HubSpot

Product marketing plays a key role in sharing the roadmap externally to ultimately help buyers buy and sellers sell. Here's some key ways to on how to do this: 1. Public roadmap pages or tools - Share high level public facing roadmap that helps give customers insights into the areas the product is investing in and the use cases, themes and problem areas where the product is doubling down to support. 2. Customer advisory boards - share the roadmap selectively with top-tier customers (in certain upmarket deals customers want to see this before they make product investments.) 3. Ongoing release moments - the key here is to have a regular cadence for your ongoing releases, so customers know when to expect this (e.g. HubSpot uses a 2X/ year Spring and Fall Spotlight cadence to launch our big product innovations for the year). We combine our biggest innovations in these 2 marquee moments and present them in a customer first narrative (vs. feature launches) to help customers understand how we're helping them solve their problems. 4. Customer facing events - Use events to unveil exciting roadmap themes and demo the product 5. Social media and content marketing - Build buzz for new features or releases for example by posting a teaser video on Linkedin hinting at an upcoming big release 6. Tailor roadmaps for specific audiences - this could be specific segments of your customer base (E.g. enterprise user, or specific geographical markets or industries) the goal here is to tailor the enhancements to what is most important to this sub-segment of users based on their needs.

If your goal is to influence the product roadmap there are a few pitfalls you should avoid. 1. Don't treat the roadmap as something fixed/set in stone - Having a roadmap is super crucial to helping focus product teams + also giving the market a clear sign on where you are going. However, there needs to be a fine balance here, so that you don't miss opportunities to meet the moment. A better approach - is to recognize that roadmaps are dynamic, frame your input as a way to enhance priorities or respond to emerging trends. 2. Don't focus only on features, ignoring the problem - Suggesting features without tying them to customer pain points or business outcomes can make you seem out of touch with the broader goals. Instead, present insights framed as 'problems to solve' e.g. the customer needs a better way to track ROI, letting PM's design the solution 3. Don't forget to make trade-off's - Suggesting changes and additions without tradeoffs can make your input seem unrealistic or unhelpful. Instead acknowledge tradeoffs and frame as opportunities for discussion (e.g. if we say yes to this, we may need to delays Y. Here's the impact of both options) 4. Don't overpromise to customers - Making commitments about future features without product team's buy-in can lead to misaligned expectations. Instead communicate roadmap priorities but be clear when things are in consideration, or timeline hasn't been finalized. 5. Don't dismiss the product's teams expertise - this sounds like a no-brainer but PM's are experts in their product - acknowledge their expertise, ensure you are clear in framing your recommendations from your expertise in bringing market and customer insights 6. Don't forget to follow up and have shared documentation - follow up and shared documentation is super crucial to finishing the swing

What works here in my experience is having regular touchpoints for alignment + strategic reviews to influence direction. Here's a framework: * Weekly or bi-weekly syncs - for ongoing collaboration and alignment. This is where you discuss progress on current roadmap items, any changes to product launch timeframes, updates on GTM plans, customer feedback and market trends. Why it's important: Maintains a constant feedback loop and prevents surprises as features move through development * Quarterly roadmap planning - PMM's present a 'GTM recommendations report' summarizing top customer problems, market opportunities. Bring snippet Gong calls, rep calls here to help frame the customer first mindset. PM's share upcoming plans and trade-offs for the next quarter. Why it's important: Provides a formal opp for PMM's to influence the roadmap and for PM's to be aligned with the GTM strategy * Ad hoc as needed - This is to address any urgent issues or opportunities (could be a critical customer or sales feedback, competitive threats, market shifts requiring immediate adjustment

This is a great question. An important thing to remember is Products should be built with a market in mind - and that's where a PMM comes in. They should be experts in the 'market' (customer, competitor, market sizing) and use this as their grounding. Here's what worked from my experience: 1. Coming to the table with data and insights - Product teams value concrete, actionable insights so bringing data that they can't ignore helps. Use customer feedback, rep feedback, competitive analysis and adoption data to make your case. Data shifts the conversation from 'opinion' to 'fact' 2. Becoming known as the person that brings the voice of the customer to life - This takes some work, but create space for yourself and set aside time on a recurring basis to speak with customers. Understand how they are using your product, what's working and what's not. Capture their exact sentiments, and share this with PM's on a regular basis. Have a call scheduled with a customer - bring your PM along so together you can understand customer pain points and sentiment directly. 3. Have product expertise and strong knowledge on the competitive landscape - These 2 skills are crucial to establish credibility. Share interesting and impactful competitive intel with PM's. Become a partner that your PM looks at as someone that will help them grow and learn as well. 4. Embed yourself into product planning early - Find ways to inject PMM influence into the roadmap early. One thing we have been doing at HubSpot is helping our GM's take their product vision (a technical doc) and frame it in the lens of a customer narrative and a company growth narrative. This has helped us showcase our value as a trusted partner, and enabled us to provide recommendations on the roadmap 5. Build relationships -Invest in trust-building with product leaders. Have regular 1-1's with PM's to understand their challenges and find ways to support them.

Congrats on considering a pivot into product marketing! As someone who transitioned from SEO to product marketing, I can share a few insights from my experience. First, it's important to recognize that product marketing roles can vary significantly between companies and even between teams within the same organization. Some roles are more generalist, while others focus on specific areas such as messaging, sales enablement, or competitive intelligence. When applying for a position, carefully review the job description and map your past experience to the key skills and qualifications they're seeking. In some cases, you may identify gaps in your experience that suggest the role might not be the best fit or that you need to invest time in upskilling. However, in other instances, you'll find that your existing skills and experience are highly transferable and align well with the position. Based on your description, it sounds like you have a strong foundation of relevant experience for a product marketing role. The key is to strategically highlight the skills and achievements that best match what the employer is looking for. Best of luck!

My favorite example is Adidas video which shoes that yes, a runner can sprint through the desert in Nike shoes -- but a camera man with 50 additional pounds of equipment and wearing Adidas can keep up with him. It strikes the balance between saying, we respect your product and - ours is as good or better. Really clear value, clever approach, not so dimishing as to take away from the credibility or respect associated with Adidas' brand. Companies can absolutely straddle the line. It's about solving a new problem, solving a problem differently, and disrupting the status quo. The way to do this is focus on the benefit / new value you are delivering rather than simply tearing down a competitor. We offer extended value (strong) vs. they're not as good as you think they are (weak). There's a new way to think about this (stronger) vs. they're thinking about it wrong (weaker). The Bounty ad in the above blog also does a great job of this - no specific paper towel brand is the problem, any brand that isn't using Bounty technology is. Compelling stuff!

This is a great question because: fortune favors the focused. In our world, there are thousands of SaaS offerings on the market. Many offer competitive products and capabilities to us. However, only a select few come up frequently in head-to-head deals where win-rate meaningfully impact our performance. That's where we focus (for established, rep-assisted SKUs). For newer, product lead growth (not reliant on a sales team / without win-loss data) this is more of a GTM strategy question. What does the market look like, who dominates share, what are you trying to disrupt. Fewer competitors in greater focus will help organizations far more than trying to cover all possible alternatives. Focus (and win) where it counts. 

Make it snackable. Make it easy to remember. Make it impactful. Show the impact of reps applying this to amplify awareness and usage. Reps spend their days diving into a multitude of different businesses with divergent needs, goals, and deal stages. The more adaptable, simple, straightforward your competitive intel is, the more likely it is to be leveraged and applied. As a separate note (personal pet rock): use the term comparrison cards, not battle cards. Sales is hard enough without suggesting to them (implicitly) that they're in a battle (violent). We are in product marketing, words matter, choose the right ones. 

You can't rely only on the narrative. But a strong one, especially one that frames up the problem and value you deliver as different / outsized, is critical to competitive success. But you know what else you need? Claim chowder. Proof points. Quantified impact. What actual results has your product proven to deliver? Weaving these into the narrative will help to make it more real, tangible, and create a sense of urgency for your audience. 

Customer listening is a critical investment in any product marketing program. For us, we've taken a number of different approaches to customer listening in my time here. From direct customer conversations, to focus groups, to ongoing market research (qualitative and quantitative), listening to our customers is critical for our success (and, more importantly, theirs!). One thing we've recently explored and will continue to build into is to draft off of an existing organization wide program - the customer advisory board - to further engage those folks, as well as folks that were interested but not selected for this program. Highly recommend getting thrifty like this to drive efficiency for your teams while also keeping a pulse on customer needs, pain points, value, and market perspective. Get listening!