AMA: Shopify Director of Product Marketing, Kevin MacGillivray on Self-Serve Product Marketing
March 13 @ 10:00AM PST
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Shopify Director of Product Marketing, Kevin MacGillivray on Self-Serve Product Marketing
Top Questions
Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
Both are very important. And in both cases the new product serves to further enhance an existing narrative. Driving adoption with existing clients can serve a few really important purposes. First - it is a safer space to test out something new with users that are already familiar with your pro......Read More
819 Views
2 requests
How do you best structure and leverage beta releases to assist the product team (with iteration, feedback) and Product Marketing (positioning, messaging, enablement, onboarding)?
How do you collect information from users and disseminate between teams? What does an ideal timeline for a beta look like?
Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
Beta releases or early access programs are a fantastic opportunity to get a sneak preview of how users/customers will interact with and use a product or feature. It is really important to capture feedback early and often and package the "so what" back to your internal stakeholder group. This incl......Read More
864 Views
2 requests
Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
I have not taken a product marketing course recently, but they can be great options that help introduce the fundamentals of the craft. The Product Marketing Alliance also offers some great material and certifications if that is an area you want to explore. Outside of coursework, there is a ton......Read More
866 Views
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Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
The short answer is that everyone in an organization should care about the voice of the customer - regardless of craft. If you feel like voice of customer is not being represented during the product roadmap process, you should take action! Getting closer to the customer and bringing this intel......Read More
800 Views
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What is your process for collecting user feedback?
Do you use ever use NPS or any other survey style?
Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
There are a lot of great ways to collect user feedback: * Focus Groups --> any time you can get a small handful of users (either individually or together) to give some of their time for an extended conversation, take advantage of it! This model works really well when you've got a mea......Read More
828 Views
2 requests
Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
At its core, product marketing remains focused on the same goals and outcomes in both cases. It is mostly the available tools and surfaces that differ. Things like segmentation, messaging frameworks, persona building etc. are applicable everywhere. They could be deployed in building out the right......Read More
845 Views
2 requests
How do you manage people who don't necessarily report into you?
This could be while giving feedback on a piece of work? Or getting them to prioritise the project you're running.
Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
This is one of the most powerful skills you can develop as a leader and especially as a PMM. PMM by nature sits at the juncture of many, many stakeholder groups - both within product and within commercial. I wouldn't necessarily say the task is to "manage people". I would boil it down further ......Read More
838 Views
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Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
I have led several product marketing teams throughout my career and it is certainly not one size fits all. A couple of models that have worked well: Mirroring Product * In an environment where roadmaps are tightly aligned with product and where deep context is a must, I like to set up ......Read More
849 Views
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What do self-serve product marketers spend their time doing, given that they don't have sales enablement responsibilities?
Where does all that time get repurposed in self-serve PMM? What are some of the big categories of work where you over-invest in self-serve vs. traditional B2B PMM?
Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
Sales enablement is only a small portion of what the product marketing craft entails. That said - there are definitely roles and organizations where enablement makes up the majority of the job. IMO PMM work generally falls into (3) categories: Upstream Product Marketing * Includes: voice ......Read More
834 Views
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Kevin MacGillivray
Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 13
These two audiences are VERY different. And it's important to be clear on the difference between audiences and channels. Enterprise merchants often move through a sales led funnel. SMB's in many cases are the ones going through a self-serve funnel. A few nuances for each: Self Serve * ......Read More
848 Views
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