Anna Shults Held

At a recent internal event, we had a great conversation about the balance between owned storytelling on our platforms, and earned media. The dialogue started with a simple question -- when should you consider one over the other, and why? Owned offers a controlled environment to craft and refine your narrative. Take our recent quantum partnership story as an example. This is a super complex topic with many difficult-to-grasp concepts. It involves work with a partner, who is equally invested in getting these complicated details right. It is the kind of story that benefits from a longer runway up front to get it right, and here it is presented concisely with supporting assets and a concrete example that allows audiences to learn as they read the story.   When it comes to earned media, the dynamics shift. Here, newsworthiness and external validation play pivotal roles. The credibility and often the reach garnered through earned media often surpasses what we can achieve through owned channels alone. So as we think about news moments and engagement with influencers, we pivot our owned assets to support these efforts, rather than lead them. As is so often the case :) we have to find the right balance, the right tool for the moment. Every organization needs to have the capacity to tell its own story, and to find the right time to lead there. This is what I think of as the "voice" of the company. And, the understanding that not every piece of news should lead with that voice.

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Will #GenAI lives up to the buzz? Read Sumeet Mathur's insights on how we're harnessing its power at ServiceNow to achieve tangible outcomes.

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Okay, this one is a little weird. Stick with me -- I've been really interested in a guy named Harry Nyquist this year. He was an engineer at Bell labs in the 40s and 50s, and he became known for his informal mentorship. Nyquist apparently had a knack for making other people better and drawing ideas out of them. A study documented that engineers who sat with Nyquist for lunch, filed many more patents than other engineers. David Brooks talked about Nyquist in his book "How to Know a Person." When I wrote about that here, someone else recommended "The Culture Code," which I've almost finished. I admire Nyquist (or at least the scraps of details I've found on him). I'd like to figure out how he did what he did -- how can you purposefully create an environment and a relationship that makes someone else better? For the decade or so I have left in this business, I'd like to be Harry Nyquist. Toward the end of "The Culture Code," I read this passage (it's kind of a non sequitur, but just hang on) -- --- "Whereupon we must ask: What is inside that pause, that Nyquistian moment of vulnerable, authentic connection?" --- That word -- "Nyquistian" -- absolutely jumped off the page. Then it followed me around for days. I just... loved it. I can't explain why. It just seemed to somehow encapsulate an ideal that I'd like to embody someday. So, with literally no plan in mind, I have purchased the domain name: nyquistian.org I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. For now, I've just put up a picture of Harry. Watch this space, I guess. When I figure out what I'm going to do, I'll let you know. Told you it was weird. (How about an organization? The International Society of Nyquistians? That has a nice ring to it. It sounds like something out of a Harry Potter novel.)

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One of the things I ❤️ about my job is being able to walk to work on our days in the office. Trivial? If you've ever commuted a long distance, you may agree walking as your commute is appealing, and can play a role in overall job satisfaction and mental health. The choice of #Oakland HQ was the decision of Everlaw CEO & Founder AJ Shankar who years ago identified a tech talent pool that prefers the East Bay over Silicon Valley. An unorthodox approach like that can bring great rewards. AJ has thought through many decisions with a strategy that often bucks a trend to deliver long-term and deeper value both to our employees and customers. One of those decisions -- perhaps the biggest for the company -- is how we develop software. In his new byline in The New Stack, AJ reveals for the first time his unorthodox approach. He argues that sprinting slows you down in software development. He shares Everlaw's way in hopes that other companies might adopt this methodology. The company manifesto says, “Our long-term philosophy impacts many aspects of how we do business: how we market, how we sell, how we close deals, how we support our clients, and more. Perhaps the largest impact is in how we develop the Everlaw platform...” A core reason I enjoy my work at Everlaw is its focus on long-term excellence and its deeply held values that play out in myriad of ways. The nice part is I get to think about this and more on my walk to work 😎 #Grateful #Buildforthelongterm #Leadership

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PMM Files ISSUE #63 is LIVE! This week, Jason Oakley and I feature Launch Narratives, Pre-Launch Hype, and Letting Users Write Your H1💥. PLUS, a free TAM calculator, how to describe PMM in one word and a practical framework for better PMM measurement. Check it out here 👇. DON'T FORGET! We are launching a premium version of PMM files- PMM FILES PRO! With PMM Files PRO you'll get: 1) More examples across more topics and use cases 😍 2) Easier ways to find the right inspiration fast when you need it 😎 3) Templates for rapidly turning inspiration into awesome projects 😱 Join the wait list so you can see how awesome it's going to be! https://lnkd.in/gUHs3ekk #productmarketing

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My first post on the Retool blog is live! I've spent a lot of time over the past few months using LLMs for all sorts of things. And they're really great at a lot of different kinds of tasks, but they're definitely not great at everything! In this post, I take a look at what sorts of tasks LLMs can absolutely help you with and where they struggle (and how to get the most out of them either way). https://lnkd.in/gTgiGxNf

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Bland AI is a YC-backed startup for customer service bots that has gotten buzz for its clever billboard ad and human-like callbot. But we learned that the bot, both in demo mode and when we programmed it through our own account, dangerously blurs ethical lines. What we learned from testing the Bland AI callbot: -It can easily be programmed to lie and say it’s human -The demo version of the bot will call a teenager from a “dermatologist’s office” and ask for photos -There’s a voice within the service that sounds a lot like ScarJo… Latest in WIRED, with Tom Simonite https://lnkd.in/g64BxeUR #AI #Ethics #CustomerService #TechTrends #ArtificialIntelligence

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Tribe AI raised venture capital to keep up with demand after six years of bootstrapping. Tribe AI founders, Jaclyn Rice Nelson and Noah Gale, told me that when they started the company in 2019, they had to convince companies that they needed an AI strategy, now they are raising their first outside capital to keep up with demand. More below 💰 #startups #venturecapital #artificialintelligence #AI TechCrunch https://lnkd.in/e6WTaqhG

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This is brilliantly written, by humans, about #AI from the #FTC. An excellent example of compelling copy and excellent content. A must read! with thanks to Zach Harned and Gregory Harned for bringing it to my attention! https://lnkd.in/gG-KVZeA

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What's been buzzing the loudest for me so far at HLTH Europe? AI, AI, and more AI, of course. Tongues have been tripping over those two letters in every conversation I've had today or listened to including these nuggets: Michael Chen of Nuclera: "Generative AI is wonderful because it brings more hypothesis-making power for the drug discovery researcher. But ultimately, we all know that AI isn't enough. You need to have the power at the wet lab benchtop in order to validate experiments and bring hits and needs into the local trials, and the quality of these hits and leads that ultimately will help the success rates in phase one through three clinical trials, which often don't rear their ugly heads until it's too late." Geraldine O'Keeffe of EQT Group: "There's a huge amount of investment opportunity in terms of AI-, SaaS-based models, in big data and machine learning in diagnostics, precision medicine...delivering the care you need better, faster, cheaper." Karen DeSalvo of Google: "The availability of AI, the ubiquity of it, and just how quickly that is moving [has been significant in the evolution of AI in healthcare]. What I'm hoping now is the next generation of this technology allows us to democratise access to health for people all over the world, and that we can start to do that much more quickly and much more equitably." Chiara Bucciarelli-Ducci, MD, PhD and Marlies Schijven on clinicians' take on AI: "To scale up adoption of AI in healthcare, industry needs to demonstrate to clinicians and healthcare providers the cost effectiveness and cost efficiencies that the technology can bring at every level." "More often than not, we find that AI does work and helps to bring efficiencies, but it also carries risk. So it needs to be properly explained." Agree, disagree, or follow-up comments on these soundbites? #genAI #AIeverywhere #medicalAI #healthtech #digitalhealth #AIfordrugdiscovery #techbio #healthAI #clinicalAI

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Join us for an important conversation next week about platform design and elections with Glenn E., Ravi Iyer, Kaili L., and Nicole Schneidman - how is tech getting in the way and/or facilitating election integrity? 🤔 https://lu.ma/59uxawc5

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Some exciting news today from Info-Tech Research Group! We've announced the launch of our new "IT Assistant," a generative AI chatbot that will enhance research content access and make the user experience that much better! With IT Assistant, ITRG is taking a major step forward in making our expertise more accessible and driving even greater value for our global community of IT leaders and professionals. Check out the press release for more information: https://lnkd.in/dgWE-_V4 #technology #informationtechnology #artificialintelligence #machinelearning #digitaltransformation #techtrends #chatbot #AI #innovation #generativeAI #CIO

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"I wouldn't mind making a terrible product and then selling it for $1 billion..." In the latest episode of The Goodman Podcast, Raj and I discuss: 💡 The rise and fall of the Humane AI pin 💡 Comparisons with other AI wearables like Meta's Ray-Ban sunglasses and Rewind R1 💡 The critical factors determining success in the rapidly evolving wearable AI market 💡 The broader implications for AI startups and investor confidence 💡 The balance between digital integration and personal control in our lives 👀 it here: https://lnkd.in/dFeXxtzV

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Join us tomorrow to hear Lisa Orr talk about navigating your next career move as a senior product manager, and me talking about the "mirage" of AI hallucinations. When artificial intelligence (AI) outputs don’t match our shared reality, people have been saying it’s "hallucinating." But hallucination makes it sound like AI is conscious and distracts from the part we humans play in generating synthetic meaning. Do words matter? Learn why we should all change how we talk about AI to promote better understanding in a future world with the ✨sparkling intelligence✨ of AI.

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Hot off the presses from Elon Musk: "You'll be able to send email and texts to Mars." Who will send the first interplanetary newsletter? I was listening to Musk the other day (while he was playing Diablo 4). Speak about all manner of things Starlink, SpaceX, AI, and Tesla. What really intrigued me was when he spoke about continuing to use one of the oldest forms of digital communication. Now, I'm sure there will be plenty of advancements by time we become a multi-planitary species. But it seems like Email is going to stick around for more than long enough for you to invest some resources into it. If you want to have a newsletter worthy of sending to Mars one day. You should start today and not 2039. Send me a DM today and let's have a chat about how email marketing fits into your business plan. P.S. I'll help you write organic newsletters even a Martian would want to read.

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Are you a founder or CEO prepping for fundraising? Or a GTM pro who works for one? You’ll want to check out our new interactive fundraising deck and executive summary templates. While AssetMule was designed to help GTM teams better engage prospects with interactive sales assets, we’ve started to see an influx of founders signing up to build their fundraising assets. And it makes total sense. Just like buyers, investors are overwhelmed with the amount of pitches coming their way and are harder to reach than ever before. Founders need new ways to rise above the noise and earn their attention. And that’s exactly what AssetMule is designed to do. Not only will these templates help you pull your core fundraising assets together in a fraction of the time and with less effort, but they’ll help you engage investors in a more meaningful way and book more pitch meetings. Check out the demo below and sign up for AssetMule to get started for free.

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Great to see MediaVillage.org recap last week's conversation between Razorfish CEO Josh Campo and 4A's CEO Marla Kaplowitz from the ANA AI Conference. "It is not a small undertaking to take your CRM data and have an AI platform understand and train on that data. That is not a simple thing without risk. You need to start walking before you run." Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eaysqaN5 #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #CEO

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So cool to facilitate this session

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What is RAG? Do we need it? What about Vector Search? Read the latest article from Eric Barroca to learn more.

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