AMA: Braze Vice President Product Marketing, Kelsey Nelson on Market Research

Make sure you are clearly aligned on an impact-oriented goal for your launch, e.g. Is this intended to help you improve win rates? Get more at-bats? Open more TAM? Then, as you work across your internal partner stakeholders, you'll more easily drive alignment behind a consistent "why" -- whether it's helping sales reps understand how this will help them hit their number, align with demand gen on expectations for pipeline/awareness efforts, and more. It also will help you track success not just at the moment of launch (which likely has more targeted OKRs such as press coverage, awareness, and so on) but as a part of an on-going program for this product/feature. A launch is just a 'moment' in the journey of this product for your customers, and by rallying behind the impact goal you'll be best positioned to maximize the impact of this moment.

There are a few different ways you can do this (and also a lot of tools out there that can help! Pendo, Chameleon, and Braze as examples.) The top three that I've seen include: 1. A push notification or in-product pop-up will get the most urgent visibility for a new feature. 2. You could also use a banner or in-app message can help you get visibility for the new feature without 'interrupting'. 3. The least obtrusive would be to include in a self-service feature manager, e.g. if your app offers the ability for admins to self-service access and turn on features for an EA. This would have less prominence but could be an effective way to introduce and gain early feedback on a new feature before more widely rolling it out. In the first two, these will perform even more effectively if they've been personalized and/or leverage customer usage insights to showcase the relevance of this new feature to the customer's use of your product. For example, if a customer is already using an adjacent product/capability, they may be more apt to try and adopt quickly -- so a tailored message that explains how this new feature is additive to their existing experience could motivate them to move quickly. Alternately, you could use this feature launch as a 'carrot' to drive adoption of core features by creating a tailored message that shows ROI of brands already further along this maturity path.

I'm a big fan of bundling, especially for small/medium (Tier 2/3) launches. You could bundle into a one-off launch, but I've seen more success at just setting a regular cadence for bundled updates, which lets your customers know when to look out for the latest from your business. Either way, these bundled updates are more consumable for the market, and it elevates standalone launches to an even higher level of importance with your key constituents. With product -- I've had success raising a few points: 1. The public 'launch' moment and a dev release moment don't necessarily have to be 1:1. It can be ok to deploy a feature into prod (alongside docs, any other MVP info) but do the public announcement some time later -- the worry would be breaking your own news, though if this feature is big enough that it's newsworthy, then it might be one you want to elevate to a standalone moment anyway. 2. Bundling is also a way to get more visibility for your unique feature: by creating a bigger moment, we'll get more eyes on your feature. It also doesn't preclude us from doing targeted post-launch comms to targeted audiences, e.g. in-product messages, working with lifecycle/growth marketing, amplifying via sales, etc.

Definitely. Like many companies, we've always sized our launches (S/M/L/XL; Tier 1/2/3; etc.) and follow different templates for different tiers. The foundational differences usually align to the volume (not value, volume!) of activities surrounding the launch. Not every feature may need a standalone webpage, or a standalone live sales enablement session. Tier 2/3 may be more effective when bundled into a bigger story, or included only as a blog. I like to scope a Bill of Materials (BoM) to these Tiers in Google Sheets, and make it sortable by tier. (Plus, this way, partner stakeholders can see that it's not that one feature or product is more important than another -- it just may necessitate more assets to achieve the goal of this launch.)

My biggest piece of advice here is to loop as many folks in as possible, as early as possible, and to keep a close tracker on when/who was involved in those conversations. A product launch requires many parts of the marketing team to deliver a great moment at the time of launch, and to maximize impact post-launch. Some key functions to consider + timing: * Comms/PR: These teams will need time to partner with you on launch comms assets, such as an announcement blog or press release, and also to potentially engage key influencers or press that may want to cover the story. Ideally you should give them an FYI as soon as you have a launch date in mind so they can give input into potential date changes that may benefit your launch (e.g. timed with an industry/owned event, avoid timing of a competitor event, etc.) Internal comms can also make sure you give this the right level of love internally at your company. * Demand gen: these teams are planning campaigns and programs months in advance, so the more warning you can give them as to a new element for a campaign or a potential change in strategy, the better. * Lifecycle/growth marketing: these programs may have more flexibility to add new elements on a tighter timeline, but don't leave them out of your early thinking. * Partner marketing: Partners can be a key amplifier of your launch strategy, so be sure to connect with your partner and partner marketing teams as soon as you align on a launch date to ensure partners are briefed, enabled and ready to support your announcement. * Social + Community: Can be great amplifiers of your message! They may not need as much lead time, but are a great channel to activate and build excitement. I'd also consider leveraging these partners for creative ways to build buzz about your launch: can we think of a contest or creative activation within one of these channels to build buzz, leading up to or as a part of the launch activities? * Analyst Relations: Don't forget about the analysts! A great AR program ensures that you have a pre-brief and/or update strategy in place for product updates and launches, but I also wouldn't be shy about engaging your analysts early and often throughout the product development lifecycle. They can have strong input into what you're building, and also how you frame it. (Not to mention, strengthens your and your company's relationship with them, which is very valuable heading into evaluation time!)

Totally hear you -- how do you balance the need for consistency and meeting the expectations of partner teams with consistent materials, with more creative ways to break through the noise? Few places I draw inspiration: * My background is in B2B product marketing, so I try to stay on top of recent investments not only in enterprise marketing but in the consumer world. What are these brands doing to activate their communities and spotlight new products? We once created a chrome extension that got general consumer visibility for an initiative we were driving. It wasn't exactly a 1:1 to what was in our product, but it led to the same general value -- and got the broader market talking about the problem at hand (and ultimately back to what we were really trying to launch/sell). * I also try to think about the ICP from a more personal level. For example, many folks I've worked with in security love solving problems -- as one security colleague put it, "We like really cool problems or really cool solutions." One idea we'd had for a security launch was creating an escape room like experience to build buzz within our customer and their peer community. * Lastly, and perhaps the least strategic but sometimes very fruitful -- sometimes I'll just throw a key word/phrase into Google image (and/or GPT) and see what it pops out. The further you scroll, the farther afield the images get -- and potentially new ideas that might strike.

I will continue to beat the drum that your goals for launching a new product should be grounded in impact: Why did you build this? Open up new TAM? Improve win rates? Reduce churn? The launch is a mechanism to get visibility for your product/feature on its journey -- but it's really just an early point toward that north star goal. The most effective launches I've been a part of have a xfunctional team that then meets regularly pre/post-launch to check in on how we're tracking against that north star. One product I launched was intended to help reduce churn, so we focused on an Adoption metric. Each month, we'd host "Product & Friends" where PMM would provide an update on customer acquisition and marketing activities (major new logos, customer stories, upcoming events/campaigns, etc.), PM would provide an update on new features, Support would share updates on net promoter and common pains in support tickets, etc. We'd usually tackle those quickly and then pick a special topic to focus on a big(ger) idea to help us move the needle on adoption more significantly.

First question I'd ask: Why did you build this? Is it to open up new TAM? To expand ACV? To reduce churn? That should define what success looks like -- if you're trying to reduce churn, this is probably more of an upsell play, and potentially also focused on % and depth of adoption. If you're focused on new TAM, likely it's new business. Expanding ACV could go either way and may depend on the persona involved. For example, we once launched an additional product that required us to engage with a new persona in the customer organization. Because that was a new muscle for our sales team, we prioritized Upsells within current customers as a starting point as a more natural way to engage that persona. This also gave us additional time for pipegen and sales practice before we set more aggressive New Business targets that included a new business land motion comprised of now multiple product areas.

One framework I really like in great/creative launch storytelling -- and just overall storytelling -- is starting with the end goal in mind: What do you want people who interact with this launch to Know, Believe or Do? Once you've determined that goal, here's where you can have some fun with how you bring this to life. For example, a feature on JIT provisioning might be very cool in the access management space, but less (immediately) exciting for a marketing use case. But the goal is for customers to Know that your solution has best-in-class security best practices and continuously invests to protect them. Here's now where we can have some fun -- what are interesting ways to tell a Protect/Trust story? Are there creative campaigns you can bring that story to life, and use this JIT provisioning feature as a proofpoint?

My strategy here would depend on the timeline for rollout. Are you planning to only make this available/roll out to XX% as a part of the overall strategy? Or is this an on-going rollout, where you'll start with 5/10% now, then add to 25%, then 50%, and so on? For the first use case, I'd be much more targeted in my launch materials to engage the customers that are impacted by this feature. In-product updates, lifecycle marketing, and post-sales teams like Customer Success can be powerful ways to ensure the right audience gets the message. If it's an on-going rollout, I'd follow a more typical launch program but be very transparent about the cohorts and provide a resource for folks that are not in an early wave to go to if they have questions or are eager to get started sooner (even if you're unable to do so). I once released a free, limited access to a product to an entire customer base but it took many months to roll out across the thousands of customers in an impactful and scalable way. We launched with this clear and transparent strategy and worked with our field teams to be clear about who was in each wave, and why. We also provided a exception request path for customers that were very eager to get on board sooner -- in this case, that indicated a likeliness to adopt quickly (and potentially move to a faster Upsell path quickly!) so we tried to accommodate whenever possible

Events/activations and community-based initiatives can provide interesting avenues to try something new to build buzz for a new product. For a simple idea: can we take the 'influencer' idea and build something for your specific product purpose? E.g. if you're a solution for project managers, can you explore a play on the organizational skills of Marie Kondo, and work with a few early customers to create a fun social campaign spotlighting how they 'let go of old processes that did not bring them joy?' For a bit more involved ideas, I think you can look at creative ways to infuse new products into in-person events. Work at a company that does governance (who has access to what)? Host a fun event where they have to 'request access' to get in, using your product. Work in collaboration software? Create a giant painting with instructions in your collaboration tool, and see how well the painting comes out at the end of the show. You could also try to tackle these virtually as well: 'request access' to get some sort of reward or invite.

PMMs have two key superpowers that I'd lean on here. Demonstrating excellence in each has been a major driver in my experience for building credibility and shifting out of execution and into a more strategic role: 1. Customer/market insights: Data talks, and I've found the core of many PMMs' individual successes to be grounded in deeply understanding their customer, market and product. By proactively and regularly bringing forward insights from direct customer conversations, insights you hear from sales calls, research from analyst and industry reports, and more, you'll demonstrate a depth of subject matter expertise that makes your input invaluable. 2. Amazing storytelling meets business strategy: Once you've shown that you know your customer and product space inside and out, then bringing forward recommendations about which needles need to move and how you can best do so will be the key to getting out of just launch mode. For example, say you are asked to launch a new feature for a product that's been in market for a few years. How is this product performing overall in terms of new business/upsell? What is the customer sentiment? What does adoption look like? Which of these presents a major opportunity? (e.g. might be a product that is frequently sold but has low utilization.) Launches are just moments for broader visibility -- it's understanding the product lifecycle, what's needed to drive growth, and the most impactful narrative to drive customers toward that action that will be the meaningful formula.

Most PMM's I've worked with have done a great job identifying market signals: * New competitor release * New partner release * Analyst research published * Customer/prospect news * etc. The challenge is synthesizing all these signals and quickly recommending action where necessary. I've seen teams capture these insights into a dashboard of some sort (maybe in Google sheets or a slide format), and also in Slack channels where they can flag frequent updates. With exec readouts, some leaders may want to be a part of these channels and see the news as it comes in -- could create a channel like #competitor-news so they get the real time updates (and there are options to automate posting those updates from various sources as well). I've also found that those channels can be noisy so it's helpful to send out a weekly/monthly tl;dr with the top 3-5 takeaways -- and then link to the relevant channel or dashboard should someone want to dig in more. Most important if you take this route: keep the takeaways concise and directly backed relevant data!

Ultimately what you're looking for is for a true partnership: to be more in the loop on what product is building, why, and what initial feedback is from early customers -- a closer teammate to the product development lifecycle. To get there, I've found the most success building trust by proactively bringing market insights to the product team so they see you as a value add in their development work. For example: are you hearing customers talk about a new use case? Capture the feedback and data and share with your product counterpart. Are you seeing win rates rise or fall in their product area? Flag this to your PM, and engage in win/loss interviews to unpack what's going on. The more you can be a partner and add value to the relationship, the more they'll bring you in as well.