AMA: G2 Former VP Product Marketing, Alina Fu on Stakeholder Management

I don’t know if there is a turnkey framework but there are definitely lots of framework options available. You can find one that fits your needs or make your own (like I do). Core to a GTM strategy include these essentials: Core Bill of Materials (pitch deck, demo, battlecard, FAQ/data sheet) Customer Journey across the funnel (or bowtie, which I prefer since it covers retention marketing) Brand positioning and SWOT analysis Messaging house (value prop and messaging pillars) Segmentation and Tar ...Read More

To be successful in a remote working environment, leaders and employees must be willing to think and work differently. Shared context: The most critical component to drive alignment cross-functionally, especially with a remote team, is to provide clear communications and establish shared understanding of expectations and goals. It is important that everyone is aligned on what the project is. Project briefs: We use project briefs to provide an overview for the cross-functional teams to understand ...Read More

I would recommend first uncovering the root cause of the confusion. Is the confusion causing redundancy, disagreements over roles & responsibilities, are mismatched expectations of results? The best partnership between product marketing and marketing is when there are clear metrics that will make each team successful. Usually, this is pretty obvious for Tier 1 product launches given the level of resources and prioritization to warrant its own marketing campaign. The easiest way to outline ho ...Read More

Because Product Marketing is at the cross-section between Marketing, Product and Sales, there are times when they are barely treading water to keep up with all the product launches, become a “catch all” function or have multiple conflicting stakeholder priorities. Thus, I think these additional other soft skills are must-haves to succeed in product marketing. Takes Initiative: Acts ahead of need/anticipates problems, proactively sees things through, steps up to challenges even when things are no ...Read More

Customer Success or Customer Marketing teams are your secret weapon when thinking about Positioning & Messaging frameworks and GTM strategy. Retention is a key metric for the business, so who better than Customer Success Managers or Customer Marketing leaders to represent the voice of the customer in your marketing narrative? They have seen the good, the bad and the ugly and have a more in-depth perspective with what resonates with customers, where customers get frustrated or struggle, and w ...Read More

I take a relationship-based approach when I think about stakeholder management. I prefer to tailor my style to the individual, so it doesn’t matter as much which department but what type of personality they have and their communication preferences. For instance, a leader in department X may prefer pre-reads days in advance and then a discussion over feedback while a stakeholder in department Y prefers video conferences to spitball ideas in real time. At the end of the day, the goal is to foster ...Read More

What I’ve learned from great leaders who are able to inspire and motivate is to gain consensus before you walk into the room. This is pretty much how I have shared messaging guides internally to ensure alignment. If you are really starting from scratch, hosting a workshop to hear everyone’s opinions works well. If you are adding value to something that already exists, have 1:few meetings to get specific feedback on voice, tone, choice of words, etc. Then, share it more broadly at a team meeting. ...Read More

ABM is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, as we just announced 7 new ABM integrations and hosted a webinar about ABM strategies. Data-driven marketing has extended beyond analytics, social, SEO/SEM, and A/B testing into insights and 3rd party data on customers’ wants and needs to tailor and target more relevant messaging and content to the recipients. How does this impact what product marketing focuses on? It has made targeting and segmentation a greater focus for the team. In the past, ...Read More

This one is challenging because I’ve witnessed year long integrations from newly acquired products into the overall strategy, and even then, it wasn’t “fully” absorbed into the main strategy. First, I would recommend looking at the reasons why this product came under the fold. What was the vision and use cases of how it connects? Sometimes it's for strategic reasons, sometimes it’s to complement the product. Understanding the why will help with the how. Then, I would analyze the target segment f ...Read More

I am a big believer that mismatched expectations are most often the root cause of complicated relationships. Some companies delineate Product Marketing as Inbound and Outbound product marketing. What are the expectations from leadership and from Product has for which type of product marketing you focus on? Inbound focuses on providing feedback on product roadmap, developing product enablement, and landing a successful product launch. Outbound focuses more on the GTM strategy, communications, soc ...Read More

Because a launch has so many different moving parts across very distinct disciplines, it is always handy to be agile as pivots may occur. The best cadence for gathering stakeholder feedback is throughout the launch process - at the beginning, during the middle and definitely at the end. There are different stakeholders that you want to involve at the various stages of a launch. If unsure, you can use a RACI to determine who is in the “need to get” vs “nice to get” feedback camp. In the beginning ...Read More

I partner very closely with the VP of Rev Marketing to make sure we have a coordinated funnel strategy. We are in constant communication and alignment for acquisition, conversion and retention. In addition, product marketing measures deals influenced for attribution. Our product marketing team’s metrics are quite different from rev marketing team’s metrics, so I don’t feel the need to own more of TOFU. However, I have a vested interest in conversion and retention, which is where my product marke ...Read More