AMA: Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Core Product, Leah Brite on Stakeholder Management

We break down product marketing’s work into four buckets and work with product as follows during each of the phases: Market Strategy, Customer Insights & Product Roadmap. PMM leads market, competitive, and customer/prospect research to uncover key customer problems. We analyze market data, hone competitive intelligence, and draw on prospect and customer insights to illuminate product/market fit. We collaborate with the product team throughout this whole process to identify and prioritize big ...Read More

One of the most important things that PMM can do to drive cross-functional alignment (whether remote, hybrid, or in-person) is to keep the customer at the center of the conversation. By operating as a customer evangelist, we can bring data-driven, customer-centric stories to the forefront and get folks aligned on who our customer is, the most important problems to solve for them, and how to best serve their needs. Having a shared vision for your target market helps create natural alignment that ...Read More

My advice is to separate the ship and launch functions. In my experience when they are paired together, there is so much unproductive internal thrash when eng encounters delays and all the downstream teams have to re-adjust their plans. Instead, group new products and features into larger campaigns where if something doesn’t get released on time, you still have a compelling story to tell and your campaign doesn’t get derailed. Set expectations that all features must ship by X date to be included ...Read More

A variety of tools can be helpful in getting stakeholders aligned on the marketing strategy – the key to them all is that they are based on data and customer insights. When you are articulating your strategy, provide links to supporting research, personas, shopper journey’s, etc. These should articulate who your target customers are, what they care most about, how to influence them during the purchase or upsell process, and how they interact with your product. By highlighting the key takeaways a ...Read More

In my experience, it depends more on the actual people you work with vs the function. I have had both incredible sales and product partners that understood the big picture, were always down to collaborative and problem solve together, and where we could openly talk about areas of disagreement. These folks came curious to learn other people’s perspectives and kept users' experience at the heart, making it easier to get alignment. I’ve also had experiences where that was not the case. If you are e ...Read More

A few things come to mind to try: Create a brief for the sales enablement assets upfront. Succinctly outline what your objectives are in priority order, who the target audience is, and some brief details on what’s important and likely to appeal to them. This brief is also a great place to outline your RACI/DACI/RAPID to create clarity on what each person’s role is in the project. When conflicting opinions arise, try to leverage your brief to realign the stakeholders around what is important. Bri ...Read More

Here are a few things to think about: Consider how you are briefing in the work to get alignment upfront on the ask and the criteria. Related, bring them along on the insights journey to empower them to design in a way that will hit the mark for your target customers. Link them to your customer personas, usage data or research that highlights what they care about, past interaction data or qualitative input from customers and prospects on what they value in design or information architecture. Do ...Read More