AMA: Shopify VP Global Head of Product Marketing, Desiree Motamedi on Multi-Year Product Launches

PMs are like your close family. There are lots of heightened emotions throughout a launch—good and bad. It’s a partnership that must stay rigid because they truly are your partner in crime. Some of the best PMs I’ve worked with have challenged me and honestly, I value that. Making sure that you hear everyone’s perspectives is the only way to be sure that you’re covering all of your bases in a launch. I encourage PMMs and PMs to push each other in the right ways for this exact reason. You’ll ALWAYS come out stronger on the other side. Also, it’s quite rewarding when the customer success team is then able to help you understand how impactful your work is, as well as the story behind it. I love contributing to an impactful storyline that truly influences people to buy our products, and that type of influence isn’t created by just one person—constructive criticism in collaboration is vital.

I like to use the GTM T-shirt sizing exercise to prepare for launches. It involves first figuring out the level of resources you’ll need to GTM, then fine-tuning the criteria needed to make it the most successful it could possibly be. At this point, you want to assess things such as product value, the degree of existing customer reach, competition/market dynamics, and risks/sensitivities. Of course there is no fixed formula and these things vary based on each launch, but giving yourself this high-level visibility of the potential turnout helps you map out the most direct path to success. In my experience, XFN meetings are highly effective for accountability across teams, but they also help you bring this mapped-out launch to life—all while creating a cohesive and consistent story that your stakeholders can follow along with.

Of course there are a number of things that can go wrong when launching a product, but I think the most impactful lesson I’ve learned to date is that you must be prepared for both the good and the bad outcomes of a launch. In a previous position at Adobe, I was working on the CS 5.5 launch that rolled out only a year after the previous one—we’d usually allow for about 2-3 years in between launches. We were so excited about all of the product improvements that would come out of the rollout that we neglected some of the less favorable possibilities, such as people not wanting to make such a large investment in the new product after upgrading only a year ago. Needless to say, some of our expectations were not met for this launch due to this lack of preparation. The best way to overcome this common hurdle is to be sure that you’re over prepared—identify what can possibly go wrong before launching. I recommend putting together a pro’s and con’s list - if these particular things do end up going wrong, how can you be prepared to solve them as quickly as possible?

This looks like 2 questions, but it goes back to your relationship with product managers - you need to make sure they bring you into the process very early on when they are prototyping the feature/product. You want to understand what they are trying to solve, so you can align on what the GTM could look like. You also need to have an honest discussion on why they think these small enhancements deserve a big push if you believe they don't need a bigger GTM. It goes back to the t-shirt sizing exercise - what is the feature/product value, is this driving new adoption, is this driving your exisiting customers, are you competing with competitors, etc. You need to ask all of these questions to really understand what success looks like. On your second question - I started remotely at Shopify and it was definitely a drastic change from being in an office in previous positions. Back-to-back meetings behind a screen can be draining, so my advice is to switch up the way you participate in them. I like to take walks while I meet with people for a change of scenery, or even opt for async video recording updates, occasionally—I leave video notes for my team or my boss all the time and it just makes it easy to communicate your thoughts. You can also communicate your tone genuinely this way. Also, sometimes I like to opt for voice-only instead of video chat. I find that this takes some of the pressure off communicating face-to-face and allows for a more free flow of thoughts and speech.

This is just timely, but we just shipped Shopify Editions. One thing that became clear for the Shopify organization is that with all of the product launches across different teams, you have to be sure to keep up with all of them—especially the ones that are rolling out on an ongoing basis. When a company is rapidly growing in their offerings, it’s a good time to consider a new approach to the way you launch products. Having a central location for everything has brought a new level of awareness to all of our stakeholders: customers, partners, and employees included. Tools like Editions and other multi-year launch events are really effective ways to communicate everything consistently and cohesively, painting a story for all of your stakeholders to both look forward to and revisit whenever they’d like.

Everything starts with product. We make it a best practice to learn the goals of the product organization, then look at how the PMMs’ work ties back to them. Personally, I report into product, and it’s worth noting that a lot of PMMs do not. Reporting into product helps me ensure that, as a company, our goals are aligned. Practicing this flow of work enhances visibility between teams and it’s one of the main catalysts that brings our company’s vision to life. The ‘trickle down’ effect is prominent at Shopify, and our goals are common knowledge. Connecting product marketing’s goals with that of the product org is the only way to keep everyone moving toward the same north star.

We used to host a developer conference at Shopify called Unite where we’d speak on updated product releases either in-person or online, but as time has gone on, traditional marketing is changing. It was time that we acknowledge that and change the way we bring our products to market. We needed to find a way to give our stakeholders a reliable and consistent way to have visibility to our growth so that they understand what we’re doing for them and how we can make their lives easier. This is not only an experience for people to look forward to, but also a timeline of product progress, in retrospect. It gives us a bit of accountability knowing that our customers are looking at our product growth alongside us. This was a super collaborative effort—we worked with many or all the product leaders across the company, all led by CEO Tobi Lutke. Tobi had a vision to make product the center of Shopify’s story, and this central place of showcasing our accomplishments was the only way to bring it to life.

Aligning with the product team BEFORE launch is key. Take the time to set your expectations and benchmarks. There are a variety of considerations here, of course: awareness, adoption, engagement, to name a few. In my experience, fine-tuning these benchmarks a little bit goes a long way. Acknowledge that some KPIs are super important, and that some are dependent on other KPIs, for example. Observing results from a zoomed out lense is vital, but zooming in a bit helps you answer the reason behind your success in a launch. Another huge measure of success in a launch is customer satisfaction—your product needs to be solving a problem for your customers. Of course they need to be using it, but more importantly, they should be liking it!