In this inaugural episode of the Cohesion Podcast, Amanda sat with Katie Miserany, VP of Communications at Momentive, formerly SurveyMonkey. Katie Miserany has a diverse education and employment background, from journalism to education. However, she did not work with internal communication until moving to Momentive.
During the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the shutdown was causing everyone to work remotely. The shift caused them to reevaluate the importance of the audience they were serving.
What was also interesting was that Momentive was in the process of rebranding and utilizing AI to build momentum. They even picked the “Momentive.AI” web address to highlight their emphasis on AI in their products and how their platform supercharges people’s ability to accomplish their goals.
Momentive was thinking about both the internal and the external communication strategy in this time period. According to Katie, they had yet to settle on a name first.
“We wanted a new name to give us a fresh page to tell the story of our enterprise offerings and the expanded scope of what had originally just been Survey Monkey, which was such an amazing ubiquitous product.”
It is true. When you think about online surveys, you think “Survey Monkey.” However, they felt that the name did not describe the reach of their products. What most people don’t know is that Momentive has incredible products. One is a CX product called “Get Feedback,” along with a market research solution used by consumer brands and financial services firms for brand trackers, industry trackers, and concept testing. With a breadth of products that solved various business issues in multiple fields, they wanted a name that reflected the high level of work and resonated with customers.
Enter Momentive!
Katie gave three “must-dos” for the rebranding process and experience:
- Rebranding is a unique position to be in. It could be a career-defining moment as it is impactful and long-lasting.
- When considering your new internal comms strategies, draw on first principles and their effect.
- Specifically, view decisions through the lens of the employee. Ask what kind of experience you want to create for them.
While many may think the podcast was only about a rebranding story, it was a subject that hit close to home for Katie. She went through “rebranding moments” while transitioning through her career. Katie, an English major in college, found herself in journalism and then a teacher. But what showed her ability to thrive is the range of her experience, especially in the startup culture.
Her first experience was with an early online design company called Tiny Prints. Much of the team, along with the founder Laura Chang, were women. What was unique about the business was that while it was a tech company, there was a large amount of creativity involved. It was also a lifestyle brand. This unique blend of culture opened the door for Katie to utilize the burgeoning tools of social media to elevate their company. Interestingly, the autonomy and trust given to Katie by her leadership helped her become more innovative.
One piece of advice that Katie emphasized was that she was open to potential because everything was so new. She credits her youth and not knowing how things were supposed to be. But in reality, Katie believes that opportunity comes from raising your hand.
“In a startup, there’s a lot of chaos, and there’s a lot of ambiguity,” Katie said. “But in that ambiguity, there’s a ton of opportunity. So if you are a self-starter and you are able to see a path and you want to raise your hand say, ‘Hey, I could run this.’”
And she did!
Katie is an example of the unlimited potential of the unknown. Many people want to keep tight control on their journey. However, she is proof that the best results come from a range of experiences and a leap of faith.
As for the rest of the story on the name transition from Survey Monkey to Momentive, you will have to listen to the podcast. We do have to say that the incredible culture and leadership at Momentive have created a work environment where people love to work. In fact, according to an internal survey, 93% of employees with a disparate global workforce were proud to work at Survey Monkey-Momentive. That is uncommon in any industry. And at Simpplr, that makes us happy.
The podcast is available on Simpplr’s website, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify to listen to the podcast.
