AMA: Ironclad Director of PMM, Stacey Wang on Stakeholder Management

* High growth mindset / hunger to continuously improve. * Great negotiators. We sit at the intersection of a lot of teams and needs! PMMs need to be skilled not just at bringing value, but negotiating priorities. * Great collaborators. PMMs can't drive impact if they can't collaborate. * Can't emphasize enough the importance of empathy, especially when it comes to XFN work!

We built a system in Coda that enables XFN stakeholders to self-serve needs asynchronously. Coda also allows us to automate email updates to relevant parts of the business. Finally, we've implemented a cadence of regular team presentations and updates on important XFN topics, e.g., market landscape read-outs, win-rates, AR strategy. 

To the extent different teams have different cultures, I will tailor my approach, but for the most part I manage stakeholders according to their individual personalities rather than what team they're a part of. Some folks are more transactional; others are more relationship-driven. No matter the individual, I always start with empathy: understanding the person behind the ask, and what they need to be successful. 

Anchor on the highest priority for the company, versus any one team. One of the hardest but also most liberating things about product marketing is that we are an inherently flexible function. Our skillsets are diverse, so we can quickly get into formation behind whatever is most important and strategic to the company at any given point in time. This is our greatest strength (and, if handled poorly, our greatest weakness), so don't let it go to waste! If the most important initiative at the company is revenue, make yourself indispensable to sales by holding your team to sales targets. If it is building a revolutionary product, prioritize product. Whatever you do, do not try to be everything to everyone. That just results in a lot of "RAM" (random acts of marketing) that don't make clear to anyone what you're actually good for.

Systematizing the capture and dissemination of customer and market feedback is key here. At Ironclad, we spent a lot of time designing and building a system in Coda that brings in customer feedback streams from across the company and disseminates it in real-time to the parts of the business that need it. The real-time aspect of the system allows XFN partners to self-serve asynchronously. We also meet with product and sales several times a quarter to synthesize and discuss areas of concern bubbled up from our Coda system. 

This question is completely contingent on your company's business priorities and problems. No one should meet for the sake of meeting! So if the most pressing XFN problem at your company is pricing, you should implement or get PMM into the room for that meeting. If the most pressing XFN problem is opening up a new market, you should get a cadence on the calendar for that. At Ironclad, we have a regular cadence with Product, Sales, and Marketing on topics like Market/Compete, Win/Loss, and all GTM initiatives.

* A superpower. PMMs come in all shapes and varieties. I like building PMMs into superheroes, known for the thing they do better than anything at the org. I'm always looking for the one thing that a candidate has that sets them head/shoulders above everyone else in the game. Is it storytelling? Analytical rigor? Product aptitude? * High ownership and drive; hunger to make an impact. Ironclad is a mission-driven company and everyone on the team is here to create transformative change in an industry that hasn't seen real innovation in decades. * High integrity—no one likes working with people with bad people! * High growth mindset / hunger to continuously improve. * Great collaboration and negotiation. We sit at the intersection of a lot of teams and needs! PMMs need to be skilled not just at collaborating/bringing value, but negotiating priorities. * They're fun to work with!

There is no one-size-fits-all here; this depends on the size of your company (the smaller it is, the easier it will be to keep everyone on the same page) and scope of the launch (the smaller it is, the less necessary it is to get everyone together). What's most important is to set a cadence up-front w/ your XFN stakeholders that makes sense for your org.