AMA: Shopify Senior Product Marketing Lead, Robin Fontaine on Influencing the Product Roadmap

It's been a while since I was at an early stage startup, but I find the process isn't that different than working on on early stage product within an established company, which I do a lot of! In the early stages, clarity and focus are critical. I would start with: Positioning and Messaging – based on customer interviews, competitive insights, and founder vision. ICP and Segmentation – Who are we targeting now vs. later? What are their pain points? Launch Framework – What constitutes a “launch” a ...Read More

Every company and sometimes each team within a company can have a different approach to this. As a Product Marketer, you need to build some flexibility and contingencies into every GTM plan. Most of the time there are at least some long term strategic priorities that have been on the roadmap for a year or more. Most teams I have been on will do a roadmap planning cycle every 6 months, and sometimes a mini planning cycle every quarter. Then there are times when the roadmap has to change quickly d ...Read More

A strong research program should include both qualitative and quantitative data. And if you're strapped for time and resources, which we often are, the best place to start is talking to customers, even if you can only do so once a week. Try to set up a system that keeps you in the groove of having regular customer conversations. This will give you great qualitative data. For quant data, a regular cadence of surveys can be valuable. This might take the form of a longer survey once a year to asses ...Read More

Data is indeed powerful for influencing if you are able to spot a clear trend that points to a specific product reccomendation. But I have found that qualitative evidence can be just as convincing if not moreso. Video clips of real customers explaining their frustrations or asking for features in a research interview can carry a lot of weight. Other types of data that are helpful for influencing the product roadmap: product adoption data a funnel analysis showing where product adoption or activa ...Read More