AMA: Enable VP of Product Marketing, Amanda Groves on Product Launches

Tech companies will always have a bias towards the tech. So it's your job to bring the perspective of the market to the room to level the playing field. Prioritize collecting, curating, and orchestrating field insights within the company so the voice of the market is represented and advocated for early and often. I'd also suggest creating a charter to educate the company on who PMM is, why we exist, how we operate and are measured. This will bring clarity to the functions and help establish more ...Read More

A recent one actually... we had to launch in two general availability buckets which is not a best practice. This made it particularly challenging to enable and commercialize + measure success. Also most of the value was delivered in the second batch of feature updates v. the first so balancing market expectations v. product availability was tough. How we managed was to make sure we communicated early and often. We also made sure to invest in "seed the market" messaging so there was interest and ...Read More

Certainly!! Some tried and true phases to follow are as follows... 1. Define Launch Tier Not every launch needs a full GTM push. Categorize by tier: Tier 1: Net new product or revenue-impacting feature Tier 2: Key enhancement or workflow update Tier 3: Minor improvement or bug fix This helps align effort and resourcing. 2. Align Cross-Functional Team Set clear RACI with: Product (owner of readiness and roadmap) Product Marketing (messaging, positioning, enablement) Sales & CS (feedback loops ...Read More

if i’m pitching a new idea to senior leadership, i keep it focused, strategic, and grounded in impact. i don’t bury the lead or over-explain. instead, i frame the problem clearly, tie it to a business priority, and show why it’s worth solving right now. slides help if they’re clean and intentional — not decks for the sake of decks. i usually start with the problem or gap. something real and specific, ideally with data or a customer quote that makes it hard to ignore. then i move to the opportuni ...Read More

honestly? getting everyone aligned on what kind of launch it actually is. not every release needs a 3-ring GTM circus, but without clear tiers or shared expectations, people either under- or over-rotate. you end up with marketing asking for case studies before the feature is even in prod, or sales wondering why they weren’t trained on something that quietly shipped. so the challenge isn’t the process itself — it’s building a shared mental model across product, marketing, sales, and CS around sco ...Read More

you get really good at translation. senior stakeholders care about impact — revenue, retention, differentiation — and they want to know how a launch ties to business priorities. product cares about what’s actually feasible and scoped. my job is to bridge the two without overpromising or watering it down. i’ll frame things in outcomes, not features. i’ll show what we can say confidently, where the risk is, and how we’re mitigating it. and if there’s a disconnect, i surface it early with options — ...Read More

you have to design the launch like a relay, not a one-size-fits-all broadcast. in B2B2C, the buyer and the end user often have totally different priorities — so messaging that works for one usually falls flat for the other. i map each part of the launch to the moment that matters for that specific persona. exec buyer? lead with strategic outcomes, competitive edge, ROI. end user? show how it makes their workflow easier, faster, less annoying. and most importantly, i don’t assume the handoff happ ...Read More