AMA: Salesforce Former Head of Product Marketing - Security, Integrations, Mobile, Harish Peri on Stakeholder Management

There's nothing wrong with engineering/UX/CSM etc getting involved in launch/pricing decisions (for eg). The key is to: * establish parameters of what types of decisions need input and what can be done independently * create a forum for opinions to be expressed * determine and announce who the actual stakeholders are * have a specific window in which feedback can be given So if youre doing a product launch for eg. 1. Setup a working group recurring meeting involving all possible stakeholders. Use that to get input on content, copy, pricing decisions etc. Make sure its well organized and info is sent out ahead of time + recaps and decisions are memorialized 2. Define and publish the launch RACI so that everyone feels bought in and involved. 3. Keep the cadence and continue to push to solicit opinions from the various stakeholders. This is a smart way to weed out who the real stakeholders are vs who just wants to be heard once in a while vs who just wants to feel important

Always comes down to, whats right for the customer. And what does each team uniquely bring to the table to drive the best customer outcome. UX can bring a unique lens of what end users what, vs marketing can bring the viewpoint of sales and buyers. Together, it can lead to products that easy to sell, easy to buy and easy to use, which is the holy grail. Also, if there is a lot of politics in your org, then best to explicitly call out stakeholders, create recurring forums, get buy in from folks beforehand and give everyone enough time to say their peace before making decisions.

Its always good practice to have a stakeholder map. The goal of this document (which I prefer to keep at at individual level) is to remind yourself of who should be included in decisions such as launches, campaigns, sales motions, pricing, web changes etc. Information you need in this could be: * Name, title, relationship * What should they expect from you * What should you expect from them * RACI for their involvement in key processes. E.g. R for pricing, or I for launches, etc Create one of these within your first 30 days of starting a job or taking on a new role, and update every 6 months. It will take some time in the beginning, but its completely worth it.

This is a common problem no matter what function you're in. Its about stakeholder management in complex, multi-threaded project environments. Really its about project management 101. A few tips: * Before starting the project, get everyone's buy in on their role in the project. Use a RACI if that's the culture, or at least a simple document saying if someone is in the 'working team', 'approval team', informed/consulted team etc. This will ensure expectation management up front. If someone comes up later saying 'why wasnt I involved' you can show them the paper trail to explain no malintent * Drive home this divison of responsibility in your kickoff call (as in HAVE a kickoff call for sure) * Ensure that everyone involved is on the recurring meeting invite, Slack channel, Teams group, whatever you use for comms and accountability * If you have a top down culture, explicitly build in meeting cadences for review, approval, stakeholder feedback and call it what it is. Dont assume that people will know things, or pay attention 'offline' * Over communicate -- pre-meeting, agendas, status boards, recapss. Call out what's stakeholder relevant, whats not No easy way to do this, but its a lot of cat herding that if done well can drive massive organizational alignment.

Not necessarily. The goal is to ensure that for whatever initiative (launch, pricing, campaign etc) youre leading, the north star is clear, expectations from each member (or group) are clear, and the communication is very clear. The only group that usually 'needs' their own reskinned decks and docs are senior leadership. They usally get packaged updates that are much more streamlined with a focus on updates, risks and asks. If you have other stakeholders that are asking for their own format, Id encourage you sit down with them ask why. Its a huge burden on you to make multiple documents, so the best approach is to figure out a middle ground. A few tips: * Before starting the project, get everyone's buy in on their role in the project. Use a RACI if that's the culture, or at least a simple document saying if someone is in the 'working team', 'approval team', informed/consulted team etc. This will ensure expectation management up front. If someone comes up later saying 'why wasnt I involved' you can show them the paper trail to explain no malintent * Drive home this divison of responsibility in your kickoff call (as in HAVE a kickoff call for sure) * Ensure that everyone involved is on the recurring meeting invite, Slack channel, Teams group, whatever you use for comms and accountability * If you have a top down culture, explicitly build in meeting cadences for review, approval, stakeholder feedback and call it what it is. Dont assume that people will know things, or pay attention 'offline' * Over communicate -- pre-meeting, agendas, status boards, recapss. Call out what's stakeholder relevant, whats not No easy way to do this, but its a lot of cat herding that if done well can drive massive organizational alignment.

Define your north star, and stick with it. For remote teams: * Whats our mission as a team * Whats each person's mission and how does it tie to the north star * How are we going to get there, what are the specific actions we take * Do an audit every 3 months on if you are operating against that or not and fix if needed For cross functionals * What business outcome are we driving, or problem are we solving * Keep checking if everyone is on board with that, and resolve any conflicts immediately that challenge the north star 

I'll approach this question as a stakeholder problem. Seems to me that there is a lack of understanding of the shared goals between the brand and PMM teams - and hence a conflict between stakeholders. Ultimately they are both operating in service of your customers. They are jsut taking different lenses and operating at different altitudes. In an enterprise B2B company, there is no brand without a product that solves problems, and there is no organic product growth without a brand that delivers on its promise. My suggestion would be: * Sit down with the brand folks, understand what they think their purpose to be * Draw out a stakeholder map which outlines, 'what should we expect from brand' and 'what can brand expect from us' * Create a regular cadence with the teams where you review work but also ask for feedback (both ways). * Try to create a shared project that both teams can deliver on together. This will show how intertwined they are

* Demonstrate the basics: messaging, positioning, ability to make an impactful/relevant/meaningful presentation that conveys the value prop + differentiators of your product or portfolio. Cant be influential if your house is on fire. * Learn the business REALLY well. How is money made, who do we sell to, how is the sales team structured, what are their main sales motions, is it self-serve/direct/partner driven? Learn it ALL. Then figure out where are opporutnities to add unique value: better targeting, better messaging, more customer interaction, roadmap changes. Dont try to change things you don't understand * Do what you say, fast. Dont make excuses, just get it done. Then your credibility will go up. * Have a POV. Why are things the way they are? Test out your POV with sales, product, CSM, other stakeholders and refine it. But have a POV, and when the time is right, you will get your shot to make that POV into reality