AMA: Amplitude Director of Enterprise Product Marketing, Hien Phan on Enterprise Product Marketing

The misalignment comes from what product GA means versus what marketing GA means and confidence level. And this alignment should come from the top—Head of Product and you, with the support of the entire GTM team and executive. Establish two definitions for GA, and align on confidence levels for each stage of product development. These two things should be agreed upon by the Head of Product to every leader in the org. She has to be accountable to you on this framework.

Ha! this skill is probably the hardest. When it comes to messaging, everyone will have an opinion. Before you drive alignment on the messaging, align on the problem and solution. That is 50% - 60% of the battle. The rest is just wordsmithing. Depending on the level of messaging, I would incorporate them into the messaging development process.

(1) TOFU - create awareness [enteprise messaging] (2) BOFU - making sure you have the right messaging and assets along the journey to closed won [sales play] Together these two parts make an enterprise play. So depending on the problem, you can spend your time creating though-leadership pieces and campaigns, or you have to enable sales and cs. Or in some cases, you have to run a full integrated campaign. 

(1) problem (2) solution (3) benefit and value. Remember there is a difference between benefit vs. value. For example, if something is automated, the benefit is you don't have to do it manually, the value might be you get to spend more time on more important tasks. Most prospects just want to see if (a) your company helped someone like them (b) was it a similar problem (c) what are the immediate benefits and (d) what are the long term value. 

The main difference is around change management. When SMB and mid-market companies buy software, there isn't a huge change management aspect because of their size. "Enterprise," defined as more established companies like (P&G, etc.), would like to know how you will help them succeed with your software. So this means services, solution partnerships, and etc. The other two differences are pricing and packaging and multiple persona messaging. Enterprise like to buy with scale and with value, so the right pricing and packaging is important. The last is around multiple persona, I haven't been in a situation where the enterprise was just one main buyer and no other stakeholders, so its important to message to the buying committee. The last advice I would give is define what enterprise means for your company. The definition should go beyond just company size, but including vertical, persona, and etc. The detailed definition will help you define your GTM strategy and messaging. Most growth companies fail at the above and most large companies rely too heavily on their size as a differentiator.

I think this depends on the product and tiers. Not all launches should correlate to the sales cycle. Some launches will affect the sales cycle, and sales win. Some launches are for current customers. You have to be clear about your goals, and they shouldn't be more than two goals. Ideally, you should have one goal and a max of two metrics. 

One of the pillars of PMM is knowing the buyer persona exceptionally well. While I think one can context switch to a different industry, there is something to be said for having experience in a technology or industry; it will show up in your messaging and lends credibility when you publish content.

Currently, I am working with someone that I highly respect: John Hurley. But others like Grant Shirk, who is really thoughtful PMM leader at Cisco Meraki. Mary Sheehan who is at Adobe in campaigns, but has spent years in PMM before she switched over to campaigns. This question is hard to answer because it really depends on stages of careers and what you are looking for. 

I have no idea how you prep your presentation. But for an assignment like this one, I think what employers want to test is your ability to assess the problem and provide a solution. So before I would even start on the assignment, I would try to highlight the problem statement. What problem is this product trying to solve? Who are you solving it for? And importantly, is this a problem, the user recognizes or not at all? These questions will help you detail your strategy before you go into messaging and GTM strategy. Start with the problem statement and how said product solves it. Then flow into details about the problem and then approach to solving it.

1. writing skill: the messaging side of the marketing house, so you need to learn how to write. 2. presentation skill: you're not just enabling sales, but also marketing so can you present your ideas succintly 3. intellectual curiousity: you're task with taking new products to market or going into new segments. I would look at those three as the initial pillars to gage someone who is ready to be in PMM. 

Not sure what mark you're missing. But your CEO and product/eng team are probably looking for (1) an overview of the space, where everyone is going (2) highlighting a few players and going deep dive into why they're building it and who they are building for. [I would hire a secret shopper for the second part]