AMA: Splunk Sr. Director, Head of AIOps and IT Ops Products, Kara Gillis on Product Differentiation
June 1 @ 10:00AM PST
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Splunk Sr. Director, Head of AIOps and IT Ops Products, Kara Gillis on Product Differentiation
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
I love this question. The answer is: it depends on the exec team and how they are motivated, whether they are answering to private investors or public shareholders, etc. But - to put it simply - find someone on your exec staff who both 1) trusts you/your vision and sell them the vision and 2)......Read More
363 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
While I don't use an existing framework specifically for product differentiation, I do use a variety of inputs to determine what lever to pull or what decision to make. These inputs can be found in the answer to the question, "What are the most important inputs to take into consideration when thi......Read More
515 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
This can be a very frustrating situation to be as a product manager. This situation tells me you work in a market that hasn't matured to the point of clear nuance. The culprit could be either a product problem OR a marketing problem. The reason this can be frustrating is your product is being hel......Read More
342 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
This is a tale as old as time. There are many ways to approach this. I have seen vendors heavily bid on the AdWords of their competitor names and promote alternative solutions (trials or marketing content). I have seen vendors who are challengers in mature markets create "Us vs. Them" web page......Read More
911 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
There are several inputs I think about when considering product differentiation: 1. Specific target customer - There are many types of customers in a market. Who are you serving? Try to narrow your focus as far as you can to understand the specific problems faced by this customer to be as tail......Read More
1734 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
I'll keep this one rather brief. I find that some product managers do not always listen to their customers and their problems as the guiding light for improving and differentiating their products. Instead, they fall in love with a shiny new piece of technology that may not be solving a critica......Read More
408 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
Product differentiation != new features. New features can enhance differentiation, but these are not the same thing. For example, product differentiation can be predominantly delivered in the go-to-market if a product's "see-try-buy" motion is just inherently better than everything else availa......Read More
421 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
While it is important to care about your competitors to understand your own market position, DO NOT MAKE THEM THE FOCUS. What should be your focus? Your customers. Their problems. Their needs, their asks, their feedback. Think of your roadmap like a budget of your resources, the way you wo......Read More
371 Views
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Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, Observability • June 2
I used to be a product marketer. My ideal working relationship is to view product marketing as my key partner in product development, launch, and iteration. We are both stewards of the product success. I try to involve product marketing into the very beginning stages of product development - t......Read More
995 Views
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