Podcasts about pmms

Is working fractional that secret weapon for in-house PMMs? In this no-holds-barred episode, Eric, Zach, and Gab debate whether product marketers with fractional experience have an edge when they return in-house. We dive into the gritty reality of juggling multiple clients, the mental health rollercoaster of working solo, and why most people don't understand what it truly takes to do it. Tune in for honest insights, soul-crushing reality checks, and maybe a few Mexican oranges along the way.Here's what to expect when listening...The real reason in-house PMMs with fractional experience have better boundaries with their bossesWhy fractional PMMs develop stronger time management and communication skills than their in-house peersThe surprising statistic about entrepreneurship and mental health (entrepreneurs are 2x more likely to face depression)How building a side hustle while employed gave Zach a "running start" when he got laid offWhy hedging your bets with fractional work is smart even if you love your in-house jobThe brutal reality check: "I don't want to glorify the work...I was up at 4:30 AM doing work just to get ahead"When to know if fractional work is right for you (and who should absolutely avoid it)The truth about those LinkedIn success stories claiming "$20K/month after just 3 months"Time Stamps00:00 Introduction and Host Banter01:00 Episode Topic: Are in-house PMMs more effective with fractional experience?02:30 Defining Fractional PMM Work03:45 The Difference Between Client Relationships vs. Boss Relationships05:58 The Truth About Company "Family" Culture07:15 Advantages of Fractional Work (Scope Control, Premium Pay)08:20 Challenges of Pricing Fractional Services09:05 The Feast or Famine Reality of Fractional Work10:45 Building a Side Hustle While Working In-House12:02 Hedging Your Bets in an Uncertain Economy14:00 Exploring Why People Stay In-House vs. Going Fractional15:45 Finding Work You Actually Look Forward To18:12 Key Skills Developed Through Fractional Work21:00 The Mental Health Challenges of Solo Entrepreneurship22:15 Book Recommendation: "The Dip" by Seth Godin23:05 The Statistic on Entrepreneurship and Mental Health RisksHosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Is your message testing just throwing random ingredients into a pot and hoping it tastes good? In this no-holds-barred episode, the boys tackle the chaos of message testing and why most PMMs are doing it wrong. From useless A/B tests with tiny sample sizes to executives demanding "just one more tweak," we dive into what actually works. Tune in for laughs, practical frameworks, and why your mom's cooking method isn't a valid messaging strategy. We're covering:Only 30% of product marketers have ever actually tested a message (and most of them did it wrong)Why A/B testing is the "let's not commit" cop-out of marketing teamsThe one-variable rule: why testing multiple things at once is destroying your resultsThe critical difference between message testing and A/B testing that most marketers missHow to build a message testing framework that gets leadership buy-in immediatelyIf you've ever sat through a meeting where someone suggested "Let's A/B test it" for a campaign going to 150 people, this episode will either validate your frustration or completely change how you work. Either way, your next messaging project just got a whole lot more effective.Timestamps01:39 Question: How Many PMMs Actually Test Messages?02:31 Why A/B Testing Is Often the Wrong Approach04:00 Statistical Significance and Sample Size Problems05:58 Testing Text vs. Testing Visuals06:05 Messaging as Strategy vs. Tactical Implementation  09:01 Differentiating Message Testing from A/B Testing12:15 The Commitment Problem in Marketing Decision-Making16:16 How Trade Shows Can Validate Positioning and Messaging19:45 Message Testing to Define Product Uniqueness22:00 Eric's Process Misstep: Jumping to Experimentation Too Soon27:45 The Scientific Method in Message Testing29:01 The Gumbo Analogy: Why Most Marketing Isn't Replicable34:15 Isolating Variables in Message Testing35:36 Building a Strong Hypothesis Framework38:25 Gab's Message Testing Resources (Message Market Fit)41:30 The ROI of Message Testing and Business Consequences44:35 Final Thoughts and Key TakeawaysShow notes:Victoria Rudi's Messaging FrameworksMessage Market Fit - Gab's resource for message testing frameworks and templates.Freckle.io - The Clay alternative talked in the example Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Neste episódio do Product Guru's, mergulhamos no universo do PMM (Product Marketing Manager) e sua relação com o PM (Product Manager). Afinal, PMMs estão substituindo PMs? Como essa visão voltada ao mercado influencia o roadmap dos produtos?Nossa convidada especial, Analuisa Ferreira, compartilha sua experiência com product marketing e revela como a disciplina está crescendo nas empresas. Discutimos a evolução do Product Market Fit, os desafios de PMMs no mercado e como grandes empresas, como o Vakinha, usam essa estratégia para impactar milhões./// Os melhores profissionais estão sempre um passo à frente. Seja PM3!Março é o mês de Aniversário da PM3, pensando nisso, eles prepararam várias surpresas incríveis, para comemorar no melhor estilo. Então, anota aí: quer garantir uma oferta especial para virar aluno PM3 e acelerar sua carreira? No próximo episódio do Product Guru's, nós vamos te contar como ter acesso a essa oferta! Fica ligado, hein?!https://go.pm3.com.br/Lista-Vip-PG/// Onde encontrar os convidados:Analuisa Ferreira | Senior Product Marketing Manager @ Vakinha/// Conteúdos complementares:Episódio com a April Dunford + Emma assista aqui.Site April Dunford, como posicionar de maneira prática: https://www.aprildunford.com/Livro Obviously Awesome: https://amzn.to/41Qud9FEmma stratton, referência em messaging: https://punchy.co/O livro da Emma Stratton: Make it punchy - https://amzn.to/4iQJdez/// Nesse episódio abordamos:• O PMM foca na estratégia de mercado, enquanto o PM prioriza a execução do produto.• A disciplina de marketing de produto está crescendo, mas ainda é pouco compreendida.• Empresas de alto crescimento tendem a adotar um olhar mais estratégico do PMM.• O mercado exige que PMs também saibam executar estratégias de Go-To-Market.• PMMs ajudam a garantir que produtos não fiquem obsoletos com o tempo.• A Vakinha usou estratégias de PMM para criar um sistema transparente de doações.• Pequenas mudanças, como renomear uma funcionalidade, podem impactar a adoção do usuário.• Grandes empresas podem mudar sua estrutura para adotar mais PMMs, mas de forma gradual.• O storytelling e o posicionamento são fundamentais para o sucesso de um produto.• O futuro do PMM está na capacidade de integrar dados, mercado e produto./// Capítulos:00:00 PMM vs. PM no mercado00:49 Analu e sua trajetória02:06 O papel do PMM e a visão de mercado05:28 Diferenças entre PMM e PM: Realidade ou só nomenclatura?12:32 Impacto da estrutura de produto nas empresas17:46 Como a Vakinha utiliza PMM para crescimento23:56 O impacto do PMM na tragédia do RS e doações32:00 O processo de Discovery e validação de hipóteses35:25 Como a visão de mercado influencia o roadmap39:22 Exemplo real: Transparência e segurança na Vakinha45:08 O futuro do PMM: Demanda do mercado e tendências51:06 Apple e o poder do storytelling em produto55:58 Considerações finais e encerramento

We have a rule here: Never get the same guest twice. Well, we've just broken it now because we're getting Michele Nieberding for the 2nd time!The Director of Product Marketing at Metarouter, the Martech queen and two-time Top 100 PMM, returns to challenge one of the biggest assumptions about product marketers. We dive into the blurred lines between PMM, marketing, and product teams, why some org structures set PMMs up for failure, and how AI is reshaping the role. Plus, Michele drops tactical insights on working with sales, disqualifying bad leads, and scaling impact as a solo PMM. We've talked about: ✅ The launch hamster wheel—why PMMs get stuck in product launches & how to escape it✅ The red flags: If your PMM team reports to the CRO, run!

Product marketers with a sales background often feel like they have a superpower. The opposite is even truer.Kyle Coleman, CMO at Copy.ai, says yes—and he's got the career journey to back it up. From SDR to marketing exec, Kyle breaks down why sales and marketing are inseparable, how storytelling (not the best product) wins markets, and why staying close to revenue is the key to career growth. Plus, he shares how he personally closed $350K in outbound sales while leading marketing.✅ Why storytelling—not features—wins markets (just ask Salesforce).✅ The biggest mistake most product marketers make when trying to prove their impact.✅ Sales and marketing: two sides of the same coin or completely different beasts?✅ Why the best PMMs own the revenue conversation.✅ The "ivory tower" trap that kills product marketing impact.✅ Kyle's secret to getting buy-in from execs for category creation (hint: 75+ interviews).✅ A real-life sales deck fail—and how Kyle fixed it by actually selling.✅ The #1 piece of career advice for product marketers who want to be CMOs.If you're a product marketer aiming for the CMO seat, this episode is your playbook.

We're kicking off season 4 with Chanel Chambers, VP of Marketing at Lakeside Software. As a product marketing leader and past music teacher, she's joining us to break down the role of product marketing, why it's central to a business's success, and how PMMs can increase their influence. From jazz improvisation to AI-driven business strategies, Chanel shares fresh insights on how product marketers can start treating their role with a business holistic approach and how to create credibility internally AND externally. We're talked about:

Product marketing and content marketing—are they allies, or just frenemies in disguise? In this episode, Devin Reed (ex-Gong, ex-Clari, and host of Read Between the Lines) joins the crew to dish out his hot takes on the tension between PMMs and content marketers, why most messaging decks collect dust, and the real secret to making content that resonates. If you've ever questioned whether product marketing is actually marketing (or just internal storytelling), this one's for you.What You'll Learn in This Episode:→ The biggest mistake product marketers make when handing messaging to content teams→ Why most positioning and messaging decks never make it into real-world content→ The secret to testing messaging before betting big on a full campaign→ How to bridge the gap between internal messaging and market-facing storytelling→ The power of creative freedom—why it's the ultimate flex in B2B marketing→ The “two-sentence test” for making sure your messaging actually lands→ When it's too candid—how to balance bold positioning with market perception→ How to write messaging that actually reflects what customers sayListen now to hear Devin unfiltered take on product marketing, messaging mistakes, and how to win the content game.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome02:00 Introducing the Special Guest: Devin Reed04:13 Devin Reed's Insights on Product Marketing06:00 The Relationship Between Content and Product Marketing14:51 Testing and Differentiating Marketing Strategies23:57 Creative Freedom in B2B Marketing26:23 Writing for Yourself: A Sales Rep's Perspective26:57 Creating Relatable and Memorable Content28:12 The Power of Sales Team Collaboration28:55 The Heat Check: Testing Content Ideas29:35 Maniacal Focus on Quality Content29:59 The Importance of Clear and Concise Messaging31:40 Understanding Your Audience's Language34:37 Navigating Internal Approval Processes36:32 Leveraging Customer Insights for Copywriting43:14 The Creative Process: From Inspiration to Execution48:34 Final Thoughts and Upcoming ProjectsShow Notes:The Reeder WebsiteReed between the lines podcastDevin's LinkedIn Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What's up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with the lads from We're not marketers. Summary: When did everyone on LinkedIn suddenly become a GTM expert? The misfits from ‘We're Not Marketers' dive into this chaos, explaining why Go-to-Market strategy has become the most misused term in marketing. They share product marketing stories about rigid product launches, cross-functional chaos, and small test groups. They open up about their love and admiration for marketing operations folks, similar cross functional translators between tech and marketing and how martech can support message testing. We explore the debate of who should have final word on messaging, PMMs or the channel SMEs. Join us for the laughs, stick around for the love between PMMs and martech. About the 3 MisfitsAll 3 of these gentlemen work for themselves as fractional PMMsGab Bujold (Bu-jo) is based in Quebec city, Canada. He's a messaging expert and also a marketing advisor for early-stage startups, he's a former product marketer and 4-time solo marketer at various different brands and sports an incredible mustacheAlso joining us today is Zach Roberts is based in California, he worked in B2B SaaS sales for half a decade before pivoting to product marketing with a focus on enablement, he's worked at big names like Dropbox, LinkedIn and Google. He's a 2x recognized Product Marketing Influencer by PMALast but certainly not least, we're also joined by Eric Holland who's based in Pennsylvania, he's a product-led content pro also runs a retail apparel startup and is a recovering in-house product marketer. He's the mastermind behind the creative AI skullies artwork of their podcastWhy Go to Market Strategy Has Become a BuzzwordThe concept of go-to-market (GTM) strategy has entered peak buzzword territory in recent years. What was once a product marketing-specific term focused on launching new products or features has been hijacked by nearly every department under the sun. These days, everyone from sales and marketing ops to customer success is suddenly a "GTM expert" on LinkedIn. The term has become so diluted that it's starting to lose its meaning entirely.The transformation of GTM into a catch-all phrase stems largely from corporate politics and self-preservation. Teams across organizations are scrambling to attach themselves to GTM initiatives, fearing that being left out might signal their irrelevance. As Zach points out, there's an underlying anxiety that not being involved in GTM somehow makes a team dispensable, leading to a kind of organizational FOMO that has stretched the term beyond recognition.The reality is that successful GTM execution has always required coordinated effort across multiple teams. Product marketing traditionally orchestrates these initiatives, but they can't execute alone. It takes sales for implementation, product teams for development, and marketing for awareness. The problem isn't collaboration; it's the current trend of every team claiming to be the primary GTM driver, creating confusion about who actually owns the strategy.Eric makes a crucial distinction between "going to market" and "go-to-market strategy" that cuts through some of the noise. While the strategy might come from product marketing or revenue leadership, the execution involves multiple teams working together. The challenge is maintaining clear ownership of the strategy while preventing it from becoming another meaningless corporate buzzword that everyone claims expertise in.Key takeaway: Organizations need to stop the free-for-all claiming of GTM expertise and return to clearly defined roles within the GTM process. Success depends on having centralized strategic ownership while enabling individual teams to excel in their specific GTM responsibilities, not turning every department into self-proclaimed GTM experts.Who is Responsible for Operationalizing GTMPicture a chill Broadway production: everyone from lighting to sound plays a crucial role, but someone needs to direct the show. Product Marketing's role in GTM execution presents a fascinating operational challenge. While multiple teams claim ownership over GTM initiatives, the real question isn't about territorial control but about orchestrating complex product launches effectively.The operational reality of GTM involves intricate coordination across specialized teams. Marketing and sales ops teams manage the technical infrastructure, configuring everything from CRM workflows to marketing automation. Lifecycle marketing teams often gatekeep new feature and product notification announcements and balance that with existing messages. Product marketing develops the strategy and messaging, while sales teams handle direct customer engagement. Each group brings essential expertise to the table, making territorial claims over "GTM Ops" not just unnecessary but counterproductive.Gab's makes a really good point that Product Marketing Managers excel at running small-scale experiments, gathering feedback, and iteratively refining go-to-market approaches. This methodology allows teams to validate strategies before full-scale deployment, reducing risk and improving outcomes. It's not about owning GTM ops; it's about facilitating successful product launches through methodical testing and collaboration.You should view GTM operations as a collaborative framework rather than a power structure. PMMs serve as strategic conductors, coordinating efforts across teams while respecting each group's expertise. When campaigns underperform, the root cause typically traces back to poor coordination or unclear direction, not technical execution. Success requires letting each team excel in their domain while maintaining a unified strategic vision.Key takeaway: Focus on establishing clear operational frameworks where Product Marketing Managers guide strategy and testing, while specialized ops teams manage technical implementation. Success comes from collaboration and respect for expertise, not from claiming ownership over the entire GTM process.Prioritizing Product Marketing Requests vs Martech RoadmapsThere's often a natural tension between PMMs who think every feature deserves a big email to everyone in the database and the martech or marketing ops team who has an existing roadmap and existing comms in place. New GTM initiatives don't get to market on certain channels without the SME team converting words into code and automation. This creates a complex decision making process that often requires somewhat lame but important evaluation of business impact and strategic alignment.Strategic prioritization requires product marketers to approach each situation with an analytical mindset focused on identifying the most pressing business needs. As Eric explains, the process resembles assessing multiple issues requiring attention but having limited resources to address them all simultaneously. The key becomes determining which initiative will deliver the most significant impact toward established organizational goals and objectives.The reality of product marketing involves making difficult trade-offs between seemingly equally important initiatives. While new product launches naturally generate excitement and momentum, they must be weighed against the potential impact of operational improvements that are already on the martech roadmap like enhanced product analytics or refined lead scoring mechanisms. These behind the scenes projects often create foundational improvements that enable better execution of future go to market activities.At the end of the day, most product launches have flexible timing - what's critical is identifying the few relea...

It's easy to get overly focused on "doing your job" as a product manager. Unfortunately, we risk taking too narrow of a view of what our job actually is. When it comes to working with PMMs (product marketing managers), it's no different. And it's about time we start treating them like partners rather than someone we throw releases over the wall to and expect them to make our products sell. If you're looking to get into product management and want the training and experience you need to get there, join us at Path2Product where we bridge the gap in product management experience for aspiring product managers.

The more knowledge you have on product marketing, the better you can be an expert and have more impact on your job. Today, we're having Peter Kortvel, a senior product marketer at Scandit and the creator of the product marketing newsletter (with 1700+ subscribers).Peter has worked as a video consultant, in startups, cofounded an IoT startup and today shows us what great product marketing should look like.He has 13+ years of experience as a marketer and believes in getting things done (we appreciate it too!). In this episode, we're covering:The importance of understanding your target audienceWhy research can help you communicate your product valueThe difference between storytelling and the formatChallenges of PMMs and if they are marketersCommon startup mistakes in messagingThe best time to drink beerSo grab a beer with us and let's chat product marketing

Product Marketing Managers, let's face it: you're juggling a million tasks, from crafting compelling narratives to deciphering market trends, all while trying to stay ahead in an ever-evolving digital landscape. It's like trying to solve a Rubik's Cube while riding a unicycle - challenging, to say the least. But what if there was a way to not just keep up, but to leap ahead? Enter the game-changing world of AI, a tool that's revolutionizing the PMM playbook faster than you can say "go-to-market strategy." From ideation to copywriting, from research to those daily tasks that seem to multiply endlessly, AI is transforming how PMMs work. But how exactly are savvy professionals leveraging this technology to supercharge their efforts? That's exactly what we're about to unpack. To guide us through this AI-powered marketing revolution, we have a true expert in the field joining us today. I'm thrilled to welcome Gabe Wahhab to our show. Gabe is a growth-minded entrepreneur turned intrapreneur, with an impressive background in product marketing. He's worked with industry giants like HubSpot, where he played a key role in developing and implementing AI-driven marketing strategies. Gabe's unique blend of technical expertise and marketing acumen makes him the perfect guide to help us navigate the AI revolution in product marketing. AI in Marketing: Unpacked host Mike Allton asked Gabe Wahhab about: ✨ AI-Powered Efficiency: Artificial Intelligence significantly boosts PMM productivity by automating routine tasks and streamlining complex processes. ✨ Enhanced Creativity: AI tools augment human creativity in ideation and content creation, leading to more innovative marketing strategies. ✨ Data-Driven Insights: AI enables PMMs to gather and analyze vast amounts of data quickly, informing more strategic decision-making. Learn more about Gabe Wahhab Connect with Gabe Wahhab on LinkedIn Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode GabeWahhab.com HubSpot Agorapulse Finding Your Voice with AI – How to Craft a Brand Voice That Resonates with Mike Allton Custom GPTs for Marketers: Work Smarter, Not Harder with Mike Allton Gong Zoom 1Up How to Create 26 Pieces Of Content From A Facebook Live Content Remix Ruheene Jaura HeyLevi Product Marketing Alliance AI as Your Co-Host: Unleashing NotebookLM's Potential in Content Marketing with Mike Allton Christopher Penn AI Use Cases for Ideal Customer Profiles AI Consulting AI Bootcamp AI Marketing Primer: A Comprehensive Guide for Marketers Explore past episodes of the AI in Marketing: Unpacked podcast SHOW TRANSCRIPT & NOTES: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/elevating-product-marketing-the-game-changing-role-of-ai/ Start your AI journey with the AI Marketing Primer. Brought to you by The Social Media Hat - When One More Hat Is One Too Many. Interesting in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Powered by Magai - why choose one AI tool when you can have them all? And Descript, the magic wand for podcasters. Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, AI Consultant at The Social Media Hat, where he's tirelessly helping businesses and marketers get ahead of the AI Revolution and apply advanced technologies to their roles. He's spent over a decade in digital marketing, bringing an unparalleled level of experience and excitement to the fore, whether he's delivering a presentation or leading a workshop. If you're interested in helping marketers with AI in an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike. Powered by the Marketing Podcast Network. Music by Tokay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever felt like a misfit in product marketing? You're not alone.In this episode of We're Not Marketers, hosts Gab, Zach, and Eric dive deep into a hot topic for PMMs: discovering and honing your unique superpower to stand out in your role. Whether you're a product marketing veteran or new to the field, this conversation is packed with timeless advice, relatable stories, and strategies to help you identify your strengths and position yourself effectively.What's Inside This Episode?Self-discovery exercises for PMMs: From creating a “win list” to identifying transferable skills.Positioning yourself for success: Why knowing your competitive strength is key for landing the right roles.Experimentation is key: How trying different PMM functions (like pricing or messaging) can reveal your passions.Practical tools: Use energy-mapping techniques to uncover the tasks that fuel your motivation and career growth.Standing out in the crowd: Why specializing in a niche or showcasing your work is a game-changer.Confidence and mindset: The power of affirmations and self-belief in defining and owning your PMM identity.Who's This Episode For?Startup PMMs and fractional product marketers in B2B SaaS who're looking to differentiate themselves and feel unignorable in their roles.Key Takeaway:Your superpower isn't just a skill—it's how you position yourself and align your passions with business needs. Stop blending in and start standing out by owning your unique value.Show Notes00:00 Introduction and Welcome01:01 Casual Banter and Golf Talk01:49 Understanding Your PMM Role02:26 Personal Experiences in Product Marketing03:33 Finding Your Competitive Strength04:48 Exploring Different Aspects of PMM06:57 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome07:51 Leveraging Your Superpower09:34 Practical Advice for PMMs14:29 The Importance of Confidence23:24 Final Thoughts and ConclusionSponsorZach Messler with Clarityrules.comHosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Making big marketing investments is a huge deal. But lucky for you, we're here to help.We're bringing you five keys to deliver on a big investment.And we're taking those lessons from the Olympics with the help of our special guest, VP of Marketing at AppsFlyer, Carolyn Bao.Together, we're talking about capitalizing on a cultural moment, committing to the long haul, ensuring activation is fully prepared, and so much more.About our guest, Carolyn BaoCarolyn Bao serves as the Vice President of Marketing for AppsFlyer, for the North America region, driving multi-channel efforts for the AppsFlyer mobile attribution and marketing analytics platform. She is an accomplished marketing executive with over 20 years of leadership experience at technology companies, specializing in software and SaaS marketing go-to-market strategy, data-driven business innovation and building high-performing marketing teams. She has deep domain knowledge of marketing tech stack and advertising technologies. Beyond her commercial role, she nurtures the entrepreneurial spirit as an MBA@Rice faculty member and a founding board member of Silicon Valley Leadership Community.Recognized with accolades such as LinkedIn's “Top Voices” and Product Marketing Alliance's “Top 100 PMMs,” Carolyn is celebrated for bringing products like Facebook Attribution to global markets, building high-performing marketing teams, and thought leadership in ‘women in leadership,' ‘marketing management' and ‘mobile growth strategies' through key speaking engagements for educational and professional events. Carolyn built her career portfolio through leadership roles at technology powerhouses including Moomoo, Facebook, Visa, and Yahoo.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Olympics:Capitalize on a cultural moment. Pick something in the cultural zeitgeist to inspire your content. If it's already resonating and getting talked about, your content will too. Carolyn says, “I think leveraging critical cultural moments is one of the key growth drivers for any marketing department.” And she adds, “Really think through for your category, what is that cultural moment that we really want to capitalize on? In B2B marketing, not everybody competes in the Olympics. But we do compete in terms of how many in-person interactions we have with other practitioners. And that's where these in-person conferences immediately became popular again after we came out of COVID. So I think that's maybe something to really think about, is what is your Olympics equivalent.”Commit to the long haul. Big investments in content mean lots of planning for the pre-, during and post periods. How can you maximize the campaign and make the most of the big investment? Carolyn says, “Not a lot of companies have the ability to plan in massive time horizons, like every four years. A lot of marketing teams are probably working one to three quarters out for most of it. But I do think it's interesting to think of like, what are the big, massive bets that you can make that you might not be able to make every year that can show who you are as a brand.”Ensure activation is fully prepared. Don't sell yourself short by creating content without planning through distribution and activation. Make sure it's fully considered and you're making the most of that investment. Carolyn says, “To activate marketing around the Olympics at this scale is massive. This is sort of our Coachella for marketers, because we don't get to have this many dollars to spend for the majority of us. And meanwhile, even if we are with a huge brand, it is not often that we have this kind of massive celebration. So the scale is super important. The second piece that's very interesting is in terms of how to ensure marketing is done right. There is a great deal of discipline in running a smooth marketing operation, which I think everyone can still also relate to because no matter big or small, for our marketing campaigns to be successful, we have to also wear that operational hat. And I think there's a lot to be unpacked from studying how the Olympics have been done.”Commit to the production cost. Big ideas come with a cost. Follow through with the full potential of the project, including the price of it. But the good news is that marketers have become a lot more efficient. Carolyn says, “Savvy marketers are not doing marketing content production the same way as old time marketers. Because they create these stories, they run it on mobile marketing channels, they run with a very small dollar amount, and they already got data to tell them what stories resonate with who. It pulls their feedback loop a lot shorter.”Know your ICP. Ensure your content will land with its intended audience by truly knowing your ICP. This means understanding their values, what motivates them, and the value you can offer them. Carolyn says, “Deeply understand whom it is you're really trying to influence. Knowing your ICP and knowing what you want your ICP to think or do differently from your storytelling is critical.”Quotes*”With constraints, creativity really differentiates a good storyteller from a mid storyteller, leveraging the Gen Alpha language. The more you understand the limitations, the better it is you stay focused and think about within all of these constraints, what else could we do?”*“If you are building a B2B brand, really make sure that there is a founder side of the humanized story. So that it's not just this brand, but it's actually the why the company was founded and how the founders have built the company.”*” Let's ground our work back to marketing fundamentals. Our marketing fundamentals is storytelling and we really need to understand whom we're talking the story to, what we want them to think or do differently. This is the first. The second piece is, please do not be afraid of developing that left brain as a marketer because the tools to help us measure our work and tell us the feedback of how well our storytelling did are becoming a lot more available. If you don't know, search it up, use chat GPT, but really, really deeply understand marketing measurement and the data that is at your disposal to make you a better marketer. The third piece that's super critical is do not forget stakeholder management because with the village that supports us is what we can work on our day to day, the blocking and tackling, but also when the time is right, advocate for big activation like the Olympics and really make history. Have fun with it.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Carolyn Bao, VP of Marketing at AppsFlyer[2:54] B2B Marketing Lessons from the Olympics and AppsFlyer[4:14] Olympic Marketing Campaigns and Sponsorships[36:09] Human-Centric Storytelling in Marketing[42:28] Key TakeawaysLinksConnect with Carolyn on LinkedInLearn more about AppsFlyerAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

In this next episode of We're Not Marketers, hosts Zach, Gab, and Eric are joined by Rahim Kaba, Director and Research Analyst at Gartner, to dive into the evolving role of PMM in B2B SaaS. With over 20 years of experience in the field, Rahim shares data with perspective on the function and challenges that come with it today. Key highlights include:- The Core Identity of Product Marketers: Rahim argues that product marketers are unequivocally marketers, backed by data showing 81% of PMMs report directly to marketing teams.- Shifting Expectations and Responsibilities: Learn about the changing scope of product marketing, from content creation roles to strategic leaders in positioning and storytelling.- Strategic Insights on Launch Cadences: Rahim discusses the importance of aligning release cycles with customer adoption capabilities and how to avoid launch fatigue.- Must-Have PMM Skills: Emphasis on the significance of data literacy, with tips on upskilling and resources like the Data Literacy Project.- Build Internal Influence: Best practices to clarify PMM roles through charters and RACI models to strengthen cross-functional alignment.The conversation also touches on the growth of fractional product marketers, the implications of market trends, and advice on how PMMs can elevate their strategic influence internally.Whether you're a seasoned product marketer or just starting out, this episode is packed with practical tips, valuable research insights (umm Gartner, bro), and a clear roadmap to reinforce PMM's impact in any company. Tune in for a ‘deep-sea of research' dive of how PMMs can thrive in today's competitive landscape.Time Stamps 02:11 Rahim's Background and Role at Gartner03:15 Are Product Marketers Really Marketers?07:06 Challenges and Misunderstandings in Product Marketing09:51 The Evolution of Product Marketing14:56 Data Literacy in Product Marketing18:12 Impact of Layoffs on Product Marketing21:04 Rise of Fractional Product Marketers23:46 Specialization in Product Marketing25:28 The Appeal of Fractional Product Marketing27:06 Challenges and Strategies for PMMs28:49 Effective Product Launch Strategies33:22 Balancing Product and Marketing Priorities34:44 The Role of PMMs in Organizations38:06 Building a Product Marketing Charter44:16 Using Gartner InsightsWhere more to follow and connect with Rahim?Rahim Kaba LinkedIn Gartner Time to Value PodcastGartner for High Tech LinkedIn PageFree Gartner Webinar Recording: How Growth Organizations Source Critical PMM SkillsHosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The role of the PMM is evolving and requires us to always adapt and be knowledgeable on new tech and initiatives. It can make a difference between a product marketer who is valuable and stack influence vs. someone who's on the layoff list.Someone who keeps pushing the limit of practical product marketing and leveraging projects short-cuts to ship more is Jess Petrella, Senior Product Marketing Manager (PMM) at ZayZoon, and she has an amazing take on becoming an efficient PMM.We discussed how AI can enhance the PMMs' capacity to analyze data and analyze opportunities, the importance of proximity with product teams, and the skills necessary for PMMs to co-create product roadmaps. The episode provides practical advice for aspiring PMMs and reflects on how to navigate better the challenges of the profession, from someone who just built the function from scratch. We talk about:Use AI for quicker data synthesis and opportunity analysisBuild advocacy skills to align with other teamsStrengthen connections with product teamsCollaborate on roadmaps to grow your roleGain skills to impact product decisionsSimplify tasks with AI to increase outputDiscover how you can build more influence as a PMM with the help of AI! Timespan:01:04 Discussing Product Marketing and Launches02:16 Are Product Marketers Actually Marketers?03:15 The Evolution of Product Marketing05:21 Building Influence as a Product Marketer17:43 Leveraging AI in Product Marketing28:53 Conclusion and FarewellShow Notes:Jess LinkedInhttps://pmmops.com/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The worst thing about being a PMM is not having to launch a new product within 2 weeks, or drowning in sales decks. It's all sharing the same trauma that people don't understand product marketing. We've seen a lot of movement on LinkedIn about PMMs sharing horror stories. Michele Nieberding even did a talk about it at PMA Boston.And we were lucky enough to have her sharing them on the pod, just in time for Halloween

Dealing with the chaos of being a PMM while trying to balance the rest of your life? You're not alone.In this candid episode of We're Not Marketers, Zach, Eric, and Gab dive into the realities of managing life as a Product Marketing Manager, whether you're in-house or fractional. From overwhelming work expectations to the struggle of balancing personal life, the team discusses how to protect your mental health while handling an always-on work culture. They share personal stories, tips like setting boundaries, removing work apps from phones, and practical advice on how to deal with burnout. If you're feeling the strain of managing your career, relationships, and self-care, this episode is a must-listen.Key takeaways include:Strategies to create separation between work and personal time (e.g., daily rituals, setting boundaries, Slack detox).Real-talk about burnout and why mental health shouldn't be just a “corporate benefit.”Practical tips on saying “no” to unrealistic requests and protecting your productivity.How fractional PMMs handle the pressure of multiple clients while in-house PMMs navigate endless internal demands.Tune in to hear the team's perspectives on how to reclaim balance and stay sane as a PMM.Show Notes00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message01:02 The Challenges of Being a Product Marketer02:22 In-House vs. Fractional Product Marketing04:45 Balancing Work and Personal Life07:41 Setting Boundaries and Mental Health22:02 Productivity Tips and Techniques30:50 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsHosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In this episode of We're Not Marketers, we sit down with the one and only Jeff Chase, Director of Brand and Product Marketing at Vitally.io, who drops a major hot take—product marketers aren't marketers (wait, what?!). But Jeff doesn't stop there. He believes PMMs are the future leaders of marketing, and he's got the experience and insights to back it up.Tune in as we dive into the evolving role of product marketers in B2B SaaS. From positioning and messaging to why PMMs have the potential to become CMOs, Jeff shares his journey and unique approach to blending product and brand marketing. We also tackle the age-old question: how can PMMs build better relationships with their brand teams?Whether you're a PMM ready to shake up your organization or just curious about where this role is headed, this convo is one you don't want to miss:PMMs vs. Marketers: Jeff's surprising take on why product marketers aren't really marketers.The Future CMO Pipeline: Why Jeff believes product marketers are primed to become the next generation of marketing leaders.The Art of Brand Storytelling: How product marketers can elevate their influence by mastering brand marketing collaboration.Hiring Hacks: Jeff's refreshing approach to recruitment, and why he believes hiring managers have a deeper responsibility than you think.Copycats Beware: How to stay a step ahead of competitors who love to swipe your messaging.Time Stamps 00:00 Introduction and Host Intros00:56 Special Guest Introduction: Jeff02:02 Are Product Marketers Actually Marketers?04:35 The Future of Product Marketing08:55 Building Cross-Functional Relationships10:48 The Role of Brand Marketing14:30 Hiring and Leadership Insights36:21 Dealing with Competitors43:46 Conclusion and Sign-OffShow NotesJeff Chase LinkedIn ProfileHosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In this episode, Jarod Greene, CMO of Vivint, shares his journey from teaching middle school math to Gartner analyst to CMO today and offers actionable advice for PMMs struggling to gain recognition. Learn how to use research, co-create with sales, and communicate your value to drive impactful product marketing strategies in your workplace.When you let Jarod cook (#lethimcook) and you're gonna get…How teaching 7th graders prepared Jarod to lead B2B marketing strategy—and why it's still the hardest job he's ever done.The “magician” role of product marketers: Why being a chameleon is the ultimate superpower in your company (and how to harness it).Co-create with sales? Yes, please. The surprising reason your best sales reps should help write your next piece of content.Forget the committee—Jarod's trick to stop internal fights over messaging using the one thing no one can argue with: Data.“I had no idea what PMM was 10 years ago” – how Jarod went from confused to CMO and why it could be your career roadmap too.Content without context = chaos. Jarod's formula for why great content flops (and how to make it land every time).How to manage up, down, and sideways: Jarod's guide to becoming a leader before you even get the title.Time Stamps 00:00 We're Not Marketers (S3) - Jarod Greene01:00 Welcome to Season Three!01:46 Introducing Gerard Green03:01 From Teaching to Marketing05:15 The Role of Product Marketers07:15 Becoming a CMO18:03 Content with Context22:19 Co-Creating with Sales28:20 The Content Production Dilemma29:07 The Importance of Research in Marketing30:27 Primary vs. Secondary Research31:22 Leveraging Data for Decision Making39:43 Integrating AI in Marketing Strategies43:34 The Reality of Product Market Fit51:21 Upcoming Projects and EventsShow NotesJarod Greene LinkedIn ProfileUNXPCTD - Explore way AI is revolutionizing B2B Sales Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

After 29 episodes, we're finally closing down our season 2 and we're taking this opportunity to circle back on why PMMs are misunderstood today in B2B SaaS. Being misunderstood isn't the problem, it's the apathy from colleagues and management regarding our roles and responsibilities. But we should be proud of being misfits because it's our uniqueness that can have a real impact on our jobs. All we need is more influence and less apathy. In this episode, we're going back on why we started the pod, how we're researching our market, find new episode topics, and a special way on how you can be on the pod for upcoming seasons: → The key takeaways from this season that every PMM should know → Our thoughts on the future of Product Marketing and what's on the horizon → What is the misfit madness and how can you be a special guest Tune in for the last time of season 2, and enjoy a monthly break of not hearing us talk about product marketing

Timestamps:01:36 PMM jobs and LinkedIn trends.03:00 Discussion about job application experiences and interview etiquette.05:00 Gab shares a story about a go-to-market assignment.08:00 Eric shares a story about interviewing with a competitor.12:00 Zach shares a story about a poor recruiting experience.16:00 Eric discusses a job that ended up being a bad fit.19:00 Discussion on hiring practices and candidate experiences.22:00 Importance of clear expectations and roles in hiring.24:00 The value of specific hiring criteria and trust in the hiring process.27:00 The benefits of private communities for job searching.30:00 Gab's experience with irrelevant job postings.33:00 Eric and Zach discuss the value of consulting and contracting as a career approach.36:00 Final thoughts on hiring practices and candidate experience.40:00 Additional anecdotes and reflections on job search experiences.45:00 Tips for navigating the PMM job market.50:00 Closing remarks and promotions for the newsletter and sponsors.52:00 Outro and end of episode. Show Notes: ⁠Inc Authority (LLC Formation)⁠⁠Exit Five Community⁠⁠Healthy Competition Community⁠

On this episode of Embracing Erosion, Devon chats with Amanda Groves, the VP of Product Marketing at Enable and one of Sharebird's Top 100 Product Marketing Leaders in 2022 and 2023. They break down the recent McKinsey report on product marketing and the latest data from the Product Marketing Alliance and discuss the tools the best product marketing teams need, how PMMs can and should use AI, how to become inspired and manage stress, and much more. Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/devon-orourke/support

Meina Zhou is co-founder and CEO at Native. Native's mission is to improve the web3 user experience by solving fragmented liquidity and capital inefficiency in DeFi. They've built a unified, cross-chain liquidity layer combining on and off-chain liquidity sources using RFQ architecture. Why you should listen Native Labs is building Web3's Liquidity Layer, a protocol built to unify crypto's fragmented liquidity and radically enhance capital efficiency for PMMs. Via their RFQ System, Native's platform aggregates and connects order flow to PMMs for efficient off-chain pricing and on-chain execution. Since launching in April 2023, Native has onboarded over $100M in PMM liquidity and executed $2.2B+ in trading volume. Supporting links Native Andy on Twitter  Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.  

Timestamps:02:47 Clara's Journey into Competitive Intelligence03:45 Are Product Marketers Actually Marketers?05:10 The Role of Competitive Intelligence in Revenue Generation08:01 The Importance of Being Selfless in Product Marketing10:33 Ideal Structure for Competitive Intelligence13:02 Misconceptions about Competitive Intelligence16:22 The Power of Competitive Intelligence Newsletters19:21 Building a Content Creation Team21:31 Investing in Competitive Intelligence25:23 The Evolution of Competitive Intelligence28:20 Handling Internal Requests and Prioritizing Competitors34:00 Special Projects and Where to Find Clara Show Notes:Clara LinkedIn Back Office to Boardroom SpotifyBack Office to Boardroom Apple Podcasts

Timestamps:01:02: Madison's journey to product marketing02:11: Transitioning from B2C to B2B02:58: Madison's current role and GTM strategy passion05:37: Are product marketers actually marketers?07:56: The disconnect between marketing and sales12:11: The role of product marketing in Go-to-market18:07: Building trust and influencing change in organizations22:47: The shift from B2B to PLG32:39: Where to find Madison and learn more about her workShow Notes:Madison LinkedInSaaS Secrets newsletter

Timestamps:01:17: Eric's layoff experience04:12: Zach's layoff experience10:24: The state of layoffs and product marketing in the US12:34: Taking the solopreneur road after being laid off14:00: The stress of the first 90 days as a PMM15:53: Specialist vs. generalist PMM18:27: How to position yourself as a PMM and be memorable22:31: How can you make your next job search a success Show Notes:Emma Stratton LinkedInProduct Marketing Alliance Salary ReportPersonal Positioning from Tamara GrominskyPractical Positioning Guide from Jess PetrellaTealHQ.com - CRM for job searchStillhiring.today - Job boardLavender AI - How to write great email to hiring managersAligned - Digital Salesroom to showcase your workHealthy Competition - CI CommunityPMMCamp - Product Marketing Community   

Timestamps:00:54: Are product marketers actually marketers?02:26: PMM would be terrible CMOs03:36: The ideal reporting structure for product marketers05:21: How to create good product marketing fundamentals09:00: Balancing strategy and execution15:44: How much important is copywriting for PMMs?18:53: Defining product marketing within your organization23:04: Category creation and Tamara's take24:41: Evaluating a product marketing role Show Notes:PMMCampReady for launch {March Cohort}:Tamara's LinkedIn 

This episode is sponsored by ⁠riverside.fm⁠, the leading tool for podcast and video recordings. Visit ⁠riverside.fm⁠ and use code productmarketingAI to start recording studio-quality sound and video and get 20% off an individual plan. What does it mean to be a true trailblazer? It's someone who breaks the mold and charts a new path for those following behind. Becky Trevino is the very epitome of this energy. She is one of the few PMMs who has made the transition from PMM leadership to overall responsibility for Product. She is also the 2022 Product Marketing Leader of the Year as awarded by the PMA. We discuss the importance of a great manager, what's involved with board-level presentations, and her favorite and most hated software tools. If you are looking to take the next step in your Product Marketing career DO NOT MISS THIS EPISODE Connect with Becky on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Connect with Sean on LinkedIn   Get 20% off riverside.fm when you use the code productmarketingAI

Timestamps:00:55 - How PMMs should drive revenue05:46 - The focus on leads vs. the focus on revenue08:18 - How to make sure PMMs drive revenue10:45 - Why stakeholders don't understand the impact of messaging16:16 - Balancing strategic projects with tactics as a PMM22:46 - How to manage ongoing requests27:38 - How to enforce a research phase on strategic projects31:50 - How to help change priorities internally35:46 - What to do if you're doing more lead gen than revenue capture? Show notes:Olivine and Winter - B2B Messaging Course 

Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oakleyjason/PMM Files Website: https://pmmfiles.com/The Productive PMM Website: https://productivepmm.com/Ready for Launch Course: https://maven.com/course-crew/readyforlaunch Timestamps:02:08 Are PMMs actually marketers?03:43 The biggest challenge of founding PMMs at early-stage startups05:38 How to prioritize to be a more productive PMM15:34 Why Jason started ProductivePMM18:56 Important skills of founding PMMs23:47 The fundamentals of product marketing and how they back up strategy and execution26:46 Most common pitfalls for product launches32:14 Where to find Jason and to get more information     

In this episode of Product Marketing Life, Mark Assini is joined by Justin Dorfman, Co-Founder & CEO of AssetMule. During their chat, Justin shares his thoughts on the difference between good and great enablement and what product marketers can do to build enablement into a function that delivers enough value to warrant its own dedicated resourcing.As a veteran in the tech and SaaS industry, Justin shares his comprehensive journey that spans from a foundational role in sales to an evolution into product marketing, culminating in his current entrepreneurial venture. Mark and Justin get to the core of effective sales enablement, emphasizing the importance of a strategic approach where ongoing dialogue between the enablement and sales teams leads to more dynamic and impactful support. By moving beyond the traditional reactive nature of enablement, organizations can develop sustainable, scalable strategies that truly support their sales teams in a rapidly evolving market.Not only that, Justin shares the inspiration and vision behind AssetMule, talking about addressing the common challenges in creating sales assets, especially for non-designers in product marketing roles.Key takeawaysWhy product marketers make strong entrepreneursThe ups and downs of self-launchingThe benefits of partnering with PMMs with diverse strengths and expertiseWhy many experienced product marketers still seek validationHow financial acuity is integral in driving impactAnd more insights throughout the episode!

Most PMMs feel sellers don't do what they tell 'em. Ears fume after listening to a random customer call recording because a sales rep decided not to stay on message. Sellers feel no different about PMMs.90% of sales and marketing professionals point to several disconnects across strategy, process, content, and culture. (LinkedIn, 2020). It's astounding! How can two professions, most focused on the customer persona, stand at odds like Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly in 2008's Stepbrothers?in this next episode, our co-hosts speak on the most common challenges between marketing and sales teams. How to navigate those dynamics to be a better friend to sellers that PMs can't get from any product roadmap. And, the co-hosts share tips you can use to foster instant karma points with your selling partners. Time Stamps:00:16 Introduction and Discussion on Marketing and Sales Silos01:11 The Challenges of Being a Solo Marketer in a Startup01:31 The Misunderstanding of Product Marketing's Role02:45 Sales Leaders' Perspective on Marketing and Sales Goals04:19 Strategies to Elevate Authority with Sales05:02 The Importance of Crafting Effective Messaging06:59 The Role of Product Marketing in Assisting Sales10:50 The Value of Repetition and Persistence in Marketing11:35 The Struggles and Solutions in Sales Enablement13:50 Conclusion: Breaking Down Silos and Building Team Comradery

This podcast episode centers around the challenges faced by product marketing managers in conducting their jobs and ensuring their roles are correctly understood in their respective organizations.Our three co-hosts share personal experiences and frustrations, highlighting issues such as being undervalued in strategic processes, difficulty in role definition, job insecurity, and the need for having a centralized decision-maker in positioning and messaging.They discuss the growing specializations in product marketing and highlight the urgency for product marketers to align their interests and job expectations with these evolving roles. Our co-hosts also highlight the upcoming ‘product marketing superstar' guests who'll be in later episodes to share their experience and expertise in being rockstar PMMs. Sections:0:00 How to fortify the value as a PMM in your org when you're at your wits end.00:28 Why prior experience matters to how you view product marketing01:33 Why we wanted to create this podcast, in the first place.03:15 Learning from PMMs, a few steps ahead of you.05:05 Future of PMM and sense of belonging in your career today

What is the role of Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) in gaming? The discussion emphasizes two key aspects that PMMs enable: Firstly, facilitating the identification of product-market fit early in the development phase, thereby preventing costly pivots after the game's launch Secondly, they allow Product Managers and Game Directors to concentrate on enhancing key performance indicators (KPIs) and team efficiency by serving as the primary liaison between the game team and internal/external marketing and user research teams. The episode delves into questions about what to expect from a PMM, how to identify a good one, the evolving nature of their role post-privacy changes, and optimal placement within a company's organizational structure. Jesse Lempiäinen, the CEO and Founder of Geeklab, a platform for efficiently testing product/market fit, provides insights and answers to these inquiries. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support

In this episode of Product Marketing Life, Mark Assini is joined by Tamara Grominsky, a seasoned product marketing leader and founder of PMM Camp. They dive into the growing trend of product marketers becoming founders, striking out on their own as entrepreneurs. Tamara shares how her career has always embodied an entrepreneurial spirit, from partnering directly with founders during her PMM roles to recently stepping out on her own. She discusses why product marketers make natural entrepreneurs, given their business acumen, customer orientation, and ability to thrive in uncertainty.They discuss launching new products and services – both within companies and as entrepreneurs. Tamara outlines key differences like limited resources and vulnerability when launching your own business. She also details her journey of co-creating a new course, Ready to Launch.Key TakeawaysWhy product marketers make strong entrepreneursThe ups and downs of self-launching: How launching a personal venture differsThe benefits of partnering with PMMs with diverse strengths and expertiseWhy many experienced product marketers still seek validationHow financial acuity is integral in driving impactAnd more.

Get the inside scoop on life as a solo product marketing manager and how this compares to being part of a team.In this episode, host Mark Assini is joined by two guests, Stuti Dutt, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Compass Digital, and Kevin Chan, Director of Product Marketing at Fleetio.During their chat, Stuti, Kevin, and Mark explore what it takes to not just survive, but excel as a product marketer, both as a solo PMM or as part of a team. Stuti and Kevin have worked on their own and as part of a larger group, so they have experienced the benefits and challenges of both dynamics. Stuti gives us the lowdown on flying solo, like the need to work cross-functionally and build strong relationships across the organization. Kevin echoes the perks of cross-functional relationships that solo PMMs can use to test-drive ideas quickly. But it can get lonely without a squad to strategize with.Key takeawaysHow to build strong cross-functional relationships when you're a solo PMM. Why you need to create a PMM charter to stay focused.How to watch out for mental health red flags and why joining groups like PMA can help.How to get buy-in from leadership.Why you need to quantify your impact as a solo PMM. How to grow the PMM function over time.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that productivity decreased by 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023, but hours worked increased by 3%. With productivity needing to be top of mind for many organizations trying to do more with less, how can sales enablement scale what good looks like to drive productivity? Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I'm your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Michal Sever, the senior director of product marketing & product education at Nayax. Thanks for joining Michal! I'd love for you to tell us about yourself, your background, and your role. Michal Sever: Hi. It’s amazing to be here. Thank you for having me. I’m actually working in this amazing high-tech industry for more than 17 years, practicing innovation at amazing companies. I used to work at Amdocs, Microsoft, Gentrack, and now at Nayax. Nayax is actually a FinTech company, we are specializing in payments addressing retails from all sizes, segments, and regions. We are present in more than 80 countries. Now, post covid and with self-service on the rise, we are positioned in an amazing place to serve our customers best as we place cashless payment at the center of our gravity, enabling our customers, the merchants, the retailers, the operators to focus on their business, while without hardwired software, they can forget about the hardships of chip payments and just make sure that with our solutions they can increase the revenues and reduce their operational expenses. At Nayax, I’m leading the product marketing and education team. I have an amazing team and we are at the core of business here. We’re actually the missing link between marketing, market, sales, and product, and we are keeping everything aligned, tackling challenges as they come along, since challenges are inevitable. What drives us, Nayax and I, and my team are learning. We are learning all the time. We have a learning ecosystem and dealing with challenging situations, we find that learning is one of the easiest ways to bridge these gaps. This is what drives me, and my team, and each day it’s a new day here at Nayax we’re learning a lot. That’s me, my role, the company I work at. SS: Fantastic. Well, one of the things that I love about your background is you have a lot of experience in brand advocacy and storytelling. How does that background help influence your approach to product marketing and product education? MS: I’m very a strong believer in storytelling. I believe that behind every narrative there are a gazillion stories, but it really depends on the person that you are telling the story to. Eventually, the basis of storytelling is understanding the narrative, and behind these narratives are emotions. Our ability as product marketers and product education leaders is to tell the narrative of our customers or let’s say our prospects or everyone that we want to deliver a story to understand their pains, the challenges of each person that is standing in front of us. This is our superpower. The storytelling, understanding the narrative, understanding the pain behind each act. Once we build the story around these narratives and pains, I think it’s a great capability for each product, marketeer, and product education leader. SS: What does good product education look like to you? Maybe said another way, what are your best practices for creating effective product education programs? MS: I think this completely relates to the storytelling aspect and the emotional narrative, again, and I’ll explain. What we do at Nayaz, we are constantly trying to learn about our customer’s journey. The journey doesn’t have to be confronting only us. The journey can start anywhere and at any time. Our customers have their journey that they’re dealing with their businesses with their operations and sometimes even with us. They have a very comprehensive day in their lives each day and in order for us to create the best practices and effective product education programs, we need to really know our customers and to understand their journeys, let’s say across the board. As I said at the beginning, it’s a learning ecosystem. Each day we learn something new about our customers and about their journey. Once we realize how our customers are looking and what their journey is, only then when we know them, we can set our program into action. This is what we are constantly doing and we call this entire framework the engagement cycle. This is our best practice. We are making sure that we are engaging with our customers in every phase of this journey and in every phase, and it doesn’t matter if it is at the beginning of the cycle before he becomes our customer, and he is still in the marketing or pre-sale phase, or if he’s moving on to the order to activation process after he said, I do, and he decided, let’s say, to get married to us, or if it’s afterward when he wants to upscale or to get more knowledgeable and maybe even to upsell or, or to cross-sell. In every phase of this engagement circle, we need to understand his problem, his pains, and his emotions in order to address him with the right messaging, the right story, and the right content, which is very segmented. From pre-sale through activation to growth, we always need to make sure that our customers are happy. I think this is like the baseline or the root of best practice in our domain from the bottom up and top down. Keeping a marketing umbrella also gives us air coverage to remain top of mind of our customers and prospects, and eventually maintaining transparency and knowledge, all the time, knowledge about our customers and maintaining the knowledge within the customer’s space is about us. It’s like a road from us to them and from them to us in order to maintain transparency, knowledge, and understanding of each other. I think this is the basis of effective product education programs. SS: I love that. I think that’s fantastic. Help me tie that back to what we were talking about in the introduction around sales productivity. How can effective product marketing and education drive sales productivity? MS: The basis of sales productivity that is being affected by our activities, the PMMs activities, first, it really depends on the good relationship between the sales and the marketing teams. Sales and marketing have to go together, especially to make the PMM work. It has to go hand in hand. We need to dance well together in order to be effective and productive. One of the main focus areas for marketing and product marketing and specifically is to create successful and segmented sales enablement kits. By enabling sales in the right manner and with the right content, sales can be more productive, save time, and successfully drive closed-won opportunities. I’m going back to storytelling and emotion and connections. Product marketing managers are in charge of creating the sales kits that will be driven by emotions and driven by relevance in terms of the segment vertical and even the specific timeframe within the touching point. In order to build a productive sales kit that will affect productivity within sales, all the collaterals, the presentation, the product guides, and other materials have to equip sales in a segmented way. They need to be effectively communicated to the sales from within the PMM team. These materials eventually can empower the sales representatives to deliver constant and persuasive messages during their interactions with the prospects. I’ll give two examples. The first example in these, let’s say collaterals, that needs to be built is first is creating a relevant value proposition. One of the main focuses within the sales enablement kit is to communicate a unique value proposition and benefits of the specific product that the sales will want to take to its prospects. The sales teams need to articulate the value position to potential customers because when a customer understands how a product can solve their problem or fulfill their needs, they’re more likely to make a purchase, which means that the sales process or the cycle will be more productive. Another example is, of course, the messaging. Product marketing can ensure that the sales team has targeted and compelling messages that will resonate with specific customer segments because each message relates to another customer. There aren’t two customers or two personas within customers that will agree to the same approach or the same tone of voice. The message can be created in many ways. Tailored messages can enable the sales representative, again, to connect with the customers in a more deep emotional manner or level in order to drive more productivity to their activities. Of course, there is the outbound perspective as well, which means that effective product marketing can help build a strong product or a brand reputation, establishing the top of mind and trust and credibility within the customer’s domains and of course everything that has to do with lead generation throughout the entire customer journey. I think to sum it up eventually if product marketing and the sales community are working well together and dancing well together, as I said before, there are four main aspects that can be determined as productive and also can be measured because it’s really important to measure success all the time. First, I think by working together, we can give time back to sales that they can either use to approach more prospects or they can just sip a coffee at the beach, whatever they want to do more. No, I’m just joking. Second, everything has to do with a better customer experience. If a customer is happy and satisfied and we are approaching him with relevant messaging and the relevant tone of voice, he might purchase more. He might cross-purchase, et cetera. Third, pipeline creation. If we are delivering the right messaging and the right value proposition in the right channels, we might enlarge the pipeline. Last, we bring a higher, faster win rate, messaging, value proposition, and accurate sales kits. I think all of them, while working with sales, can definitely drive higher productivity for both departments. SS: Now, prior to implementing Highspot, what challenges were your reps facing as it relates to sales productivity, and how have you been able to solve those challenges since implementing Highspot? MS: Nayax has massively grown in the last couple of years. We also experienced a very successful IPO and our sales community grew a lot. We became bigger than we used to be, and it became a little bit hard to manage from afar. Our headquarters is in Israel, and it was really difficult to maintain a single tone of voice for everyone. That was a really huge challenge in order to maintain consistent selling. Now that we serve more than 80 countries, just think about the consequences of sales kit creation and the need to create so many different messaging for different personas in different verticals, segments, and countries and, of course, languages, but still keep one unique value proposition and similar brand reputation. It became messy and the need to bridge between what headquarters wanted to say about the brand and its product and how it was translated to the field became challenging. We had to find some kind of a solution, not only for maintaining one tone of voice but also to have like a single source of truth in which all the content resides, like a content repository that is all the time updated and true to what we are selling. What happened is we saw a lot of people from the sales community just using content from many years ago and not accurate content. We are working in a very rapid environment, everything here is microservices, the ICD and we are all the time continuing to invest and develop, and promote. We saw that people are not utilizing the most accurate and relevant and latest content, and therefore not maintaining even the transparency and the knowledge that is required for customers. It was a big problem, so we were actually searching for a platform that will solve all of these situations, a platform that will maintain a single source of truth for everybody that will communicate in one voice and eventually, most importantly, solve the content chaos that we had. I know that you guys call it content chaos at a Highspot, so we search for it, and then we find a Highspot. I think the rest is history because the problem was solved almost completely. One last thing we also wanted to search for a platform that is completely data-driven. It was really important for us now that we have such a large sales community, to make sure that all the sales are working in the right direction. It’s not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of aligning and having productive sales cycles. We search for a system that first will be completely connected to our CRM system, which is of course Salesforce, and that we’ll be able to connect between the marketing collaterals or the product marketing collaterals to the opportunities or leads themselves. We also wanted to save time for our representative. We didn’t want them to search for the right content while they’re in a sale opportunity while they’re on a call, we wanted them to save time and to find the collaterals they need swiftly and without having the headache of messing around. SS: Well, I’m glad that Highspot could help. I’d also love to understand, we’ve been on this topic of sales productivity, what is an example of an initiative or program that you’ve implemented to drive sales productivity, and how have you leveraged Highspot to support this? MS: By the way we call Highspot “Nayax Win”, we changed the name in order to fit our community because we call our sales community winners, so we called Highspot ‘Nayax Win'. Which everybody loves. If I’m confusing and saying win instead of Highspot, excuse me, but it’s burned to my head already. Relating to your question, we love the fact that Highspot is embedded into Salesforce you click on one button and then it opens up and all SDRs and the sales community can see the marketing collaterals that are relevant to a specific opportunity. The fact that it’s just in front of them with the collateral that they need to use within a specific call or within a specific opportunity is really helpful, but it’s not enough. One of the main features that we love about Highspot is the ability to pitch from within the system. We have created many pitching templates according to specific customers, specific verticals and segments, and of course, relating to specific products. The fact that you can be in Salesforce, working on a specific lead, for example, for our product, and then seeing just in front of you the relevant FAQs, frequently asked questions, or objection handling, and then the relevant one page that can close the deal. Once you finish the conversation with the lead, you tell him I will send an email with all the relevant material, and you just click the pitch button, and then it opens up a screen where you can either record yourself, or you can just send the collateral through to your customers. That’s amazing. Eventually, the customer receives a very nice landing page in which they can see the collaterals, and the summary of the conversation, and I think for both ways, for sales representatives and also the customers, it creates a feeling as if they’re all working on the same page. For us, the ability to connect the CRM to our Highspot or Nayaz win to ease the journey for our customers on one hand and the work of our SDRs was amazing. We see that it really drives sales productivity from the timesaving perspective, but it’s not enough. What we are reaching to see, and I suppose we can talk about it afterward in more detail, but we want to see the correlation between Highspot usage and the closed won. I’m sure that there is a high correlation between using the right messaging and the right collaterals and right messaging and it eventually leads to fewer touching points. For us, let’s say, a successful program or to show complete productivity will be the ability to show higher numbers in the closed wons that our collaterals that are pushed into Nayax Win, or Highspot, as opposed to those who didn’t. We can see it all because Highspot is completely data-driven, so we can see the names of the reps who used it and who didn’t. Therefore we can definitely see who is driving productivity utilizing Win, and we see the difference, which is amazing. We are only three months into the process and we already see the difference between a closed won of reps that are using Highspot and those who are not. SS: I love that. That is fantastic. Now, you also recently hosted your company sales kickoff event a few months ago. You mentioned that your team exceeded your KPIs for engagement from the sales team. I’d love to learn a little bit more about that. I know some of us are heading into kickoff season halfway through the year, what were some of your best practices for delivering an engaging event that really motivated your sellers? MS: We had an amazing SKO. Actually, at Nayax we do not call it SKO, we call it Connect because our selling model is indirect and direct. It means that we are selling a lot through distributors and partners, so we call it connect because we connect all the groups together. We had a very successful SKO in January after three years that we haven’t met each other face to face. It was really emotional and happy. It was really amazing to meet again after so many years, but when we brought everybody together, we had a lot of content to deliver. I think the two most engaging sessions, one of them, by the way, was driven by a Highspot, but one of the two most engaging sessions that we had was inspiring. The first one was an expo. We created an exposition of everything that we sell. As I said about Nayax, we are focusing on payment as our center of gravity, but the payment is actually part of a complete solution that is based on hardware and software. What we have first is our integrated point of sale with software that is embedded within the point of sale. Then we have the management suite behind it that can manage all the operations with our services, and of course, all our loyalty and engagement programs for increased revenue and recurring customers. What we’ve done at SKO, is we brought a lot of our devices that are connected to the retail devices themselves, the unattended machines, the retail machines, and we asked our sales to play with them and to see how it works as if they were consumers, the operators themselves that are having the consumers use their machines. I think they learned a lot about new features and new functions, how to use them, which problems occur, and if they occur, and we had the product managers decide on each solution and product explaining to the sales community once they’re practicing and utilizing the machines as if they are our operators or the consumers of the operators so they can touch it themselves and feel it themselves. It was a true engagement and they loved it. The second one was actually a role play in which we chose real-life examples of situations in which our sales representative needed to sell something to operators and explain the valuable position and the benefits behind our solutions. We created 10 different situations, which were very complicated, and we had a panel of judges, which was our two CEOs, and our entire c-suite. We asked the sales representative to show how they are planning to manage the sale. How many touching points, which content do they want to deliver in each touching point, and how are they planning to manage it? In the sales plays themselves, what we tested was not what they sell or how they sell the specific product, but also how they are selling in terms of sales soft skills, which was a combination of training and coaching. I think the combination of coaching on top of the training on the solutions themselves was very engaging and successful because they learned a lot with regard to not only the capabilities of the products but also their capabilities as salespeople and sales representatives on how to leverage their soft skills to better places. These two sessions were incredibly successful, but the entire SKO was amazing and it was so much fun. I can’t wait for the next one. Seriously. SS: I love that. Now you also have a 92% active learner rate in your training and coaching programs in Highspot. How have you leveraged Highspot's training and coaching capabilities to really develop engaging product education per programs, and how has this motivated productivity? MS: I must say it wasn’t easy and I feel as if we only started, but the entire team was really engaged. It’s the sales team and the product team, the product marketing team, and the marketing team. We had a hackathon to build all the materials and we really built it all in order to make sure that we are not neglecting any segment, any vertical, any line of business, any geographies. It’s still a work in progress. I mean, it’s not finalized at all, and we still have a long way to go, but there are a few things that we did that were really important in order to achieve such a high score in a lower period of time. I think the first one is to have a sales enablement champion that will drive the entire development and engagement and will be like the missing link between sales and product marketing, sales, and headquarters. I think this is definitely something that raised the bow for us. Once we had our sales enablement champ listening to sales pitches and A/B testing scripts and reviewing everything that we’ve done, it really leveraged our training and coaching capabilities. This person from my team really bridged the gap, and once she spoke with the sales teams, she came back to us, to the marketing team on what to fix and what to do better, and this is how we better ourselves. I think it was really important. In order to motivate usage and engagement, everybody used the programs and system we needed to package it alongside sales enablement sessions. We have a team that we are managing as if it was a WhatsApp team within Microsoft Teams. We are constantly sharing information with it. I think eventually, we are only at the beginning, we still have a long way to go in order for me to feel that we are completely bringing in the productivity from the system, but we are in the beginning, we are already saving time for reps. Let’s say the end game will be to show the complete correlation between closed won and the usage of the collaterals, and then we can definitely speak about complete productivity. We still have a long way to go, despite the high score that you gave us. SS: Yeah. I love to hear that though. Well, last question for you. What are some key business results that you have been able to achieve since implementing Highspot, especially as it relates to sales productivity? MS: Each month we see an increase in the usage of salespeople within the system, and we see a correlation between the usage and the revenue from closed won. The first month that we started utilizing the system, which was March, we were standing on zero engagement. Now, in the sales community, we have about 100 users. We already have 35% of engagement. From this 35% of engagement of active users that are actively using pitches and our sales plays and are visiting the various spots on a daily basis, we see an increase. I don’t want to state a number because it’s constantly changing, but we have an increase in there, let’s say closed-won capabilities. I will be happy to share the numbers, but only in a few weeks because we are still sharpening our analytics there. As I said before, it’s already beginning and we did establish a single source of truth, which is 100% success. We do not see people using any materials from their desktops anymore, which means that this KPI was 100% achieved. In terms of a single source of truth achieved in terms of one tone of voice. This was also, in my opinion, let’s say 90% or 95% achieved. We see that everybody is using the messaging that we want them to use. We see a clear path in the change and how people are speaking about Nayax in the same messaging, as I said at the beginning, the story that we wanted them to speak about and to tell, we see it and we hear it across the globe from the United States, from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, everybody is utilizing the same tone of voice, which is amazing. We still have a long way to go. There is a saying, by the way, which I love. I suddenly remembered from Robin Shama that he said that change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end. I think eventually the adoption of Nayax win or Highspot, it's all about behavioral change for the salespeople, and from that perspective, from that KPI of a behavioral change, I think we have at least 85% completion because we see the usage and we see people are adopting it. It’s hard to adopt a different way to utilize content and to consume content, and a different way to pitch after 15 or 17 years that you have been pitching in the same way suddenly to have somebody come in and say, no, do this, do that. It’s hard, but we are on the way and we want to influence the increase in closed won with the system. I believe we will get there. I think the end game for us will be to see a complete correlation between Highspot usage and closed won. In order to do that, we’ll keep pushing and it’s not easy, but eventually, it’ll be gorgeous, so we have patience. SS: I love that. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. I appreciate the time. MS: For sure. It was lovely being here and thank you for having me. SS: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that productivity decreased by 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023, but hours worked increased by 3%. With productivity needing to be top of mind for many organizations trying to do more with less, how can sales enablement scale what good looks like to drive productivity? Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I'm your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Michal Sever, the senior director of product marketing & product education at Nayax. Thanks for joining Michal! I'd love for you to tell us about yourself, your background, and your role. Michal Sever: Hi. It’s amazing to be here. Thank you for having me. I’m actually working in this amazing high-tech industry for more than 17 years, practicing innovation at amazing companies. I used to work at Amdocs, Microsoft, Gentrack, and now at Nayax. Nayax is actually a FinTech company, we are specializing in payments addressing retails from all sizes, segments, and regions. We are present in more than 80 countries. Now, post covid and with self-service on the rise, we are positioned in an amazing place to serve our customers best as we place cashless payment at the center of our gravity, enabling our customers, the merchants, the retailers, the operators to focus on their business, while without hardwired software, they can forget about the hardships of chip payments and just make sure that with our solutions they can increase the revenues and reduce their operational expenses. At Nayax, I’m leading the product marketing and education team. I have an amazing team and we are at the core of business here. We’re actually the missing link between marketing, market, sales, and product, and we are keeping everything aligned, tackling challenges as they come along, since challenges are inevitable. What drives us, Nayax and I, and my team are learning. We are learning all the time. We have a learning ecosystem and dealing with challenging situations, we find that learning is one of the easiest ways to bridge these gaps. This is what drives me, and my team, and each day it’s a new day here at Nayax we’re learning a lot. That’s me, my role, the company I work at. SS: Fantastic. Well, one of the things that I love about your background is you have a lot of experience in brand advocacy and storytelling. How does that background help influence your approach to product marketing and product education? MS: I’m very a strong believer in storytelling. I believe that behind every narrative there are a gazillion stories, but it really depends on the person that you are telling the story to. Eventually, the basis of storytelling is understanding the narrative, and behind these narratives are emotions. Our ability as product marketers and product education leaders is to tell the narrative of our customers or let’s say our prospects or everyone that we want to deliver a story to understand their pains, the challenges of each person that is standing in front of us. This is our superpower. The storytelling, understanding the narrative, understanding the pain behind each act. Once we build the story around these narratives and pains, I think it’s a great capability for each product, marketeer, and product education leader. SS: What does good product education look like to you? Maybe said another way, what are your best practices for creating effective product education programs? MS: I think this completely relates to the storytelling aspect and the emotional narrative, again, and I’ll explain. What we do at Nayaz, we are constantly trying to learn about our customer’s journey. The journey doesn’t have to be confronting only us. The journey can start anywhere and at any time. Our customers have their journey that they’re dealing with their businesses with their operations and sometimes even with us. They have a very comprehensive day in their lives each day and in order for us to create the best practices and effective product education programs, we need to really know our customers and to understand their journeys, let’s say across the board. As I said at the beginning, it’s a learning ecosystem. Each day we learn something new about our customers and about their journey. Once we realize how our customers are looking and what their journey is, only then when we know them, we can set our program into action. This is what we are constantly doing and we call this entire framework the engagement cycle. This is our best practice. We are making sure that we are engaging with our customers in every phase of this journey and in every phase, and it doesn’t matter if it is at the beginning of the cycle before he becomes our customer, and he is still in the marketing or pre-sale phase, or if he’s moving on to the order to activation process after he said, I do, and he decided, let’s say, to get married to us, or if it’s afterward when he wants to upscale or to get more knowledgeable and maybe even to upsell or, or to cross-sell. In every phase of this engagement circle, we need to understand his problem, his pains, and his emotions in order to address him with the right messaging, the right story, and the right content, which is very segmented. From pre-sale through activation to growth, we always need to make sure that our customers are happy. I think this is like the baseline or the root of best practice in our domain from the bottom up and top down. Keeping a marketing umbrella also gives us air coverage to remain top of mind of our customers and prospects, and eventually maintaining transparency and knowledge, all the time, knowledge about our customers and maintaining the knowledge within the customer’s space is about us. It’s like a road from us to them and from them to us in order to maintain transparency, knowledge, and understanding of each other. I think this is the basis of effective product education programs. SS: I love that. I think that’s fantastic. Help me tie that back to what we were talking about in the introduction around sales productivity. How can effective product marketing and education drive sales productivity? MS: The basis of sales productivity that is being affected by our activities, the PMMs activities, first, it really depends on the good relationship between the sales and the marketing teams. Sales and marketing have to go together, especially to make the PMM work. It has to go hand in hand. We need to dance well together in order to be effective and productive. One of the main focus areas for marketing and product marketing and specifically is to create successful and segmented sales enablement kits. By enabling sales in the right manner and with the right content, sales can be more productive, save time, and successfully drive closed-won opportunities. I’m going back to storytelling and emotion and connections. Product marketing managers are in charge of creating the sales kits that will be driven by emotions and driven by relevance in terms of the segment vertical and even the specific timeframe within the touching point. In order to build a productive sales kit that will affect productivity within sales, all the collaterals, the presentation, the product guides, and other materials have to equip sales in a segmented way. They need to be effectively communicated to the sales from within the PMM team. These materials eventually can empower the sales representatives to deliver constant and persuasive messages during their interactions with the prospects. I’ll give two examples. The first example in these, let’s say collaterals, that needs to be built is first is creating a relevant value proposition. One of the main focuses within the sales enablement kit is to communicate a unique value proposition and benefits of the specific product that the sales will want to take to its prospects. The sales teams need to articulate the value position to potential customers because when a customer understands how a product can solve their problem or fulfill their needs, they’re more likely to make a purchase, which means that the sales process or the cycle will be more productive. Another example is, of course, the messaging. Product marketing can ensure that the sales team has targeted and compelling messages that will resonate with specific customer segments because each message relates to another customer. There aren’t two customers or two personas within customers that will agree to the same approach or the same tone of voice. The message can be created in many ways. Tailored messages can enable the sales representative, again, to connect with the customers in a more deep emotional manner or level in order to drive more productivity to their activities. Of course, there is the outbound perspective as well, which means that effective product marketing can help build a strong product or a brand reputation, establishing the top of mind and trust and credibility within the customer’s domains and of course everything that has to do with lead generation throughout the entire customer journey. I think to sum it up eventually if product marketing and the sales community are working well together and dancing well together, as I said before, there are four main aspects that can be determined as productive and also can be measured because it’s really important to measure success all the time. First, I think by working together, we can give time back to sales that they can either use to approach more prospects or they can just sip a coffee at the beach, whatever they want to do more. No, I’m just joking. Second, everything has to do with a better customer experience. If a customer is happy and satisfied and we are approaching him with relevant messaging and the relevant tone of voice, he might purchase more. He might cross-purchase, et cetera. Third, pipeline creation. If we are delivering the right messaging and the right value proposition in the right channels, we might enlarge the pipeline. Last, we bring a higher, faster win rate, messaging, value proposition, and accurate sales kits. I think all of them, while working with sales, can definitely drive higher productivity for both departments. SS: Now, prior to implementing Highspot, what challenges were your reps facing as it relates to sales productivity, and how have you been able to solve those challenges since implementing Highspot? MS: Nayax has massively grown in the last couple of years. We also experienced a very successful IPO and our sales community grew a lot. We became bigger than we used to be, and it became a little bit hard to manage from afar. Our headquarters is in Israel, and it was really difficult to maintain a single tone of voice for everyone. That was a really huge challenge in order to maintain consistent selling. Now that we serve more than 80 countries, just think about the consequences of sales kit creation and the need to create so many different messaging for different personas in different verticals, segments, and countries and, of course, languages, but still keep one unique value proposition and similar brand reputation. It became messy and the need to bridge between what headquarters wanted to say about the brand and its product and how it was translated to the field became challenging. We had to find some kind of a solution, not only for maintaining one tone of voice but also to have like a single source of truth in which all the content resides, like a content repository that is all the time updated and true to what we are selling. What happened is we saw a lot of people from the sales community just using content from many years ago and not accurate content. We are working in a very rapid environment, everything here is microservices, the ICD and we are all the time continuing to invest and develop, and promote. We saw that people are not utilizing the most accurate and relevant and latest content, and therefore not maintaining even the transparency and the knowledge that is required for customers. It was a big problem, so we were actually searching for a platform that will solve all of these situations, a platform that will maintain a single source of truth for everybody that will communicate in one voice and eventually, most importantly, solve the content chaos that we had. I know that you guys call it content chaos at a Highspot, so we search for it, and then we find a Highspot. I think the rest is history because the problem was solved almost completely. One last thing we also wanted to search for a platform that is completely data-driven. It was really important for us now that we have such a large sales community, to make sure that all the sales are working in the right direction. It’s not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of aligning and having productive sales cycles. We search for a system that first will be completely connected to our CRM system, which is of course Salesforce, and that we’ll be able to connect between the marketing collaterals or the product marketing collaterals to the opportunities or leads themselves. We also wanted to save time for our representative. We didn’t want them to search for the right content while they’re in a sale opportunity while they’re on a call, we wanted them to save time and to find the collaterals they need swiftly and without having the headache of messing around. SS: Well, I’m glad that Highspot could help. I’d also love to understand, we’ve been on this topic of sales productivity, what is an example of an initiative or program that you’ve implemented to drive sales productivity, and how have you leveraged Highspot to support this? MS: By the way we call Highspot “Nayax Win”, we changed the name in order to fit our community because we call our sales community winners, so we called Highspot ‘Nayax Win'. Which everybody loves. If I’m confusing and saying win instead of Highspot, excuse me, but it’s burned to my head already. Relating to your question, we love the fact that Highspot is embedded into Salesforce you click on one button and then it opens up and all SDRs and the sales community can see the marketing collaterals that are relevant to a specific opportunity. The fact that it’s just in front of them with the collateral that they need to use within a specific call or within a specific opportunity is really helpful, but it’s not enough. One of the main features that we love about Highspot is the ability to pitch from within the system. We have created many pitching templates according to specific customers, specific verticals and segments, and of course, relating to specific products. The fact that you can be in Salesforce, working on a specific lead, for example, for our product, and then seeing just in front of you the relevant FAQs, frequently asked questions, or objection handling, and then the relevant one page that can close the deal. Once you finish the conversation with the lead, you tell him I will send an email with all the relevant material, and you just click the pitch button, and then it opens up a screen where you can either record yourself, or you can just send the collateral through to your customers. That’s amazing. Eventually, the customer receives a very nice landing page in which they can see the collaterals, and the summary of the conversation, and I think for both ways, for sales representatives and also the customers, it creates a feeling as if they’re all working on the same page. For us, the ability to connect the CRM to our Highspot or Nayaz win to ease the journey for our customers on one hand and the work of our SDRs was amazing. We see that it really drives sales productivity from the timesaving perspective, but it’s not enough. What we are reaching to see, and I suppose we can talk about it afterward in more detail, but we want to see the correlation between Highspot usage and the closed won. I’m sure that there is a high correlation between using the right messaging and the right collaterals and right messaging and it eventually leads to fewer touching points. For us, let’s say, a successful program or to show complete productivity will be the ability to show higher numbers in the closed wons that our collaterals that are pushed into Nayax Win, or Highspot, as opposed to those who didn’t. We can see it all because Highspot is completely data-driven, so we can see the names of the reps who used it and who didn’t. Therefore we can definitely see who is driving productivity utilizing Win, and we see the difference, which is amazing. We are only three months into the process and we already see the difference between a closed won of reps that are using Highspot and those who are not. SS: I love that. That is fantastic. Now, you also recently hosted your company sales kickoff event a few months ago. You mentioned that your team exceeded your KPIs for engagement from the sales team. I’d love to learn a little bit more about that. I know some of us are heading into kickoff season halfway through the year, what were some of your best practices for delivering an engaging event that really motivated your sellers? MS: We had an amazing SKO. Actually, at Nayax we do not call it SKO, we call it Connect because our selling model is indirect and direct. It means that we are selling a lot through distributors and partners, so we call it connect because we connect all the groups together. We had a very successful SKO in January after three years that we haven’t met each other face to face. It was really emotional and happy. It was really amazing to meet again after so many years, but when we brought everybody together, we had a lot of content to deliver. I think the two most engaging sessions, one of them, by the way, was driven by a Highspot, but one of the two most engaging sessions that we had was inspiring. The first one was an expo. We created an exposition of everything that we sell. As I said about Nayax, we are focusing on payment as our center of gravity, but the payment is actually part of a complete solution that is based on hardware and software. What we have first is our integrated point of sale with software that is embedded within the point of sale. Then we have the management suite behind it that can manage all the operations with our services, and of course, all our loyalty and engagement programs for increased revenue and recurring customers. What we’ve done at SKO, is we brought a lot of our devices that are connected to the retail devices themselves, the unattended machines, the retail machines, and we asked our sales to play with them and to see how it works as if they were consumers, the operators themselves that are having the consumers use their machines. I think they learned a lot about new features and new functions, how to use them, which problems occur, and if they occur, and we had the product managers decide on each solution and product explaining to the sales community once they’re practicing and utilizing the machines as if they are our operators or the consumers of the operators so they can touch it themselves and feel it themselves. It was a true engagement and they loved it. The second one was actually a role play in which we chose real-life examples of situations in which our sales representative needed to sell something to operators and explain the valuable position and the benefits behind our solutions. We created 10 different situations, which were very complicated, and we had a panel of judges, which was our two CEOs, and our entire c-suite. We asked the sales representative to show how they are planning to manage the sale. How many touching points, which content do they want to deliver in each touching point, and how are they planning to manage it? In the sales plays themselves, what we tested was not what they sell or how they sell the specific product, but also how they are selling in terms of sales soft skills, which was a combination of training and coaching. I think the combination of coaching on top of the training on the solutions themselves was very engaging and successful because they learned a lot with regard to not only the capabilities of the products but also their capabilities as salespeople and sales representatives on how to leverage their soft skills to better places. These two sessions were incredibly successful, but the entire SKO was amazing and it was so much fun. I can’t wait for the next one. Seriously. SS: I love that. Now you also have a 92% active learner rate in your training and coaching programs in Highspot. How have you leveraged Highspot's training and coaching capabilities to really develop engaging product education per programs, and how has this motivated productivity? MS: I must say it wasn’t easy and I feel as if we only started, but the entire team was really engaged. It’s the sales team and the product team, the product marketing team, and the marketing team. We had a hackathon to build all the materials and we really built it all in order to make sure that we are not neglecting any segment, any vertical, any line of business, any geographies. It’s still a work in progress. I mean, it’s not finalized at all, and we still have a long way to go, but there are a few things that we did that were really important in order to achieve such a high score in a lower period of time. I think the first one is to have a sales enablement champion that will drive the entire development and engagement and will be like the missing link between sales and product marketing, sales, and headquarters. I think this is definitely something that raised the bow for us. Once we had our sales enablement champ listening to sales pitches and A/B testing scripts and reviewing everything that we’ve done, it really leveraged our training and coaching capabilities. This person from my team really bridged the gap, and once she spoke with the sales teams, she came back to us, to the marketing team on what to fix and what to do better, and this is how we better ourselves. I think it was really important. In order to motivate usage and engagement, everybody used the programs and system we needed to package it alongside sales enablement sessions. We have a team that we are managing as if it was a WhatsApp team within Microsoft Teams. We are constantly sharing information with it. I think eventually, we are only at the beginning, we still have a long way to go in order for me to feel that we are completely bringing in the productivity from the system, but we are in the beginning, we are already saving time for reps. Let’s say the end game will be to show the complete correlation between closed won and the usage of the collaterals, and then we can definitely speak about complete productivity. We still have a long way to go, despite the high score that you gave us. SS: Yeah. I love to hear that though. Well, last question for you. What are some key business results that you have been able to achieve since implementing Highspot, especially as it relates to sales productivity? MS: Each month we see an increase in the usage of salespeople within the system, and we see a correlation between the usage and the revenue from closed won. The first month that we started utilizing the system, which was March, we were standing on zero engagement. Now, in the sales community, we have about 100 users. We already have 35% of engagement. From this 35% of engagement of active users that are actively using pitches and our sales plays and are visiting the various spots on a daily basis, we see an increase. I don’t want to state a number because it’s constantly changing, but we have an increase in there, let’s say closed-won capabilities. I will be happy to share the numbers, but only in a few weeks because we are still sharpening our analytics there. As I said before, it’s already beginning and we did establish a single source of truth, which is 100% success. We do not see people using any materials from their desktops anymore, which means that this KPI was 100% achieved. In terms of a single source of truth achieved in terms of one tone of voice. This was also, in my opinion, let’s say 90% or 95% achieved. We see that everybody is using the messaging that we want them to use. We see a clear path in the change and how people are speaking about Nayax in the same messaging, as I said at the beginning, the story that we wanted them to speak about and to tell, we see it and we hear it across the globe from the United States, from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, everybody is utilizing the same tone of voice, which is amazing. We still have a long way to go. There is a saying, by the way, which I love. I suddenly remembered from Robin Shama that he said that change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end. I think eventually the adoption of Nayax win or Highspot, it's all about behavioral change for the salespeople, and from that perspective, from that KPI of a behavioral change, I think we have at least 85% completion because we see the usage and we see people are adopting it. It’s hard to adopt a different way to utilize content and to consume content, and a different way to pitch after 15 or 17 years that you have been pitching in the same way suddenly to have somebody come in and say, no, do this, do that. It’s hard, but we are on the way and we want to influence the increase in closed won with the system. I believe we will get there. I think the end game for us will be to see a complete correlation between Highspot usage and closed won. In order to do that, we’ll keep pushing and it’s not easy, but eventually, it’ll be gorgeous, so we have patience. SS: I love that. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. I appreciate the time. MS: For sure. It was lovely being here and thank you for having me. SS: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

Did you know that PMMs and Content Marketers across organizations miss out on one integral element in their revenue pipelines? A sit down with their sales team!Often perceived as “no strings attached,” the ideal relationship between pmm-content-sales should look like a marriage to accelerate your revenue goals.How do sales, especially those on the front lines like SDRs/ BDRs, view, and leverage product marketing & content? Can product marketing & content marketing help sales exchange our value for our customer's money efficiently?Listen to Rowan Noronha, Founder of the Product Marketing Community, and guest host Ashley Faus, Director of Integrated PMM, Atlassian, who are joined by Morgan Ingram, Founder & Chief Edutainment Officer, Ascension Media Productions, and Devin Reed, Director of Content & Thought Leadership, Clari exploring how content and community solutions and strategies emerge from a deeper understanding of sales and revenue.Listen to Ashley, Morgan, Devin and Rowan as they discuss what content marketing and sales need from product marketing in order for their companies to Exchange Value for Money… efficiently.

Chelsea Suarez, Product Marketing Manager at Dropbox, joins us to discuss her journey from Army Intelligence Officer, to Product Manager, to Product Marketer. We discuss the differences between Product Management and Product Marketing, the qualities and aptitudes it takes to succeed in each, and how PMMs can better collaborate with their PMs.  Thank you to our sponsor Product Marketing Alliance for partnering with us for season 3 of the podcast. You can use the code newtopmm for 10% off PMA's Product Marketing Certified Core course (and all other PMA courses).And thank you to The Compete Network for producing the New to PMM pod. Check out other great Compete Network shows here.Follow Chelsea. Follow Maggie.

In this episode we are joined by Prak Swamy, Product Marketing Manager at Rently, to talk about all things market research. We discuss how she got her start as a Market Research Analyst and how she made the natural pivot into to product marketing. We also chat about how PMMs can get started with market research, its importance, and the many different forms that it can take. Thank you to our sponsor Product Marketing Alliance for partnering with us for season 3 of the podcast. You can use the code newtopmm for 10% off PMA's Product Marketing Certified Core course (and all other PMA courses).And thank you to The Compete Network for producing the New to PMM pod. Check out other great Compete Network shows here.Follow Prak. Follow Maggie. 

In this episode of the Product Marketing Insider podcast, Ana Serrano, Global Product Marketing Lead at Salesforce, joins host Lawrence Chapman, Senior Copywriter at Product Marketing Alliance.In 2022, Ana was included in our list of Top 100 Product Marketing Influencers and has more than 15 years of experience, during which time, she has gained expertise in B2B productivity, collaboration, and CRM solutions across regions and industries.Ana challenges a common assumption that PMMs need to occupy a senior position to lead from the front at their company and shares ways in which product marketers can lead with authority.

On this episode of Embracing Erosion, Devon chats with Renat Gersch, a product marketing evangelist who has built and led PMM teams at companies such as Treasure Data and Wrike. They discuss why the CEO must lead the strategic company narrative, why product marketers are stewards of narrative design and messaging, the intricacies of the enterprise sales cycle and how PMMs can help close deals, why we're seeing new titles forming within product marketing, the three C's that represent characteristics all leaders must have or build, and much more. Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/devon-orourke/support

On this episode of Embracing Erosion, Devon chats with Rowan Noronha, the founder of the Product Marketing Community and an advisor to both high-growth and enterprise companies such as Gong and Clari to name a few. They discuss where product marketers should sit within a SaaS org, they define the definition of product marketing and how PMMs help CMOs and C-suite executives W.I.N. (hint, that's an acronym, you'll find out what it stands for), the 4 most important characteristics leaders must have, and much more. Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/devon-orourke/support

As a PM at Google, Vishal Naik focuses on Google Assistant integrations with other products. Before that, he spent valuable years at DocuSign and TriNet, getting to know the SaaS space inside out.In this episode, Jeffrey and Vishal talk about his experience at Google, the ways in which a product marketer can influence the product roadmap, and how operations are set up when you work on a product used by more than 500 million people.Want more insights from Vishal? Check out his Sharebird profile.Looking to connect? You can find Vishal on LinkedIn.Questions covered in this episode: Can you tell us a little bit about your journey into product marketing? What does the average day look like for a Google Assistant product marketer? How do you approach the cross-functional nature of your role? How are you building connections between different product teams at such a huge company like Google? As a product marketer, how are you bringing the customer's voice into the conversation? PMMs sometimes run the risk of becoming the middleman between teams. How are you ensuring you are adding unique value? Do you think product marketers should be able to influence the product roadmap? What's a piece of advice you picked up during your career that has served you well?

"I define product marketing as a function which takes into account your market, your customer, and your product truths to drive go-to-market outcomes." -Sahil SethiBefore he was a VP of Marketing at Klaviyo, Sahil Sethi spent incredibly valuable years with McKinsey, Microsoft, and Qualtrics, among other companies. In this episode, Jeffrey and Sahil tackle the topic of product-led growth (PLG), and challenge the idea of PLG and enterprise sales being polar opposites. We also talk about the ways that product-led and sales-led growth can coexist, and discuss the eternal question: Should PMs have influence over the product roadmap?Want more insights from Sahil? Check out his Sharebird profile.Looking to connect? You can find Sahil on LinkedIn.Questions covered in this episode:1. How did you get into product marketing?2. Can you provide us with an overview of what product-led growth (PLG) is, how you've used it, and how it intersects with enterprise sales?3. How have you structured your team around supporting PLG? How does structuring a team in a traditional PLG-first company differ from an enterprise company?4. How much of a role do PMMs have in the customer journey in your experience?5. How do you test your messaging with PLG?6. How do you build a strong relationship between the product leader and product teams?7. Should PMs have some influence over the product roadmap, in your opinion?8. How have you operationalized the feedback loop between product marketing and development?9. Are there any books or other reading material that you found especially impactful during your career as a product marketer and in your role as a leader?

For this episode we are joined by Martina Lauchengco to discuss the four key roles of a Product Marketer that she outlines in her book "LOVED: How to Rethink Marketing Tech Products". She shares her own journey and learnings from the past 30 years as a product and marketing leader, as well as some advice for new PMMs looking to elevate their product marketing expertise.  Thank you to our sponsor Product Marketing Alliance for partnering with us for season 2 of the podcast.You can use the code newtopmm for 10% off PMA's Core Certification course.Follow Martina. Connect with Maggie.

Abby Rodrigues, Product Marketing Manager at Noibu, joined us to discuss her experience as a solo and founding Product Marketer. She gives some great advice for PMMs who are evaluating new positions or establishing product marketing at their company.  Thank you to our sponsor Product Marketing Alliance for partnering with us for season 2 of the podcast.You can use the code newtopmm for 10% off PMA's Core Certification course.Connect with Abby. Connect with Maggie.

In this episode, our panel of DDGs and PMMs includes Matt Willbanks, Matthew Sciannella, Jonathan Unger, and Bob Kahns. We took questions from the audience which included: - How would you create demand for a new category as a marketing team of one? - If starting from scratch, what's the recommended strategy for LinkedIn Ads? - How do you make the jump from performance marketing to demand gen? - and more! Join Stacking Growth Live every other Wednesday at 1:00 PM ET by Registering here.

“I am a big believer that receiving any kind of feedback which I always ask of my team as well as my managers and working on it is the best for you to be the person that you are today.” - Desiree MotamediIn this week's episode, Mary sits down with Desiree Motamedi, Shopify's VP Global Head of PMM. Desiree is a “get things done” type leader who values building strong, long lasting relationships and trust amongst her team. In this interview Desiree shares her thoughts on domain expertise -  and how even if you're not an expert, being an investigator and having a private eye for your product, paired with talking to your customers is a recipe for success and growing your career. Desiree also shares her insights on the factors she considers before promoting a launch such as really thinking about how it will move the needle for revenue and create external visibility. Check out Desiree's AMAs on Sharebird.Connect with Desiree on LinkedIn.Questions covered in this interview: How do you balance work with the product team that should be prioritized, without hurting the relationship? How should PMMs work in collaboration with product managers and the customer success team on product launches? What are the factors that you consider before choosing how to promote the launch? Do you have a framework for how you approach new opportunities / creating strategies?

For this week's episode we're joined by Scott Shapiro to chat about how Product Marketing can look different depending on what stage the company is in. Scott draws on his own experience starting out in Product Marketing at Microsoft to transitioning to start-ups at different stages. We touch on things new PMMs should consider when deciding which company to join, as well as some interviewing tips from his perspective as a a hiring manager.  Thank you to our sponsor Product Marketing Alliance for partnering with us for season 2 of the podcast.You can use the code newtopmm for 10% off PMA's Core Certification course.Connect with Scott. Connect with Maggie.

“Show up, be awesome, and speak in the language of your customers” - Natala MenezesNatala Menezes, an inspiring product marketing leader at Grammarly, shares her insights on the steps to develop and execute a successful product launch, red flags to watch out for along the way, and how PMMs can be more involved in the product life cycle. Tune in to hear Natala and Mary discuss how to manage the partnership with the product team as well as add value and support. Check out Natala's AMAs on Sharebird.Connect with Natala on LinkedIn.Questions covered in this interview: What is your process for developing buyer personas for a new product launch? What are the foundational steps to develop a repeatable and scalable launch discipline? In your experience, what are some of the common product launch challenges or red flags that you see? How Product marketers can be more involved in the product development lifecycle? As a product marketer, how do you manage product teams that are poor at scoping releases? Especially as they apply to changing release dates and minor updates. How to add value to a product team that isn't used to working with a PMM? In what ways do you see (or recommend) product marketers build trust with their XFN partners? How do you more effectively influence product roadmap priorities and timeline?

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.

One of the fundamental strategies product marketers must lead is positioning. It's what determines how you'll talk about your product, your company, and your brand as you scale. So why do so many people get it wrong? Catherine Spence, VP of Global Marketing at Microblink, joins Leanna to share her best lessons on brand and product positioning, from leading marketing at an international company to her own startup, Pomello. If you're looking to stay in your comfort zone, this isn't the episode for you. Catherine shows us why we need to use our positioning to pick a fight and take a stand, especially in B2B SaaS.    Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.    Takeaways:  Positioning gives you focus. You can't be everything to everyone.  Product positioning should make you think.  Brand positioning should make you feel.  Don't prioritize brand positioning until you have product-market fit.    Things To Listen For:  [2:00] Icebreaker: If you had to write an autobiography and name it after one of your guilty pleasures, what would you call it?  [3:00] What's the difference between brand positioning and product positioning? How do marketers and PMMs work together to define it?  [7:00] Introducing Catherine Spence and her role at Microblink  [9:00] PMM is the intersection of product, marketing, and sales [11:00] The ask of product marketing is simple. But it's difficult to do well.  [12:00] How Microblink thinks about brand positioning vs. product positioning when marketing AI when the world isn't familiar with it yet [13:00] The deceiving similarities between product positioning and brand positioning, and what unites them at the core  [14:00] Brand positioning should be internal and external  [15:00] How do brand positioning and product positioning work together? [16:00] All positioning should reflect your vision and who you want to be in the world. When are you willing to walk away?  [19:00] Why B2B product marketers and marketers need to position products that “pick a fight and take a stand” for their products [22:30] Clear positioning doesn't just make sense. It makes dollars.  [23:00] When is the best time to focus on brand positioning? [26:00] Use your vision statement to anchor your brand positioning  [28:00] The role of employer brand in positioning  [36:00] The future of PMM: how do we find great product marketers?

In today's world, building a great product isn't enough. You have to master your go-to-market strategy by telling a story that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. Product marketing gets you there, according to long-time product marketer and Costanoa Ventures partner Martina Lauchengco.    Martina is the author of the latest book from the esteemed Silicon Valley Product Group, LOVED: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products. Alongside Tina and Leanna, she explores how her career start as a product manager equipped her with the product curiosity and technical competence needed to thrive when marketing digital products. She shows us today how to think about product marketing as the discipline it is and how companies should be leveraging it if they want their product to be recognized and adopted.  Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.   Takeaways Product marketing tells the world why your product matters and why it's distinct from something similar.  Product marketers must be genuinely interested in what products do and why the product exists to make it meaningful for the market. Things To Listen For [0:30] Introducing our guest hosts, Innovatemap's Tina Hafer and Leanna Adeola [2:00] Why did we create the Unlock Product Marketing series? [3:00] Icebreaker: If you had the time to write a book, what would it be about? [4:00] Previewing our conversation with Martina Lauchengco [10:30] An introduction to Martina Lauchengco, starting her career in product management at Microsoft, and the evolution of product marketing [15:00] Why Martina wrote LOVED: companies need a template for PMM [15:30] Product marketing's evolution: it's now a discipline central to organizations [16:30] Introducing Martina's four fundamental roles of product marketing: Ambassador — product marketers connect customer and market insights  Strategist — product marketers direct a product's go-to-market  Storyteller — product marketers shape perceptions of product Evangelist — product marketers empower others in your company to represent and share the product  [17:30] “You do not need the title ‘product marketer' to be driving forward the most important product marketing” [18:30] In early-stage companies, founders tend to lead product marketing [19:00] Growth requires using product marketing to shape markets [20:00] The importance of product curiosity and technical competence [25:30] Why good product marketers share many qualities with good product managers [29:00] Data is essential to finding your product marketing focus, especially as you enter your growth stage as a company [30:00] There's never just one obstacle to growth, and PMMs give us the high-level perspective we need to see where problems intersect  

In this super-sized, deep-dive style episode we're talking about everything a new product marketer needs to know about messaging. Jodi Innerfield, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce joins us to answer questions like: What is a checklist of things that PMMs should do before embarking on a messaging exercise? What are some common mistakes that you can make when creating messaging? How do you create a unified message that appeals to the different buyers you may find in the same buying process?What are different ways that you can validate if messaging is working and measure its success?Follow Jodi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jinnerfield/ Connect with Maggie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggieebean/

In this episode of Into the Fray, Erik Mansur, VP of Product Marketing at Crayon, welcomes Holly Jackson, Head of Competitive Intelligence at Talkdesk for a discussion on how PMMs can build credibility as the owner of a CI program.Holly is a competitive intelligence expert with a passion for using data to uncover competitive insights and strategic advantages.

Releasing new products and features are a routine part of a product manager's craft. But what are the keys to a successful product launch, and how do you make sure you have all the right components upon release? We spoke to launch expert, Derek Osgood, to gain all of the key insights.Featured Links: Follow Derek on LinkedIn and Twitter | Derek's website | Ignition - The first dedicated GTM platform for PMMs | 'Critical Customer Touchpoints for a Successful Product Launch' feature at Mind The Product

Derek Osgood is the founder of Ignition. Ignition is the first dedicated GTM platform for PMMs. From customer research, to launch comms & measurement — it has everything you need to get your product to market.★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode, guest Karthik Suresh, CTO, and co-founder of Ignition shares his take on PMs, PMMs, and go-to-market strategies. In addition, find out why he believes user research is probably one of the most important parts of product management or product development in general. TIPM is produced by Feedback Loop, the research platform designed for products and marketing teams. Get access at https://go.feedbackloop.com/start-free-now-tipm to a free trial today. 

In this episode of the Product Marketing Careers podcast, host Al Dea welcomes Sharadhi Patel, Director of Product and Solutions Marketing Hopin to the show.During their discussion, Sharadhi focuses on a variety of topics, including how she discovered product marketing, career highlights, PMMs she admires, and much more.

Adam is joined by Product Marketing Manager at LeadIQ Mitch Comstock, Account Executive at Klue Qayam Noorani, and hundreds of other guests for our second-ever Competitive Enablement Show LIVE! Mitch and Q answer questions from the audience on topics like:How product managers and sellers can work together to crush the competition, Where to find the best competitive intel to win more deals,And what makes for a compelling competitive newsletter. Subscribe to our weekly Coffee & Compete newsletter to find out how you can participate in next month's Competitive Enablement Show LIVE. Host: Adam McQueenProducer: Ben RonaldAbout Klue: Klue provides a lens into your competitor's world, continuously updating and connecting dots to help you win more business. It's a new way to capture, manage, and communicate market insights from the web and across the company, in platforms you already use.

In this episode of Product Marketing Careers, host Al Dea is joined by Kylee Lessard, Senior Product Marketing Manager at LinkedIn.Al and Kylee discuss a range of topics, including how she discovered product marketing, her introduction to the industry, as well as examples of great PMMs she's worked with, and what made them stand out.

Most companies struggle with how to unite the business around a unified GTM strategy. In this episode, we welcome Jeff Otto, VP of Marketing at Marqeta. He's responsible for laying the foundations for their GTM approach. What sage advice did Jeff dole out? Let's just say he's taken a seemingly complex mythical beast (GTM) and tamed it with gold dust and gold bars. Listen for Jeff's take on:How competitive strategies can help build the foundation of your positioningWhy you should engage PMMs when new products are developedHow to execute a successful GTM on a global scaleHow to find your marketing moment trifecta.

We're on a messaging kick! This week we are discussing how Sophia and her team approach messaging and positioning that serves both B2B and B2C target audiences. Sophia and Jeffrey discuss what Glassdoor has done to maintain a position of leadership in a crowded market and how they've evolved their messaging while remaining true to the core values of the company that have not changed since day one. They also discuss how to measure the success of messaging and positioning and navigate the competitive landscape. Connect with Sophia on LinkedIn.Join Sophia on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview: Can you share a bit more about your path into PMM and how you got into product marketing? Can you share a bit about how you think of the category Glassdoor is in, and how you made some of the tradeoffs in positioning and messaging? With a lot of different use cases and audiences, how do you ensure the messaging you and your team are releasing is consistent? How are you measuring the success of your messaging and positioning? Differentiating from competition is crucial as we know, but how do you think about competitive intelligence and how your key competitors are positioning themselves as a part of your messaging process? What's one mistake you've found a lot of PMMs make with messaging? What's one thing you've learned from a mentor, colleague, or manager that has served you well in your career? Can you tell me a little bit about it?

Adam is joined by James Doman-Pipe, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Remote, to talk about why many companies fail to stand out from their competitors.In this episode, James shared some of his best and worst stories of trying to differentiate in the market when launching a product, the lessons he learned from these experiences, and what it takes to actually stand out in a crowded market full of competitors.Follow James' newsletter 'Building Momentum' here, it's a must-read for any PMMs.Keep your eyes peeled for Klue's inaugural 'Competitive Enablement Summit' on Oct. 27&28. Save the date, and more information will be out soon!

Welcome to Episode 6 of the 180DC Podcast! In part 2 of our short series where we cover the topic of Women in Leadership, we chat with Jenny Thompson, Senior Product Manager at start-up unicorn Canva. Jenny also happens to be a 180 Degrees Consulting Alumni from way back when she was still studying at the University of Sydney. In this episode, we chat to Jenny about her insights into product marketing, building a career in tech from a commercial and business background, and also what may be the barriers to entering into the STEM workforce as a woman. Learn about what to do if you are an aspiring individual looking to break into product or UX/UI design and tips on how to develop a backbone of knowledge to prepare you for when it's time to apply for these roles. Don't miss out on this week's reeling question at the end where we ask Jenny about her favourite personal quote that she would get as a tattoo, which comes from a peculiar individual that you wouldn't expect! Love the episode? Make sure to support us by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or follow us on Spotify. Timestamps: 0:00-0:46 Introduction to the episode 0:47-3:26 Guest Introduction and background 3:27-5:30 What marketing means to Jenny and how it relates to her role as a senior product marketing manager 5:31-9:35 How Canva achieves efficient product marketing 9:36-13:57 Advice for aspiring PMs, PMMs and UX/UI designers 13:58-17:24 Progression for Women in STEM and Leadership 17:25-20:14 Final Reeling Question: What's an interesting quote Jenny would get as at tattoo to keep her inspired 20:15-20:56 Outro Guest Socials: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennythompson8/ 180DC Socials: Website: https://www.180dcunimelb.org/ Email Us: melbourne@180dc.org https://www.linkedin.com/company/180-degrees-consulting-umelb/ https://www.facebook.com/180DegreesMelbourneUniversity

As product-first businesses evolve, so do their product marketing needs. But is there a right way to set up your org for success? In this episode, our very own PMMs Ali Biggs, Jasmine Jaume, and Christine Sotelo-Dag tell us all about product marketing and how we do it here at Intercom.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Product Marketing Life we're joined by Tamara Schebel, VP of Product at Klue. Tamara shares insights, examples of success, and foundational tools on where and how you should start building the right competitive enablement program that fits your company stage, plus top tips for PMMs embarking on their CI/CE journey, and more.---"The biggest part, I think of that planning that most folks seem to miss in the early days, as you slide into CI accidentally, is figuring out to your point what success looks like. It can be any number of things, there are lots of ways to actually measure your impact against CI over time, but you have to actually think about what that's going to be. Because if you don't do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. And suddenly you find yourself two years from now with your boss going, what is it exactly you've done?"

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."

Connect with Becky on LinkedIn.Join Becky on Sharebird. Questions covered in this episode:1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Snow Software?2. As a leader how do you set the tone, and build a great relationship with Product?3. At Snow, do you and the Product Marketing team help Product influence the roadmap or provide feedback on the market or competitors?4. What about when it comes to Go to Market strategy. What processes and systems have you put in place to share information?5. What information should PMs be sharing with PMMs (and vice versa)?6. When it comes to GTM strategy, how early should PM and PMM be talking and collaborating?7. How do you show PMs the value of collaborating early-on and treat PMM as a strategic ally?8. In your career has there been a PM/PMM relationship, or process that didn't work? If so, can you walk us through that and what you learned?

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 Insider we're joined by Eric Moeller, Director of Product Marketing at Sage. Eric discusses his journey into product marketing, what he loves about the role, how his career progressed, his top three skills that have helped him get where he is today, top tips for aspiring PMMs, and more. --- "When you think about how you can develop your skill set, sure, you can take a course, you can read a book, you can get a mentor, you could create your own mastermind group of other product marketers and maybe you can create a small group of people across different businesses where you share stuff, and you can get feedback. But being really open to feedback is really important. It's a very difficult thing to do but it's also one of the most beneficial things that you can do professionally."

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 Insider we’re joined by Head of Product Marketing and GTM Strategy at Olive, Jennifer Royer, to discuss all things PMM. Jennifer shares her journey into the role, why it’s the perfect job for her, the PM-PMM relationship, the top three skills that have helped in her career, tips for aspiring PMMs, and more. --- "Stay hungry. I mean that along a few dimensions, one is the markets always changing so keeping a pulse on that and knowing the key channels to get information will really strengthen your leadership position and the relationships that you have across the organization. It also goes back to that skill set of five levels of why and asking questions. There's no constant but change. That's certainly true in the world of a product marketer."

Huge shout out to this episode's sponsor, Jacobs Creative Services. Check them out at: Jacobs Creative Services On today's episode, I sat down with Abby Hehemann, Sr. Product Marketing Manager @ GetResponse where we explored what the ideal partnership looks like between Product Marketing and Product Management. Here's what we discussed: How Abby got into Product Marketing, pivoting from Customer Success within her company The great culture of professional development and growth at GetResponse Abby sees the PMM (Product Marketing) role as being a "dot connector" within the org Pirate metrics and why you should care... AARRR! Where gaps can arise between product development to marketing and selling it The ideal working relationship between PMM and PM - this was GREAT! Huge take-away for me! Why building relationships is the cornerstone of quality collaboration How early the Product Marketing team SHOULD be involved in Product Development What GetReponse does to decide Go and No-Go decision for product prioritization If you can't market it, should you build it? How GetResponse optimizes their team structure by specializing on channels versus parts of the product If you're new to working with PMMs, how to get started in the most productive way Connect with Abby: LinkedIn --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/productmanagementlessons/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/productmanagementlessons/support

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 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."

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."

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."

In today's Daily Download episode, HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath discusses former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray's take on whether or not the U.S. housing industry views foreclosures as a last resort.For some background on the story, here's a summary of the article:Markets are shaped by the forces of supply and demand, buying and selling, and how they come into some sort of balance. Markets that operate properly tend toward a discernable equilibrium that is predictable and sustainable. But many things can disturb this equilibrium. We might say, paradoxically, that market forces are fragile in being liable to disturbances, but once disturbed they have a powerful tendency to recover an eventual balance.But economic markets differ in the mechanisms that restore them to equilibrium after any notable disturbance. Some markets experience greater frictions that slow their recovery. In the pure models of academic economists, prices immediately (or at least quickly) adjust to achieve balance among buyers and sellers, the mathematics take their own course, and equilibrium is restored as the natural and seemingly inevitable state of the market.As the Great Recession showed, however, that does not happen in any serious dislocation of the housing market. When a borrower falls behind on the mortgage, there is one ultimate method for collecting on the unpaid debt: foreclosure.Following the main story, HousingWire Digital Producer Alcynna Lloyd covers Labor Department data that indicates another 2.1 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, Freddie Mac's Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey that shows mortgage rates fell to another all-time low, and fintech news from SmartRent and Amazon. But before you listen, here's a brief word from our sponsor.The Daily Download examines the most captivating articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, HousingWire provides its readers with a deeper look into the stories that are not only chronicling the biggest announcements within the housing finance industry but are also helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.HousingWire articles covered in this episode:      [PULSE] Does the mortgage industry view foreclosure as a last resort?      Jobless claims top 40 million as pandemic layoffs hit 1 in 4 workers      Mortgage rates hit another all-time low      Amazon among companies helping apartment platform SmartRent raise $60 million

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."

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).

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."