AMA: Atlassian Sr. Director: Head of Global Lifecycle Marketing, Teamwork Foundations (Self-serve & High Touch), Ami Denman on Stakeholder Management

Stakeholders at smaller companies like start ups, tend to be higher level executive team members like founders and a smaller marketing team. As the company grows, Product Marketing, Sales, Finance (for monitoring RIO/CAC) and Operations (tech stack & lead routing) become more important.  Mid-market companies: generally, as a company becomes mid-market size, Regional teams start to emerge, Customer Success (to support retention/expansion) and Legal all become stakeholders.  Enterprise: this i ...Read More

It’s all about finding common ground and keeping the conversation focused on business outcomes. Below is my typical approach:  Listen to perspectives of both executives Find common ground to start a discussion and begin mediation Use data to support decision-making - this is important as it should be data and not opinion at this point Create a forum for discussion for the two executives, present the data and encourage direct communication Explore/find a hybrid approach that meets both executive’ ...Read More

In order to collaborate with other teams using our tech stack to align DG efforts to business goals we need the following foundations:  A source of truth for all data. Whether it’s a CDP and/or CRM we need all of our data to live in the same place.  Next we need an integrated tech stack so all of our marketing platforms, marketing automation, Sales, Product and dashboarding tools can talk to each other so we can share data across functions We also need to set up processes to help us work with di ...Read More

 At a high level: Joint planning: including market landscape analysis, Ideal Customer Profile alignment, customer journey mapping, potential campaign brainstorming, resource planning and success metrics Operational alignment: lead scoring criteria, campaign calendars, dashboards, content library (enablement & marketing assets) Enablement & training:  Holding sessions for both Demand Gen and Sales to learn about product/markets from Product marketing. Creating a Launch Playbook with messa ...Read More

Demand Gen (DG) and Integrated Campaigns teams are often at the intersection of several team’s work. Building strong relationships starts with understanding what each team does, their goals and how DG’s work and theirs contributes and or compliments each other. Once you know what each function cares about, what they can accomplish with the resources they have (or don’t), you can find common ground, leverage each other’s expertise and know how you can move each other’s goals forward. The key is b ...Read More

Great question. Like most everything, it starts with the business goal/program/project; what are we trying to get done? To avoid this question throughout the project or day-to-day, it’s best to agree on roles and responsibilities from the beginning. Generally, my approach while working with these  is:  First, keep a collaborative mindset. The end goal is figuring out how to get the best work out there, not “who has the power”. Both teams have expertise which should make 1+1 = 3 instead of 2. Ide ...Read More

When taking feedback during projects, I prioritize feedback from Approvers and Contributors. An Approver usually is executive sponsor (or maybe a group of executives) - this input is critical as they are shaping the vision and strategy for the business. Contributors tend to be cross-functional subject matter experts who are looking to deliver on the most successful outcome for the project and they will be the ones who should be calling out risks and solutions.   When considering feedback, there ...Read More

This is a good question; most of my career required influencing others without authority until I got into management. One of my favorite examples is from Walmart Ecommerce. My role was focused on a specific goal to change perception with a certain customer segment whose shopping behaviors and requirements were vastly different from the online shopping experience at the time. After doing quite a bit of research, meeting with key stakeholders from the Site experience team, Merchants and other key ...Read More

Similar to other answers, I believe resolving conflict begins with listening to both people’s perspectives. Sometimes it’s a simple miscommunication that can be solved by bringing it to both team members’ attentions. Other times, it requires bringing both people together to talk about what the challenge is and brainstorming ways to solve it. The key in those situations is to focus on the business problem instead of making it personal. In my experience, I have found that most people want to work ...Read More

This question requires more context to give an in-depth answer. The truth is that it depends on several factors like: stage of maturity of the company, number of products, motions, resourcing and current organization structure and selling models. The right structure is a bespoke one. Regardless of the questions, in my experience, demand gen includes at least some elements of the following:  Acquisition - paid media, SEO  Web optimization (CRO) and Content Lifecycle marketing  Content for program ...Read More

Most teams have insights that are really helpful, especially teams that touch customers. Here are some examples specific insights from different teams:  Product marketing:  Buying committee personas: which personas are on a buying committee and what decision criteria is important to each Buyer’s journey - actions, questions and interactions customers make from problem identification to purchase.  Competitive positioning  Sales: Pain points they hear about from customers  Messaging that resonates ...Read More