Marketing at the C-Level: Brian Finnerty on EdTech

Please start by telling us a little bit about yourself, your background and how it led you to work in the EdTech space?

My name is Brian Finnerty, and I work for a company called D2L, Desire to Learn, an EdTech company headquartered in Canada. My background is in EdTech. My first job out of college was with a company called CBT Systems, later known as Smartforce and now SkillSoft. I started as a technical writer. I studied English, German, and philosophy in college—basically a liberal arts degree. I’m from Dublin, Ireland, and in Ireland, that’s a three-year process for a primary degree. Then I decided to do a one-year master’s degree in Anglo-Irish literature. After that, I was ready for the job market, though I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do. I ended up at this EdTech company that was hiring a lot of people with writing, editing, and design skills, so it turned out to be a perfect fit for me. I loved the company, the people I worked with, and the fact that I was in a learning environment.

I’ve always been interested in learning. Both of my parents were teachers, and I even considered becoming a teacher myself. But I really found my calling in EdTech and fast-growing tech companies. I realized this was what I wanted to do. So I started in technical writing and, through a long and winding path, gravitated toward a career in marketing. After SkillSoft, I did an EdTech startup focused on developer training. We bootstrapped that company, got VC funding, and did all the good stuff while I was in the Bay Area. So I moved from Dublin to San Francisco, which I think is the next best place in the world. My career has navigated through various EdTech companies. I’ve also worked in advertising technology (AdTech) and marketing technology (MarTech), so I’ve done several of the ‘techs’.

Are cultural nuances important? Coming from Dublin but working in the Bay Area for a Canadian company, are there any cultural differences that stand out?

There are definitely cultural differences, but all in a positive sense. Canadians are the nicest people in the world. As for Irish people, we love to talk and learn about people’s stories. There’s a sense of curiosity in Ireland that I also see in the Bay Area, where there’s a desire to innovate and grow new businesses. I believe one important factor is working for a company with a true sense of mission that you’re passionate about. There’s an old saying that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. It’s not entirely true—because even when you love something, you still have to work hard—but at least you’re working hard at something that’s rewarding and interesting. That’s a unique aspect of EdTech. There’s a sense of mission and passion for learning at the best EdTech companies, which makes it easier to hire good people who fit in and care about what they do.

That’s one of the things I truly enjoy about working at D2L. The company has been in the learning and education business for 25 years and is truly mission-driven, covering education at all levels—from K-12 to higher education and corporate upskilling for organizations. As a marketer, that’s a fascinating challenge.

In a mature market like the LMS ecosystem, how do you approach your brand at D2L?

I’m relatively new to D2L, so that was one of the first questions I asked myself—where are we positioned as a brand, and how do we stack up against the competition? For me, the important thing about D2L is that we don’t lose sight of the fact that our brand is deeply connected to our mission to transform the way the world learns. In a nutshell, that’s what the company was set up to do, and that’s what we do every day.

I believe a real touchstone for your brand is how your customers perceive you. Your brand is almost like what people say about you when you’re not in the room. We recently held Fusion—our annual user conference—in Toronto, a fantastic event with 1,500 people—customers, prospects, analysts, and investors—all in one place. From that conference, I got a sense of how people view D2L and how we should position ourselves. Our focus is on learning and on moments that transform learning for all our core stakeholders, whether they’re in K-12, higher education, or corporate settings. That’s the way forward for D2L. One of the interesting aspects of our brand is the very human element. We believe people are at the center of learning.

We’re a highly tech-enabled company. We believe in the power of AI, data, and analytics to run a business, and that’s a large part of my job. But at the end of the day, D2L is a brand centered on the learning experience, the learning moment, and how we can help individual students, college students, and professionals experience transformative learning. We don’t ever want to lose sight of that, and that’s the direction our brand is leaning into—how we deliver transformative learning outcomes for our customers.

In your role as CMO, what are the key dynamics with other C-level executives? What do the other business functions need to understand about marketing, and how do you manage those relationships?

That’s a great question. I think at the end of the day, business is about people, and I’ve learned this throughout my career. Regardless of whether you’re in sales or marketing, and I’ve worked a bit in both, I would encourage everyone in marketing to try it. It’s all about people and relationships. Some of the most fundamental relationships in an organization are between the sales and marketing teams. If you don’t have good alignment there, it’s a serious red flag. I’ve been in situations where alignment wasn’t there, and it’s been tough—like trying to ski uphill.

But one of the things I love about working at D2L is that I have a tremendous partner in Lee Poteck, our Chief Revenue Officer. We’re totally aligned on pipeline goals, bookings goals, and the role of the brand. We work in lockstep to ensure we’re successful and aligned. The real test of those relationships comes not when everything is easy and targets are being met, but when you have a tricky quarter or things are behind target. If the pipeline in a particular region isn’t performing as expected, there are two ways to approach the problem. One way is to start blaming each other, which is very unproductive. The other way is if you have a strong partnership, you come together and solve the problem rather than point fingers. That’s the key to good relationships between marketing and other functions—not just sales, but also customer success and finance.

The beautiful thing about working in marketing is that you’re at the commercial heart of the business. You’re generating the pipeline, which is a leading indicator of the company’s growth and performance. You’re involved in the quarterly performance of the company, especially since we’re a public company on the Canadian Stock Exchange. You’re also involved in the future performance through the pipeline. And you’re touching every aspect of the business, including customer success, finance, and product. Product marketing is closely aligned with what we do. So it’s a fantastic career from that perspective because you’re right at the heart of what drives the business forward.

What do you consider to be your greatest career achievement?

That’s a tough one. There have been many highlights, and it’s always hard to pick out one thing that’s been defining. I’d say most of the positive milestones in my career have been things that were executed not by marketing alone but through a combined effort with other functions within the business. I’m a big believer in global integrated campaigns and a thematic approach to marketing because it can get fragmented and siloed if you don’t have an overarching view.

For example, take Fusion, our user conference—it’s a huge lift for marketing, but it’s also a massive lift for the rest of the company. The sales team is heavily involved in getting the right people there. The customer success team, finance team, and executive team all play vital roles. The executive team, for instance, has to devote time to speaking on stage and doing dry runs. It’s a huge logistical and strategic lift for the company.

The question is, what’s the payoff? What’s the ROI on that type of investment? Because it truly is a company-wide, all-hands-on-deck effort. Those are the moments I’m most proud of in my career—campaigns or efforts that really galvanize the entire company, whether it’s a key product launch, a rebranding, or a massive user conference. Those are also the riskiest because the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. When you sign up for big company-wide initiatives like that, you really need your partners to step up and help you execute. Those are my proudest moments.

What key factors do you consider when organizing an event like Fusion? What metrics or factors do you use to determine if it's a success?

Certainly, you want all of your customers to attend. We also aim to have new logos and prospects there as well. Our partners are key stakeholders, and we have sponsors who support the event financially and have a partner pavilion where they can generate leads from the audience, too. So for an event like that, the metrics for success are, first, are you getting the right people there? Are you getting enough of your key customers there? This year at Fusion, we were sold out—we literally couldn’t fit any more people in the building. Next year, we’ve got a bigger space.

We conduct very detailed surveys at the end of an event like this to assess how the content was received, the best sessions, the best speakers, thoughts on the keynotes, comfort level with the environment, and whether attendees met enough of their peers. We also evaluate if we need more or less networking. We focus on these surveys and do retrospectives to determine what we want to improve for the next year. A good indicator of success is if we get all our sponsors to sign up for the following year. And then, of course, there’s the business level—pipeline. How much pipeline did we generate from the event? How much is coming from existing customers versus new customers?

We unveiled a ton of products and innovations at our user conference, so we’re tracking how many demos and meetings we generated for D2L Lumi, our new AI layer that runs over our entire product offering. We also acquired a Norwegian company called H5P, and we track how many inbound inquiries we received for H5P post-announcement. So pipeline analysis is another way we measure the overall success of the event.

Lastly, we have a pretty sophisticated ROI model. We lean heavily into events, and we want to ensure that based on the amount of money invested in the conference and the offsets from partners and sponsors, the ROI is at a certain level.

How do you build a marketing team? What's important in terms of talent? What are the key skills or values that you look for or that someone should develop to work in EdTech marketing?

For EdTech, I think it’s definitely important to have a passion for learning. That’s the first thing—table stakes for EdTech marketing. Marketing in general is a terrific career, and I highly recommend it to anyone starting out. The type of people who do well in marketing are curious. They like to solve problems and use both the analytical and creative sides of their personality or brain, whatever you want to call it. Marketing is that. Some of the best marketing is highly creative but also very focused on outcomes and data-driven. You can’t really survive in a modern SaaS company now without understanding the core KPIs of your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), your target accounts, pipeline generation, and your conversion rate through the funnel.

For a role in marketing, I recommend moving around as much as you can. Get experience in different areas, whether it’s product marketing or demand generation. I think it’s really good to work in digital marketing for a time. It’s also great to work in sales, either as a business development rep (BDR), a sales development rep (SDR), or as an account executive (AE). Carry a quota and get a feel for what that job is like because if you’re going to be successful in marketing, you need to understand how challenging it is to be a salesperson and what they need from a marketing organization to succeed.

Get as close as you can to the sales organization and try working in sales for a while. I did that for a time. It wasn’t for me, but I learned a lot. That’s my recommendation. There are key areas of marketing that the more you know about them, the more successful you’ll be. Holding a role in product marketing is really important. Holding a role in demand generation is very important. Understanding the creative content creation side of marketing is increasingly important. And then understanding things like PR and communications and how that works, and working with agencies. These are all core skills you build over time to gain a well-rounded marketing knowledge. Once you have that knowledge, you can decide—do I want to specialize as a VP or SVP of product marketing? Do I want to become a CMO? What suits me best?

Is there a marketing discipline that you feel is less understood than others?

I’m a huge believer in product marketing. I’ve been a product marketer, I’ve run product marketing—it’s one of the pillars of good marketing, especially if you’re working for a company that’s releasing products on a steady cadence. Having a product marketing function closely aligned with the product team and roadmap, and helping that team communicate customer-ready features, is essential. It’s an incredibly rewarding part of marketing because there are always new products. You’re constantly positioning those products in the market, identifying a target audience, figuring out who your buyer is, who’s on the buying committee, and how those products will land in the market.

You’re very close to customers and early adopters, and good product marketing pulls in that stream of knowledge to ensure you’re building the right products and that they’re landing in the market correctly. It’s also a great feedback loop for the product team. If product marketing is doing its job well, you’re hearing about areas where the product is weak, where competitors are stronger, and where you need to bolster your offering. It’s a great place to be. You’re taking all the goodness the product team produces and ensuring it lands in the right place and goes in the right direction.

How do you see marketing evolving in the future?

If we’re talking about the future of marketing, we have to talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI. I think it’s already transforming the Martech landscape and a lot of what we do. I think it’s transforming it for the better. I’m not naive—I know there are roles that generative AI will make less relevant. But my position on it, and I’ll talk about D2L’s position too, is that AI is a tool. We invented that tool, and we should control how it evolves and how it’s applied in different industries. But ultimately, it’s just a tool.

What I think is actually happening is people are starting to use it as a tool within their business. Most Martech and EdTech companies are investing in generative AI. The way we’re approaching it at D2L, I think, is the right way. We’re looking at how generative AI can improve the learning experience. How can it transform learning in the way we’re already doing? Can it help educators generate questions? Can it generate ideas for discussions in a learning environment? It’s really good at that. It’s great at summarizing material, translating content, and it could be a real force multiplier in accessibility.

There are just so many ways we can use the power of generative AI to make learning a better experience for everyone, both learners and educators. And that goes back to D2L’s mission—people at the center of learning. We can’t lose sight of that. We have so many tools that can make learning more efficient and effective, and we want to leverage them to the fullest because that’s how we have the maximum impact. But the tools don’t run the business—people do. I think we have to be mindful of that as we harness this incredible technology.

How do you approach your time as a CMO and plan for the impact you want to have?

In terms of having a big impact, I think my approach is to start as more of an observer rather than making wholesale changes upfront. I’ve seen people come in and do that, and it rarely works, honestly. I think it’s much better to assess, get to know the team, and understand where the strengths and weaknesses lie. Every marketing organization has them. Then, you can identify the big pillars you need to solve or where you can make improvements.

Do you want to improve the brand? Increase the quality of pipeline generation? Improve sales and marketing alignment? Reinforce the product marketing organization? Is your PR and communications function doing what it should for the business? You quickly identify areas where you want to dive in, guide the team, and make some quick progress. That’s important as a leader.

You also have to learn how your team works, understand their strengths, and lean on the folks running those functions—revenue marketing, product marketing, digital content, creative. Having good people in those roles who understand their functions and teams well, and who can tell you when things are going well or when they’re going off track, is crucial. Transparency within your team is really important.

Lastly, you need to ensure your relationships with other parts of the business are strong—sales, customer success, product, engineering, and the rest of the leadership team. All of these relationships are what make marketing successful.

What do you think your team expects from you as a leader?

I think what a team expects from a leader is clarity of purpose. I’ve done my homework, figured out how we work today, identified areas where we can do things differently and better, and set North Star goals. At D2L, we use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), and I’ve used them at several companies. It’s a decent way to manage your quarterly, half-yearly, and annual goals.

Setting those North Stars for a marketing organization—whether it’s strengthening our brand voice, improving our unique value proposition, or aligning more closely with the business development reps to generate pipeline—is crucial. As a marketing leader or CMO, your job is to run the business well, report on areas for improvement, and show progress. It’s about being action-oriented and focused on continuous improvement.

Good leadership involves identifying challenges, reporting on them, and making sure you’re progressing—not just identifying problems and slowly backing away from them. If you identify a problem, you need to figure out how to fix it. It might not just be a marketing issue—it could be a cross-functional problem that requires sales, product, and other parts of the organization to solve. But that’s your job—to get those problems resolved.

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

Find something you’re passionate about that you think you can be good at. Once you get into that role, be bold, ask lots of questions, and move into different parts of the organization. If it’s a marketing role, understand the landscape and your competitors. Demos are freely available—look at your competitor’s products, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and compare how they position their company to how you position yours.

Definitely spend time in product marketing, spend time in demand generation, and get that well-rounded experience. You may choose to specialize later, and that’s great, but the days of working in marketing silos are gone. Learn from everyone—your peers, your bosses, even the new BD rep who just started and has a fresh perspective. There’s no limit to who you can learn from within an organization. Have a learning and growth mindset.

Find a company with a mission you can really relate to, then work hard, enjoy it, and do your best. Transparency is important—when things go sideways, don’t pretend or try to hide the fact that there was a screw-up. Own up to it, work to ensure it doesn’t happen again, and create a path to continuous improvement. If something happened once, it will happen again unless you make changes.

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