AMA: Adobe Head of Product Marketing (APAC), Jeremy Wood on Influencing the C-Suite

I've worked through this very scenario on a few occasions. I think as startups mature and grow there is often an understandable resistance to 'letting go' of all the parts of the business that the founders had to manage initially. Sometimes they have areas of particular interest and those are often the hardest (i.e engineering, product development, some even are 'aspiring' marketers!) I think and easy method is to open yourself to collaboration with them if at all possible. They hired product marketing for a reason right so apply that to work with them on evolving their earlier messaging. Are there other areas of the business that have needed change/evolving as the business grew and matured? Use that as an example that ALL areas need to evolve including messaging. Bring in customer feedback and 1st hand data to support a need for a change..thats very hard to argue with. Hopefully get some senior level support and even propose an isolated test to help prove (or disprove) the opportunity. I did that once where we could isolate a particular market quiet well and run some different messaging without impacting our key markets/avenues and it gave us enough info to be able to expand and eventually role out an entirely new messaging hierarchy.

One of the big opportunities with junior/new PMM's trying to get an audience with the C-suite is to make sure your managers or leaders (in your org) are advocating for you. Express your interest in having more engagements with senior leadership in your company and brainstorm where/when it would be appropriate to join calls, meetings, planning sessions etc. I have tried to champion the work of my team(s) and leveraging particular projects or areas of responsibilities to then bring to leadership as the subject matter experts in a given discussion. i.e CMO has asked to have a brainstorming session for an upcoming product launch. You have a junior PMM running point on the launch (or helping) so bring them along to the brainstorm so the CMO can hear their ideas and get a better understanding of their thinking and contribution. This is particularly helpful with cross functional leaders that you might not have as much direct exposure to (i.e CFO, CEO etc) and where it would be valuable to bring them up to speed on what the junior folks are doing! The other one which I really like in a few of my past lives was meet'n greets. Not just for when you join but ongoing creating connections between multiple layers of an organisation. I've seen this packaged up as "Coffee Chats" where leadership catches up with someone new each week or month etc. Again make sure you're advocating wanting this time with senior leadership, to your manager so they can help elevate you!

Thats a tough one to answer as there are so many variables. Define 'wrong'? I think what often happens is product marketers try to appeal to the wrong factors that are front of mind for the c-suite. A good example is being too tactical and too in the weeds when trying to showcase value. C-suite execs don't have time for that and quite franikly often don't care! What they DO care about is business KPI's and the health of the business such as profitability, new/net ASV, attrition, sales productivity, RBOB, and so on. If you can appeal to these being front-of-mind concerns of a c-suite leader, then you will already be a step ahead. Once a rapor has been established then it might be appropriate at times to be very detailed about certain things you're delivering or your team is working on. It goes with out saying that this varies greatly between different C-Suite roles. CFO will be hard focused on costs/revenue/profitability etc whereas the CMO might be laser focused on pipeline/lead gen/deal progression/brand value etc. Make sure you're influencing the right things for the right leader!

The answer to this can be quite subjective. I only mean that in what matters to these leaders might not matter to others and so on. The key is to listen and understand what is the most important elements for YOUR leaders and align your strengths to those. It doesn't mean pretending or even discounting what you might feel is more important, but more so showing value that is aligned to what THEY find important. Product Marketing is an amazing function because it covers so much ground so it's not hard to find areas to lean in to that the C Suite will care about. Once they understand your role in contributing to those key priorities, you will have a seat at the table and be able to expand on those contributions (and even in to areas the business might not yet understand is valuable!)

This is an interesting question because there's a few ways to answer: 1. Find an ally to Product Marketing. Typically this is a department leader who understands the value of what product marketing delivers and has an obvious shared interest in success. In my experience this has typically been Marketing, Product, and Engineering. Build up rapor with these department leaders so that you will have an advocate in forums that are only leadership/c-suite (they will be your voice!) Soon these relationships will expand as other departments appreciate the strategic value of including product marketing in their 'mix'. 2. The other way of thinking about this is more of a bottoms up approach. Showcase wins and value from product marketing that resonates across the business (and aligns to broader business KPI's) If the business is moving into an adjacent market, showcase market insights and industry trends. What is the competitive landscape and what (if any) are the barriers to entry? Surface this up in various meetings/planning forums to highlight where product marketing can add value. Suggest partnering with leaders in broader planning sessions so value can be realised earlier (a great example of this is in product development..the earlier PMM can be involved in product ideation, the more successful the products themselves can be!)

I've definitely been in this exact situation where my key stakeholders were the C-suite (my boss was the CMO for starters!) I don't think much has to change to what you've said, as PMM's we continue to be the guardians of the message and ensuring things like product:market fit are optimal and our value propositions to our customers are clear and differentiated. Ensuring thats well understood across different departments doesn't change. A good example is working with sales leaders (including Heads of Sales and CRO's etc) to influence the impact of enablement. Seeing that productivity and sales output is such a key metric for these leaders, product marketing leaders can showcase why there needs to be more accountability with solution/product training to ensure customer AND sales success. This is meaningful to them (even if its just a means to an end..i.e revenue!) so they will get behind it and partner with you to ensure their organisations are participating. This is just one example but it represents similar initiatives with other leaders where sharing objectives helps create clarity around the contribution value of functions such as product marketing.

Great question. I think ultimately it comes down to ensuring they understand the role AND value that product marketing offers. I've found a lot of the lack of interest or engagement has come from a misunderstanding of the function or not appreciating explicitly the value that product marketing brings to a business. Once this has been clarified (i.e messaging, value props, competitive differentiators, launch success, enablement, customer engagement, evangelism and so on) I have found that they quickly become and allie. More importantly they'll ensure you have a seat at the table for important conversations and planning once they see how invaluable you are!