Stephanie Kuenn

Position title: Marketing Analytics Strategy Manager at the National Restaurant Association: 2014 graduate

What was your career path that led you to working with the National Restaurant Association (NRA)?

I started out my career in publishing, first in magazines and then moving to the publishing department at the American Library Association. I moved into a marketing communications role at YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) after that. In my five years at YALSA, I managed a website redesign, managed the launch of The Hub and the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, wrote (and won!) a couple grants, launched YALSA’s social accounts, and managed the development and launch of YALSA’s Teen Book Finder app. It gave me a pretty varied skill set, and I knew I wanted to try some new challenges. I was taking a lot of technology classes through SLIS at the time, and a specialist opened up at the NRA for someone with an interest in digital communication and a background in project management, and I just couldn’t pass it up.

Once I got there, my interest in data and customer-focused design led me into my current role as the Manager of Marketing Analytics Strategy, which I moved into last September.

You have an atypical job for someone with a degree from SLIS, so how do you use your degree in the position that you have?

My job is not a traditional library job, but my SLIS coursework was a great reinforcement for the on-the-job skills I learned. My practicum involved gathering user data for an online legislative library and recreating their tag taxonomy for better browsing, and using Google Analytics data to analyze user behavior. Just today, I got approval to lead a redesign for one of our company’s websites. I learned quite a bit about this in my Information Architecture class, where we redesigned an actual site in WordPress, and in a project management course I took during my final semester, where we created use cases, project flows, and other stuff I’m going to be doing in the next six months, albeit on a larger scale.

In addition, there are soft skills that SLIS helped me develop. My management coursework helped me a great deal when I became a manager. And because I was in the distance program, I learned how to use collaborative tools like Google Docs and Basecamp, which is handy because my company is split between two cities.
I also had to present a lot of information to my classmates, and the combined work in public speaking and PowerPoint was huge. I currently deliver weekly PowerPoint decks to some of our partners about the success (or shortcomings) of our marketing performance, and I know the experience I got creating and presenting in various courses helped me become confident in this area.

How has your time at SLIS influenced your career?

While I was at SLIS, I had a baby and switched jobs, and I had very good grades, so I’d say one thing SLIS influenced me on was the importance of time management! I learned the importance of focusing on customer needs and smart planning, and how doing those two things can ensure success no matter what you do.