Hi Emil, who are you? Introduce yourself.
I'm Emil O'Doherty, 24 years old and originally half Irish & half Slovenian. I partially grew up in the Netherlands with my parents, three brothers, and sister; it's quite a sizeable group. I currently live in Bruges.
From an early age, I've been completely enthralled by digital products. I find it fascinating how they're able to offer tangible added value to people in just about any area of life.
I like to describe myself as a quality-driven enthusiast of all things digital and cultural. My interests lie in just about all aspects of music, film, culture, design, technology, comedy, language, usability & accessibility.
What about your hobbies? Do you spend your free time working on these digital products?
Absolutely. Like I mentioned, I have a lot of different interests. The overarching key phrase that connects all of them is intention. I prefer doing things very consciously. Most of my inspiration comes from seeing strong conceptualisation, storytelling, and production with careful attention to detail.
On a typical day, I like to listen to a combination of albums and podcasts, play guitar, and experiment with sound and design. I also like learning more about UX, productivity, and video production, and finally close out my evening with a film.
While watching films or series, I'll always analyse how some of the more "underlying" aspects such as the writing, art direction, editing, pre- and post-production, visual effects, and audio have been realised. That's a prime example of how I like experiencing things "consciously".
Some of my favourite experiences from this past year were:
- Albums: SÍOMHA - Infinite Space, Tennyson - Rot, Madison Cunningham - Revealer
- Film: The Worst Person in The World
- Series: The Resort
- Concerts: Jacob Collier @ O2 Academy Glasgow, Parcels @ Ancienne Belgique, Leif Vollebekk & Arny Margret @ AB Club, James Blake @ Cirque Royal
- Stand-up: Glenn Moore - Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, Glenn I'm Sixty Moore @ Pleasance Courtyard during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
- Book: Phil Wang - Sidesplitter: How To Be From Two Worlds At Once
You do marketing at Paddle. What does that consist of?
I manage all of the touchpoints with our existing and potential users, and try to clearly explain what's going on with Paddle and the Paddle CMS platform through our newsletters and release notes, during events, and on our websites.
With my interest in digital product development, I aim to find the balance between technical know-how and accessible communication. Everything we publish should be as clear as possible for our readers and users.
What got you into marketing?
I see marketing as a holistic endeavour. To me, it's an all-encompassing principle in which strategic, data-driven decision-making is equally at home as frequent experimentation, strong copy & clear and inspiring design. This means I get to do both analytical and creative work every day. That combination is highly motivating to me. There are a lot of ever-changing elements to it, which makes for interesting challenges on a daily basis.
What made you choose Paddle?
Paddle has important responsibilities towards many essential organisations, ranging from schools and hospitals to municipalities and governments. And to circle back to my holistic story: I find the proposition we offer to be very valuable. Our customers are also part of really interesting segments to work with in terms of our pure marketing efforts.
On a product level, I also hope to be able to contribute to the accessibility and user-friendliness of the Paddle CMS platform.
Paddle has a very driven and dynamic team. Everyone gets along really well, and that positive communication makes a noticeable difference in delivering good service to our customers.
What song would you loudly sing along to at a karaoke night?
My ears are a lot better than my vocal cords, so I would actually prefer to hold back during karaoke 😅 George Harrison's version of 'Got My Mind Set on You' is always a solid pick, though.
What are the goals and challenges in your job?
My two primary objectives are to keep our existing users well-informed about everything Paddle is up to, and to find new users for the platform. Additionally, I'd like to expand our current marketing platform and place more of a focus on services like Matomo-as-a-Service in the long term.
Currently, my main challenge lies in further exploring how our internal systems and processes work exactly, but I'm looking forward to what's to come.