Meet Michael Beckmann, the man finding more ways to get creators paid
Sep 18, 2024 – minute read
For creators on YouTube Michael Beckmann might just be the most important person they’ve never heard of. As the Director of Product for Data and Creator Payments, he leads the teams that find more ways for creators to get paid for doing what they love. From BrandConnect to Jewels - announced today at Made on YouTube - to processing monthly payouts, Michael’s passionate about growing creator earnings and also unlocking more ways for fans and creators to engage. We spoke with him about what led him to YouTube, how creator feedback drives his team, and what he hopes the future of creator earnings will look like.
Before your current role you were an automotive engineer, worked in strategy consulting, were the COO of the first rideshare startup, and worked on product at Uber. What did you learn in each of these that you use in your current role?
While I have gone through a few transitions in my career, each role has provided me the opportunity to learn new skills which are critical to my success at YouTube. In my first role out of college I was an auto engineer at General Motors where I learned how to work with a team of engineers to solve highly complex, technical problems. In my next role as a strategy consultant, I learned how to use data to estimate the potential impact of any idea. I use this skill to make sure that my team focuses on the most impactful ideas. As the COO of Sidecar, a rideshare startup, I learned to be scrappy, wear many hats, and how to use lean experimentation to quickly validate product ideas. At YouTube, the product team partners closely with the business team to help creators, and having formerly been a business leader is helpful in understanding their point of view. Finally at Uber, I was the General Manager of JUMP bike and scooter sharing where I launched and scaled the service from idea to hundreds of thousands of weekly trips, I learned how to find product market fit and how to lead a team across both product and operations. Each of these experiences has proven invaluable in my ability to lead my current team in prioritizing and building the most impactful product solutions to help creators earn more on YouTube.
“ Creator feedback informs everything we do on the creator product team. We frequently meet with creators to better understand their needs and conduct user research to ensure the solutions that we build meet those needs.”
At YouTube, you’re the Director of Product for Data and Creator Payments. What are the biggest priorities when it comes to making tools that enable creators to make more money on the platform?
The creator team is focused on helping creators build businesses and making YouTube the best place to earn. We provide multiple ways to earn, including ads revenue sharing, fan funding products, brand deals, and more. Within these, I lead the BrandConnect team that helps creators and brands partner on brand deals. Our mission is to make it easy for brands to find and connect with amazing YouTube creators to create, boost, and measure sponsored content. Our northstar priority is driving up the number of brand deals for YouTube creators. I also lead our Jewels team. Jewels is a new product that we announced at Made On YouTube which will power more fun engagement between creators and viewers on vertical live streams. Our priority with Jewels is to find product market fit and scale creator earnings through this new way to earn.
What do you hope Jewels can do for creators outside of the financial component?
We believe that Jewels can unlock deeper and more fun engagement between YouTube creators and their fans. Viewers can use the Jewels they purchase to seamlessly engage with creators and send playful animations that express their feelings on vertical live streams. When creators and the community react to these gifts, it unlocks a new level of connection between creators and their fans. I am very excited to be building the platform that will power this new level of fun and engagement on YouTube.
“ When I meet someone new and they ask me where I work, the response is pretty much unanimously “oh, I love YouTube, I use it every day.” YouTube is the only product I can think of that both my 75 year-old mother and 3 and 5 year-old children love.”
How does direct creator feedback help inform what your team does?
Creator feedback informs everything we do on the creator product team. We frequently meet with creators to better understand their needs and conduct user research to ensure the solutions that we build meet those needs. One recent example is around the creator payment experience. We heard from creators that it was unclear in YouTube Studio when they would get paid. As a result, we built a new feature in Studio where creators can easily see at any time how they are tracking towards their next payout as well as past pay statements with detailed breakdowns. This feature was extremely well received by the creator community with very high customer satisfaction scores, and it was directly informed by creator feedback.
You’ve been at YouTube for three years now, what has surprised you the most during that time?
The most surprising thing for me about working at YouTube is how much energy and personal joy I get from working on a product that brings so much value to creators and viewers around the world. When I meet someone new and they ask me where I work, the response is pretty much unanimously “oh, I love YouTube, I use it every day.” YouTube is the only product I can think of that both my 75 year-old mother and 3 and 5 year-old children love. I also love meeting creators and feeling the passion they have for their content and fans. It is truly amazing to go to work every day knowing the products I build drive so much joy and value for billions of people.
In one line, what’s your goal every day you wake up and go to work at YouTube?
Help creators earn more on Youtube.
In 10 years, what do you hope the future of creator earnings will look like?
I hope that the creator economy continues to flourish and we identify and develop more and more ways for creators to build sustainable businesses doing the things they love. I hope the barriers to becoming a successful creator continue to decrease and more creators are able to build deeply engaged communities of fans that power their success on YouTube.