Meet Maggie Zilke: Driving eCommerce Innovation at ECI

This month, we feature Maggie Zilke, a sociocultural anthropology graduate who is now a key player in eCommerce at ECI Software. We sat down with Maggie to learn more about her role within the team.

ECI: Describe your role in 50 words or less.

Maggie Zilke (MZ): I manage the feature roadmap for the integrations between Spruce and our merchants’ online storefronts – both with Spruce eCommerce and our third-party eComm API. That involves identifying new development opportunities, prioritizing what to implement next, and supporting my team through delivery as their scrum master.

ECI: What and where did you study?

MZ: I have a BA in sociocultural anthropology from Boston University.

ECI: Tell us about your background and the path that led you to your current role.

MZ: Besides studying anthropology, I was part of an intensive journalism program in high school and college. Early in my career, I was in corporate operations at a fundraising company, and my VP asked me to work with IT to create an online newsletter to communicate with our field sales team. That evolved into me moving into IT, where I’ve been leading large-scale development projects ever since. I have experience with both backend and frontend systems, but online tools are where my heart is. Before coming to ECI, I spent 10 years working on national retail eCommerce sites.

ECI: What does your day-to-day work life look like?
MZ: I spend most of my day communicating with folks throughout the organization and our customers. I listen to pain points, advocate for user needs, seek clarification on system requirements, facilitate groups to reach consensus on decision-making, provide status updates, and remove roadblocks to keep the ball rolling on our top priority initiatives.

ECI: What advice would you give someone just starting in your industry? Any words of wisdom?

MZ: You don’t have to have all the right answers to do this job. But you need to know how to find them – build relationships, stay open to new ideas, invite input, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

ECI: What excites you most about working within this industry?

MZ: Delivery! I love it when we can use technology to solve problems or make people’s days easier. There’s nothing better than demonstrating a new feature to a receptive audience.

ECI: What do you find most challenging about working within this industry?

MZ: Technology projects can be expensive, so you can’t do everything you’d like to. Sometimes, the scope gets reduced, projects are not approved, or you have to change teams to go where the opportunity is. We could say “Yes!” to every good idea in a perfect world.

ECI: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned since you began your career?

MZ: Change is constant: new methodologies, technologies, external impacts to your business... there’s almost always something. It’s important to stay adaptable if you want to be in tech.

ECI: Since you started working in the industry, what changes have you witnessed?

MZ: I started my career in the early 2000s when the internet took off. When I first began that online newsletter, my CEO was dead against sales reps having email. They worked in brick-and-mortar offices and had administrators who took phone messages for them. At the start of the sales season, the admins would print a profile report for each account and assemble binders for each rep with all their accounts. They carried those binders everywhere they went, and they wouldn’t get another report until they were refreshed at the end of the season. At headquarters, you had to get special approval to install an internet browser on your machine. It’s wild to look back at that and think about how much we rely on the internet now.

ECI: What do you enjoy doing when you're not at work?

MZ: I have two kids—13 and 15—and keeping up with them takes up most of my free time. I’m also the Scoutmaster for their BSA troop and a parent producer for the school plays.

ECI: What book would you recommend for anyone to add to their must-read list?

MZ: Oh gosh, that’s a hard one! It’s by no means new, but I was just recommending "The Astronaut Wives Club" to a colleague. It’s a true story of the space race, told from the perspective of women who were mostly behind the scenes. I love that it shows a story we think we already know in a different light.

Maggie Zilke's career is a testament to adaptability and passion for technology. Her story highlights the importance of continuous learning and collaboration in driving eCommerce success. Get inspired and see how you can make a difference.