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Axel Kirstetter

AMA: Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing, Axel Kirstetter on Influencing the Product Roadmap

November 20, 2024 @ 9:00AM PT

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  1. How do you work with the Product team to get them to commit to a roadmap? How do you "sell" them the idea that it is important?

    Specially for B2B products, where your buyers are companies that need visibility for their own developments

    Axel Kirstetter
    Axel Kirstetter

    Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing | Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy • 1y

    Like any department its always risky to commit to something that may fail / not happen. I find it helpful to shift the dialogue from roadmap and talk more about customer problems that are being solved and / or market opportunities that are being addressed. It moves the goal post from we must deliver X next week, month, quarter to how to plan to solve X problem. Further, most companies have some non-agile ie deadline occasion. like a customer event or internal sales kick-off where not sharing abo ...Read More

    687 Views
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  2. How do you leverage Competitive Intelligence to influence the Product Roadmap?

    Axel Kirstetter
    Axel Kirstetter

    Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing | Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy • 1y

    Competitive Insight impacts the roadmap in 2 ways. 1. It can be used to identify competitive strengths and weaknesses. That insight can be used to steer the roadmap while weighing up what is important to address and what can be ignored. 2. CI can als be used for pricing and packaging decisions. Are you a price leader or leaving money on the table? how are other providers their terms of service and payment conditions. subject to where entitlements are tracked (in the app or the billing system), t ...Read More

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  3. How can product marketing manager influence a product roadmap when the roadmap is already full with multiple requests from customers, product vision or engineering items?

    Axel Kirstetter
    Axel Kirstetter

    Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing | Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy • 1y

    Who says that PMM can't be the supplier of some of that information? PMMs can take the customer requests and map them against ICP or personas. They can take a point of view on the economic impact of technical debt vs acquisition vs retention vs adoption. From there they take a PoV and influence the roadmap

    1,211 Views
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  4. How do you recommend Product Marketing get looped into conversations earlier to help influence the roadmap, instead of being notified after it's already in development or released and ready for Go-to-Market?

    Axel Kirstetter
    Axel Kirstetter

    Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing | Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy • 1y

    We need to distinguish between what goes into the roadmap [1] and how it is communicated outwards [2]. For [1] establish PMM as a core stakeholder in the product planning process, giving them a regular seat in roadmap discussions. This allows PMM to bring valuable customer insights (VoC, Win/Loss), support data (feature requests, support tickets, and competitive data—and everything around inbound product marketing—before key decisions are made, ensuring features align with market and customer ne ...Read More

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  5. What is typically the timeline that you’re committing to for influencing the product roadmap for launches versus exploration?

    Axel Kirstetter
    Axel Kirstetter

    Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing | Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy • 1y

    This should be a continuous exercise with time investment dependent on the where the biggest issues are. When it come to net new product launches, those that expand TAM, its worth spending tons of time on the roadmap. When the launch is around bug fixes and what is really CSAT, its probably not as worthwhile.

    735 Views
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  6. How does the influence on the product road map vary in a regional versus an HQ office?

    Axel Kirstetter
    Axel Kirstetter

    Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing | Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy • 1y

    At some point it makes sense for a company to invest in an international product team responsible for gathering non-domestic feedback. Once there, the same roadmap process should apply with trade-offs and priorities. And then its a matter of weighing up the importance of international opportunities with those elsewhere.

    679 Views
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  7. How does one explore opportunities outside of North America, namely in Spanish-speaking countries if that is a professional interest?

    Axel Kirstetter
    Axel Kirstetter

    Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing | Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy • 1y

    Ask for an informational interview in the country of choice. Remember LatAm is a dozen + individual countries. Use LinkedIn to find contacts and reach out to them. Ask for an informational interview and uncover what works best. One caution is that LI is not as actively used in SA. Using google to find contacts will also be helpful

    193 Views
    1 request