AMA: Atlassian Head of Product Marketing, Jira and the Jira suite, Claire Drumond on Stakeholder Management

Customer feedback and journey mapping. There's always data available, it just may not always be the data your stakeholders want. In those scenarios, I always default to customer feedback. Customer feedback: I find that reviewing messaging & positioning, new webpages, you name it, with customers or potential customers often gives you the vital feedback you need to understand if you're truly solving their problems. There are lots of tools that can give you great customers feedback, like Userte ...Read More

I think the most effective model here is the hub and spoke, (while remembering the wheel is the most important). PMM is the center of the wheel, setting the strategic direction along with their product counterparts. PMM should be aligning on business goals, developing competitive and differentiated roadmap & GTM strategy, and ensuring that your messaging and positioning is competitive and compelling. If PMMs are doing their jobs correctly, this direction should help all your general marketin ...Read More

I have a new hack for this: it's called Loom. I swear I'm not trying to promote this product, but marketers gonna market ;) Seriously though, Loom has been a game changer for us to keep tight feedback loops, stakeholders informed, and identifying when there needs to be a deeper dive on an area of disagreement. Record your presentation on Loom and send it to your stakeholders for feedback. Ask them to comment on the video directly and then either respond to their comments directly, or use the com ...Read More

Building a strong relationship with product requires level-setting on your goals first and foremost. Just like any relationship, you need to take the time to really understand each others strengths and look for ways to compliment each other. In my best relationships with Product, our mantra is One team, One dream. And we say this often to remind ourselves that friction is good, and we're all here for the same reasons. I've seen the following anti-patterns often in my career with this very import ...Read More

I yell at them! Just kidding. Design is a visual representation of your positioning & messaging. If there's a disagreement, I find it often comes from a different understanding of either your positioning, your audience, or how you want to show up against competitors. To solve a disagreement with design, it may require taking a step back to look at those factors together to ensure you have a shared understanding. Look at your competitors and see how they are showing up in the market from a de ...Read More