AMA: Microsoft Director - Head of Copilot for Microsoft 365 Narratives and Sales Enablement, Alina Fu on Influencing the Product Roadmap

June 6, 2024 @ 9:00AM PT

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What are best ways to develop a great working relationship with product management counterparts?

Weekly status, shared google docs, etc

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

Establish trust with your PM counterparts. You can do this by bringing something of value to the table, sharing your data-driven insights with them, working WITH them and not against them, and being a thought partner they can rely on. I’ve been lucky to experience really great relationships with my PM counterparts but have heard horror stories from my colleagues. I would recommend thinking through the following: 1. What level of subject matter expertise do you have in this area? For most o ...Read More

1,638 Views

1 request
How can we leverage product marketing for post-feedback product updates? What's the best way to reintroduce a product to users who didn't initially like or understand it?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

This depends on how your organization views product marketing. If PMM is seen as a change management vehicle, what are the established rules of communicate for product changes/updates? In my experience, If we position the initial customer feedback session as an envisioning exercise, then there is no formal commitment that what we have introduced as a concept/beta is necessarily the end product. I believe this is fair as the purpose of collecting feedback is to understand if the original vision a ...Read More

1,189 Views

2 requests
How and when do you integrate qualitative research throughout your product development and launch cycle?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

Integrating qualitative research throughout the product development and launch cycle is a multi-faceted process. If you read books on product management, they will discuss the importance of the integration of UX research, product analytics, and market analysis into product requirements to enhance user satisfaction. Companies I’ve worked at before really value qualitative research whereas some other roles prioritize quantitative research. Regardless, research should be conducted. I believe there ...Read More

1,242 Views

2 requests
How would you recommend a PMM influence the product team to think more about longer term value rather than just always building products geared towards low hanging fruit/quick money?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

This is when strategic planning – either annually, semi annually or even quarterly – would be valuable. When product teams can think about their north star, big picture vision, they can dedicate resources and commitment on those longer-term value features than those with low hanging fruit/quick money. I would recommend that PMMs bring in data to help support their position – do you have customer feedback, sales or customer success data, market analysis or competitive insights on the longer-term ...Read More

1,153 Views

2 requests
How do you influence product roadmap when big picture product vision hasn't been established and there are continuous changes?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

This sounds like there may be some alignment with the C Suite on what is their big picture product vision. It is hard to motivate teams and lead others when leaders don’t have a vision. It would be easier to inspire and get people to join your company’s journey when the leaders can clearly communicate the product vision

1,683 Views

2 requests
How do you advocate for adding a new feature to the roadmap when it's something competitors have launched and customers are asking for, but internally it isn't seen as a priority?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

This comes down to how leaders at your organization make decisions. For this specific scenario, I wonder which functions within a company are not aligned that this feature is a priority. That would also depend on your company culture and if the company is product-led or sales-led. For instance, if this is a feature that customers are asking for, it is a deployment blocker and stalling new sales, I would want the leaders across Product/Eng, Marketing, and Sales to discuss why it is not a priority ...Read More

1,176 Views

2 requests
How do you manage and inform the futuristic vision of the product roadmap with current customer requirements / feedback?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

Current customer requirements are helpful to give us a sense of where they are getting stuck, what are their pain points and unmet needs. A futuristic vision of the product roadmap would ideally extend at least 6+ months out and hopefully remain durable for at least that period. Otherwise, that isn’t a true futuristic vision. We recently announced our future vision of how Copilot will evolve at Build 2024. For example, we shared that Copilot as a personal assistant is expanding to include team c ...Read More

1,260 Views

2 requests
At what stage should product marketing collaborate with product design on the design process?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

My experience has been that product managers work with product design directly. I personally have not engaged with the design process beyond seeing their concept videos or Figmas. We communicate our design expectations or product experience needs to the PMs directly.

1,193 Views

2 requests
As a product marketer, when and how do you communicate your product roadmap to both active and prospective customers?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

Our team takes it seriously and does a great job of making sure the product roadmap is accurate, updated regularly and communicated with our customers in a timely manner. It is critical to understand this deeply as it impacts all aspects of product marketing and if done well can help increase customer satisfaction and pipeline. Ultimately knowing the future of the product before the customer does and being able to layout what the future looks like can be one of your biggest superpowers. After it ...Read More

1,291 Views

2 requests
What do you think of a public product roadmap for the customers as part of product marketing?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

I think it’s great to share a public roadmap if your company is able to meet timelines and expectations. We provide public roadmaps for our customers on our external website. This helps establish rapport with the admins, give them enough time to prepare and signals our product direction. It would not be a good idea to share a public roadmap if the dates slip often or if features get removed suddenly as that can be very disruptive to your customers.

1,148 Views

2 requests
What kind of PMM organizational structure is ideal for ensuring that PMMs are set up for success (in this case, to influence the Product roadmap)?

For eg: Should PMMs be aligned with PMs (we have a 3:1 mapping), or should PMMs be aligned with the market/buyer persona or something else?

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

Some organizations don’t have PMM influencing the product roadmap at all. I believe that is shortsighted. It is valuable to have PMMs weigh in on the product roadmap, especially if their role includes market and competitive intelligence, analyzing industry trends and speaking to influential experts in their space, and having direct customer interaction or sales enablement as part of their responsibilities. Thus, I have seen success in influencing the product roadmap when PMM reports to the CEO o ...Read More

1,213 Views

2 requests
Our product team ships feature updates incrementally, how would you decide the scope of each of the feature changes? Do you market each of the feature updates as when they come out, or group them together? Thank you!

Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

Depending on how broad your product is (does it span multiple categories, are there different aspects of the platform,e tc) and how many products your company offers - you may not have the capacity or there isn’t appetite to market each feature update. For instance, most of my last 5 roles have included multiple product portfolios, each product area contains at least 5-10 apps. I would NOT market each of these feature updates as they come out because our customers cannot digest that volume of in ...Read More

1,154 Views

2 requests

AMA: Microsoft Director - Head of Copilot for Microsoft 365 Narratives and Sales Enablement, Alina Fu on Influencing the Product Roadmap

View AMA Answers

What are best ways to develop a great working relationship with product management counterparts?

How can we leverage product marketing for post-feedback product updates? What's the best way to reintroduce a product to users who didn't initially like or understand it?

How and when do you integrate qualitative research throughout your product development and launch cycle?

How would you recommend a PMM influence the product team to think more about longer term value rather than just always building products geared towards low hanging fruit/quick money?

How do you influence product roadmap when big picture product vision hasn't been established and there are continuous changes?

How do you advocate for adding a new feature to the roadmap when it's something competitors have launched and customers are asking for, but internally it isn't seen as a priority?

How do you manage and inform the futuristic vision of the product roadmap with current customer requirements / feedback?

At what stage should product marketing collaborate with product design on the design process?

As a product marketer, when and how do you communicate your product roadmap to both active and prospective customers?

What do you think of a public product roadmap for the customers as part of product marketing?

What kind of PMM organizational structure is ideal for ensuring that PMMs are set up for success (in this case, to influence the Product roadmap)?

Our product team ships feature updates incrementally, how would you decide the scope of each of the feature changes? Do you market each of the feature updates as when they come out, or group them together? Thank you!