InternViews: Myla Brown

InternViews is a series where we ask Grady College students to describe their internship experience.

Myla Brown is a fourth-year advertising major from Missouri City, Texas. This year, she’s spending her summer on the AdPR NYC Experience and Exploration program as a product intern at People Inc. Read more about her internship experience below.

Please provide a brief overview of your roles and responsibilities.

As a Product Intern at People, Inc., I support D/Cipher, our proprietary contextual targeting platform powered by billions of consumer and content signals for identity-free advertising. One of the biggest projects I worked on this summer was leading the end-to-end product lifecycle for a new enterprise workflow feature designed to improve how our research teams manage inbound RFPs and RFIs. I conducted user discovery sessions, translated feedback into Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) and partnered closely with UX/UI designers and engineers throughout agile sprint cycles using Jira and Confluence. I also audited data quality, built Looker and Tableau dashboards to measure feature adoption after launch and used those insights to recommend future improvements. In addition, I’ve had the opportunity to test emerging internal and external AI tools for bugs, usability and overall user experience before they reach broader audiences.

What is one piece of work you are proud of creating in this role?

I always try to find purpose in the work I’m doing, and this project was especially meaningful because I was trusted to own it from start to finish. Leading the development of a new workflow feature for D/Cipher gave me the opportunity to talk directly with users, identify pain points, write the Product Requirements Document (PRD), and collaborate with designers and engineers to bring the features to life. Seeing something move from an idea to a product that improves someone’s daily workflow was incredibly rewarding. It reinforced that great products start with listening to people.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you gained from this experience?

One of the best pieces of advice I received came during my first week from Michaela Vo on the Account Strategy team: “Write everything down.” It sounds simple, but documenting every meeting, project and accomplishment creates a record of your growth from week to week to week. It’s made it so much easier to reflect on what I’ve learned, update my resume, prepare for interviews and tell meaningful stories about my experience.

Did you receive any mentorship or guidance? How did it impact your experience?

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have amazing mentors throughout my college journey. Before this internship, Dr. Juanita Hicks, UGA Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) and mentors like Courtney Aldrich at the Institute for Leadership Advancement and Alexa Francis challenged me to think bigger and prepared me for opportunities like this. At People, Inc., my manager, Matt Pena, and the entire team have continued that support. They’ve always welcomed my questions, encouraged my curiosity and trusted me with meaningful work. This experience reminded me that the best professionals are the ones who invest in others, and that’s the kind of leader I hope to become. The mentorship also helped me feel much more at home at work. Whether it was teammates from other departments sitting next to me, people stopping by my desk for a quick conversation, or coffee chats with colleagues across the company, I realized there is something to learn from everyone. Hearing firsthand experiences from people in different roles helped me understand what excites me, what doesn’t, and introduced me to career paths I didn’t even know existed until I talked to someone.

How has the Grady curriculum prepared you for this internship?

Grady gave me a strong foundation that I use every day. Courses challenged me to think strategically, communicate clearly and use data to make informed decisions. Projects like the Adler Planetarium campaign in Media Strategy and Activation and my Social Media Listening, Analytics, and Engagement class introduced me to analytics, media strategy and platforms like Brandwatch. While product management was new territory for me, Grady gave me the confidence to ask good questions, think critically and quickly learn the technical side of the role.

How has this internship influenced your future career?

This internship has completely changed how I think about the future of advertising. Coming into the summer, I knew I loved business operations and product management, but now I’ve seen firsthand how technology, AI and data are shaping the industry. Working on D/Cipher and testing emerging AI products has made me much more comfortable working alongside technical teams and using data to solve business problems. It’s also reinforced my interest in pursuing a career at the intersection of product, operations and AI. As technology continues to evolve, I’m excited to build products and processes that make organizations work smarter while keeping people at the center of every decision.

Editor: Sarah Kate Maher, skm01341@uga.edu