Challenges

Portfolios can make it seem like everything’s a smooth ride, but like our social media feeds, that’s not reality. Any role or workplace will have its unique challenges. Here are a couple of mine and how I responded.

The jargon dilemma

Sometimes, there’s an ongoing struggle about what constitutes jargon and what doesn’t. People generally agree to avoid it, but it gets complicated when stakeholders are also concerned about demonstrating knowledge and speaking the language of their audience.

Expressive or functional?

There can be tension between expressing the brand and developing creative that performs in the short term. At Udemy, our quarterly centerpiece sales were always trying to find the right balance. This was a timely moment to stand out from the competition. But it was also still a promotion that needed to be clear and meet revenue targets.

Promotional dependency

Udemy was built on providing on accessible and affordable education to all. That meant very frequent promotions, to the point that consumers were conditioned to only buy courses during a sale. This wasn’t a sustainable situation for a public company with high expectations for continued growth.