Shabih Syed

AMA: mParticle Head of Product and Solutions Marketing, Shabih Syed on Building A Product Marketing Function

July 7 @ 10:00AM PST
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MParticle Head of Product and Solutions Marketing, Shabih Syed on Building A Product Marketing Function
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Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
The best way to establish credibility is to demonstrate to them what is your process for launching products and where do you need their help and how you will help them. Think of product marketing as delivering a set of services to the product managers. These services can include market research, ......Read More
982 Views
2 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
The biggest mistake I see candidates making is that they do not spend time learning about the product and the space it operates in.  My recommendation is that you spend time on the website and learn some basics about the product and it's practitioners (personas), identify the newest features re......Read More
1850 Views
4 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
Ultimately, the ROI for product marketing is revenue growth. But there are some in-process KPIs that you can set to measure the impact of product marketing. For example: 1. Content contribution can be measured with number of MQLs converted to SQLs from digital channels. Also, with increased......Read More
1659 Views
3 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
In my opinion the effectiveness of sales enablement should be measured by reducing the customer acquisition costs over time and reducing the time it takes to close a deal. Having these in-process KPIs that you can track month over month will help you demonstrate how your enablement activities are......Read More
1319 Views
3 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
I believe that product marketing's core mission is to maximize value realization and conversion rates across all key user personas which in turn helps the business achieve revenue targets. Solution marketing is a component of product marketing that demonstrates value by outlining an end-to-end te......Read More
1503 Views
6 requests
How can I get into product marketing from my current technical sales/enablement role?
I'm a product specialist at Meltwater and I'm looking to move into product marketing but would prefer to look externally. I currently support the sales team by setting up and demoing customized environments to prospects, sparring use cases, and doing some enablement work. I've been doing some small projects with both the product marketing team and the broader marketing team - most recently a competitive VS style landing page and vertical-specific landing page copy. For a side project, I'm in the midst of starting a podcast for aspiring marketers where I interview people from different disciplines so students and others looking to get into the field can see what best aligns with their interests. Is there anything else I should be doing? Am I looking two steps ahead and I need to get more experience first? Feel like I wouldn't even get an interview if I applied to a PMM job in the tech space.
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
Thank you for your question. It's true that sometimes hiring managers look for the steretoypical background markers such as years of experience when evaluating candidates for product marketing. But in my experience I don't find those to be strong indicators of how well you are going to perform as......Read More
729 Views
3 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
It's difficult to generalize here. You need to first establish the need for product marketing because not every company needs a product marketing function. In my opinion: Small companies or start-ups (<20M ARR) can delay hiring product marketers if the founders or early marketing employees can p......Read More
1593 Views
4 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
I personally don't see product marketing to be of different types. However, as you setup a product marketing function you need to develop work streams that are led by experts.  These foundational work streams can include:  1. Developing GTM messaging 2. Coming up with pricing methodology 3......Read More
1862 Views
4 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
I see the product marketing function as a mix of strategic and tactical work streams. Strategic work streams are harder to improve on and naturally have a significant impact. Tactical work streams are easier to improve on. The strategic work streams may include developing GTM messaging, pricing ......Read More
1689 Views
4 requests
Shabih Syed
Shabih Syed
Square Product Lead, Ecosystem DiscoveryJuly 7
In all product marketing teams I have worked for we came up with product launch treatments for the types of product launch. The types of launch can be "New SKUs", "New Features", "Minor Features" and so on. It's best to have a product launch playbook template designed for each type with consensus......Read More
1620 Views
2 requests