AMA: Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing, Mary Sheehan on Product Launches

January 16, 2020 @ 10:00AM PT

What is the role of Product Marketing compared to other parts of the business in driving product adoption?

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

Post-launch momentum, what I call "Rolling Thunder," is one of my favorite topics! I think a lot of times people throw in their hats when the launch moment is done, but this is really when it's just beginning. A good strategy is to take some of the "core" assets you've created for the launch (e.g. a case study, presentation with new stats, a blog post) and to chop them up and use them in many ways. A good way to frame it is: How can you reuse and improve the content over and over again to hit yo ...Read More

5,474 Views

1 request
How do you think about the scope or deliverables for various launches?

Do you have a tiering system? What factors do you consider?

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

I definitely recommend tiering launches by the level of potential impact and therefore the level of activities. While starting the GTM plan, you need to decide how “big” you want to go. Time, resources, and budget all come into play here when you're thinking about the activities. Here's an example of how you can think about the tiers: Tier 1 - A product that is strategically important to the business that we want everyone—internally and externally—talking about. Example content: Go big with a ...Read More

2,346 Views

3 requests
How do product marketers lead a product launch when roadmaps and priorities are constantly changing?

There is a lack of alignment at my company and our teams act in silos. Consequently, my roadmap and goals seem to change on a weekly if not bi-weekly basis because marketing keeps getting pulled in different directions. There needs to be some sort of roadmap and role that aligns sales with product, but I'm not sure if that should come from product marketing or not. I want to initiate this conversation, but I don't know if it's overstepping my role or not. Advice here?

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

There are 2 major questions here - one has to do with priorities changing (e.g. no strategy) and the other is indirectly about out of control roadmap timelines - I'll answer both below! Priorities changing Major Roadmap and priority changes are often a symptom of a weak strategy. It’s common for roadmap dates to slip, especially if they’re more than 3 mos out, but if you’re seeing wild changes with dates and it seems like there is no North Star, there is probably a lack of strategy. Start with ...Read More

3,128 Views

5 requests
How do we approach the launch plan that was pre-decided and what changes in approaches would you recommend?

A product marketer jobs starts way before the product launch. However, it is difficult situation when the product launch is delayed from eng side.

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

I'd recommend to play the "new person card" and ask a lot of questions: what market problems does this solve? How did they ID these market problems? What customers or products have they talked to? What are competitors or doing? If they can’t answer these questions, there is likely room for you to come in and help and take ownership of the launch plan. Especially if it has been delayed, you can argue that now you have time to do some additional research / market validation to answer the above que ...Read More

1,735 Views

3 requests
What are the most common hurdles you encounter that prevent launches from achieving their goals and conversely are there challenges you prepare for that never really materialize?

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

Although I’ve managed over 250 launches, not a single one has gone perfectly. That may sound crazy, but know that most of the time when something goes wrong, only I or a small number of people internally catch it, and the customer is never the wiser. Also, as I mentioned in another post, once the launch is done, it's not over. There are plenty of ways for you to reach your launch goals with a "Rolling Thunder" technique of content momentum. Here are some common things that can go wrong with laun ...Read More

2,703 Views

3 requests
Who do you typically obtain launch goals from within the organization, especially when matrixes. For example a GM of a business unit, the Product Manager for a Product and the Product Marketing Manager.

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

Ideally, it's a combination of the GM, product management and product marketing. The GM would set the overall business goals for the year or quarter including revenue. The PM often drives the product launch adoption and revenue goals for that product. PMM often builds the plan with the metrics to help back into those goals.

The important thing is that if you see a gap, make sure that someone is owning all of these goals, otherwise, it will be meaningless to have launch metrics.

2,660 Views

3 requests
What are the different teams that come together for product launches at your company? as a % significance through the launches, how important is sales/field enablement?

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

At Adobe, it's been a pleasure so far to work with many cross-functional teams for a product launch. For my team, Adobe Advertising Cloud, which is on the B2B side, we work with the following teams: - Product / eng - Program management (which is the organizational arm and keeps eng timelines on track and helps with logistics) - UI design - Sales / AM teams - Business Development - Sales ops - Broader Adobe B2B marketing team For B2B, sales and field enablement is a major channel for us, so ...Read More

2,481 Views

2 requests
How do you get creative in your product launch, and not feel too templatized?

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

This is a great question! It's easy to get stuck with the same GTM checklist for every launch and feel like there's no creativity. An easy fix is to push the boundaries of what you normally do with a new visual approach or new mediums. Never tried a video before? Try it out now! I always love a good brainstorm session with people outside of those I normally work with on product launches. Grab your content marketer, the creative lead that you don't usually work with, and anyone else you like wor ...Read More

2,375 Views

2 requests
In your organization does the product marketing also work with a portfolio marketer?

In our organization we have Product Marketers assigned to audiences (customer segments) and products. It is difficult to align efforts and avoid duplication - have you seen a model like this work well and how?

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

Yes, we do. In fact, I think Adobe is probably the best example out there I've seen of Portfolio marketing. At a high level, they've divided the Adobe business into 3 business units: - Creativity & Design - Documents such as PDFs and our Adobe Sign - Marketing & Commerce - called Adobe Experience Cloud I work for Adobe Advertising Cloud which is under the Marketing & Commerce arm. What I think is really impressive is that we've had so many acquisitions in this overarching business ...Read More

2,366 Views

3 requests
Have you ever been part of a launch where the eng/product team brought in product marketers or customers after work has kicked off (but before launch) and influenced feature development? What was that like?

Sometimes when product kicks off work they have assumptions about how people think about certain features. Marketing, support, and even customers can come to the table with real stories that may invalidate the assumptions product had early on in the feature dev process.

Mary Sheehan

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing | Formerly Google, AdRoll • 6y

Yes, definitely. Although it’s not ideal, it can happen and you can make an impact in terms of helping them understand product feature prioritization, since they probably already have some idea of what they're building, and (hopefully) who they are solving a problem for. If there are a ton of potential feature options, say over 15, a good method to prioritize internally is the RICE model, which le ts teams rank features based on Reach, Impact, Confidence (that the feature will solve a problem) ...Read More

2,004 Views

4 requests

AMA: Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing, Mary Sheehan on Product Launches

View AMA Answers

What is the role of Product Marketing compared to other parts of the business in driving product adoption?

How do you think about the scope or deliverables for various launches?

How do product marketers lead a product launch when roadmaps and priorities are constantly changing?

How do we approach the launch plan that was pre-decided and what changes in approaches would you recommend?

What are the most common hurdles you encounter that prevent launches from achieving their goals and conversely are there challenges you prepare for that never really materialize?

Who do you typically obtain launch goals from within the organization, especially when matrixes. For example a GM of a business unit, the Product Manager for a Product and the Product Marketing Manager.

What are the different teams that come together for product launches at your company? as a % significance through the launches, how important is sales/field enablement?

How do you get creative in your product launch, and not feel too templatized?

In your organization does the product marketing also work with a portfolio marketer?

Have you ever been part of a launch where the eng/product team brought in product marketers or customers after work has kicked off (but before launch) and influenced feature development? What was that like?