Yahoo Women in Technology Profile: Keren Baruch, Product Manager, Desktop Mail Growth
posted by Michael McGovern, Talent Community Manager
Meet Keren, Yahoo’s Product Manager for Desktop Mail Growth in our Sunnyvale, CA office. Keren joined Yahoo’s Rotational Marketing Associate Program in 2013 where she worked in consumer analytics, international marketing, and product marketing before she was recruited onto the product team. Prior to Yahoo, she interned at Grovo in New York, NY. Keren studied at Barnard College of Columbia University where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Social History. Keren has always had a passion for women’s leadership - while in college, she was highly active in the Athena Center for Leadership Studies, where she served as a student advisory board member and launched a social action project to mentor high school girls about careers in technology.
How did you get interested in tech?
While studying at Barnard in New York, the most visible career paths were in finance and consulting - but neither felt right for me. A mentor suggested I take my passions elsewhere. She said, “You’re too out of the box - you should work in tech.” Even though I didn’t know much about the tech industry at the time, I landed an internship with a great edtech startup in New York called Grovo. After a taste of the pace and intensity of innovation in the tech industry, I knew I’d never look back.
What is it like working for Yahoo?
Yahoo mirrors the dynamism that made me fall in love with tech initially. It’s amazing to be a part of this renaissance moment in Yahoo’s history where so many smart people are working together to spread the Yahoo love to users across the globe. Because we’re in a period of transformation, there’s a lot of flexibility and opportunity to take on different challenges.
I’ve been fortunate to gain experience in multiple areas of Yahoo’s business through a rotational associate program. I started off in Product Marketing, where I developed deep knowledge of Yahoo’s products and marketing channels. Next, during my time in Marketing Research and Insights, I worked on consumer segmentation, lifetime value analysis, and a training program in Hive (a database query language) for non-technical Yahoos. Finally, I moved to London for six months to work with our international markets, where I developed and furthered a global understanding of Yahoo’s presence.
I’ve recently transitioned to Product and am super excited about my newest challenge: figuring out how to grow users and usage of Yahoo Mail as a Product Manager for webmail growth.
What is your connection to women in tech?
Trying to advance women in underrepresented fields is in my blood - I was heavily involved with Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies, dedicated to the advancement of women leaders. After realizing the power and reach of the tech industry and experiencing the gender imbalance in the field, I knew I wanted to create change. Through the Athena Center, I developed a social action project to mentor high school girls on careers in technology. I’m proud I was able to teach these young women about tech careers, and can now be a role model through my work at Yahoo. A couple of months ago, Yahoo for Good gave me the opportunity speak on a panel to high school students with Hack the Hood. It felt awesome to be able to advise and inspire with the opportunities Yahoo has given me.
Why is diversity important to you?
This is a no-brainer. At a macro level, there is plenty of research that shows that diversity in business drives innovation and improving gender equality across fields leads to economic growth. My growth team for Yahoo Mail represents an even more acute microcosm in which diversity is not only helpful, but essential in order to keep up. Our job is to drive growth for Yahoo Mail, a product that has been around for almost 18 years. We have scale, yes, but we also need to be extremely creative and resourceful in developing growth ideas that move the needle and take into account the diversity of our users. This requires that everyone brings a unique perspective to the table, something only achievable through a commitment to diversity.
What is your advice to aspiring women who are considering a career in STEM?
If you’re already considering a career in STEM, you’re doing the right thing! When I was younger, I found out pretty late that this was an option for me and wish I’d learned more about the technology industry sooner. Apart from this, I always tell women (and men) asking for advice to try things that are daunting or may not obviously result in success. I took an Athena Leadership Lab in college on Resilience, and the instructor encouraged us to “Try one thing where there is a 90% chance that you will fail.” I took this advice to heart and challenged myself to try things that scared me. Now I’m much more willing to move outside of my comfort zone. At Yahoo, this attitude has been instrumental in leading me to exciting opportunities where I have to stay sharp every day.
Lastly, what is your favorite Yahoo memory?
I now run growth experiments and work with engineers, but once upon a time at Yahoo I was part of an amazing, scrappy team that put on Yahoo’s live music and editorial activation at SXSW. We all worked long days and got our hands dirty with anything that needed to get done. One night, my job was to make sure that Wiz Khalifa, a star performer of the week, received a bucket of fried chicken at exactly midnight in his trailer. The best part was seeing the faces of the restaurant employees when I picked up the chicken and told them who would be eating it!
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