AMA: Google Product Marketing Lead, Vishal Naik on Influencing the Product Roadmap
December 6 @ 10:00AM PT
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👋 Vishal Naik
Hi all, I'm Vishal Naik, Head of Product Marketing for AI (and platform and developers) at Box
• 👋 Based in: San Francisco
• 🧠 Top of mind: KPop Demon Hunters
• 💬 Ask me about: DIYing stuff
• 🍦 Fun fact: we just opened a new role on the Box AI PMM team
• 👋 Based in: San Francisco
• 🧠 Top of mind: KPop Demon Hunters
• 💬 Ask me about: DIYing stuff
• 🍦 Fun fact: we just opened a new role on the Box AI PMM team
I am product marketer for an enterprise-level ERP. I am faced with a situation where I do not have access to the end-users of the software. The account managers are willing to help me acquire the user list but we are debating the best ways to acquire the same. Have you been in a such a situation and done something great about it?
The list of end-users with their details will allow us to target educational product content that will help them do their jobs better. We would like to engage them via such content and also the Product Managers will benefit a lot from this direct access to end-users.
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I think this one is a bit tricky, because I wouldnt recommend creating a user list without appropriate PII governance. Rather than creating a user list, I'd suggest build...
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I tend to think that teams like to hear their work is appreciated and their processes are modeled. So if another team is required for estimating roadmap costs, I'd ask th...
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How do you define between a customer(s) want or request and a feature that is actually needed?
Customers may want many things, but it might not always be the right feature to implement. How do you decide this?
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I'd say this is a volume game where you have to look for patterns while also thinking about your growth model and ideal customer profile. Given these data points you migh...
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
The way I think about this is that PM owns the roadmap. What I mean by that is that, none of my PMs--past or present--have sat down and brainstormed about roadmap with PM...
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
You'll definitely want to chat with a research agency or your internal researchers to build a game plan, but I think it starts with a list of questions you want answered....
2291 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I dont actually think my approach changes. I tend to believe that the process will yield results and my process to influencing roadmap focuses on acting (in my head) like...
556 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
For your sake, I'd hope that if your research shows that MVP doesnt equate to a value add for your customers, that causes your product team to make a full stop and push. ...
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I'd reframe the question a bit from proving value to adding value. Proving value is a little defensive, vs adding value puts the onus on PMM to show up every day with a t...
961 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I personally think the biggest value of an MBA is in getting into product marketing. Most companies dont have APMM roles and so there isnt a ton of opportunities for true...
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How do product marketers lead a product launch when roadmaps and priorities are constantly changing?
There is a lack of alignment at my company and our teams act in silos. Consequently, my roadmap and goals seem to change on a weekly if not bi-weekly basis because marketing keeps getting pulled in different directions. There needs to be some sort of roadmap and role that aligns sales with product, but I'm not sure if that should come from product marketing or not. I want to initiate this conversation, but I don't know if it's overstepping my role or not. Advice here?
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
My advice on this one is that there's no real overstepping of your role--as long as you're respectful of others (both people and functions) and act in the interest of the...
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How do I influence the roadmap of our product, when my product team isn't very open to it?
I spend a lot of time with customers and prospects, and constantly hear feedback on our product. But my product management team doesn't seem to value this feedback.
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
Winning over stakeholders is a key part of being a PMM, and it might be your approach that needs an iterative update. IMO, influencing roadmap comes down to influencing P...
571 Views
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What role should a customer advisory board have in influencing your product roadmap, and why?
Product marketing owns the customer advisory board but product management owns the roadmap.
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
IMO, your roadmap needs to be representative of your company vision. And practically, your company's growth opportunities would come from customer expansion and new deals...
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How to understand customer journey in a B2B SaaS mobile application?
Without using expensive softwares like Mixpanel or Yourstory.
1. Number of users for this application are around 500 to 1000.
2. Since the users are small don't want to spend money on Mixpanel or Your story
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
How I've understood customer journeys in the past have never actually leveraged a software tool to do so. We've started by mapping out the customer journey into normal st...
1231 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
As a PMM, I tend to view the RACI as PMM being responsible/accountable and CS being considered and PM being informed/potentially considered. But it depends on your org ...
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
A great business resource on developing XFN relationships is the book "Five Dysnfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni. Its an easy read and its scalable to all relatio...
1159 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I think the most important part of influencing product roadmap is that its an outcome created by a strong understanding of the user, strong understanding of the product a...
617 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
Empathy (insert business buzzword) around the customer and how they use the product and specifically what CUJs/JTBDs they are participating in during that specific usage....
865 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
Impact. If you dont do the training, will the feature be used? Will it create more bugs? I think of this as a cost benefit equation--What is the cost of holding a launch ...
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How do you get teams to feel bought-in for research that they aren't leading?
One challenge I've had is that teams will disregard research if their team didn't lead it, even if it's centered on small, qualitative studies.
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
It starts with buy-in. If you can work with your XFN teams before the research is commissioned to chat about what questions the business wants solved and then once you ha...
510 Views
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How do you influence product roadmap as a product marketer.
This is an interview question we get all the time
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
Its about doing the work. I view influencing the roadmap as a byproduct of a great process rather than a task itself. So as you build up your understanding of the product...
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What kind of PMM organizational structure is ideal for ensuring that PMMs are set up for success (in this case, to influence the Product roadmap)?
For eg: Should PMMs be aligned with PMs (we have a 3:1 mapping), or should PMMs be aligned with the market/buyer persona or something else?
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
As it relates to influencing roadmap, breadth is important. If youre spread too thin (I don't mean PM:PMM ratio, I mean commonality in what you cover--more on this later)...
581 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I think I mentioned this in another answer, but I think a good framework is the Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. Build trust with your PM and other stakeholders--that's...
558 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I like to anchor messaging to a foundational message house/messaging framework document that all other deliverables stem from. List out details about your core persona:...
1191 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
The best full-stack marketers can go broad and deep. From a hard skills POV, you'd need to know enough to build a plan across any marketing dimension (product, social, em...
667 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
Tracking impact of launches and defining the costs associated with roadmap slipping. Sales deals lost because a feature was promised but didnt ship. Customer trust lost b...
549 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
I dont really have a strong "pro" for why to do this, so I personally wouldnt put too much time and effort into it. But it may make sense for your business challenges. I ...
612 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
IMO PM creates products and PMM maps the product to the user. So I think the ideal role for PMM in shaping roadmap is to thoughtfully validate and critique the roadmap th...
563 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
To bring the voice of the customer (and all of the external market concerns top of mind to a customer) to help the PM team build the best product possible. Feedback in ...
664 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
Time and resource allocation helps me think about this. If I know I have 40 hours of work already lined up and a new project pops up, it helps me to talk to product about...
638 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
At my last company we made a launch tiering playbook. It was a series of 6 steps: 1) First, we's look at product's roadmap to see what was on the horizon 2) From there, ...
569 Views
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Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
If you dont have data or customer anecdotes, I'm not sure you should be driving roadmap. Influencing roadmap is an earned outcome and not something to just "do" for the s...
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How do you know when you have enough solid information to put forward a product suggestion?
This ties into convincing teams that a feature or change is needed. What level of evidence or research is needed to show that a certain feature or requirement is a "must have" on the product roadmap. "The competitor has it" is not always justifiable evidence.
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y
Ultimately I view roadmap as a path to your company's vision to get more customers to use your service. Thus, I definitely dont think that meet-comp features by themselve...
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