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Thomas Dong

AMA: Heap Former VP Product Marketing, Thomas Dong on Stakeholder Management

December 9 @ 10:00AM PST
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Heap Former VP Product Marketing, Thomas Dong on Stakeholder Management
Top Questions
How does your company define the difference between Marketing and Product Marketing teams and how do the responsibilities differ?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 8
At Heap we are fortunate to have a CMO in Lynn Girotto who has a firm grasp and strong working knowledge of all aspects of marketing. Often times you run into CMOs who only know brand, or only DG (or for that matter, only PMM), and the results can be disastrous. She has structured our marketing t......Read More
4361 Views
2 requests
If product marketing is a relatively new function at your company (relative to product), what advice do you have on becoming a strategic partner and more involved earlier in the product roadmap development process?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 9
Very simply become a credible source of synthesized market and competitive intelligence. I'm being very deliberate about the word "synthesized", because in understanding the target market, we must understand and convey customer needs at large, not just echoing the loudest customer or citing the m......Read More
1023 Views
1 request
What's a good way to approach decisions that UX/design feels they should own vs. Marketing feels they should own?
I've seen this quite a few times when it comes to brand related items both in terms of developing and brand keeping guidelines, as well as tone of voice where design has assumed they should have a stronger say.
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 8
PMM is a highly collaborative role and I've found that if you define a DACI model: Driver, Approver, Contributors, and Informed, you can help remove some of that ambiguity upfront. A single approver (likely the CMO in this case) can broker any debates in order to make timely decisions. Then if so......Read More
930 Views
1 request
Who owns the website strategy within your org? PMM, Demand Gen, Design, etc? Assuming all are involved, but curious about who drives for you. Which models work well?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 8
Whoever controls the budget for the website owns the strategy, and that is typically Demand Gen since the website is the foundation of digital marketing. However a corporate website serves many different audiences and purposes, thus the role of the web manager is to coordinate the requirements of......Read More
1318 Views
1 request
How do you approach getting approval for messaging from internal stakeholders like Product, Sales, and Customer Success?
What format do you present the messaging for review by internal stakeholders?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 8
Set a consistent expectation for what messaging entails. The best way to do that is to establish a common messaging platform you can use regardless if you are messaging a solution, product, or feature. Here is a sample messaging template. Filling out this templates ensures consistency and forces ......Read More
935 Views
3 requests
What strategic value can Product Marketing and Sales Enablement partnership drive?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 9
While I see PMM as the flywheel of the corporate trinity: Sales, Marketing and Engineering, and view our influence and relationship with all as important, the one stakeholder relationship tied most directly to corporate success is with Sales -- and Sales Enablement in particular. Unless Sales is ......Read More
1246 Views
2 requests
What are the biggest surprises when going from a company where product marketing was established to one where you have to establish product marketing?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 9
It's not so much surprises, as it is the scope of opportunities to improve sales and marketing effectiveness. PMM generally brings stability and consistency to messaging, so where I have built the organization from the ground up, PMM has played a crucial role in helping Sales better replicate suc......Read More
825 Views
3 requests
How do you increase the Product Marketing function's ability to be a more strategic player in the company and not just the launch arm of the feature factory?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 9
Become the driver of GTM strategy. Going back to the corporate trinity: Sales, Marketing and Engineering, a sound GTM strategy informs Engineering on what to build (roadmap), suggests to Marketing what messaging resonates and where and how to reach our targets (campaigns), and helps Sales focus t......Read More
1619 Views
2 requests
What's your approach to competitive differentiation?
How does this inform your core messaging, how do you enable sales to understand what makes you different/better, how do you know if it's working with your target buyers?
Thomas Dong
Thomas Dong
NetSpring VP of Marketing • December 9
There are many stakeholders when it comes to competitive intelligence and aligning messaging and product strategy with competitive differentiation. I have found an effective model where PMM is the the driver, although any of the contributors could also drive. Regardless, it is a joint effort acro......Read More
1225 Views
2 requests