Danielle Darby and Redefining Creativity with Video

Having been with Adobe for over six years, and approaching seven this year, Principal Product Manager, Danielle Darby’s career journey has evolved and she couldn’t be happier in her current role. Prior to joining Adobe as a product manager, Danielle was originally working as a financial analyst. When she made the career switch and pursued an MBA, that’s when Adobe came into the picture. “During my summer MBA internship, I worked with designers who lived and breathed Adobe’s tools, and it was always so inspiring seeing them use the products to bring to life the specs I created. When Adobe came onto campus, I knew I wanted to work there” she said.

When she joined Adobe, she was part of the MBA rotation program that saw her in three different teams—the Photoshop team, the Student team, and finally the Video team, where she’s been ever since. “Having started on the Photoshop team was such a cool experience. It’s _the _flagship product and in many ways is the reason why people join Adobe. I learned a ton and it solidified that this is where I wanted to be.”

But it was the video team that ultimately caught her attention. Having been really interested in video as a means of communication, especially on social media, Danielle knew she had found a team that perfectly aligned with her career and interests. As a Principal Product Manager for Adobe Premiere Rush, Danielle’s day-to-day can vary, “I’m the lead for the product and focus on driving product initiatives and prioritization. We’re looking at a lot of competitive research and we have a tight-knit, small beta group called the Rush Insiders from which we gather a lot of user feedback. With this information, we’re looking to introduce more features and improvements that our users care about.”

Helping Our Users During COVID-19

When we asked Danielle how her team has had to shift priorities and support customers in new ways, she acknowledged that with video, there’s been a lot of interesting opportunities. “We recently hit a monumental milestone in monthly and daily active users. People are using their downtime to demonstrate new ways to be creative. As a result, our team has been working on creative ways to scale up our content to help new users get started and share tips and tricks for creating videos for social.”

Not only that, the Rush team has also been holding community social hours, where they’re bringing in influencers to tell their story and give advice on how they create video content. The team recently hosted a Rush Insiders digital happy hour to learn more about this group’s video workflows and find out what’s changed, so that the team can better assist them. “We’re learning more about our users than ever before” said Danielle.

The Dream

When asked why working for the Rush team is so unique, Danielle was quick to answer. “Working on a product like Rush is a product manager’s dream. Because we’re a new product, it’s exciting but also really challenging. It’s been so rewarding to go from concept to launch and see how the product is evolving. Now that we’ve launched, I get to work with a dynamic, rapidly changing market and a user base that’s redefining creativity.”

“Our users inspire me every day. The explosion of video as a form of communication still drives me to this day, and I love engaging with our customers who use Rush to tell their stories. Many people are new to video, but they have a compelling story to tell and excitement to share it. I love how our products can help them.”