Sharebird
Sign Up / Sign In
Victoria Chernova

AMA: Gong Director of Product Marketing, Victoria Chernova on Influencing the Product Roadmap

September 22, 2022 @ 9:00AM PT

View AMA Answers

  1. How do you influence the product roadmap so that features and/or fixes stemming from VOC/customer feedback make it into the priority?

    Victoria Chernova
    Victoria Chernova

    OpenAI Product Marketing • 3y

    I saw this work really well at Asana with a VoC program, which was conducted on a quarterly basis and involved representatives across all “listening channels” at the company: Sales, CS, support, and PMM (which represented new market opportunities and competitors). The final deliverable was a consolidated list of feature requests ranked by pain level and frequency. If that kind of large-scale program isn’t possible (Asana had a dedicated program manager who ran it), then I’d lean into data as muc ...Read More

    692 Views
    5 requests

  2. What's the best way to communicate learnings to product teams?

    Are there best practices or particular formats that are best communicate - i.e. workshops, presentations, meetings

    Victoria Chernova
    Victoria Chernova

    OpenAI Product Marketing • 3y

    I’ve touched on this in the answer above, but to summarize: 1) speak their language as much as possible by prioritizing customers pains points, not features; 2) bring a unique perspective (share research on an audience segment they don’t have access to, or market/competitive intel); and 3) lead with data (quant and/or qual).

    493 Views
    3 requests

  3. What are the core hard skillsets a PMM needs to develop to be an effective full-stack marketer?

    Victoria Chernova
    Victoria Chernova

    OpenAI Product Marketing • 3y

    A full stack PMM requires the perfect mix of “left brain / right brain.” But there’s a reason why “whole brain” isn’t as popular of a cliché. I believe that anyone can build on their existing skills to succeed as a full stack PMM—whether that’s a data-driven person developing their creative/storytelling muscle or vice versa. In general, the most successful PMMs I’ve seen exhibit these 4 traits; they’re: Evidence-based: They use quantitative and qualitative insights from the market, competitors, ...Read More

    4,735 Views
    2 requests

  4. What does the handover process look like between PM/PMM for your product roadmap?

    Victoria Chernova
    Victoria Chernova

    OpenAI Product Marketing • 3y

    Building on an earlier question, for a longer term roadmap (6-12 months out), I would get ahead of product’s planning process. One way PMM has been able to add value at Gong is by conducting market research ahead of half-yearly and annual planning.

    For shorter term influence, I would work in lockstep with your PM early in the product discovery process. Here’s a template you can use to find opportunities to add value throughout the product development process.

    1,915 Views
    6 requests

  5. How do you handle the conflicting voices between sales, marketing and product?

    Victoria Chernova
    Victoria Chernova

    OpenAI Product Marketing • 3y

    I wouldn’t view them as necessarily conflicting, but more so that PMM brings a different perspective :) First of all, I would lean into data as much as possible. That not only makes the conversation more objective, but also strengthens your case. That could be quantitative (surfacing an increase in product usage by a new persona) or qualitative (buyer research with non-customers to identify market requirements). Secondly, I would think about where PMM can add a unique perspective; what are some ...Read More

    543 Views
    5 requests

  6. What do you bring to the conversation during product/feature discovery?

    2 requests

  7. What template do you use when pitching customer/prospect priorities to Product leadership?

    We have data points and a long backlog of features that need to be prioritized to help us win. I'm struggling to consolidate it into a consumable format for product to digest and decide

    Victoria Chernova
    Victoria Chernova

    OpenAI Product Marketing • 3y

    A market requirements document (usually a spreadsheet) has been effective. When working with product, I’ve found that presenting requests as pain points, and preferably through actual customer quotes, is more compelling than feature requests. I would then score these pains based on how frequently customers have brought them up (volume), how painful they are (a simple high, medium, low will do), and which personas are affected. Then I’d add the competitive coverage - is this currently a gap for u ...Read More

    886 Views
    4 requests

  8. How does your approach to influencing a 3 year product vision vs. next quarter or next year's product roadmap differ?

    Victoria Chernova
    Victoria Chernova

    OpenAI Product Marketing • 3y

    For longer term roadmaps (a year out), I think about how to grow the company’s TAM. What are potential new personas, industries, or use cases we’re already seeing organic traction in and could build on if we had supporting product functionality? For a quarterly roadmap, I think about how I can influence the highest impact products already on the roadmap. Here’s a template you can use to identify opportunities to add value throughout the product development process. Quite honestly I haven’t been ...Read More

    811 Views
    6 requests