AMA: ThoughtSpot Senior Director of Product Marketing, Christine Sotelo-Dag on Stakeholder Management

This is a great question, and one that likely doesn't have one right answer. It likely depends on the context, however there are a few rules I like to live by when addressing conflict. 1. Quickly set up time with the involved individuals to talk face to face / in-person. There is a lot that can get misconstrued in emails and slacks, so meeting in person can help to reduce any confusion. The faster the parties address the issue, the more likely it is that it can be resolved before it escalates into something bigger. 2. Practice active listening. People often want to feel heard, and understood. They want to know their feelings are valid, so let involved parties express themselves, and feel heard. 3. Identify the root. What is the real problem or issue at hand. Is it what it appears to be on the surface, or is there something deeper there that needs to be discussed. 4. Work together towards a solution. You can help involved parties by suggesting solutions for a resolution, and how to avoid these conflicts in the future - but encourage the involved parties to suggest and find solutions themselves as well. 5. Follow-up. Check in after some time to ensure that the problem is truly resolved and involved parties have moved on.

I think the most important and first step here is to really understand who your stakeholders are, and what methods work best based on timezones, priorities, projects, etc. As a product marketer, I typically find my stakeholders spread between 3 main groups - product, sales and marketing. Of course there are other stakeholders like program management, data teams, research teams etc - but I try to prioritize defining how I will manage my relationships with my core 3 internal groups. With my marketing counterparts, it tends to be a bit easier - we sit in the same team meetings, we share tools, and there tends to be more visibility naturally, so that is supplemented with 1:1s where it makes sense. With product counterparts, there tends to be a bit more to be done to build relationships. Historically we don't always share the same tools so documentation has been important as a source of truth between our teams. In the best case scenarios, its helpful to join specific meetings that help provide context, and leave room for feedback. And this is also supported through 1:1s where it makes sense. On the sales side, finding meeting time can be harder when it means taking sales folks off the floor - so 1:1s may be less often, and we lean on asynchronous ways to share information, and plugging into existing channels where it makes sense. These are just a few anecdotal examples, it really depends on your specific environment, but start with understanding your stakeholders and their needs and you can't go wrong.

I love a good collaboration with a user research team. There is so much rich information research teams can provide to better understand the users and customers of your product - and this should definitely feed into how you message and position your products. I'd start with understanding what the user research team has on their roadmap. Build a relationship where you're able to check in regularly on the work they are executing on and access to the readouts that come out of it. In my experience, research teams that I've work with have done a great job of providing access to the raw data from the research they conduct, along with access to readouts and recommendations. And sometimes there has been room for PMMs to add some questions or topics for research to include in their work - that can help provide customer insights to feed into messaging and positioning. All in all, it's worth spending time to build a relationship with this team as there will undoubtedly be useful insights.

In my experience this varies based on the size of the company, and how much AR is a priority for the company. Typically I've partnered with someone focused on Analyst Relations, usually sitting within the Corporate Marketing team. That person is responsible for managing the relationships with analysts, setting up the appropriate briefings and driving initiatives like the Magic Quadrant. That said, Analyst Relations is truly a team sport - one that requires input from product, marketing and technical roles like solutions engineers. Product Marketing is usually a big contributor to AR, typically helping and presenting at briefings, providing the relevant product information required and partnering with the other collaborators to bring a cohesive narrative and required technical details.

People are inherently afraid of change, so coming into an organization and changing the way things have historically been done can certainly cause fear and doubt - primarily people might assume you are making their roles irrelevant. So with that in mind, I'd lead with building trust. Of course your instincts will tell you to get in and take action - but try and carve out time to bring people along on the WHY behind the necessary changes. If the changes you're making are aligned to company objectives, then this should mean that the new initiatives will have measurable impact - and people are often motivated by understanding how their work is driving impact in an organization (versus doing something because thats what has always been done). Spend time with people, letting them know how they specifically play a role in this new world. Give them confidence that they will have a role to play, and let them know why it's important. Again, change is hard, but with thoughtful execution you can help motivate people to adjust swiftly.

Promoting your or your teams work is really important, and often gets overlooked for fear of self-promotion, or just due to being busy doing the work. Outside of self-promotion, it is also beneficial for visibility and gaining support for your work. Here are some easy ways to promote work, without having to create too much of a lift for yourself or your team. * Share on internal comms tools like newsletters, or dedicated slack channels * Plug into team meetings. Most teams have regular meetings, and are happy to welcome guests to promote and share content that can benefit their teams * Ask your manager and mentors to share in their channels and groups internally * Ask cross-functional partners for feedback and leverage those opportunties to share work * Don't forget to celebrate you and your teams wins - it's easy to get swept up in moving fast, but it's important to pause and celebrate as well

There are a few different frameworks that can come in handy here, but my go to method usually involves evaluating impact over effort - where high impact, low effort requests usually top my priority list. That said, prioritization should also take into account the goals of the business and how that ladders down to your team goals. I'd also be cautious of positioning you and/or your team too much as request takers. Rather, work towards partnerships with internal stakeholders that take your teams goals and their goals into account and you work towards prioritizing initiatives that serve both your teams needs. And last bit of advice is to be comfortable thoughtfully saying no to requests that aren't aligned to your teams priorities or aren't high impact.