AMA: Atlassian Head of Portfolio PMM, Lara McCaskill on AI and Product Marketing

Product output has accelerated their ship cadence rapidly - which can be super noisy for customers. The way I have approached this by tackling two main challenges: 1. Align product releases by themes and planned marketing moments. Do this quarterly, bring product along with PMM so they understand when and how their features get coverage. 2. Creating modular content that allows for fast swapping in/out and quick updating. Avoid one-sheets/data sheets/anything PDF! Those never get updated and prol ...Read More

Predicting how AI will change things is pretty impossible. That said, here's what I hope AI changes within PMM in the next 1-2 years: 1. Automation of task based work becomes the value. PMMs are so often responsible for project managing and have a task tax that takes them away from strategic thinking. AI is already reducing this, we'll see broader adoption of this. 2. PMM does not rely on AI to create content/start content/influence content. I haven't seen the value here and it's obvious when co ...Read More

AI can be great for accelerating and jumpstarting content creation. Here's how I break it down: 1. AI doesn't know your audience like you do. You need to provide the specific details of who your audience is, what they care about, and the context around the content. 2. AI is very repetitive. It makes content appear "meatier" and more substantive than it actually is because it often repeats the same concepts just said differently. You need to ensure that your prompt avoids this and that you dilige ...Read More

Living in San Francisco, it feels like AI messaging and products are literally taking over. And it all looks the same. Here's how I am thinking about it; 1. Focus on outcomes - great that AI is making XYZ faster, easier, better, some-superlative - but to what end? What is the overall end benefit. It could be a pineapple making XZY possible, but the pineapple (the how) is only so relevant. 2. Question the value of AI in your messaging. Does it really need to be there? 3. Look at your competitive ...Read More