AMA: Cisco Product Marketing Leader, Elizabeth Grossenbacher on Platform and Solutions Product Marketing

Imagine you’re putting together an outfit for a grand party! The business outcome is that you want to look fabulous. Solutions marketing is the entire ensemble (pants, belt, top, jacket, shoes, jewelry, etc.). Product marketing is each one of those items. Fine leather shoes are beautiful on their own, but they tie in so well with those gorgeous trousers.  That’s how Solutions Marketing and Product Marketing work together.  Product Marketing → Focuses on an individual product, its features, posit ...Read More

I usually approach this with an expectation that the data exists somewhere in the org; we just need to create unity with the teams who steward them. I do this by showing teams like PM or Sales how we use data as inputs to our framework. I’ve never had someone tell me “no” once I expose how the data is used.  If that doesn’t work, here are some creative ways to think about accessing data:  Leverage customer-facing teams: Work with sales, CS, and SEs to collect qualitative feedback on solution usa ...Read More

Product messaging highlights specific capabilities, differentiation, and use cases tied to one offering. Portfolio messaging needs to unify multiple products under a single value proposition, making it broader and more strategic.  At Cisco, we focus on business outcomes rather than individual product features. For example, if your customers seek to “simplify their business operations,” then your job as a PMM is to illustrate how all products in the portfolio help the customer achieve that outcom ...Read More

Since your packaging is normally solution-based, shifting to persona-based packaging requires a different approach. Steps to package multi-product features for a persona: Define the Persona’s Workflow & Key Challenges Understand their day-to-day job and the biggest problems they face. Map Features to a Cohesive Story Instead of listing features, craft a use case-driven story that explains how these features together solve the persona’s pain points. Name the Persona Package Give it a memorabl ...Read More

This starts with leadership alignment. Whoever leads Solutions marketing must be tightly locked with PMM leadership with shared goals and strategy. With visibility into that, Product PMMs and Solution PMMs know what’s coming when and how they should engage. Here are some ways we have achieved around that at Cisco:  Regular syncs & alignment on messaging: Ensure product PMMs understand how their product contributes to the overall solution/platform story. Shared go-to-market (GTM) motions: Wor ...Read More

You have to do this in 3 phases:  Pre- Roll Out Roll Put  Post Roll Out Pre-Rollout:  Executive buy-in first: Ensure leadership aligns on messaging before rollout. Train the trainers: Enable sales enablement, SEs, and CS teams first—they’ll be critical in reinforcing messaging. Tailor to sales segments: Different teams (enterprise, SMB, industry verticals) may need customized versions of the messaging. Roll Out Schedule a roadshow: Have your trainers (or you, depending on the org size) conduct r ...Read More

This varies by organization. Generally speaking, the VP PMM leader creates an organizational strategy that outlines all of this. Here’s how I have seen it work at various organizations:  Industry marketing tailors messaging to a specific vertical, speaking directly to sector-specific pain points, regulations, and trends. Solutions marketing focuses on cross-product use cases, emphasizing how different products work together to solve a business problem. Product marketing still includes industry a ...Read More

If you're not using AI, you're behind! Here are some tips on how to get started right away. The AI tools I love are ChatGTP, Claude, Notion, and Perplexity. PRO TIP: Lots of other PMM tool favorites now have APIs with AI tools, like Google sheets! ;) 1. Customer & Market Research Use Case: Gather insights from customer reviews, competitor websites, and industry reports to understand pain points and trends. Perplexity – Acts as an AI-powered search engine for pulling insights from real-time s ...Read More

Once you’ve told the big industry story, you need to show depth and credibility within that industry. Ways to reinforce industry expertise: Customer Proof: Showcase customer case studies from that industry (bonus: use industry-specific metrics). Partnerships: Highlight industry-specific integrations or co-sell agreements with relevant partners. Industry Certifications & Compliance: Show that your product meets sector regulations (HIPAA for healthcare, SOC2 for fintech, etc.). Dedicated Indus ...Read More