Life At Nexxen with Dana Chou

Welcome to Life at Nexxen, a series spotlighting our employees – from their career journeys and go-to advice to the rituals and activities that make up their days here at Nexxen.

This week, we spoke with Dana Chou, Director of Product. Dana filled us in on what it’s like to lead a product team, her favorite wintertime treat and her aspirations for the year ahead.

First things first: How long have you been at Nexxen?
Three years. I started on the Tremor Video side, and now I oversee the Nexxen ad server as part of the supply product team.

Got it. If you had to describe your role to someone outside of the industry, what would you say?

I describe product as the hub in a wheel – we’re the piece that keeps it moving forward. We interact with different folks from engineering, operations, marketing and sales, and we have to know every little thing that’s happening with our product to ensure that wheel keeps moving ahead and we’re building what clients need.

And have you always been in ad tech?

I’ve been in product for 15 years, but not always in ad tech.

My degree is in finance and computer science, so I started my career working in financial software. From there, I moved to a company where I tangentially dealt with ad tech on the market research side.

As a product manager or director, you want to be in a place where you can build and move and get your hands dirty – which is exactly what Tremor, now Nexxen, offered to me. Tech and product aren’t afterthoughts here; they’re at the forefront of what we do. That’s what brought me into this space.

From your vantage point, what is the most challenging aspect of being a Product Director at Nexxen?

For the ad server, the sales cycles are long. So, as a product manager or director, it can be hard to see fast movement – it’s more like buying a car. That said, we’re confident in our solution and love having the opportunity to show potential clients all they can accomplish with our product. And when we do land a new client, it’s a huge win.

And how do you set yourself up for success each day?

Every morning, we make breakfast and sit down as a family – just the four (soon-to-be five!) of us. This morning we had eggs, blueberry muffins and smoothies. Breakfast is our thing.

Lovely. To wrap things up, we’d love to hear about your favorite wintertime treat, now that the holiday season’s in full swing?

Hot chocolate with marshmallows. There’s a never-ending stock in our house and we drink it every day – the Land ‘o Lakes version is our favorite (It’s the creamiest and comes in so many different flavors!).