How can marketers be in the driver seat of product launches while managing eager product and sales stakeholders?

Answer

5 Answers

Launch Channels Launch Enablement Launch Strategy Stakeholder Management Influencing the Product Roadmap

Emily Ritter

Gorgias Chief Marketing Officer • 6y

It’s a good idea to get super aligned early in the product development lifecycle about what success looks like and what everyone really cares about. Get to know your stakeholders as humans. With these insights, you’ll be able to anticipate needs and gain trust. Over communicate, and have fun!

Create a “voice of the prospect” and/or “voice of the customer” program that allows you to proactively share market insights that allow you to influence product roadmap decisions.

2,366 Views
Grace Kuo

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Product Marketing | Formerly Udemy • 6y

Have a plan...and SHARE IT. 1. Stakeholder Management Milestone Meetings: I often share roadmap/GTM plans at key meetings like Sales Management meetings, CS team meetings etc. So that it shows you have a plan and are top of the launch. This should happen during development, beta, pre-launch, and at launch! 2. Weekly Updates: Here at Udemy I send out a weekly status update on key areas of the business. This again brings visibility and pro-active communication on status. 3. Weekly PM meetings: H ...Read More

1,372 Views
Bryan Sise

Checkr VP of Product & Customer Marketing • 6y

I think it’s useful to think of the PMM as the quarterback of a product launch. I’ll acknowledge that this is a thoroughly American reference :). For larger launches, as early as possible while the to-be-launched product is still in development, the PMM should assemble a cross-functional launch team consisting of the PM, marketers from several other disciplines, and a representative from each key function such as Customer Success, Sales, Support, etc. The PMM holds regular meetings with the laun ...Read More

1,171 Views
Katherine Kelly

Instructure Head of Product Marketing | Formerly ExactTarget (Salesforce Marketing Cloud), Zendesk, Slack, Salesforce • 6y

The best way to get yourself in the driver's seat is to know where you're going and how to get there. If you understand the needs of each of these stakeholders and can start to anticipate their questions and put that proactively in your plans and communication I think you will start to feel like you are driving vs. reacting.

1,042 Views
Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • 6y

I have found that what works really well is looping in both product and sales throughout the whole go-to-market planning process. I keep both teams (and customer success) updated with what we're learning from users and what we're thinking in terms of channel execution and get their input often. This allows me to take decisions and how we bring the feature to market and also get their buy-in. This also helps with making the launch more effective because everyone knows what's going to happen ahead ...Read More

963 Views