In this episode of The Get, I talk with Debbie Umbach, CMO of M-Files, about landing – and fulfilling – a CMO role in the age of AI. Debbie describes building AI capabilities inside a 50-person global marketing team, from hiring to designing new roles to leading change.
You will learn about:
- Differentiating yourself in a CMO job search, and the role of AI in that
- Key things to share with boards about your AI journey: not just what you’re doing but what is working well, what isn’t, and how you are building AI fluency on your team
- Scaling AI fluency and transformation across a 50+ person marketing team
- Carving out a new role: The AI GTM Transformation Leader
- The persistent importance of context and taste in the CMO role
- A framework for speedily building trust as a new CMO (Hint: balance authenticity, data, and empathy)
- Change management tips for leading AI transformations, whether your team is big or small
Some quotes:
- “Marketing is an ing. We’re always doing things. But WHY are we doing them, and what are the outcomes we’re looking for? I always am trying to get the team to think about, ‘okay, we’ve got these things to do, but why?’”
- “You can’t just change for change’s sake. You can’t just say, ‘We want to use AI to be more productive.’ Instead, it’s: ‘Why are we changing? How are we going to get better? How is this going to make your job better and more fun? How are you going to get to do the things that are more interesting?’”