There are many ways to structure messaging and positioning docs. Effective frameworks usually contain these key components, which I’ll share with an example from a recent launch: * Target audience * CIO and executive IT * Market trends (why now) * With AI on the rise, the office of the CIO is responsible for creating an AI strategy that supports their employees’ experience while maintaining data security and privacy. * Value and differentiators * “Build the right foundation for AI by securely integrating work data” * “Deploy AI confidently with safeguards & transparent controls” * “Surface intelligent insights to deliver greater ROI at every level” * Proof points and use cases * Customer and analyst highlights from Zscaler and IDC

Probably an obvious answer but for me it's always started with the talent..people people people. Poor hires have always plauged folks and its very hard to translate that into high performing teams. Spend the time defining exactly what you need and the right fit of PMM that will be able to deliver on your expectations. Sometimes you're forced to make compromises (levels, salary, backgrounds, locations etc) but try to maintain a core set of skills and capabilities that will be the foundation of then growing these team members into strong PMM's. I'm a big believer in 'culture fit' as well and to not be swayed purely by experience or an impressive resume/LinkedIn profile. Through screens/interviews spend time on whether this person would add to the culture of the team! Once you have the right people as your foundation it's much easier to distribute responsibilities based on the key objectives of the business!

While I'd love to say "You'll know when you need more PMMs!" most reading this will know it's not that easy. The ratio of PMMs to PMs or AEs is typically influenced by: 1. Product complexity: More complex products require additional PMMs to effectively market them 2. GTM motion: Sales-led models require greater focus on sales enablement, whereas PLG models require greater focus on user onboarding, adoption, and campaigns. In my experience PMM scales more closely with PM. * Early-Stage (Series A/B): 1 PMM for every 2 PMs * Mid/Late-Stage (Series C and beyond): 1 PMM for every 3-4 PMs Additional hiring considerations: * Once teams exceed 12-15 AEs, they typically add 1 PMM to support Sales Enablement * In highly competitive markets, PMM teams may hire someone dedicated to competitive intelligence * For companies with Fortune 500 customers, it's common to see a PMM dedicated to analyst relations - or even a dedicated Analyst Relations Manager.

Definitely. Like many companies, we've always sized our launches (S/M/L/XL; Tier 1/2/3; etc.) and follow different templates for different tiers. The foundational differences usually align to the volume (not value, volume!) of activities surrounding the launch. Not every feature may need a standalone webpage, or a standalone live sales enablement session. Tier 2/3 may be more effective when bundled into a bigger story, or included only as a blog. I like to scope a Bill of Materials (BoM) to these Tiers in Google Sheets, and make it sortable by tier. (Plus, this way, partner stakeholders can see that it's not that one feature or product is more important than another -- it just may necessitate more assets to achieve the goal of this launch.)

Similarly to influencing stakeholders without authority on an XFN project, there are a series of steps you can take gain stakeholder alignment at the C-Level on a decision, project, or set of approvals. 1. Develop a DIN framework Start by developing a DIN (Decide, Input, Notify) framework that will allow you assign roles for each stakeholder you're working with. It should be reviewed with your cross-functional peers to ensure their respective leaders are included with the right role. Typically this can be vetted by senior leaders on your team. In a "flat" org, there should be very few decision makers, and mostly folks categorized as "Input" or "Notify." 2. Layout the critical path to getting buy-in and decision. Next step is dependent on company culture, how input is gathered and ultimately how decisions are made. It's critical to deeply understand this process so that you're being as efficient as possible (not wasting people's time), and getting to the decision as soon as possible. How are you gathering feedback from your stakeholders? What forums are you using to provide updates to your stakeholders? Your critical path to a decision and alignment should include how you will gather input/feedback including how many rounds of feedback there will be. If the ultimate decision will be made at an exec C-level forum, there is likely a sequence of reviews that need to happen before your project even reaches this forum. 3. Identify peer and exec champions - You'll need supporters from other teams and an exec champion to help you drive the decision, approval, or whatever else is needed when the time comes. Supporters will likely self-identify through the review process. Your exec champion should be identified with help from your manager. Getting C-level alignment in a relatively flat org with many stakeholders was a very common situation at YouTube. An example of this was our 2024 strategic plan for YouTube Shorts. Ultimately, our 2024 plan needed to be approved by our CMO and CEO, both designated as Decision makers. Along the way, there were MANY stakeholders we needed to gather input from and notify along the way including product, business, and global marketing partners. Establishing our DIN framework and critical path and sharing this with our respective stakeholders helped establish a clear and efficient roadmap for the planning process.

Some brands that I currently look up to for inspiration around product marketing are Spotify: User year in review Airbnb: Launch announcements OpenAI: Launch Announcements Apple: Product Launches Figma: Content/Demos Rivian: Brand/Community Marketing Clay: Community Marketing Notion: Product and Content Marketing In terms of PMM leaders, i would say eveyone on the Sharebird list of active contributors!

Short answer: however works! Longer answer: Work with your Sales Enablement team (if you have one) and Sales leadership to come up with a plan. There are a few nuances that I think make roll outs more effective: 1. Interactive group exercises: Positioning isn't meant to be read off a screen, it needs to come alive in context. Make sure any trainings you run include lots of group exercises, role play, situational awareness, etc. 2. DIY (really): build credibility with sales counterparts (and conviction in your positioning!) by delivering the positioning yourself on customer or prospect calls. 3. Celebrate others: Shine the spotlight on reps who are successful. Have them evangelize the positioning and materials on your behalf - it will go much, much farther.

I love this question and have been learning so much from my new partners on Brand at Cash App! Messaging is a collaborative effort across so many- Brand, Insights, Content Strategy, and more. I would suggest forging deep relationships with all these stakeholders- all your work needs to reinforce each other and be harmonious. Most commonly, we share our messaging frameworks and get feedback from one another. The Brand positioning should be informed by product- what benefits our products provide on a daily basis. And our Product messaging should reference the brand promise, whenever possible strengthening the connection between the user benefit and our product offerings. Further- these things need to connect to our in-product content and help center experience. On PMM, we include materials on both the brand position and our content team's writing guides within the Product Marketing Guide. All these resources should be available to anyone writing about our products. And we co-write our value props with heavy input from Insights, Brand, and Content.

When stakeholders express resistance to launch activities, I emphasize that there's no "one-size-fits-all" approach to launches, and I focus on demonstrating the value of each activity and its connection to our launch goals. To address the "why do we have to do all this stuff" question, I also explain my own 70/20/10 approach to selecting launch activities: 1. 70% proven impact: * Tried-and-tested activities with demonstrated results * Provides a solid foundation for the launch 2. 20% somewhat proven impact: * Activities with promising but not fully established results * Allows for calculated risks 3. 10% experimental: * New, innovative approaches * Helps create a pipeline for future proven activations * Keeps our launches fresh This approach ensures we're not just doing activities for the sake of it, but strategically choosing activities that contribute to our goals while also promoting internal innovation.

It all comes down to customer feedback—both the qualitative stories and the quantitative summaries that show the scope and importance of the responses. While larger trends about what works (and what doesn’t) are valuable, they’re only meaningful if we root them in what customers are actively telling us. Every month, we summarize customer feedback. This includes emails to support (Delight), survey responses, sales call recordings, interviews with product, design, or marketing teams, insights from our community efforts, and even chatter on social. On launch days, we take this a step further with a fun and collaborative activity: we create Slack threads in the project channel where the team can post customer feedback as it comes in. These threads are open to everyone, so the whole team can get involved. We categorize the feedback into: * Praise: What excited customers are saying about the launch. * Feature requests: What’s missing that customers are eager to see next. * Issues/bugs: Any problems or friction points that need immediate attention. In addition to qualitative feedback, we share metrics that directly impact roadmap decisions—primarily revenue and adoption data. These numbers show how much excitement a feature is generating among customers and prospects, offering a clear signal of where to double down.