Master in Management student Valeria Echandi shares how a recent Kilts Center event shaped her understanding of the marketing field.
- By
- January 05, 2026
- Marketing
Lessons in Marketing Management
Marketing may be a field everyone is familiar with, but how many truly understand it? Although graduate students new to the industry may conflate marketing with advertising, that's just one small facet of a complex field that’s essential to any organization’s success.
“Coming from an engineering background, I used to see marketing as abstract, almost purely creative,” says Valeria Echandi, who’s now studying marketing as a Master in Management student. “My time at Booth has shown me it’s much more structured and strategic than I imagined. At its core, marketing is about understanding people so deeply that your product feels like it was made just for them. It defines how value is created, communicated, and delivered.”
Echandi’s new perspective is thanks in large part to the James M. Kilts Center for Marketing at Booth, which provides programs to support both students and alumni in marketing-related fields, from general management to tech product management. The Kilts Center for Marketing frequently hosts events that give students like Echandi the opportunity to connect with industry experts and learn how marketing skills can drive business growth.
Most recently, Echandi attended “Alumni Insights on Brand, Product, and Product Marketing Management,” where she and fellow specialized masters students got to meet alumni experts in these fields and learn why they are critical to any organization. The speakers included Tess Belton, MBA ’21, a product marketing manager at Instagram; Jessica Peet, MBA ’14, a product manager at Microsoft; and Angela Cheng, MBA ’19, a senior brand manager at Smithfield Foods.
Below, Echandi reflects on how this event was invaluable to her marketing education and shares some of her main takeaways.
What inspired you to attend this event?
It was a unique opportunity to meet and learn from Booth alumni working at world-leading companies. I was able to gain insight into how each of their roles function and what their core objectives are.
I’ve always been both analytical and creative, and I saw this session as a chance to explore how these two sides of my personality could come together and thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced professional environment.
Was there a piece of advice that stuck with you?
Don’t be afraid to look dumb when you’re not the technical expert in the room. The alumni encouraged us to lead with curiosity, acknowledge our limitations, and stay open to learning. They also emphasized that great marketers combine analytical rigor with strong communication. This was a reminder that growth comes from asking the right questions, not from having all the answers.
What marketing skills did you learn about?
The speakers emphasized these five core skills as essential for success in the field:
- Data-driven thinking: Ground decisions in data, generate insights, and build trust through measurable results.
- Curiosity: Ask the right questions to understand trends, behaviors, and opportunities.
- Creativity: Use insights to innovate and think differently to solve problems.
- Customer obsession: Ensure every idea addresses a real customer need and aligns with market priorities.
- Cross-functional collaboration: Work effectively across teams, influence stakeholders, and rely on team expertise to execute and communicate ideas.
How did this session broaden your view of marketing roles?
This session showed me that brand, product, and product marketing roles exist across every industry. I learned that almost anything can be seen as a product, so creative, customer-focused, and data-driven thinking is absolutely essential in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.
The alumni also reinforced that success in these roles depends not only on analytical skills, but also on soft skills. I plan to develop these abilities through entrepreneurship and strategic management classes at Booth to become a well-rounded marketer.
Did these alumni influence your own career thinking?
I initially thought brand management would be the best fit for me, given its focus on connecting customer needs to products, which is something I’m very interested in. However, these alumni made me reconsider product management. I appreciated their insights on how product managers bridge technical and strategic thinking, and how product marketing managers bring products to market through clear messaging and positioning. My analytical skills and technical background feel like real advantages for product management roles, and I can now see how they might offer me even more satisfying opportunities to make an impact in my career.
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