Product Marketing Life: Recent Episodes
Product Marketing Alliance
Your very own biweekly dose of all things product marketing. Whether you want a glimpse into the life of other PMMs or you’re after a deep dive into something specific, this is the only place you need to be.
In this episode of The Product Marketing Life podcast, host Mark Assini is joined by Joshua Diner, Group Product Marketing Manager at Infobip. They have an insightful conversation around conversational marketing and communication, and how it can be leveraged to provide highly personalized experiences.
Here are the key takeaways from Mark and Joshua's discussion:
- Conversational communication blends chatbots, AI, and human interactions.
- Personalization is key for conversational marketing.
- Conversational communication can be applied across the entire customer journey.
- Cart abandonment is a prime use case for conversational communication.
- Personalization through conversational marketing can be a competitive advantage.
This week on Product Marketing Life, Mark is joined by Vaishnavi Ravi, founder and consultant at Market Maven, to discuss her experiences of leading major pricing changes. In their discussion, Vaishnavi advises treating pricing as an iterative process, requiring continuous testing and learning. She also stresses the importance of deeply understanding your customers and audiences as being critical for positioning and strategic direction. Overall, the discussion provides an inside look at the considerations and cross-functional collaboration vital for a successful pricing change.
Key takeaways* Pricing changes require balancing multiple factors like value delivered, customer impact, and business metrics. It's an iterative process of testing and learning. * Research involves analysts, sales data, customer reactions, competitor pricing, and secondary research on pricing best practices. * Important metrics to track include ARR, average revenue per user, deal sizes, customer acquisition costs, and churn. * Change management is required to enable sales with the rationale and empathy for customers, staged rollout, and ongoing tracking of metrics and fine-tuning. * Focus on truly understanding your customers and audiences will continue to be critical for product positioning and company direction.
This week on Product Marketing Life, Mark is joined by Dejan Gajsek, CEO and co-founder of Grow + Scale. Dejan shares his career journey, beginning with marketing roles at early-stage startups in Slovenia, before making the leap to found Grow + Scale – a competitive intelligence program provider for B2B and SaaS technology companies.
Dejan takes us through the "dos and don'ts" of setting up competitive enablement programs, advising product marketers to start small and focus on one or two key competitors. He recommends creating a handful of assets like battlecards, and suggests leading with an "atomic battlecard" that covers 80% of scenarios to avoid overwhelming sales with too much information.
If sales reps aren't using the new collateral, Dejan suggests diagnosing why by talking to them directly, getting leader endorsement, and highlighting successes from deals won using the assets. Looking ahead, he sees competitive intelligence remaining critical as competition increases. While AI is a hot topic, Dejan emphasizes preserving the human aspect of selling.
Key talking points* For product marketers starting a competitive enablement program, Dejan advises starting small – focusing on 1-2 key competitors, ideal users like younger sales reps, and a few priority assets like battlecards. * He shares tips on battle card creation - start with an "atomic battlecard" covering 80% of scenarios. Don't overwhelm sales reps with too much info. * If sales reps don't use new enablement collateral, diagnose why – talk to them, get leader endorsement, and highlight successes. * Looking ahead, competitive intelligence will remain critical as competition increases. AI is hot but be sure to preserve the human aspect of selling.
In this episode of Product Marketing Life, we're joined by Ryan Cuellar, Chief Delivery Officer at Primary Intelligence, where we discuss the ways in which win-loss analysis can be used to increase revenue and retention.
Win-loss analysis is key to any successful product marketing endeavor. It delves into essential factors like why customers make certain decisions, and hones in on four categorical areas: price, product, sales motion, and company. But here's the catch, it's not just a deep product review; it goes deeper by exploring decision-making processes and the human element behind them.
Key talking points* Four categorial areas that interplay in the customer’s decision-making processes. * Understanding stakeholders' metrics, especially sales, to produce actionable recommendations. * Building a strong relationship within the sales team and why it’s crucial for a successful win-loss program. * Metrics don't change on their own; they change with people. * Overcoming sales objections and improving win rates. * Demonstrating an understanding of buyers' unique needs.
Resources Follow Ryan on LinkedIn * Join the conversation in the PMA Community Slack channel * Access our eBook and explore the world of win-loss programs*
In this episode, host Mark Assini is joined by Aubrey Chapnick, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Q4, a leading capital markets communications platform.
Aubrey’s path to PMM is highly unconventional. He initially wanted to join the military to become an F-18 fighter pilot but ended up going in a very different direction.
Aubrey has done a lot of different things in his career including sales, management consulting, investment banking, equity research, HR, product, strategy, writing for the Globe and Mail, personal finance websites and even working as a catering chef before landing in product marketing.
Today, Aubrey leads product marketing for Q4’s growth products and is obsessed with helping Investor Relations professionals win in capital markets.
During this chat, Aubrey dives into his path from no formal product marketing experience to Senior Product Marketing Manager in under a year.
He also shares how he used unconventional experiences to his advantage when transitioning careers and trying to grow rapidly.
In this episode, host Mark Assini is joined by Jessica Andrews, VP of Marketing at Copper.
Jessica has recently taken on the role of VP of Marketing after spending the bulk of her career dedicated to product marketing. In fact, she credits her time in product marketing as one of the primary reasons she was able to take on the leadership position she currently holds.
Today, Jessica and the team at Copper offer the only Google-recommended CRM that helps teams build better relationships to drive lasting revenue.
During their chat, Jessica shares how she and a group of individuals at Copper brought their newest product, Wyndy, to market.
She explains how ICP research helped to drive the decision to launch a new product, and how she and the team navigated entering a new customer segment with a new product.
With 80.4% of product marketers earmarking the management of product launches as a core component of their role, what if we told you we hold the golden ticket to creating repeatable Go-to-Market processes?
Make yourself comfortable, because in this episode, Devon O'Rourke, Founder & Manager Partner at Fluvio, shares a breadth of transferable insights sure to enhance your Go-to-Market strategy.
Devon shares Fluvio’s approach to creating repeatable Go-to-Market processes, outlining where most Go-to-Market plans tend to fall apart. He also shares his views on how product marketing can drive measurable impact at companies of various stages of growth.
In this episode, host Mark Assini is joined by Bhargav Brahmbhatt, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Harness.
Bhargav has held a number of product-oriented roles, starting out first in software development, then getting into product management after pursuing an MBA, and finally landing in product marketing.
Today, Bhargav and the team at Harness are building an intelligent software delivery platform that enables engineers to deliver software faster, with higher quality, and with less effort.
During their chat, Bhargav and Mark explore what it’s like to be a product marketer at a fast-moving startup and how to go about building out a product marketing team in a startup environment.
For anyone looking to gain traction as a product marketer at a startup, this episode is a must-listen.
In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini welcomes Zoey Morck, Customer Marketing Manager at Logz.io.
Zoey has held a number of marketing and sales-focused roles over the course of her career, finding a natural fit in the emerging world of customer marketing.
Today, Zoey and the team at Logz help cloud-native businesses monitor and secure their environments with comprehensive open-source tools.
Key discussion points:
- The role customer marketing plays within the broader sales and marketing orgs, and the role it plays in Go-to-Market.
- Zoey's thoughts on the recent shift around customer marketing and Go-to-Market - and why she thinks it’s happening.
- The role customer marketing plays in helping product marketing define Go-to-Market strategy.
- How product marketing supports customer marketing, and vice versa.
- The ways in which customer marketing cooperates with lifecycle marketing.
In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Shaalin Parekh, Founding Marketing Lead at Champify and Founder of IndustryGTM.
During their chat, the pair discuss the approach Shaalin leveraged while at Seismic to spin up an industry-specific go-to-market strategy for a new sub-vertical.
He shared his approach to identifying when an industry-specific go-to-market strategy is needed, and how to make sure it’s unique enough from the core GTM by tailoring it to the sub-vertical’s ICP and unique use case.
His insights are super valuable to any product marketer tasked with taking on a GTM for a new industry segment.
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In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Sapir Segal, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Fiverr.
During their chat, Sapir shares her experience as Fiverr’s first official product marketing hire. She details her journey from its early days all the way up to her recent promotion into a senior role. For anyone looking to tackle their first role as a solo PMM or for guidance on how to navigate a promotion, Sapir offers some invaluable advice.
While you're here, why not become a PMA Pro Member?
In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Umang Sejpal, Product Marketing Manager at Cofenster.
During their chat, they discussed Cofenster’s transition from a Sales-Led Growth model to a hybrid Product-Led Growth Model. Umang's practical insights and recommendations will be incredibly helpful to anyone who finds themselves going through a similar shift.
While you're here, why not become a PMA Pro Member?
Plus, get Certified with our Product-Led Growth Core course.
In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Ken Oestreich, Founder of Fountainhead Product Marketing.
During their chat, they discussed Ken's API-based framework for establishing streamlined and transparent exchanges of information between product marketing and its partner teams. This is a must-listen for anyone looking to formalize or improve cross-functional relationships.
While you're here, why not become a PMA Pro Member?
In this special episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini passes over the reins to Mikey Mioduski, Founder and CEO of GhostRanch, who sits down with Jen Jones, Chief Marketing Officer at commercetools.
They discuss the value of networking and building mentor relationships throughout your career, why empathy and consistency matter in what we deliver to sales, capitalizing on storytelling opportunities, and more.
While you're here, why not become a PMA Pro Member?
In this special episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini passes over the reins to Mikey Mioduski, Founder and CEO of GhostRanch, who sits down with Esther Yoon, VP of Industry and Product Marketing at RingCentral.
They discuss visual storytelling, product keynotes, and the importance of a holistic approach to messaging. Esther also shares a refreshing outlook on what she anticipates for product marketers in 2023.
While you're here, why not become a PMA Pro Member?
In this special episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini reflects on some of his favorite soundbites from the last 12 months.
He spoke to some incredibly talented product marketing experts over the year, so he thought he'd share a few that'll definitely be taking him through to 2023.
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In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Andrew Hatfield, Founder and Marketing Strategist at Deepstar Strategic.
During their chat, they discussed the concept of message-market fit. Andrew provides a very clear overview of what it is and how important it is for product marketers to help their company get it right. He also gives practical guidance on how to evaluate message-market fit, and how to identify when your messaging may need updating.
Want to learn more about messaging? Get Messaging Certified.
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In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Jana Frejova, Team Lead of Growth and Product Marketing at Spendesk.
During their chat, they discussed the unique and dynamic relationship between growth and product marketing teams. From the role product marketing plays in experimentation, to how they collaborate directly with their growth counterparts to drive conversion at every stage of the funnel, Jana provides great insight into how these two teams combine to generate tangible outcomes for the product and the customer.
While you're here, why not become a PMA Pro Member?
In this episode of https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/product-marketing-life-podcast-series/ (Product Marketing Life), host Mark Assini is joined by Shira Atkins. Co-founder and CRO of Wonder Media Network. During their chat, they discussed how product marketers can leverage podcasts to help tell their company’s stories and connect with a broader audience of customers. Shira also suggests other ways product marketers can leverage podcasts to promote their brand, acquire new customers and, interestingly, close deals. Wanna learn more about Storytelling? Get Storytelling Certified. While you're at it, why not become a https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/signup/ (PMA Pro Member)?
In this episode of https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/product-marketing-life-podcast-series/ (Product Marketing Life), host Mark Assini is joined by Thomas Eugene, Senior Professional Services Engineer at Merydyan Technologies. During their chat, they discussed how critical it is to understand your customers and their unique learning needs when onboarding them to your product. Plus, Thomas shares some methods that he’s used in his career to create a learning environment that puts customers at ease and makes them that much more willing to share valuable insights and feedback. Wanna learn more about customer research? https://certified.productmarketingalliance.com/p/customer-research-certified (Get Customer Research Certified). While you're at it, why not become a https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/signup/ (PMA Pro Member)?
In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Thomas Eugene, Senior Professional Services Engineer at Merydyan Technologies.
During their chat, they discussed how critical it is to understand your customers and their unique learning needs when onboarding them to your product. Plus, Thomas shares some methods that he’s used in his career to create a learning environment that puts customers at ease and makes them that much more willing to share valuable insights and feedback.
Wanna learn more about customer research? Get Customer Research Certified.
While you're at it, why not become a PMA Pro Member?
In this episode of https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/product-marketing-life-podcast-series/ (Product Marketing Life), host Mark Assini is joined by Yi Lin Pei, Director of Product Marketing at Teachable. During their chat, Yi Lin shares her thoughts and recommendations on how to navigate the product marketing job market during the current economic downturn. She provides some really practical tips on how to assess your current situation, evaluate your next opportunity, and how to go about seeking it out. Looking for a PMM job? Check out https://certified.productmarketingalliance.com/p/pmm-hired?_gl=11fog2xw_gaODg2NDA5NzAzLjE2NjM2NjM0MTc._ga_KVYRMDNSEY*MTY2MzkyNTgxNC4xOC4wLjE2NjM5MjU4MTQuNjAuMC4w&_ga=2.75473426.128611612.1663663418-886409703.1663663417 (PMM Hired). While you're at it, why not become a https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/signup/ (PMA Pro Member)?
In this episode of https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/product-marketing-life-podcast-series/ (Product Marketing Life), host Mark Assini is joined by Shirin Shahin, Product Marketing Leader, and Consultant. The pair discuss the emergence of product marketing within the consultant space, where and when product marketing consultants tend to offer the most value to clients, and the unique challenges that come with running your own consulting practice. Looking for a consultant of your own? Check out https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/pma-consult/ (PMA Consult). While you're at it, why not become a https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/signup/ (PMA Pro Member)?
On this week's episode of https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/product-marketing-life-podcast-series/ (Product Marketing Life), host Mark Assini is joined by Jon Neher, Product Marketing Manager at Vendasta. The pair discuss the power of qualitative data as part of a product marketer’s storytelling toolkit including how to elevate the importance of qualitative data within a quantitative-focused environment, and some tools Jon's found useful in uncovering qualitative data that goes beyond traditional customer interviews. Want more on storytelling? Tune in to our https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/storyselling-podcast/ (StorySelling podcast). While you're at it, why not become a https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/signup/ (PMA Pro Member)?
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Danny Peavey, Product Marketing & Sales Enablement at Story Sells. The pair discuss the role of storytelling in product marketing, including frameworks and best practices, as well as what product marketers can learn about effective storytelling through movies, television, interviews, and even hip hop.
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Selin Tyler, Senior Director, Head of Product Marketing at Dolby Laboratories. The pair discuss how to set boundaries at work, whether that’s boundaries between work and home, between teams, or between saying yes and no. Even non-PMMs will find helpful insights and tips that can help to maintain your sanity and health at work.
In this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Derek Osgood, CEO, and Founder of Ignition. The pair discuss why go-to-market is such a widely known, but often misconstrued aspect of product marketing, and how Ignition is being built to address some of the biggest go-to-market-related pain points product marketers feel every day. They also share some practical tips on how product marketers can proactively address those problems.
On this week’s episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Natasha Katson, Product Marketing Manager at Staffbase. The pair discuss how product marketers can create, manage, and evolve a healthy relationship with product managers and the broader product function.
On this week’s episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Farhan Manjiyani, Product Marketing Manager at Grafana Labs. The pair discuss what successful enablement looks like, what enablement material should be built and who should own its creation, common mistakes product marketers make when approaching enablement, and finally, Farhan’s framework for enablement success.
In this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Meghan Pfeifer, Senior Product Marketer and Brand Strategist at Innovatemap. The pair discuss the relationship between product design and product marketing, how product marketing operates at a digital product agency, and why Innovatemap has put product marketing and brand on the same team.
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Zakry Chami, Product Marketing Manager at Paystone and NiceJob. The pair discuss the role of product marketing in customer-driven growth, and how companies like NiceJob are empowering small to medium-sized businesses with the tools they need to take advantage of the same customer-driven growth practices used by medium and large enterprises.
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Patrick Wall, Director of Competitive Intelligence at Imperva. The pair discuss how being in sales and product marketing prepared Patrick for a career in competitive intelligence, what to prioritize when launching a CI program, and finally what good enablement material looks like and how to develop it.
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Anna Daugherty, Product Marketing Manager at Stoplight. The pair discuss Anna's unique approach to product marketing when she first joined Stoplight, including how she engaged with her new colleagues who had never heard of the role before.
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Dan Balcauski, Principal Consultant at Product Tranquility. The pair discuss why Dan feels product marketing should have an active role in guiding pricing committees that drive pricing strategy, and what product marketers should look out for when approaching pricing.
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Andrew McCotter-Bicknell, Head of Competitive Intelligence at ClickUp. The pair discuss Andrew's transition from product marketing to competitive intelligence, why he thinks it was the natural next step, and what he loves about enabling others with competitive intel.
On this week's episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Clayton Pritchard, former Head of Marketing at Prelay and Product Marketing Manager at LinkedIn. The pair discuss how having a Go-to-Market playbook has helped Clayton and his former teams approach product releases and launches critically and practically, spending less time planning and more time on doing and driving results.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini spoke to Mark Huber, Head of Brand & Product Marketing at metadata.io. Though he has a lot of previous experience in marketing, this is Mark's first official product marketing role, and is taking the lead on all things brand and product marketing, two areas that he believes must work in harmony with one another. In this episode, the pair explore the relationship between brand and marketing, and why Mark Huber believes they need to be closely linked. They also talk about metadata’s recent partnership with Dave Gerhardt, and how he’s helping them shape their new strategic narrative.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Raechel Lambert, Co-Founder and VP of Product Marketing at Olivine. Rachel has held a variety of product marketing roles throughout the course of her career. In fact, she was one of the first product marketers to join Intercom in its early years. The pair discuss how product marketing changes across company stages and industries, as well as what it's like running a product marketing-focused agency, and how that differs from running product marketing in-house.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Yi Lin Pei, the Director of Product Marketing at Teachable. She has over 11 years of experience in B2B and B2C SaaS, IoT, CPG, and consulting, and is also a tech and product marketing career coach, helping high-achieving individuals find and land their dream roles. The pair discussed how anyone can make the transition into product marketing, even without prior experience, and the differences between what being a product marketer means at different companies, whether they are B2B, B2C, SaaS, a startup, or a mature business.
This week on Product Marketing life, host Mark Assini looks back at some of the best highlights from the podcast in 2021.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Edward Ramsden, Payments Product Marketing Manager at Clio. Before joining Clio, Edward owned and operated a successful lawn care business for seven years. It’s through that business that he pursued his first product marketing role at Jobber, a company he was a customer of. For three years, Edward was the product marketing manager for Jobber’s emerging fintech offering, where he and Mark met when Mark joined Jobber earlier this year. Now at Clio, Edward finds himself leading the fintech charge yet again, this time for Clio’s payments solution. The pair discuss the growing role fintech is playing at many SaaS businesses across the globe. Product marketing has had an impact on how these SaaS businesses adopt and go to market with new fintech offerings, which is where product marketers like Edward and Mark have found themselves today in their respective roles.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Averie Wong, Product Marketing Manager, Developer Platform & Experience at LinkedIn. Before diving into the world of product marketing head first, Averie was a classically trained accountant turned customer success manager, jumping from Credit Suisse to Princess Cruises in an accounting capacity, and then from Nielsen to App Annie in client-facing roles. Throughout her career, Averie has balanced her quantitative mindset against the need for a qualitative approach, which has paid dividends in her role as a product marketer at LinkedIn. Averie and Mark dig into the nuances that differentiate developer product marketing from traditional product marketing. They also discuss the unique challenges and benefits of marketing to developers, and why developer product marketing is likely to become an increasingly big part of the larger product marketing landscape in the coming years.
In this episode of Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Kelly Anderson, Product Marketer Manager at Google. Kelly has carved out quite the niche for herself, not only as an incredibly skilled communicator and product marketer but also as a cloud security expert. That expertise has seen her make an impact at two behemoths of tech, first at Microsoft and now at Google. In her role, Kelly is the product marketing steward for a suite of user and business protection services, including reCAPTCHA Enterprise, Web Risk, Security Command Center, and Anomaly Detection, to name just a few. Without a doubt, Google is one of the most ubiquitous companies on the planet. In fact, Google’s offering spreads far beyond search, ads, and workplace documentation. Their Google Cloud solution, the area that Kelly supports, helps customers build apps faster, make smarter business decisions, and connect people anywhere. Mark and Kelly discuss the surprisingly dynamic yet challenging world of product marketing in the cloud security space.
This week on Product Marketing Life, Mark Assini welcomes Trevor Pyle, Director of Product Marketing at Quantum Metric. During the episode, they discuss the relationship between product marketing and sales.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Kavya Nath, VP of Product Marketing at Krisp. Tune in, as they discuss the relationship between product marketing and demand generation, placing an emphasis on the role of how demand gen and growth marketing rely heavily on one another to drive action across the entire marketing funnel.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini welcomes Alex McDonnell, Market Intelligence Lead at Airtable. During the episode, Mark and Alex discuss the increasingly important world of market intelligence.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Al Dea, host of PMA's newly released series Product Marketing Careers. An experienced product marketer with a variety of insights, Al offers his guidance on how to start (and grow) your product marketing career.
This week on Product Marketing Life, host Mark Assini is joined by Saad Asad, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Charthop. Saad shares his experiences of working in product marketing at start-up companies, focusing on the triumphs and tribulations in his career so far.
On Product Marketing Life this week we’re joined by Loopio’s Director of Product Marketing, Alison Grenkie. Alison discusses how she got into the PMM role, her career to date, making the jump to Director-level, the power of networking, and more.
"I think one of my very favorite things about product marketing is also one of my least favorite things. That's just the sheer variety and volume of departments and tasks that we get to have our hands in. I love it and I hate it at the same time. "Product marketers have to balance a lot of competing activities, a lot of stakeholder interests, a lot of strategic priorities. Sometimes they align, sometimes they do not. It's what makes our role really exciting and engaging. "
This week we’re joined by Derek Osgood, CEO and Founder of Ignition, the up and coming game-changing go-to-market tool, set to change GTM for PMMs everywhere. Derek shares his career journey, his drive to become CEO, the value his PMM skills have proven to be, top tips for GTM, and more.
"Product marketing is probably the best possible function to learn how to become a great strategist because more so than pretty much any other role, it just sits at the center of everything."
This week we’re joined by Sara Spink, Director of Portfolio Marketing at IQVIA Global Technology Solutions. Sara explains the similarities and differences between product marketing and portfolio marketing, the role of PMMs within life sciences, and why she believes it’s the next hottest space for product marketers, plus tons more.
"Build your brand, get to know people, and just by interacting with different like-minded product marketers in our community, you're just going to learn so much."
This week on Product Marketing Life we’re joined by Nick Knuppe, Product Marketing Lead at Mollie. Nick discusses the PM-PMM dynamic, the golden ratio, his upcoming talk at the Product Marketing Festival on future-proofing teams, being a PMM in unique regions, stakeholder management, and more.
"I don't know another marketing role where you have a workstream such as GTM, and you are involved in the ideation, the development, the launch readiness, the market, and opportunity sizing, employing each iterative phase throughout that process."
This week on Product Marketing Life our fabulous new host, Mark Assini, got together with Abigail Rodrigues, Product Marketing Manager at Gameloft. Abigail shares her route into the industry, her passion for gaming the challenges of working as a PMM, her tips for others, and as always, heaps more.
"One of the challenges is like I mentioned, you work cross-collaborative, you're working with people on production, you're working with people from your IP stakeholders, everyone - working on that with everyone."
This week on Product Marketing Life we’re joined by Mark Assini, Product Marketing Manager at Voices, to discuss the fascinating world of two-sided marketplaces and specifically operating as a PMM within one. Mark explains some of the challenges involved and how he overcomes them in his role, plus prioritizing, the importance of user behavior, the perks on offer for PMMs, and loads more.
"One of the challenges that I find most exciting is how do we stand out amongst this crowd of - specifically in the freelance marketplace space - 10s of players that are all trying to fight for client and talent attention? Which I think is really neat."
This week on Product Marketing Life we got together with Alexander Becker, PMM and Managing Partner at Dorm Room Fund to chat all about his must-read new book The Product Marketing Field Guide. Alexander shared his inspiration for the book, the history of B2B PMM, his views on product-led growth, and heaps more fascinating insights.
"I don't think we're going to wake up in five years and see that markets are less competitive, or that technical trends have reversed, and all of a sudden software is more expensive to create. And so as we look at product marketing moving forward, I think that a lot of these predictions and solutions in the space are going to ultimately tie back to those two forces of cost of development and cost of growth."
On Product Marketing Life this week we’re joined by Tom Girdler, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Precisely to discuss activating a sales organization on a use case. Tom shares his experience creating effective use cases, aligning sales teams, and shows how use cases can help facilitate conversions.
"A well-defined use case anchored in the evidence that you can deliver on it is a powerful tool, which will direct customers to your product. From that perspective, it's critical to the go-to-market activity of both marketing and sales teams."
On Product Marketing Life this week we’re joined by Angela Zhang, Product Marketing Lead at DocuSign to discuss building trust with stakeholders in a fully remote environment. Angela shares her experiences joining a new company amidst a pandemic, how she established relationships, how COVID has affected her work, tips for others when it comes to working remotely, and heaps more.
"If you meet even once a week, which is quite a frequent cadence, there's a lot that goes on during that week. So I think it's important not just to talk about the action items of what goes on, but also to save a few minutes for things that could bubble up."
This week on Product Marketing Life we were joined by Sean Zinsmeister, VP of Product Marketing at ThoughtSpot to discuss creating world-class messaging. Sean shared his views on how to create messaging that truly resonates, how often to optimize, and signs that might indicate it’s time to overhaul, plus heaps more invaluable insights on the subject.
I feel like every day is a culmination of papercuts, right? I think I make a lot of little mistakes every single day. It really depends on what does a big mistake look like? I think it's how much permission do you have to be bold? And what does being bold mean for you? Does it mean being more aggressive with your competitors? Does it mean taking a bigger stance? Is it just chest-beating? Or is there actually something that you can use for such bravado?
We got together with Matthew Ventrella, Product Marketing Manager at Upwork, and discussed the PMM process and how that ties into a culture focused on ownership, feedback, and continuous improvement. Matthew explains what this means to him, shares tips and actionable insights for others, and more.
Change management is really hard. There's no other way of going about it. Changing mindsets, changing the way that people behave is definitely a challenging thing. It requires a lot of buy-in, and it requires a lot of education to take others on the journey. So to help get change off the ground, it's really vital to have a clear outcome of where the team should go, and an outline of what actually needs to change.
In the first Product Marketing Life podcast of 2021, we got together with Jena Donlin, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Snowflake, and discussed onboarding as a new product marketer. Jena shares how she prepared for her move to Snowflake, what she thinks helped her secure the role, expectation versus reality, personal KPIs, tips for nailing working from home, and more.
I think we often feel this pressure to put on this act, that we're perfect at everything. I think one of the things that I really appreciate in colleagues and I'm trying to live is showing that vulnerability and being really open and honest about 'here's what I think I bring to the table and here's where I'm leaning in on you to be the excellent professional that you are'.
On Product Marketing Life this week we got together with Global Product Marketing Manager at Uber Eats, Nadia Niky, to discuss market experiments. Nadia explains why she thinks running experiments is such a vital element of the PMM role, how she prepares for hers at Uber Eats, measures and analyzes their success, and the times it’s gone wrong, plus, key learnings, top tips for others, and more.
As a PMM, I think really the Golden Nugget is to supplement user insights and research. I work really closely with our research team and they're one of PMM’s greatest partners, and user insights are really helpful to get some color into what users say and what they think and getting a deeper understanding. But experiments will really show you their behavior and what they'll actually do when it comes down to them being on their own and navigating your product.
We got together with Jordan Wade, Product Marketing Manager at Workday, and took a deep dive into the world of win interviews. Jordan firstly explained how his journalism background has helped his product marketing career to date, particularly in relation to interviews, why he thinks win interviews are so important as a PMM, how he likes to conduct them, who he thinks should conduct them within an org and how many ought to be carried out, plus heaps more fascinating insights on the subject.
I think, as a product marketer, we need to be the champion of the buyer and understanding that secret sauce to why someone becomes a customer, if we really can understand that process, then we can hopefully replicate it over and over and over again and find more buyers, just like that initial person, what was it that worked for them?
We got together with Andrea Bailiff-Gush, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Morningstar, and discussed her ideas on how to make products your new sales and marketing advantage, plus her views on determining a product’s position in the market, product launches, her biggest lessons learned, top tips for others, and more. ___ "I think determining a product's position in the market really starts with talking to customers. What I like to do when I'm starting to go to market, or repositioning a solution in the market is to conduct several customer interviews. Personally, I just try to talk to a member of Morningstar's target audience once a week."
We got together with Product Marketing Manager at Google, and PMA ambassador, Vincent Xu, for a fascinating discussion on digital accessibility in APAC’s emerging markets. Vincent shares some of the major tech trends in APAC, the accessibility of tech in emerging markets as well as some of the biggest roadblocks, plus the role PMMs play in tackling accessibility, his personal approach, and heaps more. ___ other reason why digital accessibility has become increasingly important is because of an enduring post COVID era, essentially, where schools are forced to move learning online, or potentially having a lot of doctor tele-consulting services, which is not only helpful in terms of personal hygiene, personal safety, but also can have massive impacts in terms of mitigating the strain on over flooding hospitals.
The rise in digital accessibility, because of all the innovations taking place, and because of this enduring post COVID era where things are slowly moving online, or rapidly moving online, for that matter. This is something that I think is pretty important in emerging markets.
In this episode we're joined by Mike Polner, Global Head of Product Marketing at UberEats to discuss all things building, growing, and scaling product marketing. ___ "Nothing is set in stone, maybe, I think that there's a really unique balance you have to strike between optimizing for the here and now, and then the accumulation of debt that you have to have, you just have to take on. Sometimes they'll make a decision and you'll go, "Oh, I know in six months I'm going to have to make this hard choice a different way". So you know, be purposeful around where you are and are not accumulating debt."
Sprinklr's Associate Director of Product Marketing and PMA ambassador Holly Watson talks to us all about product launches, what the process looks like at Sprinklr, how the process varies from product to product, how her product marketing team is arranged, and much more. ___ "Launches can take a couple of different molds. So I don't think that all launches are the same. And even the term launches can be necessary to clarify, as you're starting projects, for Sprinklr when we think about launches, a lot of the time a launch is going to be referring to more or less a net new functionality. Any type of enhancements or add ons to existing products and solutions, we kind of look at those, as the evolution of the project. So launches for us really pertain to net new items, they can range in size."
Redgate Software’s Product Marketing Strategist and PMA ambassador Collette Johnson talks to us all about making mistakes and learning from them, how important she thinks it is to own our mistakes and hold our hands up, how she’s proud of her past mess-ups and how they’ve helped her career to date, plus the lessons startups and big organizations can learn from each other, her beliefs on where the industry as whole needs to change and heaps more. ___ "I think a lot of people see us as an extension of the marketing team. So they see us as marketers, what I think people don't see is the work we do with the sales team. I see myself as an extension of the sales team, I'm working on helping them to make sure that they can sell the product, understand the product, that they have the right materials. And I really want them to be successful."
In this episode, we chat with Tik Tok’s Product Marketing Manager, Mathew Sedze, and pick his brains on what it’s like launching products in emerging markets, based on his experiences doing just that for both Tik Tok and Facebook. He shares his key lessons for PMMs working in emerging markets, the challenges he’s encountered, plus his top tips for success, and heaps more. ___ "With a lot of emerging markets, the nuances that exist require you to rethink, and approach it as if you were launching a new business. Does the unit economics make sense? Can I charge it to the same price point as I have it in international or another international market?"
Head of Product Marketing at Quora, and PMA ambassador, JD Prater chats with us about all things OKRs, sharing his top tips on setting the right objectives and measuring their success, he discusses his progression from nonprofit and agency roles to head of a team of two PMMs at the world’s largest Q&A site, plus his top tips for getting that all-important seat at the table and tons more. ___ "I think having OKRs in place is really valuable, it's going to allow a lot more transparency, which is fantastic for building trust, but it's also going to allow for more cross-functional relationships and collaborations to happen, with everyone working together."
Global Head of Product Marketing at Uber, Laura Jones, takes us on deep dive into the world of design thinking as a bonafide expert in the field, including how she became interested in the concept, how it’s been a useful tool in her successful career as a PMM and how she continues to put it to use wherever possible in her role day-to-day, plus she shares useful tools and tips for beginners and answers questions from the PMA Slack community. ___ "To me, design thinking starts with when you ask the question why? Why am I doing this? And then ask the question about who's it for? So who's the audience? And what do they care about? What makes this meaningful?"
Founder and Managing Partner of Fluvio, a product marketing consultancy, Devon O’Rourke shares the fascinating story of what inspired him to make the leap from PMM at a goliath like Amazon to starting his own consultancy, his top tips for anyone considering making a similar move, plus PMM-specific insights including how he views the role of product marketing varying so much from company to company as a good thing, his views on PMMs sitting in the product or marketing orgs, where his preference lies, and heaps more good stuff.
"I think product marketers have so many opportunities, you know, the purview is super wide. So I think anyone who's able to adapt, recognize where they can add value can take advantage of how wide that purview is. And I actually think it's a really good thing. We're not pigeon-holed into a very specific role. We're able to sort of stretch where we need to."
Full-time content marketing and editorial lead at G2, and part-time Tik Tok influencer, Lauren Pope gives us an insight into how she got involved in the social media platform and garnered over 40,000 followers, what contributed to her success, as well as what to avoid, plus she gives her top tips for businesses looking to use the site to generate revenue. ___ "I think one of the biggest mistakes I made early on was trying to create content in a vacuum. Trying to create content without tapping into the community. People think Tik Tok is a bunch of teenagers dancing and doing lip sync video challenges, but the truth is there are so many niches and subcultures on Tik Tok."
We were delighted to get the chance to chat with PMM veteran Harvey Lee, about his unique and remarkable career in the role, how the function has evolved throughout his 20+ year experience including the introduction of the internet and mobile, plus how things vary from a regional and global perspective, the importance of soft skills for a successful career, and tons more fascinating insights. ___ "So you know, if I look back I would say that the diversity has kept me grounded in product marketing, the variety, the depth and breadth has kept me engaged with the discipline of product marketing. And it keeps you really, really busy but I don't think it's for everyone. We see there's a sudden realization especially for newbies, entries to the function, that there's so much to do."
We had a fascinating conversation with DocSend’s Senior Product Marketer, Chris Winkler, where he shared his tips on getting sales engagement following his background in sales, we discussed how no two days are the same in the role of a PMM and he absolutely loves it, plus the art of knowing when to say ‘no’, as well as how making mistakes can be a good thing, and tons more. ___ "I absolutely love product marketing. I think it can be sometimes dangerous how much I like it, because a curveball sometimes if I find it very interesting, I need to make sure I don't go down a rabbit hole just chasing that specific thing, especially if it's not necessarily something that will drive the biggest impact. But, I think the variety and being exposed to essentially all the business units at my company is something that I really enjoy, because I'm a product marketer at heart."
We got together with Shopify’s Product Marketing Lead, Irina Adriana Barbu, and picked her brains about everything from the importance of learning to say ‘no’ and context shifting, to her advice on what to do when you feel overwhelmed, and what challenges PMMs might face in the future. ___ "there is no typical day in the life of a PMM. And no day looks the same as the last. We're such a cross-functional craft, and we're often shape-shifting to address the biggest opportunities for our products and for our customers. However, you're actually often gonna find us engaging with very similar teams, regardless of where our products sit."
We got some one-on-one time with HubSpot’s Senior Product Marketing Manager, Jeffrey Vocell, to chat about some of the secrets behind his success. From what mantras get him through a tough day in the office to what aspects of product marketing he’s most curious about, we’ve asked all the important questions - and more. ___ "I think for product marketers, a lot is being asked of us. Recently we are, from all the product marketers I talk to, we're gaining more responsibility. One of the biggest, I would say challenges or problems that we face right now is there's probably no clean way to prove the overall value of product marketing outside of a specific product launch."
Aaron Brennan, the Director of Product Marketing over at airSlate, joined us on the show to get up, close and personal with active users. From what they are, how to measure them, and what tactics to employ to keep users active, we chat about it all - and more.
"What I've found over my career is that most people will use a product the exact way that they use it. And they will continue to use it the same way over and over and over again. It isn't until you actually start to position them new and different ways that other users are starting to use the product, that they start to get creative in how they use the product in different ways."
We caught up with well-known positioning and messaging maestro Andy Raskin about the secret sauce behind his success, the difference between narrative positioning and descriptive positioning, the importance of getting CEOs bought in, and more. https://twitter.com/araskin/status/1232375840026980355 (Here)'s the tweet we reference throughout the show.
"Narrative positioning seems to win every time. It's like who are the category leaders? What's the story they're telling? As we get more and more into this world where customers are bombarded by claims, it's the ones who are telling a story that is not about claims and that is actually about the customers."
Right now is not the norm. Tons of product marketers have been thrown into remote working from one day to the next and understandably, lots of people have lots of questions. We spoke to Sapphire Reels, a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Pluralsight, about how PMMs can adapt to working from home in light of COVID-19.
"People feel this immense sense of pressure to be productive because they are at home and they want to be responsive and doing all these things, because they don't want to portray this image that they're not doing their job. So I would just say don't beat yourself up around that idea, especially in this current environment."
Wondering what life as a PMM at Intercom looks like? Look no further. We got a sneak peek into what a day of their Group Product Marketing Manager, Jasmine Jaume, goes like...and as you might imagine, it's busy and varied!
"We generally will launch Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, one of those days, Friday is just not a great day because everyone's off for the weekend. And Monday is also challenging for a similar reason with people coming back in and having lots of stuff to deal with and vying for their attention."
Looking to learn about narrative design? Then you landed on the right pod. We caught up with HubSpot's Principal Product Marketing Manager, Marcus Andrews, about what narrative design is, why people should be adopting it, and how PMMs can actually go about implementing a narrative design approach. "You're always fighting to be heard in this very, very noisy environment. So I think people really have to try something different. And that's what narrative design and strategic narratives do."P.s. For anyone wanting to immerse themselves in narrative design even more, Marcus also wrote about it https://productmarketingalliance.com/why-narrative-design-will-replace-product-positioning-in-2020/ (here), and will be answering questions on it https://questions.productmarketingalliance.com/post/5e4fa8006ed60d5385761033 (here).
New to the world of Customer Advisory Boards? Or want to freshen up what you've already got? Either way, this show's for you. We spoke to Bree Bunzel, APAC Product Marketing Lead at Dropbox, all about customer listening and what CABs look like over at Dropbox. From who's involved and how often they run them, to what agenda they follow and how they share their findings, expect tons of tips from start to finish.
"We spent a lot of time in the early days building up this program defining the 'why'. Why do these people actually come to this? Why do they invest their time? What's in it for them? What's in it for Dropbox? And setting those table stakes at the beginning really makes a different experience in conversation."
We caught up with Brandwatch's Director of Product Marketing, Phill Agnew, about three core components of consumer psychology - distinctiveness, anchoring and scarcity - and how product marketers can apply those concepts to their work.
"25% of marketing budget is wasted, it gets no ROI. There's another brilliant stat from HVR, they did analysis of new product launches, and they found that on average 80% of new consumer product launches fail. If 25% of our budget's being wasted and 80% of new product launches fail, then clearly something is broken, something's not right."
We take a deep dive into customer segmentation with Unbounce's Director of Product Marketing, Tamara Grominsky. From processes to filters to influencing the roadmap to reviewing to reporting, this show's jam-packed with tonnes of action-led takeaways.
"We use a process that takes into consideration three different steps. And those steps are volume, performance, and potential. So the first thing we do is we really look at volume, and this means we're pulling a bunch of different data on all of our current and past customers."
In the very first episode of our new Product Marketing Life series, we spoke to Sarah Din, the Director of Product Marketing at SurveyMonkey, about what a day in the life of her role looks like. After that, we picked her brains on everything from what advice she'd give herself if she could start her career again to which skills other PMMs should focus on first.
"If you're not good at messaging, you really can't do a product marketing role. So be really good at figuring out how to message to the right people at the right time."