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Julien Sauvage

AMA: Clari VP, Corporate and Product Marketing, Julien Sauvage on Building a Product Marketing Team

November 29 @ 9:00AM PST
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Clari VP, Corporate and Product Marketing, Julien Sauvage on Building a Product Marketing Team
Top Questions
How do you build a high functioning product marketing team? How do you structure responsibilities?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
I follow these 5 steps: 1. I hire the "crème de la crème" players 2. I think through the best PMM org design 3. I methodically stay aligned with our cross-functional partners 4. I communicate the team’s value and impact to the C-suite 5. I stay laser-focused on measuring success and imp......Read More
645 Views
1 request
Can you share a dashboard of KPIs for a PMM organization in a startup?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
While I love this question, I also think that a PMM dashboard has to mirror the company business dashboard! PMM influences every aspect of the business. As such, the PMM OKRs have to map the big strategic initiatives of your company. Metrics I like to see on such a dash: * Category Awaren......Read More
650 Views
1 request
For Product Marketing leaders, what is your number one challenge right now?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29

Same as everyone else. Do more or better with less.

With that, we all have to stay extremely focused on:

  • Team and individual business impact (not activity)

  • Team's morale and keeping it fun

  • Tools, process and tech to help automate some of the tasks - e.g., AI.

616 Views
1 request
How do you get buy-in from multiple teams on a longterm strategic initiative when they are bogged down with daily fires. And how do you sustain their interest and commitment?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
Simple. By showing impact. And you would show impact in an always-on dashboard (online), or deck. Then, overcommunicate. Keep it fun and playful. Send a monthly newsletter to your stakeholders. Talk about what's next. And worked, what didn't. Be authentic and show focus, passion, accountabilit......Read More
617 Views
1 request
How does your product marketing team work with the product/engineering team to best understand the pipeline of product releases?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
Great question! First off, it's mostly with the PM team, less so with Eng. The PM<>PMM relationship has to be symbotic. I typically like mapping a PMM to a Group PM (managing several individual PMs), and these "pods" then have a weekly cadence and do a global readout of activities, metrics,......Read More
655 Views
1 request
Can you differentiate between a Product Marketing Manager and Senior PMM?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
I typically assess my Product Marketers' impact and seniority based on a few dimensions. Some of them are function agnostic, others are pmm specific, like: * Positioning & Messaging * Presentation & Communication Skills * Cross-Functional Partnership * Launch & Execution * Research & ......Read More
621 Views
1 request
If you have dedicated Competitive Intelligence members of your team, do they align under the Sales, Marketing or Product team?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29

It depends.

If the expected primary outcome of Competitive Intel is to enable the field, it should sit in Sales or in Ops. If it's to shape the product roadmap, it should sit in Product!

645 Views
1 request
Does your product marketing team have a Commercialization Manager in the group?
Curious how this role is distributed/defined inside different companies.
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29

I don’t know what that is, so... no (?) 😂

628 Views
1 request
What cross functional KPIs do you leverage for alignment between product marketing, product, sales and customer success?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
Great question - see my earlier answer to the "Can you share a dashboard of KPIs for a PMM organization in a startup?" question , here: https://sharebird.com/h/product-marketing/q/can-someone-share-a-dashboard-of-kpis-for-a-pmm-organization-in-a-startup?answer=WVxZUpRNP1&utm_source=questionanswer......Read More
667 Views
1 request
How is your Product Marketing team structured?
By product line, segment, function or by objective (ie. revenue retention, product engagement, etc?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29

At Clari, my team has a dual mapping:

  • by product line

  • by functional area (AR, market intel etc)

Previous gigs I would align the team by function or by product line. Segment (upmarket., MM etc) can also be a good option!

398 Views
1 request
What's your framework to prioritizing needs/deliverables when you're the first Product Marketer at a company establishing the function?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
Know your company's OKRs/ biggest bets and pains. Then align to that. Embark on a listening tour with Sales, CS, product, C-suite etc. And build your plan off that. The plan should contain things like: Vision, Values, Success metrics, Big Bets, where each pillar has a few programs underne......Read More
467 Views
1 request
What's the biggest challenge you've ever faced as a product marketing leader and how did you overcome it?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
People not understanding the function. I would overcome that by overcommunicating about our function, vision, ownership areas, scope, impact (not activity!) and plan. And then * Seek 3rd party validation (analyst mentions, etc.) * Seek shoutouts from other orgs * Raise your public pro......Read More
411 Views
1 request
What is NOT in the scope of product marketing?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29

Things like

❌ Downmarket deal support 

❌ Enablement strategy

❌ Design

❌ Content Strategy/Blogs

❌ Technical Product Documentation

❌ Release Notes

❌ Alpha & Beta Programs

1141 Views
1 request
Which are the mandatory questions you should ask the company founders when you're empowered to create the Product Marketing function from zero?
I will face this challenge very son and my thoughts are: - which are the company objectives? - which are the marketing and product marketing specific objectives? - the resources in place to achieve the objectives (human, financial, tools) - where is the product on the lifecycle? - top three priorities - how are sales/marketing/product teams organised?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29

Ask them what they need, what the challenges are, what the opportunities are - and what has gotten in the way so far. Also ask about the value customers are getting from the product today, and HOW that value is communicated today.

417 Views
1 request
How do you develop product marketers on your team in a systematic way?
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • November 29
Develop as in... "grow"? Well, that Non negotiable: leaders help their team grow  :) People learn and grow with new experiences. I like doing that by giving people stretch goals, have a quarterly growth check-in, and assign major/ minor projects (90/10). Plus do a monthly lunch n learn with t......Read More
596 Views
1 request