AMA: Roofstock Director of Product Marketing, Mary Jane Han on Influencing the Product Roadmap

Before putting together any idea, know what the overall business priorities are and what specific goals and KPI’s the company aims to deliver. The stronger you tie your idea to those outcomes, the more likely they will be prioritized. Every company has a different process for prioritizing, but this is generally what they will weigh: * Business impact. First, quantify the size of the opportunity. Companies want to dedicate resources to ideas with the highest impact. Make sure you define the problem you are solving, the proposed solution, any assumptions you are making and a realistic picture of the impact your idea will make. * Value vs. effort. Every company is resource constrained so it’s important to define the requirements needed to execute on your idea. For big ideas or those with large unknowns, I sometimes suggest breaking the idea down into the smallest level of effort to prove that the undertaking is worthwhile (ie. a quick win) before embarking on the full idea. * Potential risks. Some businesses have risks they specifically avoid and others they are more willing to take on. That’s not to say that you should avoid risky ideas but you need to address them head on so the company can weigh whether they believe those risks are merited and the potential benefits outweigh the risk. * Likelihood of success. People need conviction that your idea will succeed. Understand what capabilities you have in-house and are good at. Typically, ideas that are built off of core competencies will be easiest to prioritize because there are less unknowns. If additional expertise, infrastructure or capabilities are not readily available, make sure to note who/what/how you will acquire them or have a plan to address the key barriers to success.

Timelines can move around a bit so unless your team is really good at hitting them or there's important implications to a milestone that must be hit, it's good to keep timeframes slightly vague or not communicating them until you have strong conviction on when it will be ready. That being said, I’d think about a framework for communication from the perspective of your customers and how significant it is to them. For FYI/No Action Needed, I’d consider integrating message with other content or in a lighthearted format (ie. newsletter, monthly digest/update). On the opposite end, an Important/Need to Take Action update should leverage prominent channels and messaging that get customers attention. Sometimes, you may also consider not communicating at all. What the team might think is the next thing since sliced bread might not mean anything at all to customers. Always put yourself in the shoes of your customers and ask yourself whether they’d care.

I’d first ask what’s driving this – does the company/leadership not believe in customer insights, is there a lack of prioritization to do this or is it simply inertia of how the company operates today? Your approach may vary depending on the answer but here are some thoughts to consider. * Make it a habit. PMMs should be as close to the customer as possible and distill those insights for their teams on an ongoing basis. This can be done thru feedback loops (sales and customer support, user interviews, surveys) and staying on top of reviews and forums where your customers frequent. By making customer insight top-of-mind, Product will come to value it when building their roadmap. * Start early. Don’t wait until Product has defined the roadmap. Learn about what major issues the business is tackling, how that might impact the product roadmap, and partner with your Product counterpart early to discuss what insights are valuable. Especially if this is new process for the org, it’s important to seamlessly insert yourself early enough in the process so there are actionable takeaways that impact the roadmap. * Find advocacy. Sometimes this is an issue of prioritization and a champion at the executive level or within the product org is key to change people’s behavior. I’d first start with your manager or your product counterpart. If you are comfortable, you can also discuss with senior product leaders where they can help you champion this and give you advice on how to approach this. * Deliver value. Some folks roll their eyes at research and insights - it simply re-confirms what they already know or the feedback doesn’t lead to breakthrough ideas as the customer is simply reacting to what exists today. To overcome this, always ensure your methodology is sound or there's a large enough sample size so there’s no reason to question its validity. More importantly, you must decipher the “so what” and tie back to actionable takeaways that influence the product roadmap.

I would put yourself in the shoes of your customers and decide whether the feature update matters to them (or not). You can consider different channels/formats that better highlight the more significant ones and others where you keep customers informed but might be more trivial. Sometimes, no update is fine too if there’s no material impact. People do appreciate it when companies don’t inundate them with every little update. If all the features ladder up to a broader theme, you can consider grouping them together in a larger update so that customers can see the big picture.

A PMM’s success is largely due to how tightly they partner with sales and product. A successful product marketer champions and owns customer voice. Your role is to synthesize all the insights across research and customer feedback to inform sales strategy and product roadmap. You also drive the go-to-market for new product launches which includes defining the target audience, positioning, messaging and the marketing campaign. Target audience, positioning and value props should be defined early in the process as it will largely shape the Product requirements which usually has longer lead time. That will eventually inform how Sales speaks to customers and tools the team needs to overcome objections. In addition, you will own the strategy and creation of sales enablement (case studies, webinars, blog, etc.) along with marketing campaign across paid (search, social, affiliates) or organic (PR, SEO). You will also put yourself in the shoes of the customer to ensure a seamless end-to-end experience. Nothing is ever perfect right out the gate and it’s important to pre-emptively troubleshoot areas where there could be friction by ensuring the messaging is right and creating appropriate content, tools or internal processes to mitigate any areas where customers may experience confusion. Finally, you will define and create the tracking mechanisms to measure success. This is often done in collaboration with sales and product depending on the metrics and where that data lives. However, you and/or in conjunction with product, will be responsible for reporting on the results of product launch often along with implications to business, sales strategy or future product roadmap.

I've seen product marketing fall either under Marketing or Product with dotted lines to specific businesses they support. There are pros and cons to either structures but generally, aligning under the product org will allow you to be more tightly aligned and have greater influence on the product roadmap.