Young Pros Spotlight
John Gayanelo
What is your role / current company?
Product Manager/ ListenFirst Media
When did you join the ARF Young Pros?
June 2023
If you could give one piece of advice to other Young Pros, what would it be?
I would tell Young Pros to connect what they’re currently doing to what they want to do. I started my career in Client Services, pivoted to eLearning, and now work in Product. While I enjoyed my time in my previous roles I was always interested in making the shift to Product. Even though I didn’t have Product experience, as a user, I knew the pain points and frustrations with our Product, and in my previous roles I detailed those pain points to help the team develop a better product. Now I now try to use the knowledge from my previous roles to help my team make the product better.
What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
My proudest, and my most humbling, professional accomplishment was releasing my first product. It felt extremely rewarding to see people use a tool that you and your team took from idea to product. Seeing usage on a tool (hopefully) means that it helped some complete their faster or easier. And, as a former user it always feels great seeing your overall product evolve to meet the user’s needs.
Do you have a favorite campaign or activation? What made it stand out to you?
I really enjoyed the Resy pop up reservation desk activation at Flatiron. I thought it was a great way for Resy to gain more brand recognition as well as help its users get those highly sought after reservations. It stood out to me because they set you up with a restaurant “matchmaker” that matched you with top restaurants based on your taste and desired aesthetic.
What is one thing you have seen on the internet recently that made you smile? Work related or otherwise. (PG-13!)
The Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse Trailer! It’s a great movie, and everyone should see it.
What’s your dream job? (If money was no object, what would you do?)
I’d love to be a anime voice actor! I’m a big fan of anime, and I think it would be so much fun to be one of voices paired with the amazing animations and character personas on screen.
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