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Daniel Waas

AMA: AppFolio Vice President Product Marketing, Daniel Waas on Influencing without Authority

April 6 @ 10:00AM PST
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AppFolio Vice President Product Marketing, Daniel Waas on Influencing without Authority
Top Questions
How do you drive culture change with market research?
I'm hoping to influence Product and Design to talk to users more and build a clear picture of our user. The team will often refer to themselves as "the consumer" when they're not in our target demographic?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
I'd say lead the way. Use a traditional PMM responsibility like refreshing your buyer personas as a reason to kick off a joint research project and pull in your partners from the product and design team. Set up customer interviews. Get outdoors and do a workshop. Have some fun with it. Bribe them......Read More
1047 Views
1 request
How do you prioritize your product marketing projects and still make time for ad-hoc requests?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
There are many answers to this question depending on how large your team is, how much budget you have, etc.  Some pointers: * Get clear on your goals for your product marketing team (even if it's just you) and how they ladder to the business goals.  * Build an annual plan. It's surprisin......Read More
380 Views
3 requests
How can I gain influence with Product, especialy around input into their roadmap, when they're used to operating without a Product Marketing Manager?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
See my answer to a similar question on this page. You'll need to build trust and rapport with them and you do this by knowing your stuff, bringing unique insights, and having a well thought out perspective on key industry challenges. You keep overdelivering until your PM counterparts understand t......Read More
271 Views
3 requests
How do product marketing key stakeholders from other departments change as your company grows?
Ex) <10 employees you meet with CEO and Head of Product—how does this change when you're 100, 500, 1000 employees?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
Regardless of the size of the organization, there will always be a marketing and a product leader. They are your critical partners. Even in very large organizations with a matrix structure, you will still typically have these leadership roles for each business segment. As the organization grows t......Read More
285 Views
1 request
How does the product marketing team's placement in the org chart (under marketing, product, etc.) effect your ability to influence the roadmap?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
I have led product marketing teams that reported into marketing and others that reported into product. I've been reorganized from one to the other twice. I don't find it makes all that much of a difference. You'll need to work harder to build strong relationships with the "other" team. Your respo......Read More
322 Views
2 requests
How to tackle a situation where Product Managers can often wary when hearing that Product Marketers want to "influence the product roadmap"?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
You need to earn your seat at the table by repeatedly bringing fresh insights and a distinct point of view to the table. To influence product strategy and the roadmap you need to take a broader view of your market and the customers than your friends on the product management team. Invest in a dee......Read More
348 Views
2 requests
How do you manage people who don't necessarily report into you?
This could be while giving feedback on a piece of work? Or getting them to prioritise the project you're running.
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
You will need to win their respect and trust. To do that you need to...  * know your stuff * be humble * give ample positive feedback * understand their agenda and help them advance it * take personal responsibility for everything that goes wrong, and emphasize the team contribution over......Read More
302 Views
3 requests
PMMs are typically tasked with a broad scope, balancing both strategic & tactical work and serving as the X-functional glue across multiple teams. How do you combat burnout for your team?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
* Set boundaries and clear expectations with the various stakeholders you work with. Don't commit to crazy timelines. If a crazy timeline is unavoidable, communicate what you will have to trade off.  * Create a culture of trust with your team by being your authentic self, being a good ......Read More
415 Views
2 requests
How do you know where the line is when it comes to learning about the product vs. trusting your product business partner to keep you informed and educated on the most important factors?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
To be an effective product marketer my view is that you need to be a deep expert on your product. You don't need the same technical expertise as your product management counterpart but you need to deeply understand the customer, their pain points, and how your product solves these pain points. Ap......Read More
819 Views
4 requests
What are some of the best ways to begin becoming a more influential PMM?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
Influence comes from repeatedly bringing fresh insights and a distinct point of view to the table. To influence product strategy and the roadmap you need to take a broader view of your market and the customers than your friends on the product management team. Invest in a deep understanding of you......Read More
768 Views
5 requests
What has been the greatest accomplishment made when you’ve had to influence others without authority and did it make things easier for you when you needed buy in on other projects?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
My biggest accomplishment was in a prior role at a different company for a SaaS product. I was able to persuade the product and executive leadership team to invest in a redesign of the user experience of a product that had become stale compared to new entrants in the space. Redesigns can be a har......Read More
577 Views
5 requests
What are some ways you navigate the pivot from engaging with colleagues from a place of collaboration and ideation towards a stance of execution and accountability as deadlines approach?
(especially in complex projects with many stakeholders involved)
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
We're actually in the middle of a project like that. For major launches with large cross-functional teams, there is a point of transition when you, as you say "pivot towards a stance of execution". Some thoughts on how to prepare for that point and then make the transition. I'm putting this is se......Read More
661 Views
1 request
How to establish credibility and trust in people around you?
Daniel Waas
Daniel Waas
AppFolio, Inc. Vice President Product Marketing • April 7
That's a great question and actually my answer to some of the other questions asked today. The way to influence without authority is to build credibility and trust. My thoights on how to do that overlap with many of my other answers but here they are in summary: * Get to know your colleagues an......Read More
670 Views
5 requests