploads my notes to “Copper” – a shared portal with the corporate development team so everyone stays updated on Zillow’s engagements with external stakeholders.
3:00-3:30pm: I attend a meeting that my manager arranged with several teams across Zillow that have a vested interest in having an “insurance product” for their customers (renters, homeowners, etc). One of the goals of the business development team is to ensure that efforts towards the same product (i.e. insurance) is aligned across teams so as to avoid double work. My manager presents part of his “Insurance Project Plan” deck to everyone. My manager notes all the feedback given and sends out a summary to everyone shortly after the meeting.
3:30-4:00pm: I head to the 36th pantry for a coffee chat with a principal PM at Zillow. His current work is closely related to my summer project, so I wanted to find out more and share the insights I have so far. In addition, I am still trying to find out the difference between a business PM, technical PM and PMM at Zillow and wanted to see if he could shed some light on the differences. We had a great candid conversation!
4:00-5:00pm: By this time, my manager and other members of the BD team are gradually leaving (they leave earlier since they get in earlier; working hours are generally very flexible at Zillow). I continue working on my deck and prepare questions that I have for tomorrow’s meetings.
5:00-7:00pm: I head down to the lobby to meet the rest of the MBA interns for an MBA intern happy hour. Zillow’s office is right in downtown, so there are plenty of bars in close walking proximity. Today, we walk to a bar close to Pike Place market and catch up on how everyone is doing.
8:00-11:00pm: I meet up with some of my Anderson classmates for Wednesday trivia night at a bar. We made history tonight: we came in 2nd place and earned ourselves some free appetizers! Shout out to MVP Sandra Luu!!