Meet Zendesk’s new CMO: Tifenn Dano Kwan

You've built marketing organizations across very different kinds of companies — SAP, Dropbox, Amplitude, and now Zendesk. What is the through line for you? How have these different experiences shaped you as a marketing leader?

First and foremost, you need to be an integrated marketer. That’s the first through line. In my view, every marketer should be an integrated marketer. It’s a mindset thing. 

It starts with asking yourself: are you looking left and right for your colleagues and stakeholders, or are you just building for yourself? 

An integrated marketer doesn’t think only about their own results. They think about how to bring the team around them together and leverage those people as multipliers. That’s also a big part of my leadership philosophy. 

Great leaders are multipliers. They surround themselves with people who are stronger than they are in specific areas of expertise and then harness that expertise. The stronger the team around you, the stronger you become.

Marketing has changed considerably in the last few years. What does it actually take to lead a world-class marketing org right now?

You need a learning mindset. You have to be open to learning new ways of thinking, designing programs, and building teams.

That can be hard when you’ve done something the same way for a long time and perfected a formula. But even a great formula can become obsolete if the environment changes.

So, having a learner’s mindset is one of the biggest things. The other is embracing feedback. You have to be willing to take feedback because the market and conditions are changing. Be open-minded, keep learning, and be adaptable.

What’s a piece of advice or a mantra you’ve carried with you throughout your career that still guides you today?

Yes: “When there is a will, there is a way.”

I first used that line in a business school interview. They gave me two topics and 10 minutes to prepare a short talk. I chose that one line, and it has followed me throughout my career.

A lot of the time, what gets in the way of people doing things is that they don’t really want to. In my experience, when something fails, it’s often because enough will wasn’t put into it.

When there is a will, there is almost always a way. I’ve become very attuned to that. If you really want something, you can be unstoppable. And just as importantly, you can usually tell when someone doesn’t really want it—they’re not going to give it their full effort.

But if you put your mind to something and bring that integrated mindset—looking left, right, north, south, east, and west—you’ll find people are willing to help. If you have strong will, vision, passion, and integrity, people will follow you.

Zendesk is at a genuinely significant moment right now. What was it about this company, and this particular point in time, that made this the right next move?

There were a lot of reasons.

First, the brand itself. Zendesk is a recognized, respected, well-known brand, and I was drawn to the opportunity to help transform it into the AI era.

Because it’s such a strong brand, it also has a strong moat in terms of data and customer base. I believe the winners in the AI race will be the companies that own proprietary data. We have a unique opportunity because we have data that is truly ours. That’s a major advantage.

Some competitors may be moving faster, but they’re nowhere near the scale of data we have.

I also loved the agentic vision that Shashi (Zendesk’s President of Product, Engineering and AI) laid out. It came early, and I was encouraged by it. This space is moving quickly, and while some people might say it’s crowded, I think the companies that win will be the ones that can deliver real business outcomes fastest.

That’s what Zendesk is doing. We’re not asking whether AI works. We already know it works. We’ve shifted from ticketing to resolution, and from seat-based pricing to outcome-based pricing. That gives me confidence we’re in one of the industries where AI will prove its value fastest.

And last but not least, I met the leadership team, including Tom, and I felt real human, authentic leadership. That mattered a lot to me. At this stage in my career, I want to work with good people.

The most important question for me was: are they good human beings? That was a key part of my decision.

Most people spend their first week reading onboarding docs. You spent yours at Relate with hundreds of customers. What moment or conversation from that week has stuck with you? What impressions did you take from that experience?

I was thrown into the action from day one, and honestly, I don’t think I read any onboarding documents.

My onboarding was with the people on the ground.

I met dozens and dozens of people across marketing, sales, partners, and customers, and I really loved it. The biggest takeaway for me was the enthusiasm and the momentum building.

I felt that momentum. I thought Relate was an outstanding event. The messaging was resonating, and there was genuine excitement. It felt like an authentic connection.

That further reinforced my belief that there’s a great atmosphere at Zendesk.

As you settle in, what tops your priority list? What are you tackling first?

The team will quickly learn this about me, but my number one priority is pipeline. It will always be pipeline.  

Everything I do is in service of hitting our goals and supporting the business. To do this, I need to make sure the budget, the organization is really well tailored to hitting these goals. 

The second priority is readiness for an AI transformation. That includes pipeline, AI transformation, and brand positioning. Making sure Zendesk is clearly positioned as an AI-first company is going to be a very big mandate for me.