AMA: Splunk Director, Product Marketing, Rinita Datta on Influencing the Product Roadmap

Haha, good question! Here are some things I can think of: Don’t do the PM’s job for them. If you have an idea, recommend and discuss it rather than force it.  Don’t recommend something without due diligence. Ensure you can answer ‘Why is this so important,’ ‘Why now?’ and ‘How does it align with our goals.’ Don’t be biased. Just because it didn’t work for you or for that one very vocal customer doesn’t mean that the world is ending and the roadmap needs to be changed now. Proactively build a cas ...Read More

We’ve typically done this by cataloging every idea and piece of feedback from various sources in a backlog and assigning a weighted score to each for prioritization. The weighting factors can be business impact (new market entry/revenue growth/retention or satisfaction play, etc.), customer impact, alignment with market trends and leadership OKRs, ease and length of implementation, frequency of the request, etc. Doing this exercise collaboratively with your PM counterparts will help you understa ...Read More

I would first interview some sales reps, customer success managers, and customers to validate and possibly support the competitive intelligence received with data and quotes. This research will help you gain more depth on the situation and build a comprehensive case to influence the product roadmap and address the competitive threat more strategically. Here are some things to look for in your research: The competitor could be solving customer pain points using a feature that is either nonexisten ...Read More

PMs with long tenure will have established perspectives on various things and deep domain knowledge. Influencing the roadmap here requires you to collaborate closely with the PMs, respect their experience, adapt to their working style, and focus on building trust with them.  Start with the basics: aligning on product goals, positioning yourself as a partner, and having an open conversation about how you can add value to any ongoing or new initiatives. Proactively ask to join and learn from plann ...Read More

Keep showcasing your technical/non-technical expertise, market understanding, and value as a cross-functional collaborator to build credibility and rapport. Here are some tactical things you can try to get looped in earlier: Establish a 1:1 cadence with your PM counterparts to share top-of-mind priorities, customer insights from various sources, and product direction. Proactively seek new sources of feedback and customer input that you can synthesize and market research that can help influence t ...Read More

This is often the case at larger companies, and your expected outcome requires a lot of relationship building, regular communication, and tight alignment on OKRs and ongoing research projects. Here are some tactics you can try to drive this successfully: Set up monthly syncs with the customer research team to share top-of-mind goals, identify new research opportunities or gaps, and discuss insights. Ask to get included in ongoing research projects. You can review the methodology, participate in ...Read More

Budget is not the only resource at your disposal; I’d encourage you to get creative and find more avenues to contact prospects, customers, partners, and sales. A simple Google form survey can go a long way. There may be many other low-to-no-cost options for outreach, e.g. your company’s email orchestration system, outreach on LinkedIn, direct outreach through sales reps, analyzing support tickets, running workshops and advisory boards on Zoom meetings. You can also sign up for your competitor’s ...Read More

Have a learner’s mindset. In your spare time, keep reading technical briefs, whitepapers, documentation, and even JIRAs to understand your products' architecture and technical details. This will help you better understand and better position yourself when discussing the feasibility of a new roadmap item with your PMs. You can also ask to be a fly on the wall for product and support ticket review meetings to familiarize yourself with the terminology. I’ve also made it a personal goal for my team ...Read More

This is common, and you should start defining R&R with your PM counterparts. Common knowledge states that PMs should do customer-focused research, and PMMs should do market trends and competitive research. But this varies in reality as many companies have research happening in silos, and it depends on who has the need, budget, and capacity to do it. Emphasize that no matter who conducts the research, both PMs and PMMs can benefit from and act on the insights. While PMs can use the insights t ...Read More