RICK AMES: Hi, everyone.
So thank you for joining
us for another edition
of inside Google Cloud
YouTube live event series.
So today, we're talking about
enterprise sales and customer
engineering.
So we're going to spend
about 15 minutes talking
about the roles of an
enterprise sales rep
and a customer engineer
in Google Cloud
here in Apache, how
they work together
and interesting challenges
we face here in a pack.
We'll then spend
the last 15 minutes
of the session answering some
live questions from all of you
out there.
We have two chat moderators
standing by in the back
to take your questions.
But first, some introductions.
My name is Rick.
I am the head of executive
operations for Google Cloud
here in Apache.
Joining me today is Angela Koh.
ANGELA KOH: Hello.
RICK AMES: From our
field sales team.
And Jay Jenkins from our
customer engineering team.
Hi guys.
ANGELA KOH: Hello.
RICK AMES: They're both
located here in Singapore.
So let's get started
with some introductions
from the two leaders.
Angela, can you tell me a
little bit about yourself
and your journey
to Google Cloud?
ANGELA KOH: Sure.
Thank you, Rick.
Hi everybody online.
My name is Angela.
I'm the few sales manager
for Google Cloud base
here in Singapore, taking care
of the Southeast Asian region.
I'm two weeks away to my one
year in Google Cloud itself.
RICK AMES: Congratulations.
ANGELA KOH: Thank you.
JAY JENKINS: And
I'm Jay Jenkins.
So I lead our customer
engineering team
in Southeast Asia and
I've been with Google
for 5 and 1/2 years.
RICK AMES: OK.
So we've got some diverse
sets of experience there.
So, Jay, you've been
here for five years,
so why don't you
tell me a little bit
about how you feel Google Cloud
has changed over that time?
RICK AMES: Yeah, so I
guess Cloud in general
was very different
5 and 1/2 years ago
and Google Cloud is
also very different.
So we've seen a lot of
changes in Google Cloud a lot
of new products coming out.
Cloud is constantly
changing and really pushing
the boundaries of what's
possible inside of Google
Cloud.
I think, especially
here in Apache,
we've seen a lot of changes.
So starting out
with sort of those
Cloud native organizations
that know how to use Cloud
and are born in the Cloud.
And more and more now, we're
seeing large enterprises
looking at Cloud as well.
And for those large enterprises,
they approach things a bit
differently.
And there are a lot of
learning that need to be done.
And also a lot of legacy
applications that now
need to move to Cloud.
And with that, a lot
of new technologies
are being invented around that.
So with those new technologies.
And with those
new products, it's
quite daunting but also quite
exciting from a technology
perspective because
you get to learn
new things every single day.
RICK AMES: And, Angela, I know
you've spent a lot of time
in the Cloud industry but
you've said about a year
here at Google Cloud.
How are you finding
things so far?
ANGELA KOH: I mean
it's been great
and I've joined a number
of organizations before.
I joined Google Cloud obviously.
And I think one thing
that really is very
different about Google Cloud.
It's really the
culture and the people.
And that was what attracted me
to join Google Cloud itself.
I think first thing
first, I'm a [INAUDIBLE],,
I love to [? beaut ?] things.
And Google Cloud to me as a
relatively young organization,
compared to some of
the other organizations
but it's got really
amazing technology
that I can relate
to the everyday life
that we have it
like YouTube, Gmail
and the different technology
that corporations can leverage
for their business.
And to be able to be part
of that pioneer group,
co-creating of our customers
and leading a team,
I think it's really exciting.
And that's what I've been doing.
RICK AMES: OK.
So you mentioned customers
and you mentioned
you working with them.
So Google Clouds ecosystem, it's
quite unique in the industry.
So can you walk us through
the teams that exist here
at the company to work with
customers when they're first
coming on board?
ANGELA KOH: Yeah, sure.
I can start first and
then Jay can chime in.
I think first and
foremost, obviously, we
have the sales team, which
I lead a team of sales
and especially for Jay as well.
He leads a team of
customer engineering team.
With this two teams which
typically out of this team so
engage with the customers.
And I think from the sales
point of view what we really
focused on is the
customer's priorities
and what you're trying to
achieve from the business
perspective.
The sales team would
try to understand really
the priorities, the vision.
And typically the sales team
tech team at the customer
engineering team
to look at what are
the things the technology
from Google Cloud perspective
that we can do to actually help
the customer along the journey?
And I'll let Jay share a
little bit more on that.
But beyond this portion,
we do have a big team here
in Google Cloud in Singapore.
We have [? auto ?] office
of the CTO who is actually,
CTO is from other
organizations prior,
giving domain
expertise and knowledge
and sharing to our customers.
We do have professional
services team.
So we really look at
it as a big family
supporting our customers.
JAY JENKINS: Right.
And the partner team as well.
ANGELA KOH: Exactly.
JAY JENKINS: Right.
So super important to
get those customers
involved with the
right kind of partners
in order to support them.
I guess maybe to add onto that
because customer engineer isn't
a term that's widely used.
And maybe talk
about the difference
of what a customer engineer does
as opposed to a sales engineer.
One of the reasons why we named
the customer engineers customer
engineers is because they
are so customer focused.
It really starts with
the understanding
who the customer is,
what their problem is
before we start suggesting
what kind of technologies
to bring in.
And we're talking about
beyond sales as well.
Once we're working
with the customer,
we're tied to that
customer because it's not
about moving a single workload.
It's about introducing them
to the new technologies
and the new innovations
that Google is coming out
with every single
year, making sure
that they're aware of that.
And then helping them
optimize those workloads
and modernize those
workloads over time.
So the customer engineer is a
real partner with the IT team,
understanding what
the business is
trying to achieve and make
sure that they achieve
those business goals through the
use of Google's technologies.
RICK AMES: So it's
a relationship.
It's pre-sales, post-sales,
it's a constant interaction
with the customers helping
them on their Cloud journey.
ANGELA KOH: It's a partnership.
Whatever it takes, whatever
the customer needs,
we will pull into relevant
people and support them.
RICK AMES: OK but from your
personal perspective, so
field sales,
customer engineering,
these are quite different roles.
How exactly do you
guys work together
when you're talking
to customers, when
you're out there in the field?
ANGELA KOH: We work
very well together.
RICK AMES: Good.
ANGELA KOH: I
guess is about what
I've mentioned really,
understanding the customer's
priorities.
So typically, I think the
sales team will take that lead.
And then once we understand
what the customer is trying
to achieve, we will bring
the customer engineering team
in this well.
We will have regular sessions,
joint sessions as well.
Where we visit the
customer together.
Sometimes the engineering
team will independently
with the architects and
technical team of the customer
[? arc ?] as well.
JAY JENKINS: That's right.
It's really about
the sales teams,
discovering what the
business goals are
and figuring out the
business value that
needs to be created
with the customer.
And then from there,
involving the technology team
to make sure that
we're picking the right
technologies to support
those business goals.
So our customer
engineering team then
comes in, as well as with the
specialist engineering team,
which we also have.
So we can have deep
conversations around each
of those technologies
and how they can add
value inside that organization.
RICK AMES: So, that
makes sense but I
think probably one
of the challenges
that you guys face is just
the diversity that you're
going to run into
across Asia-Pacific.
All sorts of different countries
and cultures and languages.
Can you guys talk a
little bit about how
you've dealt with that?
How you think about that
and maybe some experiences
you've had here in Apache?
ANGELA KOH: I think one of the
things in terms of diversity
take a look at
Southeast Asia itself,
which is the region I'm from.
There is like Thailand,
Indonesia, where there
is a lot of local language.
Sometimes it really
helps when you
have local people
talking to the customers
because you can
understand them better.
I think culture is very
important as a people
business at the end of the day.
People connect to people.
And about finding talent
is one of the things
to making sure that we find
a right people to join Google
Cloud.
Having the same
vision about having
our customers' interests.
Enjoying building
the business together
and partnering with the
extended teams as well.
JAY JENKINS: Yeah, and
I think it is also--
you're right that there's
a lot of diversity
in industries as well across
those different countries.
So it's a really complex system.
And what we need to do
is approach each customer
individually and really
understand and empathize
with the customer.
And in depth right so
developing that customer empathy
understanding the goals
that that customer is trying
to achieve and using
that as a starting
point with each of
those customers.
So as an example,
I mentioned earlier
that we had all these
Cloud native organizations
but now enterprises are
starting to move along as well.
What I've noticed is there
are a lot of companies
that really think about Cloud
as just renting a server.
And they're using a new
platform in an old way.
And what we really need to
do with those customers,
again, is understand what
their business goals are
and help them use the
new platform in a new way
to help them reach
those business goals.
RICK AMES: The
transformation journey.
JAY JENKINS: Exactly.
And understanding that
each of these organizations
is going to move at
a different pace.
Some of those
organizations are going
to have to continue to run
these systems on premise
for a long time and now
there are new technologies
that actually leverage
Cloud technologies to help
them run those things on prem
on their own hardware as well.
And it's still
our responsibility
to help those customers achieve
that, help them do that,
so that they can be
prepared for the future.
RICK AMES: OK.
ANGELA KOH: Think about
it in a perspective
of thinking global
but acting local.
RICK AMES: So guys it sounds
very complicated to me.
So, let's talk about this.
This is a complicated
high-growth environment.
I've worked at a number
of organizations before
and I would definitely
categorize this one
as high-growth.
With high-growth there's
a lot of pressure.
And there's a lot of pressure
to perform and achieve
those growth goals
and objectives.
So with all that and
with all the complexity,
how do you guys take
time with your teams
to celebrate success
and keep people
motivated to move forward?
ANGELA KOH: All right.
I think in Google
one of the things
that if you read up a
little bit more about us,
our heritage will be we place a
lot of emphasis on our people.
And it's the same
in Google Cloud
and it's the same
in my team as well.
I think people is the number one
asset we can scale the business
without them number one.
I think the second
thing in terms
of how we manage to
keep that morale high.
That's what you're asking.
I think it has to also lie
back with us individual.
And as a manager
like myself, I make
sure that no matter
how busy we are we
take time out for the team.
We celebrate you know progress
that we make along the way.
And because we are in such
a high-growth business
and we are building
new things I think
we need to really
make that deliberate
effort to celebrate it because
we are not managing a business.
We are really building
it from scratch.
And I think that
kind of recognition,
that like Jay, myself
and the extended team
has, we all have
the same mentality
really helps the team.
And it motivates them when they
actually land something big,
when they win.
We celebrate that no
matter big or small.
JAY JENKINS: Absolutely.
So we have actually
a weekly stand
up meeting for Southeast
Asia and people dial
in from the region every Monday.
And it's an opportunity
for us to talk
about the things
we've accomplished
and talk about the things
that we're going to do.
And also to congratulate
and thank each other
in an open forum.
And we do that every week.
RICK AMES: Hear the shout
outs and the applause.
And the celebrations.
Absolutely.
ANGELA KOH: And one
more thing I just want
to add that it's really
different about Google.
Especially, I joined
for the last one year
is that it's a place with
really helpful people, really
great people.
If you go around asking for
help, everybody can be busy,
but nobody would
really refuse you.
I think you just need
to make that effort
and it's like paying it forward.
And then when it's your turn,
you help the next person.
JAY JENKINS: And this is a
really exciting time as well.
I mean especially if
you're a technology person.
There's so much happening and
so much growth happening and so
many opportunities.
And another thing that helps
us is having that common goal.
Helping those customers
build cool things
that matter for them.
Having that impact being able
to see that direct impact
with these organizations.
Applying these new
technologies, learning something
new every day.
Those are the things
me as an engineer,
as a technology person that's
what gets us up in the morning.
RICK AMES: You're doing
something that matters
and you can see the results.
That's pretty powerful stuff.
ANGELA KOH: Exactly
RICK AMES: OK.
So let's pause
here for a second.
It's a good point, I think.
And let's jump to
some of the questions
that we have out
there from you folks.
So the first question--
So something we get
asked a lot actually.
If you guys were to share from
your personal perspective,
what advice would you give
people to be successful here
at Google Cloud?
ANGELA KOH: Sure you
want me to start?
OK.
Yeah.
So one of those
moments that I always
think about whenever I think
about my journey here at Google
is whenever we first
built this office
that we're sitting in now.
Which was just a
couple of years ago.
And one of the questions
that they asked at the time
is, why do you need an office?
Google, you have tools that
help you work anywhere.
Why not just have
everybody work from home.
And the answer is, the people.
And it's the people in this
office that make you better.
So whenever you're
working inside of a team,
you really need to work to
reach out to those other teams
as well, because it's not
just about Google Cloud.
It's about Google at large.
I'm a very big believer in
lateral thinking and taking
ideas from all across Google
and bringing that into the job
that you're doing
inside Google Cloud.
So it's really important
to think broadly
across Google, learned from
all these super smart people
that you get to work with
and then take what you learn
and apply it to your job.
And maybe to build on what
Angela is saying earlier
is knowing when to ask
for help because people
are so helpful here.
And yes, a lot of smart
people but also with a lot
of humility.
And people here who
want to make you better.
People here who will
advocate for you
and attribute ideas
to you as well.
That's what's important
and that's what's amazing.
ANGELA KOH: One thing which
is on to what Jay has just
mentioned is when I first
joined Google, I was like, wow,
this is amazing and all we
have all this beautiful place,
awesome people, awesome food.
And then I got to
realize as well like
as we get to networking
and we hang out
at the barista that
we have, very nice.
You're on level five, is that
you get to meet a lot of people
outside of Google Cloud.
And one of the things like
what Jay has mentioned
is also to network.
Not just within Google Cloud
but also of Google Cloud and to
connect and understand
the culture.
What is important to Google,
at the same time within Google
Cloud itself, tapping
on one another's
knowledge experiences
people in my team
was working in Google, now in
Google Cloud for nine years.
And he has worked
for different--
Four different
divisions within Google.
Think of all the amazing amount
of knowledge and experience
that he has.
And last but not least as well.
It's really about
being open, being
open to learn from others.
There'll be people who
are a lot younger than you
but they may know more than you.
Be open to absorb
that people who
are more experienced than you
and having that open mentality
I think is really important
RICK AMES: OK.
Well, let's build
on that a little bit
and talk a bit more
about that person
with nine years of experience
that you're talking about.
So the tech industry
at large you guys
have been involved for
a number of years now.
And so in your experience
here at Google and things
that you've seen and people
that you've talked to.
Talk to me a little bit
about the career journey.
Like what does your personal
individual growth potential
look like here with Google
Cloud and with greater Google?
I think if you look
at Google Cloud,
like for me, I'm a very
good example because I
joined just a year ago.
From the time I joined last
July until now, the team
has more than doubled.
And we have added
like new roles.
Be it a managerial roles, be
individual contributor roles
to make sure that we
are effective in terms
of the coverage of the market.
And I've seen people who have
joined us from other countries
within Google.
Not Google Cloud within Google
and out of business lines.
The right person, they
have the right skill set,
the right attitude and we
have them in Singapore.
Moving here.
Like the person in my team who
has nine years of experience,
he has worked for different
divisions within Google.
From Google search to
from Google Apps to now
Google Cloud.
And he's enjoying
his himself so far.
JAY JENKINS: Yeah, I
guess for me maybe I'll
talk from a personal
perspective.
RICK AMES: Sure
JAY JENKINS: So before
joining Google five years ago,
I was a people manager.
Managing a team
of 60 people and I
made a decision to join Google
as an individual contributor.
With nobody reporting to me.
For a couple of
reasons, one of those
is because was really trying
to pivot myself towards Cloud
because I believe very
much in that vision of what
the future was going to be.
And just the opportunity
for learning that there
was being in that role.
And it was a very
different kind of role
again because the whole idea
around customer engineering
at Google was very different
from a sales engineer.
You really become a trusted
advisor with those customers.
And you develop a lot
of this credibility.
And today, I'm a people manager
again here inside of Google
but I continue to learn
and grow every day
and I would also say being
a people manager at Google
is very different
from being a people
manager at most
other organizations.
I come back to this.
I can't remember who said this
quote specifically maybe you
know Rick.
But it's like you
don't hire smart people
and tell them what to do.
You hire smart people so
they can tell you what to do.
And that's very
much how Google is.
You have all these smart
people, they can tell you
what to do and give
you the best advice
and you can manage
them as a team.
RICK AMES: That's great.
Thank you guys.
Thank you for sharing.
So let's see Avanash has
asked is a customer engineer
tied up to one single customer
or account all the time.
So absolutely not.
So we actually have
a set of customers
but more than that we actually
work across the organization
as well.
Each customer engineer is going
to have their own specific set
of skills.
It's a very broad product set.
But as you're working
with these technologies,
you're going to become very good
with particular technologies
and become an expert
in that and known
for being an expert in that in
Southeast Asia, for example.
And there's lots of
opportunities to actually work
with other customers who
were interested in those
even if it's not particularly
your assigned account.
Because you develop
that expertise.
So there's lots of
opportunities to work.
Number one, you're
assigned a set of accounts
but there's a lot
of opportunities
to work across those
accounts and become
the known expert in the region
around a particular technology
RICK AMES: OK, as a build
on to this question,
in terms of sales reps, how
technical do they need to be?
ANGELA KOH: Well
I have sales reps
joining my team who was actually
in the [? ATS ?] business
of Google before joining us.
I think what's important is
that there's the aptitude
to learn, being able to
articulate and understand
the customer's priorities.
Obviously, that's a reason why
we buddy up with the customer
engineering team and we have
a huge team of technologists
here.
So I wouldn't say it's
like super technical
but the priority is
really understand
the business of the
customer and being
able to breach debt from a
business and a technical point
of view and being
able to orchestrate it
with all the resources that
we have in Google Cloud
RICK AMES: What do
you think about that
as you work with sales people?
Does the technical skill-set
and background really help
or how do you feel?
JAY JENKINS: Yeah.
Well, I mean certainly a
technical background helps.
But the sales reps
shouldn't have
that deep technical knowledge.
What they should be able to
do that though is understand
the business value that
these technologies provide,
understand what use
cases those technologies
are going to be valuable for.
And then once those
use cases and workloads
are identified,
bringing in the customer
engineer or that specialist
that might be able to provide
that level of technical depth.
ANGELA KOH: Yeah.
RICK AMES: Build
the partner but I
would say industry knowledge
would be important,
a background in understanding
companies and their structures.
ANGELA KOH: Industry knowledge,
understanding the customer
being able to understand
the customer's priorities
and how the technology can come
in and getting that support
and lining up the
resources internally.
I think it's important.
RICK AMES: So let's see here.
It seems Google has recently
pivoted into hybrid.
So we've seen a lot of
announcements about that
recently.
Can you tell us
some more about some
of your exciting recent product
announcements such as Anthos?
JAY JENKINS: Right.
So Anthos.
So it is super
exciting and this is
one of those things where it's
very customer driven in terms
of why we created this product.
So for those of you
who are technical,
we open sourced something
called Kubernetes, which helps
with container orchestration.
So it's a way of
launching applications.
And creating the more
abstracted services.
What Kubernetes does
is it orchestrates that
and then we had a product called
GKE, Google Kubernetes Engine,
which uses the open source
Kubernetes technology to make
it easy for you to
launch these clusters
and orchestrate
these containers.
So in five minutes, you're
going to have a cluster up
and running launch
your services directly
onto Google Kubernetes Engine.
But customers wanted a
way to do that on premise.
And that's where Anthos came in.
So what Anthos does
is it allows you
to run those same
applications on premise
the same way that you would
on Google Kubernetes Engine.
So for those
organizations which need
to run these
workloads on premise,
now instead of having two
or three different ways
of operating those environments,
it's one single way.
So whether it's on
premise or in the Cloud,
you run those
things the same way.
And you can connect
the two and security,
communications between the two.
RICK AMES: OK.
That makes sense
thank you very much.
All right.
So I'd like to move on
to the last question.
So for Angela and Jay,
as people managers
what are your top three
priorities for 2019 and then
beyond into 2020?
ANGELA KOH: OK.
For Google Cloud
itself right now
we're expending
pretty aggressively.
That's why you see all
of us here doing this.
And I think what's
very important for me
as a people manager for
second half, Hiring,
it's very important.
Hiring the right talent and then
setting them up for success.
Making sure that as we
hire all these people
they are being supported.
There is a good ecosystem.
I have a good team
you know who have
a good level of
experience people
have nine years of experience.
How do I make sure
that they kind of
like share that knowledge?
And what's very important
to me is the culture.
I think we've built a team who
is very, very close together
with Jay.
We do shout out, we
ask questions, we--
It's really comfortable this
goes to two big question we
kind of come together.
I want to maintain that kind of
culture and a teaming attitude
that we have.
Even as we expand the team,
that's super important for me.
And I think the
lasting as well is
to make sure that beat existing
team members and new team
members to empower
it to be successful
and because we're going to
be tripling our workforce.
Everyone needs to be a
leader of their work.
Yet they need to be empowered.
The way that I want to do it
with them in terms of what they
can or can't do and
how do they align I
think that's super important.
And that's some of
my priorities as I
look at from a people
perspective for the next six
months to a year.
RICK AMES: Yeah.
I mean, I definitely
understand the concerns
around maintaining the culture
as the organization grows,
but if you think
about Google itself
and how quickly it's
grown over the years,
it's definitely something
that skill-set exists here
to do, what about yourself?
JAY JENKINS: So I'll
echo a couple of them.
Definitely number one is hiring.
We definitely need to
make sure that we're
getting those people
on board to support
our business into the future.
The second one is taking
care of our current talent.
So providing opportunities for
them to grow both personally
and professionally.
And number three,
creating new leaders.
So creating that next
generation of leaders
inside this organization
because again as we scale up,
we want to make sure that
the current teams have
those opportunities to grow.
RICK AMES: That's
super important.
Super important.
OK.
So anything else
you guys would like
to share or talk about here,
while we have a minute or two
left?
ANGELA KOH: I would say
it's an exciting place,
it's a fun place.
You want to know more ping us.
Come join us.
Check out our
recruitment ads online.
Right?
JAY JENKINS: I would just
say that right now it's
a super exciting time in
Cloud and in technology.
Things are changing
at such a rapid pace
and it's thrilling to be
a part of this industry.
So, again, I think about five
years ago I definitely made
the right choice.
And as we see these new
innovations come along,
Google's inventing a
lot of technologies
and moving those quickly
into managed services
or open sourcing
those to make sure
that we democratize
those technologies
and get people access to those
technologies and businesses
access to those technologies.
Really making sure that they
can leverage those technologies,
prepare themselves for
growth, making sure
that they don't
continue to invest
in older technologies,
which they have
to use today, making
sure that they're
prepared to move forward.
I guess adding on to
what Angela's saying,
please, if this is something
that's interesting for you,
if this is something you want to
do, definitely please join us.
ANGELA KOH: Yeah
RICK AMES: OK.
Well, I think we're
about out of time.
So I want to thank
Angela and Jay
for taking time out of your busy
schedules to come talk to me
and everybody out there today.
And thank you to the
viewers for participating.
Thank you very much for
the questions you guys.
So be sure to subscribe
to Life at Google,
for more videos about
working at Google
and check the links
in the description box
below for helpful
resources related
to all of the things
we talked about today.
ANGELA KOH: Yeah
and we are hiring
cross offices in
[? Jpac ?] and if you
would like to do
great things, you
like to have fun,
come join our family.
Check out the jobs online.
JAY JENKINS: That's
right we hope
to see your application soon.
RICK AMES: So thank your
buddy for tuning in.
Bye.
ANGELA KOH: Bye.
JAY JENKINS: Bye.
