Are You Search Result Ready? Ann Minooka on GEO & the LLM Buying Future

Summary

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Marketing Trends Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Are You Search Result Ready? Ann Minooka on GEO & the LLM Buying Future
Host: Stephanie Postles
Guest: Ann Minooka, CMO of Synopsys
Date: September 3, 2025

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Overview

This episode features Ann Minooka, Chief Marketing Officer of Synopsys, a foundational but often under-the-radar tech company powering advances from silicon chips to AI. Ann shares her playbook for transforming technical brands—making them resonate beyond engineers to decision-makers, investors, and new audiences. The conversation dives deep into the future of marketing in an AI and LLM-driven world, how demand generation is reshaping legacy businesses, and the leadership lessons Ann has gleaned from orchestrating massive repositioning campaigns at Synopsys, Synaptics, and more.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Synopsys Brand Repositioning (02:11–14:19)

• Synopsys in a Nutshell: Synopsys is core to the electronics ecosystem—its tools are used in nearly every silicon chip on the market, powering everything from doorbells to AI infrastructure. Yet, they were largely known only to chip engineers.
• The Need for a New Narrative: As Synopsys expanded from semiconductor clients to broader system companies (EVs, drones, robotics), Ann drove a shift away from jargon-heavy language to a higher-level narrative: “the era of pervasive intelligence,” built on three pillars:
  • AI proliferation
  • Silicon everywhere
  • Software-defined systems
• Leadership Buy-in: Synopsys’ new CEO was a catalyst for this repositioning, providing a critical early window for a bold narrative pivot. Within two months, Ann created a new brand, messaging, and value proposition that unified internal teams and resonated externally.
• Notable Quote:

  “Synopsys is one of the most important companies you’ve never heard of.”
  — Ann Minooka [02:11]

• Strategy for Change: Ann’s playbook involves rapid stakeholder workshops, message distillation, and iterative feedback to achieve company-wide alignment.
  • Tactic: Transition messaging from technical (“EDA and IP company”) to accessible (“silicon to system design solutions”).
  • Key Principle: Everyone’s buy-in is critical, or “even the best brand architecture” won’t get used [08:42–12:09].

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2. Power of Positioning: The Synaptics Case Study (15:31–18:01)

• Transformational Repositioning: At Synaptics, Ann shifted perception from a stagnant “touchpad company” to a “human interface company,” enabling growth into multiple new market segments and product categories.
• Lasting Impact: The new positioning set the stage for acquisitions and product line expansion—the brand’s narrative, “human interface integrated with AI,” continues to this day.
• Ann’s Lesson: Repositioning isn’t just marketing—it guides business strategy.
• Notable Quote:

  "When you define the company as human interface, it kind of helps to provide you a vision for what other areas you can go into."
  — Ann Minooka [15:53]

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3. Demand Generation at Scale (18:28–22:24)

• Challenge: With market saturation among semiconductor customers, Synopsys had to show internal stakeholders that net new opportunities still existed.
• Solution: Ann built a modern martech infrastructure, integrating Marketo and Salesforce, to measure marketing’s real impact on pipeline, not just vanity metrics.
• Results: 70% of pipeline opportunities uncovered were net new, largely from industry expansion and startups.
• Surprise Benefit: End-to-end insight into customer engagement and needs.
• Notable Quote:

  "...demand generator not only created pipelines but it really gave us more in-depth intelligence on our customers and their needs."
  — Ann Minooka [21:40–23:50]

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4. The AI/LLM Buying Future & GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) (27:39–35:21)

• Customer Behavior Shift: Prospects now find solutions via LLMs like ChatGPT, Reddit posts, and agent-to-agent buying is imminent.
• Web Strategy Evolution: Marketers must prepare for both traditional SEO and emerging GEO—structuring content for machines. Ann details approaches:
  • Action: Incorporate FAQs, glossaries, and structured data that LLMs “like”
  • Experimentation: Considering “shadow websites” designed for AI agents, not humans
  • Personalization: Dynamic site experiences serving industry-relevant content to known users
• Content Approach: Move from long-form, technical whitepapers to modular, campaign-aligned, multiformat content tailored for both human and machine consumption
• Early Days: GEO/agentic optimization is still emerging; Ann is actively learning from startups in the space.
• Notable Quote:

  "We have to be prepared for both the traditional way of search...and the other half will come through this GEO, right? Generative search optimization. So we have to understand how we structure the website...in a way that can be surfaced."
  — Ann Minooka [28:17]

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5. Leadership Lessons, Playbooks, & Career Growth (35:21–47:47)

• Brand Positioning Guides Strategy: Ann shares how strong positioning (e.g., Xilinx’s move from FPGAs to adaptive computing) laid the foundation for business strategy and successful acquisition.
• No Big Failures? Time to Take More Risks: She reflects on the importance of risk-taking:
  • Memorable Quote:

    “If you do everything very well 100% of the time, that means you have not tried hard enough, you have not taken risks.”
    — Ann Minooka [36:56]

• Career Shifts: Ann’s journey from aspiring doctor to software engineer to marketing leader underscores the value of cross-disciplinary experience, internal curiosity, and self-awareness.
• Advice for New Marketing Leaders:
  • Assess alignment of positioning with business strategy
  • Secure quick and meaningful wins to establish credibility
  • Build robust measurement of marketing’s true impact
  • Foster cross-functional collaboration
  • Set clear visions and communicate results to motivate teams

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6. Quick Takes & Personal Insights (47:52–56:10)

• $10M Experimental Marketing Bet: Ann would invest in AI agents to automate marketing tasks and experiment with ultra-lean, AI-powered teams [48:04].
• Best Career Advice: Own your career in 2-3 year “chunks”—evaluate regularly, make course corrections, seek continual growth [48:52].
• Favorite Tools: iPod (for podcast learning) and ChatGPT; loves “Acquired” and “Hard Fork” podcasts [50:41–52:41].
• Book Recommendation: “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie [54:05].
• Dream Team for a Deserted Island: Jensen Huang (Nvidia), her current CEO, and a racing simulator—for both fun and to reveal everyone’s personalities [54:05–56:04].

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Introduction & Synopsys Overview: 00:00–03:10
• Brand Narrative Shift (“Pervasive Intelligence”): 03:10–08:21
• Change Playbook & Team Buy-in: 08:21–12:09
• Outcomes of Brand Reformulation: 12:09–15:24
• Synaptics Case Study: 15:31–18:01
• Demand Gen Transformation: 18:28–26:29
• AI/LLM Future & GEO: 27:39–35:21
• Leadership & Career Advice: 35:21–47:47
• Lightning Round (Fun Section): 47:52–56:10

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Notable Quotes

• “Synopsys is one of the most important companies you’ve never heard of.” [02:11] — Ann Minooka
• “When you define the company as human interface, it kind of helps to provide you a vision for what other areas you can go into.” [15:53] — Ann Minooka
• “70% of the opportunities that we found, they're net new.” [24:13] — Ann Minooka
• “We have to be prepared for both the traditional way of search...and the other half will come through this GEO, right?” [28:17] — Ann Minooka
• “If you do everything very well 100% of the time, that means you have not tried hard enough, you have not taken risks.” [36:56] — Ann Minooka

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Brand positioning is foundational—not just for marketing, but as a guide for business strategy and growth.
• Demand generation can still produce substantial “net new” business, even in legacy, saturated markets when powered by modern measurement and alignment with sales.
• Marketing leaders must prepare for a future where search, buying, and discovery happens both via human channels and by AI agents—requiring new site architectures, content formats, and rapid experimentation.
• Quick wins, clear metrics, and consistent internal alignment are vital for credibility and impact.
• Ann’s leadership is defined by strategic boldness, a collaborative mindset, and a willingness to experiment in both tech and team building.

Transcript

[A]

Our guest today knows how to win in high stakes moments.

[B]

If you do everything very well 100% of the time, that means you have not tried hard enough, you have not taken risks.

[A]

Ann Mnuca, the CMO of Synopsys. She's reinvented brands for relevance and turned complex tech into stories that the world actually understands.

[B]

We are a leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems. Everything that we use today have silver silicon components, car fabs, the doorbells. AI is actually powered by silicon. Anything you name it is made by using Synopsys technology.

[A]

Customers are now finding your products through ChatGPT prompts. They're in Reddit looking for things. There's going to now be agent to agent buying probably very soon.

[B]

AI created so many opportunities for marketing to be more innovative. When we ran demand generation, 70% of the opportunities that we found, they're net new.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

So if you can connect those dots, you can basically create a predictable model where you say, at this budget scenario, I can expect to generate x million dollars of sales pipeline, which can translate to $1 million of revenue in this world.

[A]

That AI is quickly changing everything. How are you setting your team and especially new marketers up for success?

[B]

My playbook that you need to.

[A]

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Marketing Trends. I'm your host, Stephanie Postols, the CEO and founder of Mission.org and Relevant.com. ann, welcome to Marketing Trends.

[B]

Thanks for having me.

[A]

I have not talked to a CMO like you. You have been in this very technical space. You've been through all these acquisitions. You have a different way of thinking about leading and being a part of acquisitions and M and A. And so I'm really excited for the conversation today.

[B]

Yeah, I'm excited to have my very first podcast with you. I think it's going to be fun.

[A]

I can't believe this is your first one.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So I would love just to start for you to explain Synopsys just so people can understand what kind of company you're leading marketing for.

[B]

So Synopsys is one of the most important companies you've never heard of. So we are a leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems. What does that mean? Is that our products and software are used to build chips everywhere. So I would say every chip, almost every silicon chip out there is made by using Synopsys technologies. So we are really fundamental in this whole era of pervasive intelligence in all the technology innovations. Now we are ranked number 12th in revenue among global software companies. So we are 40 years old. Almost 40 years old. So in the 40 years, we've really been a driving force for all the technology innovations from the era of PC to mobile to cloud to today AI.

[A]

So I want to drill in on the pervasive intelligence. Tell me more about that, just so I know I'm understanding it correctly.

[B]

So this is really kind of the part of the brand narrative, corporate narrative that Ideal developed led the development when I joined the company. So when I joined Synopsys, we were known as an EDA company, an IP company, largely because our focus target audience were the engineering design engineers and design architects. But as we broaden our markets, we wanted to be known more by the investors, by people who are not super technical, right? And so we have to build a narrative that help them understand the importance of the company and why we matter in today's world. So we frame this narrative around the era of pervasive intelligence and that is the society that we're living in today. What does that mean? This means that in this era is driven by three major trends. One is AI proliferation of AI. We see it everywhere today, right? But AI is actually powered by silicon. So that's the second pillar is the silicon proliferation. Everything that we use today have silicon components in it. Our car, you know, car fabs, the doorbells and anything you name it has components of electronics in there, chips in there. So that's the second pillar. So AI proliferation and silicon proliferation. The third is software defined systems. This means that the products today are defined based on the software workloads. Whereas before you have the limitation of whatever hardware you have, you put it together, you create the products with the best functionality that the hardware are available for. But today you can define products based on what you want to do from the software standpoint. So those are we define in this era of pervasive intelligence is really driven by just three major pillars. AI proliferation of silicon everywhere and software defined systems. So one example of software defined systems is a ev, right? You define the features of the products or software and then you develop the products and components after that. So why is this message important? This narrative really help all of our employees when we go out and talk, our leaders, when we go out and talk about the importance of our company, is that all of these trends, this era is powered by Synopsys. Because to build AI, to build more chips, to build AI software defined systems, you need a very critical component which is the design solutions that is provided by Synopsys.

[A]

Okay, I think I understood most of that. I want to make. So you came in as a CMO into Synopsys. And they were essentially only marketing to very technical people. And then you came in and said, hey, we need to make sure our storytelling here connects with these investors. Connects with other people.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

What did that. Because I think this is a playbook you've run before at some of the previous companies that you did this with. So what does that look like with, like, shifting the entire brand narrative for a company that's 40 years old?

[B]

It's not easy, for sure. But I think the really important thing is our leadership team, our CEO really embraced this change. In fact, he advocated for a change. And also, I think our markets that we're playing in are changing. We're expanding our markets. So. So traditionally, majority of our customers were in semiconductor companies, right? So they all know us. Many of the design engineers, when they were in school, they used our tools to learn, right. How to design silicons. But our customer base has expanded to silicon system companies. Companies like EVs, right? Like with system company. I mean, any kind of intelligent product consumers actually touch and use, for example, a autonom, autonomous car, a drone, a robot. All of these things are intelligent systems. These companies, in the past, they never built their own chips, right? So they would buy silicon, then use whatever is available and build their products. But today they build their own chips. So this is a new kind of audience that we're not known, that did not know us. So in order for us to help them understand that we are a good partner, a strategic partner to them, we need to help them understand how we can help solve their business pain points. That's why we need to elevate our brand, talk about the importance of our technology in this new world that we live in.

[A]

So what are some of your storytelling tactics that you do to resonate with this new audience? And are you coming in and rewriting specific artifacts as part of your playbook? Like, we got to have our new promise. We have to have our new visual buyer system. Like, yeah, I'd love to hear kind of like your playbook. When you come in, you first need.

[B]

To understand your customers, right? The audience that you want to promote to. So, you know, you have the investor community, you have the existing customer community within the customers, you have the engineers, you have the decision makers, and then you have potential employees and prospective employees. They have varying degree of understanding of our technology, right? So in just thinking about that is your positioning needs to be high level enough that everybody can understand. And so in the past, we say we are, you know, a EDA and IP company immediately you're limiting the percentage of audience that understand what that is. Right. Like what is eda, what that is. Right. I don't know exactly. So I think you want to frame the positioning in a way that help people understand what you offer to the industry. Right. So the first thing we did was I let the transition from EDA IP focus positioning to silicon to system design solutions. Because that's what we do. You know, we. We provide divine design solutions for the silicon and we provide divine design solutions for the system is for the systems. Right. So silicon and systems. So that's kind of how I think about this. And then you need to think about. So we talk about what is the value proposition for our customers. So to do that, I actually got all of our E staff together. We had two days of workshop. We talked about various topics and the customer care about, you know, what we, the values we deliver, our product differentiation, et cetera, et cetera. From that we developed this value proposition which is, you know, what we do is to we maximize our customers R and D capabilities. That's what we do. Because our technology allows them to design chips faster and more efficiently, cost efficiently. So that's essentially what we do. So the playbook is really important to get all the E staff on board with this. So we have the beginning sort of the roundtable discussions with E staff is very important. From there I distract all the key messages from those discussions. Then I create this playbook and then from there I go and talk to each one of the E staff members so they'll get their feedback and then we come back with the final solution. I think it's really important to do this because it's really important to bring everybody along and also hear everybody's feedback because everybody has different perspectives based on who they engage with. People that are more customer focused or investor focused, they have different perspectives. Right. So we bring those perspectives in and then we come up with the final solution. Because it's really important that people feel like their opinions are hurt. Right. They're part of the solution. Otherwise, you know, you could create the best brand architecture, positioning, messaging you want. Nobody will want to use it. Right. And so bring them along to your way of thinking is really important.

[A]

Amazing. Okay, so how long have you been at Synopsys now?

[B]

Almost two years.

[A]

Okay, and when did. So from the time that you came in decide we need to shift the narrative here. What have you seen since then? Like when did maybe the new narrative go into market and then what's happened since.

[B]

So the new. So I actually Created this new positioning, new narrative and the new art brand framework fairly quickly within the first two months of me joining the company, which is actually even by my own standard, is very fast.

[A]

Yeah, that's fast.

[B]

Very fast, yes. Because at that time I think I barely knew anybody, only just no names. So the reason why we had to do it very quickly when I got hired was three months before our CEO took on the new role of CEO. Right. So he, Sassine was the coo, he was going to be the CEO in three months. And I said, you know, when he became the CEO, that was the really critical moment where he could go on and explain his vision for the company, our new brand positioning and you know, our own new mission statement. So that's the reason why we really fast track this. So I think since then I've definitely seen our narratives being repeated. First of all, our executive team has done a really great job keeping the message consistent. You know, when they go go out to different speaking engagements, they really make sure that they leverage the all these statements and they stay on message with the corporate narrative. And Sassin himself has been a very strong advocate. So we definitely see our message, our language being adopted by our investors, by the media. Even our employees get very excited because now they hear and see us showing up many places than before.

[A]

Have you seen anything with new customers coming in who are now like, oh, I know how you can help me. Where before I didn't know what does revenue look like?

[B]

Yeah, we definitely have the cohort that would really influence the most is the decision makers audience within our existing customers. If you think that the engineers, they know our tools very well, they know how to use them. But decision maker level, I think for the most part they didn't really understand how much technology, how much innovation we have to deliver in order to continue to give them the best tools for them to use. Right. And so that value proposition is very important for them to understand. So lots of promotion is around building that high level awareness within the decision maker community and also helping our investors understand why we're so important, why they should pay attention, why we matter in today's fast moving world of innovation.

[A]

So it's cool is that you've done this so many times.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I mean I would love to quickly tell a story when you were at Synaptics.

[B]

Yes, yes.

[A]

Like when you came in there and how you came into a company that was saying they were a touchpad company and you were like, that's a little old school. I don't know if we should Be a touchpad company more. I would love for you to quickly share that story. Just to show how this playbook you have is repeatable and you've been bringing it into these really large companies and completely transforming them.

[B]

Yeah, actually that project was very exciting. That was actually the moment when I realized the power of positioning and branding really mattered. So when I joined synaptics, it was known as a touchpad company. Right. They produce touchpads for laptops. But that was also the time when the iPhone, the mobile phone business was taking off. Right. The era of mobile and synaptics brand did not seem as a fresh or modern or high tech image because TouchPad has been around forever. Right. So we wanted to refresh that brand. So we worked again with the executive staff, you know, did workshops and had input sessions, came up with the positioning of synaptics as a human interface company. So that actually it was a very important positioning because, you know, when you define the company as human interface, it kind of help to provide you a vision for what areas, other areas you can go into. Right. Because human interface has. There are many elements, our six senses. Right. And so that touch is one element. Subsequently, because we have that positioning, we actually made several acquisitions of like audio, you know, technology company, voice recognition, a video, visual. So. So you kind of started to look at opportunities in all of the human interface areas. I think I was actually looking up at their website. It's been a long time now and they are still using human interface excep, they're saying, you know, human interface integrated with AI. Right. So of course, everybody's AI company, but it's really great to see that, that positioning still relevant in today's world.

[A]

Yeah, that's some good work you put in there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I would love to shift the conversation into a demand generation conversation because I thought you mentioned something very fascinating, how when you came into Synopsys, I think you had so many of the Fortune 500 companies probably, and you were talking to team members and they're like, we already work with all them, We've already got all the clients. Like, we're good. I'd love to hear how you tackled this and like what you came into and how you adjusted it.

[B]

Yeah. As I mentioned to you in the beginning, you know, Synopsys software and solutions are used in almost every silicon chip made. Right. So. So that means all the semiconductor companies, they work with us and know us. But I always feel like because of the market spending, there is an opportunity to leverage demand generation, to create broad awareness, to create influence. Their preference and ultimately get into turn that into a sales pipeline. I would say that, you know, the leadership team was very supportive of my thinking, but they, I don't think they were expecting any outcomes from it. Right. So. So my passion is always being, you know, my background was I was an engineer in the past. My engineering mindset always get me thinking about how to measure what I do in a more quantifiable way, tangible way. Right. So in the past, marketing was always measured by some superficial metrics or vanity metrics. But I wanted to get to the marketing dollars I spent how that that influenced the sales pipeline. And so I've begun this journey by creating the martech infrastructure. So building the infrastructure so we can make this happen. So we brought in some new capabilities that understand demand generation. So we started to run campaign for one year. Now it's been a one year. We have seen pretty impressive numbers in terms of the sales pipeline expansion and which some of this has have already led to design close one. So I am very happy with where we are. I can't tell you the numbers, but it's really good numbers. So I think this becomes even more relevant as we build combined with Ansys. Right. We just finished this big acquisition of Ansys. So Ansys has a lot more customers than we do. And then I would say their sales cycle tend to be shorter, which means that demand generation programs can impact that even more. So on the classic synopsis side, as I mentioned, we're expanding our customers beyond the traditional customers of semiconductors. So those customers, the system customers, they don't necessarily know what offerings we have. So the demand generation is a really great way to reach them.

[A]

Amazing. Okay, so what I'm hearing you say is that you also you built your own tracking systems internally. You. Okay, because I don't know many companies that are like we're building it all ourselves. Usually they're working with outside tools, but you guys built it yourself to make sure you understand demand gen. What tactics were you using that you've been most surprised by? Or you're like, this is something we've been doing and it's working. And I didn't even know if it would or it was just a big bet.

[B]

I would say we didn't really build our own Martech tools. It's like the martech, there are so many different elements. We didn't have a working martech infrastructure. We had very basic things and they didn't really talk to each other. So I brought on a brilliant MARTECH technologist who was able to make them all talk to each other. Right. So integrate these capabilities. And so now the Martech tool that we use for demand generator tool we use CRM is Marketo. Right. We use Marketo and so we create demand gen and then nowadays connected to the Salesforce tools so we can see end to end from a demand generation all the way to a sales revenue close. So it's very exciting. The insights would be is I think something that has been surprising to me is how quickly that our go to market team, our sales team has really supported us and embraced this process because this is new to them. These are demand generation is not like huge revenue numbers but they have been really embracing this process. And then one thing that is really interesting is that throughout this process now we can see clearly insights of customers. We can see which customer is actually engaging with us, what subsequent activities they've done. And so we can better understand what our customers needs are. And so the demand generator not only created pipelines but it really gave us more in depth intelligence in our customers and their needs and we can have a method to reach out to them when they need us because we understand what, what they're looking for so we can then serve them things that they need. Yeah. So I think the surprise, big surprise is that this program I think to not to me but to many our leadership team that it actually works.

[A]

Yeah. So good. Oh, that's amazing. So with Synopsys, you know a lot of these companies it's more about account expansion. It sounds like where you're like they just don't know about all the other things we offer. With this new acquisition of Ansys is that having you rethink your demand gen with maybe you're actually trying to find new customers now instead of just trying to expand account sizes.

[B]

Even with the classic synopsis when we ran demand generation it's surprisingly that the 70% of the opportunities that we found they're net new. So they were not actually. Yeah. Because we, you know there are lots of startups right. There are many startups coming up. You hear AI startups all the time and there are many companies need additional not only EDA solutions but ip. We are a number two IP provider and so so they use our ip. So even within an automotive is relatively new. So all of these campaigns that we're running we're seeing, you know 60 to 70% of the opportunities that we found are net new. So which is really interesting. I think that's kind of a hot moment for our GTM team actually and then on the Ansys side, definitely, I think Ansys has already been driving a very sophisticated demand generation program. But I think together we can do a lot more. So what they don't have is the ability to link direct marketing dollars to the final output. So if you can connect those dots, it will be very important because then you can decide, you know, at you can basically create a predictable model where you say, at this budget scenario, I can expect to generate X dollars million of sales pipeline, which can translate to X million dollars Y million dollars of revenue. So I am actually in the process of creating this model based on the data that we've generated so far. And so that's where I want to get to. I want to say, you know, if I have, let's just say $10 million of campaign dollars, I can generate 30, you know, $50 million of sales pipeline, which translate into x million dollars of revenue. So that's something that I'm aiming to do.

[A]

Cool. It sounds like a lot of your projects kind of start with intuitive knowing and then you build systems afterwards to be like, look, here's the numbers now. But you have a lot of trust behind you of people being like, okay, go try the thing and then you prove it afterwards.

[B]

Now in the semiconductor space, right. Like in the last three companies or four companies, I initiated demand generation. One is because me being an engineer in the past, I always wanted to see metrics. Right. And also want to make sure that marketing is not viewed as a call center, but really is a strong partner to the sales team. And so I've always been driven by designing this demand generation program. And in all of these companies I have seen success. So it gave me confidence that when I came here at Synopsys, I could make it successful. And it was really great that Cecine has been a very strong supporter of this program. Not only this program, everything we do in marketing.

[A]

So good. So the space we're in now, and I'm hearing this from a lot of CMOs, it's kind of a weird in between space because like customers are now finding your products through ChatGPT prompts. They're in Reddit looking for things. There's going to now be agent to agent buying probably very soon. Where you're trying to figure out how does my website talk to an agent, how do I structure my product page in a way that gets found on ChatGPT? And with you now saying that a lot of your customers are actually net new, how are you thinking about your marketing activities in a way that's prepared for this new LLM agentic buying future that we're entering into.

[B]

Yeah, funny you asked that question. So I've been talking about this endlessly with my team.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I still remember a few years ago when ChatGPT was announced and so I think within the first week I downloaded the app and I remember I was on vacation, I was like playing with it and I was so fascinated by it. And then a few days later it got me thinking, how is this going to change the way search works? How is it going to change how we do demand generation? Ever since then I've been on the quest to finding out are there articles on this? And I ask people, anybody that was in this space, I would ask how you think about this. I think this is a really interesting place where I would say we have to be prepared for both the traditional wave of search, the search engine optimization method and today and I would say half the people probably come to our website that way and the other half will come through this geo, right? So generative search optimization. So we have to understand how we structure the website, how we structure and campaigns in a way that can be surfaced. And this is a topic we are in deep, deep discussions on. I think. You know what I learned I haven't implemented this is for your website to be prepared for geo, you have to create content in a way that is more easily consumable by the LLMs, right? This means that, you know, what do they like? They like FAQs, right? They like glossaries, they like tables like not videos. Because it's very hard to analyze anything that is data driven, structured data. Those things will be very helpful. So we are thinking about how do we do this And I hear people say companies need to create shadow websites. So in for the machines, right? So you have the ones for human, you have one for machines. I think it's a challenge for everyone today because we just had our acquisition. I am thinking about redesign our website. And so this is really top of mind. I don't have an answer yet. So in the past when you design a website is you identify the Personas you, you go into like a deep study into their buying behavior, how the buying journey then you design your website that way. So does it still work anymore? Not really because I think personalization becomes more important, right? So we have tried this now you know, if we have a, if somebo is coming in, we tag them as an automotive customer immediately they are served, they are served automotive content instead of going through the journey. It's good people don't have that patience anymore. So. So that's what we've been doing is lots of lot more personalization. So if we know that person, you know, what industry they're in, we service them the content that are more relevant to them. And then also we're looking at installing agents on the site. Right. So that can help people find what they need faster.

[A]

Yeah, that's an interesting thought of also creating a website where you see it's an AI agent coming in or an LLM checking something and it quickly turns it into a format that's very easy to read for them to get the information and send it back.

[B]

Yeah, I think it's, you know, AI is a really created so many opportunities for marketing to be more innovative. Right. So that having a growth mindset, having that curiosity to learn to look at what's out in the world in AI and think about how all these changes can apply to marketing, having that mindset is very important.

[A]

Yeah, I agree. So in this more technical space you're in, how do you think about storytelling and content? Because that's one of the things that I've been seeing is that these LLMs are looking through YouTube transcripts and pulling that as an answer. They're in Reddit looking for things they're, you know, even on LinkedIn pulling like answers that people are, conversations people are having, even comments. And so how do you think about content and storytelling in the space you're in?

[B]

I think for the storytelling standpoint is really, I think that one doesn't change. It's very simple. It's really about helping people understand the why and the how. Right. So why should they care about you, how your products can help solve their pain points? And so that is very fundamental to marketing. Right. So I don't think that changes from the content standpoint. I think we're more, you know, instead of in the past, we have these long winded white papers. Right. So what we're doing is we are creating them into small chunks that are more modular content that are more helpful for the audience and the content side of it too. We are creating contents based on the campaigns. We're actually aligning our content creation with our campaigns. We always start with the very high level how you solve the industry's problems, first of all, identify the industry pain points and the challenges they have. Then we provide, we talk about the solutions that we offer in a really sort of modular way. So not a big long winded white paper. So we create these ebooks that are really, you can pull out Sections and, and then you can use those sections in different ways, whether as a LinkedIn post, as a advertisement, or just on any kind of other platforms. So I think the just having a core content, we always create a core content, then we pull different pieces from it to suit our various purposes. We're also thinking a lot more with instead of SEO, we're looking more into geo. And so that part is still very early days, right? So I don't think we clearly understand how to make sure that our content is searchable with geo. So, so I've been talking to some startups that are focused in geo, some call them aeo. And so I'm trying to understand the algorithm behind it. What is the algorithm behind the search then that will help us inform how our content can be more served up in this new way of search. We're not there yet, so definitely top of mind for me and my team.

[A]

So I would love to hear through like all these massive repositionings and different companies that you've led marketing at. Are there any big lessons or failure moments or times where you're like, that definitely didn't work or now I learned a different way of doing something that others can learn from you.

[B]

I think the big moment for me was as I mentioned, the Synaptics story. I realized because when I did the positioning then it was like, yeah, this sounds good. This sounds like it aligns with what we're trying to do. What I didn't realize was it actually helped to provide. It's a framed our business strategy, right? Our growth strategy in terms of acquisition strategy. So that was a big insight for me. And so from that point on, I think every time when we, I did reposition at Xilinx, right? So from FPGA to adaptive computing, AMD still uses that narrative now even, you know, after many years of acquisition. So I started to think about, you know, actually the brand positioning informs the business strategy, right? So what is our business strategy? That kind of understanding was very important. So the importance of brand positioning, I guess in terms of the, the company, you know, aligning with the company business strategy, that was like a big learning for me. What hasn't worked? Not anything big. I would say I haven't had a big fail.

[A]

Bummer. Those are always the best stories.

[B]

You know, this, this probably means that I haven't tried hard enough because I was, I was, I was telling my team and I remember one of my old managers told me before, you know, if you, you do everything very well 100% of the time, that means you have not tried hard enough. You have not had any, you have not taken risks. So maybe, maybe I should.

[A]

Go hard and that's right. Yes, I love it. And I, I wanted to ask this earlier and I just remembered it now. Why did you switch from engineering into marketing? And like, was that also a very. To me, it's very helpful having very diverse backgrounds. I mean, if I think about myself, I have a background in finance, worked at Google. Now I'm hosting, you know, a marketing show, talking to CMOs. I have a media company. Like, it's helpful when I think about all these different areas I've played in. And so I'm fascinated by you shifting from engineering to being a cmo.

[B]

You know, I actually started with wanting to be a doctor, right? So my entire life I was going to be a doctor because my mom was a doctor in Asian families. You're either like doctors, engineers, lawyers, right? So I'm like, okay, a doctor was my, my track. So I went into medical school. I really hated it, so I said okay. But while I was in college studying pre med, I got a computer science degree because I love math and science. And so since the medical school didn't work, I said, okay, let's try being a software engineer. I did that for a year. I realized two things. One is I am really bad at details. I'm not bad. I'm just bored of details. I'm not interested in details. Imagining a software engineer, not interested in details, that's just a big fail. I would say I was a, a mediocre software engineer at best. And the second thing I note, I realized was that I did not enjoy sitting in a cubicle just spending my entire day in front of a machine. I enjoy talking to people. So even while I was an engineer, I think I was always going around talking to people. Then I realized maybe this is not a right career path for me. So I was a software engineer for a year, then I went back to get my mba. So then I set my path into marketing and this, that I realized that marketing is what I love. So that level of creativity that is required lots of the communication with people is what I like. And also my technical background actually helps me tremendously in tech marketing.

[A]

Wow. Okay, that's, that's awesome. And what was your first job in life?

[B]

So that software engineer was my first job.

[A]

First job ever. Okay.

[B]

Yes, yes, yes.

[A]

Okay, got it.

[B]

Yeah, that was my first job. It was fun though. It was, you know, it's good that I learned very quickly that that's not What I wanted.

[A]

Yeah, it's good. It's good to learn that way. Okay, so if I'm a new marketing leader coming into just marketing in general, what would you like? How would you advise them for success? Especially in this world, that AI is quickly changing everything, every job's changing. How would you, how are you setting your team and especially new marketers up for success?

[B]

I think for marketing, very importantly is, you know, my playbook that you need to evaluate the company's positioning and messaging. Is that in line with the company's business strategy, in line with the problems the customers are looking to you to solve? That is very important. So making sure I see this a lot like, you know, when people go on to do presentations, they have their different narratives based on their own perspective. Having that very consistent communication of a centralized, unified messaging is very important. That would be the first thing I do, is making sure that maybe the company you're stepping into already has the right thing. But it's always good to evaluate and making sure that is still correct. And so I created a brand playbook. It's literally a book that talks about all the elements of brand architecture, what it means, how you use it, what you should use, what language you should not use, et cetera, et cetera. So that really helps to ground all of the communication, whether it's presentations or events that you show up at, how your brand is being perceived, I think that's very, very important. The second is really take time to understand the business. And so for me, I spend a lot of time with all the executive staff members, learn from them, understand their part of the business, their pain points, and where market can help, right? So that can help you create a strategy for quick wins. I think it's very important to have the quick wins. You know, if you're on the job for a year, you have nothing to show that's not going to help you to gain credibility, right? So having those quick wins is very, very important. And the third is making sure that you have a way to measure your marketing success. You know, so this, that's why having quantifiable metrics is very important. I think in marketing there there are two things that we measure, right? So one is the marketing, the impact from the branding perspective, you impact marketing your market valuation of the company, right? So, but that part is hard to do because that also you have to like your revenue, your operating margin, all of that are factored into your market valuation. But marketing plays a part to create that halo around your brand to help and tell the Importance of your brand. And so by having investors really understanding your company, a passion about your company, excited about where you're going and that is part of the job that marketing can deliver, deliver. On the other side is the value creation in terms of sales line pipeline expansion. That's why I've always been a strong advocate of demand generation. I think those are the two pillars. So you know, really have to be able to measure the impact of your work. And of course, you know, collaboration. Marketing needs to collaborate with product management, product marketing, sales. Creating that collaborative environment is important.

[A]

This is awesome. I need your playbooks. There needs to just be like a white labeled version of all of Ann's playbooks. They sound like a lot of people would want them really good.

[B]

But I think the first win is really important. It needs to be a big win, right?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had quite a few different CMOs recently say that of like making an impact within the first 60 days and taking a big bet just to see is your team capable that you have underneath of you. Are there any gaps that need to be filled and showing yourself off as a marketing leader of like here's what I can do and how quickly I can move things.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Setting, setting a vision for the team is important. Right. When I joined the company, I think my organization was more of a, for the lack of better description, execution arm of the business, the business units, right. So they're told you need to do this, you go do that. So you know, I wanted the organization to be more of a strategic partner which means that you know, you need different skill sets too. Right. So you need people that are really not only understand the technology space that we're in, understanding technology and also are strong storytellers. And so those, those skill sets, that combination is actually not very easy to find. And so it takes time to build those capability. It took time to build demand gen capabilities. Right. But at the end of the day I think to motivate a team you need to have really clear goals, right. So they know what they are marching towards and you also need to show them the results that deliver. So every quarter my all hands I said this is what we delivered. Not just like number impressions but in terms of sales pipeline. Right. So it's very exciting for the team. They say wow, I am making a difference.

[A]

Yeah, I, I do a process with myself every day at the end of the day to show like here's all the things I got done because what I realized and probably with my team, other teams as well when months or quarters go by. If someone says, oh, what did you do? You're like, I'm not sure. Did I do anything? Did I make an impact? And it's very helpful to. It's the Dan Sullivan thing of called staying in the gain where you're constantly remembering what you did and being able to be in gratitude and proud of all the efforts that you did, your team did.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

By the time it gets to a quarter, you're like, whoa, that was impressive. I impressed myself and our whole team.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, you know, I think that by people, everybody wants to contribute. Right. Want to feel like they've made an impact. I think by showing that those stats, the metrics, you know, it really get people motivated. I definitely see the change in people, how the team is showing up. Right. They're really motivated, so excited. And those also, I think recognition of employees contributions in a real time manner is important. Right. If somebody's done a really great job pulling off event, you want to give kudos and you know, somebody who's, you know, was able to get a really good piece of article out there, you want to tell them and you also say, hey, look at all the things that we've done. So what I always tell people that demand generation is not just the job of the team of the demand generation, but everybody contribute to this funnel. Right. The top of the funnel, pr, comms, events, they all on the top of the fan. Everybody contributes to the end result. Right. So it's very important that people can associate what they do to the impact.

[A]

Yep. I love that. Okay, I'm gonna run some fun questions by you now.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

All right, so first question. If I gave you $10 million right now for a pure experimental marketing bet, no strings attached, you could do whatever you wanted, what would you do?

[B]

I think I would like to create a marketing agence. I mean, definitely put it into the AI. So I'm fascinated by everybody talk about the agent, agentic, AI, etc. I think that I will create different agents for all the specific tasks. You know, content creation agent. I would like to see if I can have just like five people that run the entire marketing. Right? Yeah. Using AI. I think I will put that investment in AI.

[A]

Yeah, I could definitely see that being the future. So sounds like you're on the good track there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What is one piece of advice that you were given that has stuck with you for years, decades.

[B]

So maybe it's not related to marketing, but it's more related to career growth. One of my managers way back when told me that you know, you have to think about your career in two to three year chunks. Right. And so every year at the end of the year you want to evaluate where you are towards your goal, your three year goal. And you know, by second end of the second year, you're getting nowhere close to the goal. You have to think about how you expand your role in the existing company to try to get there. If you don't see an opportunity, then you should just go and find a different opportunity. I thought that was very interesting. To me it's more like the continuous learning, being observant and trying to find, just be a risk taker to go out and explore things that you might not have done before, but that you, that you can go out and try. So I think career growth is not necessarily a vertical kind of a ladder, but it can be horizontal. Then when you can learn more things by exploring other opportunities and other areas of responsibility. Responsibility. So that was a huge piece of advice. I, I actually tell that to many young people. It's like you own your career because oftentimes people think that the manager owns your career. A manager should give me a promotion. The managers do this. Actually, I think we all own your, our own careers. Yeah. So that's a really good piece of advice.

[A]

Yeah, that's really good. I love that. What's your favorite tool or technology you're playing with right now?

[B]

I think my favorite gadget is really my ipod because I. So I run a lot in the morning, so I want to go running and I take walks at night. I listen to all different kind of podcasts. Right. And so that's how I learn how I keep up with the new technologies and what's out there. And so I tend to listen to more podcasts. That has to do with the industry, the technology and how technology shape our world. New startup coming up. What are some of the challenges? Industry? I tend to listen to those things. Not the fun ones. I guess I'm not really a super fun person. So yeah, podcast is my ipod, is, is really my favorite piece of gadget that, that I use. Yeah. And then ChatGPT is the tool that I use daily basis. On daily basis.

[A]

Yeah. Podcasts, same. I mean, of course I have a media company with a whole network of podcasts, but when I'm listening to other podcasts, they're really to learn about different industries and tech and business. I'm not listening to like crime podcasts or anything. And people are always like, that's boring. But I'm like, oh, I actually like listening to a 16Z podcast over crime thrillers.

[B]

Do you have one that is your favorite or 1, 2. They're your favorites?

[A]

I mean, I like Acquired. That's always.

[B]

Oh, yeah, me too. Yeah. Yep.

[A]

Yeah, so that one's good. I like some Alex hero episodes. His. His is called the Game. And then I do like a 16Z, but only when Ben and Mark are doing the interviews. Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Those are good. Those are usually the ones that I try and find.

[B]

I listen to those as well. So, like Acquired is one of my favorites. Hard fork. I really like hard fork.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, I'll check that one out.

[B]

That's by New York Times Kevin Roose. So what they do is they, they talk about the real time issues, right? Like, you know, the Nvidia, the chip, or being banned by China, a usage, you know, sold, banned for sale in China. And they'll talk about the implications of those. Like as an example. So we'll talk about real time issues. It really. They go deep into those news. It really helps you understand the backgrounds of, you know, lots of these technology movements and impact. So very interesting. You should listen. I would recommend.

[A]

Yeah, I'll check it out. Look at us. We're just promoting everyone else's podcast here. They should be so thankful.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, next question. So you're on a deserted island and your marketing business brain can't shut off. You can bring with you one book, a couple other C level leaders, and then one tool or technology. And when it comes to the C level leaders, it could be someone who can like, you're like, that person's gonna help me build a boat. That person's gonna be good for brainstorming. That person's just a good vibe. They're a great time. Like, what would your book be that you bring the people you'd bring with you? And you don't have to know these people. You can just pick whoever you want. And then the software, tool, gadget, something.

[B]

That's a very interesting question. I have, I think the book I would bring, well, my favorite book is not even that techy, but it's how to win Friends and influence People by Dale Carnegie. I always enjoy that book and the anecdotes in that book. The people I would bring along, I think of course the obvious ones like, like, I think Jensen Huang. I met him several times. Super dynamic. He's fun and he's is a very strong leader. He has lots of strong vision in where the society is going, how the technology is shaping the Society in many ways. So I think he would be a really good leader. I also sustained my boss. Boss. He, I really enjoy working with him. He's just a fierce leader. I think he is the, the type of leader has this really can do attitude. Right. Not everything can be done, you know. So I think he is a really great brainstorming partner. He's also very thoughtful person. And the technology gadget, I would bring a, like a. Some kind of simulation, you know, now they have this sim racing technology I think just for fun.

[A]

That's so good. I would not have thought that when.

[B]

I think when you do that you actually show the personalities and that also kind of when you play some kind of game together, it unveils the personality, the true personalities of people. And also it's a good way to keep your entertained but also create this sense of camaraderie.

[A]

Yeah, that's amazing.

[B]

Yeah. If you're, you know, on a deserted island, might as well make make things fun.

[A]

Yep, it'll be fun. You'll have deep friendships because you'll read the book and you'll have a can do attitude that will also get you probably off the island at some point. So.

[B]

Or, or if we don't, we'll just play games.

[A]

Yeah, you just have fun and you just stay there forever. That's amazing. Well, Anne, this interview has been so fun as I knew it would be. Thanks for coming on marketing trends and sharing all your playbooks and ideas. It was a real treat. Where can our viewers, our listeners, our audience, where can they find out more about you and what you're up to at Synopsys?

[B]

You can always find me on LinkedIn and you can find me on our company site. Yeah. So feel free. LinkedIn is probably the best way to reach out. Yeah. So I would love to hear comments from audience and if there are anything questions I can answer, help anybody answer, I would love to hear. Yeah. And it's been a pleasure. So I enjoyed this conversation very much, Stephanie.

[A]

Thank you, Ann. Yeah, this was really fun.