Kyle Reilly-Johnston · Los Angeles, CA
20 years building product marketing playbooks for the world's biggest streaming platforms. The kind of leader who shapes the roadmap, not just responds to it — and brings the human element to every data point.
One of many executive roadshows Kyle led to bring Disney+ Perks to life across the organization — translating complex product strategy into something a room full of leaders wants to act on. Kyle has presented directly to CMO Asad Ayaz and senior global leadership at The Walt Disney Company.
Spotify's next Director of Consumer Product Marketing needs to be more than a great marketer. Here's how Kyle matches what the CMO is looking for.
Spotify wants someone to design a consumer product marketing playbook that perpetually evolves. Kyle built that at Disney+ from scratch — frameworks for positioning, launch, lifecycle, and loyalty adopted across US, LATAM, APAC, and EMEA.
Spotify doesn't want someone who stays in their lane. Kyle actively crosses into brand, creative, consumer insights, and partnership conversations — shaping decisions upstream, not reacting to them downstream.
Spotify is a community, not a utility. Kyle understands the cultural dimension of product marketing — the difference between telling someone about a product and inviting them into an experience. His Gen Z and Gen Alpha work at Disney+ was built on exactly that.
The CMO wants someone the team goes to, not someone who pops in. Kyle's leadership is rooted in developing people — guiding them toward their strengths, growing them into expanded roles, and building cultures of curiosity and cross-fertilization.
Spotify wants AI fluency baked into how PMM operates. Kyle built the AI workflow infrastructure from the ground up — prompt libraries, governance SOPs, team training — because he was genuinely curious about where the craft was going.
The CMO wants someone who tells him something he doesn't already know. Kyle has presented strategy to Asad Ayaz, CMO of The Walt Disney Company — and is equally energized by what's happening culturally at street level.
Three principles that shape every team, every campaign, every room Kyle walks into.
I don't lead from the top down. My job is to understand what each person is uniquely great at, clear the path, and develop them into challenges they didn't know they were ready for. A team with genuine curiosity and psychological safety will outperform any hierarchy.
Product marketing doesn't live in a box. My best work comes from pulling consumer insights, brand strategy, and product thinking into the same room — and advocating for what the data and culture are telling us, not just reacting to a roadmap already decided.
Culture isn't something you announce — it's something you practice every day in how you listen, how you push back, and how you celebrate. To build a community for Spotify's users, you need to reflect that community internally. That's not a talking point. It's how I work.
20 years of subscriber growth, global expansion, and product marketing for brands people actually love.
Led end-to-end product and brand marketing strategy for Disney+, managing a 14-person global team across brand positioning, 360-degree campaigns, AI workflow innovation, subscriber loyalty, and global expansion. Presented strategy directly to CMO Asad Ayaz and SVP/VP leadership. Built the global PMM playbook from scratch — frameworks adopted across US, LATAM, APAC, and EMEA.
Conceived and scaled Disney+ Perks from 0 to 1 — a global subscriber loyalty program launched across 8 markets spanning US, Canada, LATAM, and APAC.
Led product and brand marketing, pricing strategy, and personalized retention across DIRECTV's consumer subscriber base. Launched DIRECTV Stream. Pioneered ML-powered 1:1 retention packaging generating 26,000 customer saves and $17M in free cash flow. Note: DIRECTV was acquired by AT&T and subsequently spun off as an independent company during this period.
Built customer audience segmentation and behavioral targeting program contributing to a 7% revenue increase and 4% reduction in churn across two Southern California call centers.
Spotify's culture is built on community, diversity, and the belief that people do their best work when they feel genuinely valued. Kyle doesn't just understand that — he's built teams that reflect it.
Spotify wants to redesign its consumer product marketing playbook for a world that keeps changing. That's not a project Kyle would manage — it's how he's operated for 20 years.
At Disney+, he built the playbook from zero. At DIRECTV, he reinvented retention with ML. At Charter, he built behavioral segmentation when it wasn't standard. Every role, a new version of what's possible.
“Product marketing that stays in its box isn't product marketing. The work that actually moves a product forward happens at the intersection — where brand, culture, consumer insight, and roadmap thinking flow into each other.”
Kyle built AI workflow infrastructure at Disney+ not because it was on a roadmap — because he was genuinely curious about where the tools were taking the craft. He trained 300+ marketers, built prompt libraries, governance SOPs, and workflow playbooks scaling team output across 20+ concurrent workstreams.
At Spotify, that means helping a 15+ person team use AI as a creative amplifier — faster research synthesis, sharper briefs, better ideation — while keeping human instinct and cultural curiosity at the center.
Spotify, the conversation starts here. Kyle is actively available and genuinely excited about this opportunity.
kyle@kylereilly.com · (818) 585-0893