Role: UPWARD Analyst (currently Brian Distelburger's Chief of Staff)
Previous Roles: Platform Services, Hitchhiker Team
I spent a lovely 6 months on the team, from August 2019 to February 2020.
I was on the team before AFTs were even a glimmer in Howard's eye, so I implemented some early clients on Answers, including Byte Federal (a bitcoin ATM company), 16 Handles (a personal favorite - you can find flavors by location!), and Dime Bank (who moved to a search-first site after we implemented), among a few others.
I'm not sure I knew what JSON or CSS were when I joined the Hitchhikers team, so my proudest accomplishment was definitely gaining proficiency in a variety of programming languages and expanding my understanding of web and product development.
[Liz editorial - but LOOK WHAT SHE BUILT!]
It's hard to fully tell right now, but being on the Hitchhikers team gave me a deep understanding of our Answers product as well as the challenges it solves for our customers. It built a solid foundation for me to build on in my subsequent roles at Yext!
Clients really lean on and trust their Admins for guidance and recommendations about their search strategy. My clients constantly asked me what content they should be adding to their sites, both in the search function and beyond.
The very first client I implemented (Byte Federal Bitcoin ATMs) kicked off about two weeks before Onward. I was just learning how to launch Answers (before any of the new, awesome training materials existed) but the client was coming to NYC for Onward, so the team was eager to launch ASAP. The Friday before Onward, after a few unsuccessful attempts (and with a lot of help from product manager extraordinaire Rose Grant), they finally went live on their site and were thrilled about the early success when we met at Onward.