AMA: Cash App, Head of Product Marketing, Hannah Hughes on Messaging

Having a clear understanding of your product architecture is critical to driving clear narratives for your audience. The question here only outlines products/features, but there are more categories as well. Typically your architecture will be structured something like this: * Verticals or Product Areas- high level groups of products. * Products- A piece of technology that can be adopted, used and interacted with. * Features- Smaller pieces of technology that support the use of the product. * Subfeatures- Potentially even smaller features that aren't deserving of the 'feature' treatment. You might apply different naming and messaging guidelines to each level. It's common to 'brand' names and have more branded messaging for higher level Verticals or Product Areas, while Products and Features will have more adoption-focused messaging and naming strategies applied. Here's an example of this in action. Let's take a look at the iPhone: 1. Vertical/Product Area: iPhone- Apple positions the iPhone as part of a broader ecosystem that includes iOS, iCloud, and other Apple devices. Messaging at this level is highly branded and focuses on the seamless experience across Apple products. This is the only level of naming/messaging that receives the 'iName' moniker. 2. Product: iPhone 15 Pro- When Apple launches a new iPhone model, the messaging is branded, emotional, and aspirational—“Titanium. So Strong. So Light. So Pro.” This messaging establishes the product as an innovative leap. 3. Feature: Dynamic Island (introduced in iPhone 14 Pro, now in iPhone 15 models)- Apple markets features like Dynamic Island with an adoption-focused approach, explaining how it enhances user experience, but it still gets branded messaging to create excitement. 4. Subfeature: Live Activities within Dynamic Island- Within the Dynamic Island, features like Live Activities (showing real-time updates for sports, Uber rides, etc.) are not separately branded but are explained in the context of how they improve usability.

I love this question and have been learning so much from my new partners on Brand at Cash App! Messaging is a collaborative effort across so many- Brand, Insights, Content Strategy, and more. I would suggest forging deep relationships with all these stakeholders- all your work needs to reinforce each other and be harmonious. Most commonly, we share our messaging frameworks and get feedback from one another. The Brand positioning should be informed by product- what benefits our products provide on a daily basis. And our Product messaging should reference the brand promise, whenever possible strengthening the connection between the user benefit and our product offerings. Further- these things need to connect to our in-product content and help center experience. On PMM, we include materials on both the brand position and our content team's writing guides within the Product Marketing Guide. All these resources should be available to anyone writing about our products. And we co-write our value props with heavy input from Insights, Brand, and Content.

Great messaging drives strong growth. If you have conversion issues in your funnel, messaging is a great way to rapidly experiment and see if your users don't understand your offering, or the wrong expectations are being set by your messaging. Messaging can also pave the way for necessary product improvements. Keep your product partners close, and share what you learn! Troubleshoot the following scenarios to decide if your messaging needs a refresh: * Strong top of funnel, poor conversion- Your messaging may not map to the product experience. Your product may need to improve, or you may be bringing in the wrong type of user. Share this type of insight with your product team, as well as a plan to learn more about where the disconnect lies. * Poor top of funnel, but good conversion- You might need to revisit your audience targeting, positioning, or messaging. Or you may be pursuing a small customer cohort- can you expand to make your product more compelling to a wider range of customers? * Poor top of funnel, poor conversion- There is likely a signficant issue with messaging, targets, or your channels. Ensure that you are leveraging qualitative testing to get high quality feedback and revisit what is not working.

AI is an incredible tool, but relying on it to generate creative outputs can be a trap. Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on vast datasets from the internet, which means their outputs inherently reflect existing content rather than breaking new ground. If differentiation is the goal, using a tool that replicates patterns from the past won’t get you there. Instead, AI shines in areas like competitive analysis, desk research, summarization, and refining internal communication for clarity—all of which help marketers write better briefs. When our strategy and inputs are sharper, our creative teams can craft messaging that stands out. Humans—and our users—are deeply creative. AI should support, not replace, that originality. Let’s use it to enhance our thinking, not replace it.

All messaging is an exercise in empathy. Why aren't these users adopting? Do you understand their reservations or needs well enough to build something compelling for them? Here's a structured approach to developing a perspective on this cohort and how to reach them: 1. Segmentation I would start by partnering with your research or data science teams to identify shared characteristics within this group. If a segmentation doesn't exist that captures these users, continue on to the research step and craft some segments as a product of that research. 2. Research | Next, ensure that you have spent time with these users and understand their perceptions of your product and messaging. What are their reservations? What is working well? What do they care most about? 3. Positioning tests | It's likely that these users need a different approach: either through messaging, channels, features, or some combination. Test in targeted channels to see if you are able to improve the adoption of these cohorts 4. Graduate winning variants | If you identify strategies that work, graduate them in targeted channels. There is wonderful tech today that can even apply personalized messaging to broader channels such as your website.

This depends on the phase of development. I typically break my messaging process into 3 KPIs, used throughout the process of creating product messaging: * During initial creation, partner with research to refine your territories and messaging. I like to assess both comprehension and compulsion to use- aka, does the user understand this feature AND find it compelling? * During launch and after, quantitative measurement leads. You can still test an optimize here through segmentation and other methods. But ultimately product adoption is the primary KPI. The most successful messaging projects are able to include both of these phases.