AMA: Okta Director, Product Marketing, Mallory Sword Glenn on Influencing the Product Roadmap

It depends on how your company operates and how each product team likes to work. But as a rule of thumb, you should have recurring, structured touchpoints and be ready to jump in when new insights emerge. A great anchor point is fiscal year planning. That’s when roadmaps are being finalized, budgets are set, and priorities are written down. It’s the perfect time to show up with a clear, data-backed point of view: “Here’s what we’re hearing from customers, what the field is seeing, and where the ...Read More

Nothing beats actually talking to customers. You can have all the dashboards and surveys in the world, but there’s no substitute for getting out in the field and hearing firsthand customers problems and how they talk about the solutions. Here are the loops I’ve found most valuable: Get involved in active deals.Sit in on sales calls. Pitch the product yourself when possible. You’ll see what resonates, what confuses buyers, and where objections surface. The gaps you hear in those conversations are ...Read More

I like to use ceremonies and milestones that already exist as forcing functions for roadmap discussions. You don’t need to create new meetings, you just need to show up to the right ones with a clear point of view and data to back it up. Two examples I've seen:1. Use key events to drive alignment.When I’m getting ready to write a keynote or show up to an event, my team goes to Product and says, “Here’s the story we want to tell based on what we’re hearing from customers, seeing in the market, an ...Read More

Every org is different, but a lot of the time, we overestimate how much titles matter. Most stakeholders care far more about whether you know your stuff, follow through, and make their jobs easier. The fastest way to earn trust is to know your product and your market. Be the person who can answer tough questions, connect customer insights to roadmap decisions, and translate technical details into real-world value. That kind of fluency builds instant credibility. Then, show up and deliver consist ...Read More

Short answer: you have to be more technical :) You don’t need to be an engineer or admin, but you do need to understand the product deeply enough to hold your own in technical conversations. I still have a long way to go and a lot more to learn, but here are a few things I've done to help me learn faster: Get hands-on. Use the product yourself. Learn how to demo it, test key features, and understand how customers actually experience it. When you can speak from real usage, not slides, your feedba ...Read More