AMA: Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing, Axel Kirstetter on Product Marketing KPI's

There are 3 types of KPIs that matter. Organizational, output and outcomes. Organizational are things like headcount ratio to product lines or revenue support. Or, employee satisfaction scores. useful for putting context around the function Output is where most functions are at. 10 assets were produced this week. 1 hero asset. 5 sales support calls etc. Outcomes is measuring business impact. to what extent did the activities move the needle, or simply, how is the business performance. Tofu/Bofu ...Read More

This should be straightforward. Again, there are three KPIs, Organizational, Output, and Outcomes. And especially around Outcomes, it's all about following where the business is at, what they care about, and aligning the stakeholders accordingly. Whether it's revenue growth or product adoption, it's easy to get everyone around it. And if there is no agreement, the PMM lead needs to take a decision and inform the stakeholders thereof. From there, the next step is making sure that you can actually ...Read More

Product Marketing does not own any meaningful KPIs. It should, however, report on them to tell the picture of the health of the product portfolio. Mindset always needs to be mini-CMO or -General Manager. From there friction can occur when reporting on, say, DemGen numbers that PMM influences but does not own. The other area that comes to mind is separating leading indicators from trailing indicators. Website visitors are not necessarily an indicator of success/failure. Only when combined with co ...Read More

There are various aspects to positioning. price positioning. Are you able to command a premium price / pricing power. this can be measured through sell-in and sell-out rates. KPIs would be AVG sale price. Compared to the competition. This can be done via surveying. (this is more applicable to high-volume products) Brand perception. Do buyers / the market see you as a thought leader associated with key words and market trends. do you occupy the right trends. Many brand studies do this from a meas ...Read More

When it comes to operating at scale, you inevitably have to be in a position to explain to the various stakeholders what you've done for them, whether it is how a specific product has been supported, how a specific region has been supported, or how a specific campaign type has been supported. And for that, utilize some kind of a project management tool that allows for quick, on-the-fly reporting. The other aspect of scaling a product marketing team is showing how you are impacting the the busine ...Read More

The idea behind a KPI is that you're actually able to do something about it. And so, yes, you can report on many KPIs. However, only six to eight KPIs make sense to follow, and decisive action should be taken should they change. Beyond that, there are simply too many wheels to turn where you don't control the outcome. Those KPIs should cover a few areas: production, awareness, pipeline, revenue, and traction. Subject to the business priorities, the focus can change to, say, adoption, testimonial ...Read More

Love this question. Product-marketing KPIs are shifting quickly in an AI-driven world. Teams are moving away from output metrics. how many decks, launches, or enablement sessions they shipped. toward outcome metrics that tie directly to revenue, adoption, and competitive advantage. This shift is driven by the fact that AI can now measure patterns in sales calls, customer signals, and usage data with far greater clarity, making legacy KPIs feel shallow. What matters now is the impact of PMM work. ...Read More