How do you juggle the different voices wanting to weigh in on messaging, and make sure you're not watering things down with a "messaging by committee" situation?

I find that the best way to get everyone aligned is to include them early in the marketing research and user insights phase. This will help set a baseline for what the narrative needs to be, removing already some of the personal assumptions other team members can bring to the discussion.  The second thing I normally do is to test the narrative individually with multiple stakeholders, this allows everyone to provide unbiased feedback and feel 100% heard.  Thirdly, I present the complete narrative ...Read More

Ah, a tricky one! There are a few things that you can do, starting with a core team that you trust to participate in the fluidity that is message development. Typically, this is a small group that can speak to all the core concepts that you need to discuss in detail. At Okta, this was our product management and product marketing team plus a couple of ‘super AE/SEs’ to provide field input.Once a baseline message has been developed, then it’s best to iterate quickly via testing. For example, we us ...Read More

I call this the "seagull phenomenon." It's kind of incredible how many folks can swoop in to make a mess on a messaging project. As a product marketer, your challenge is to find ways to make key stakeholders heard, but also curate their input on your path to messaging that works. Four hard-won tips here: Start with who needs to be involved. I'm a fan of establishing a RASCI or RAPID framework before embarking on a messaging project. Drive alignment on roles and appropriate involvement. Get an ex ...Read More

I recently ran into this issue when creating messaging for a new product page for our website. We had multiple stakeholders that weighed in on messaging and it definitely made the process take longer. I think there are a couple of ways to address this: Identify the driver and ultimate approver. If everyone is aligned to their roles, then as the driver, you can take their feedback into account and accept or reject it as you see fit. In my example, I was the driver and knew the product best so whi ...Read More

If you frequently find yourself in a "messaging by committee" situation, I'd recommend working directly with your boss (e.g, the CMO) and the CEO to create a DACI document (Driver, Approver, Contributor, Informed). Let's take company messaging.You might be the Driver. Your boss might be the first Approver, but the final Approver is the CEO. Contributor could be the other C-level executives. Informed could be the other people who typically weigh in, as well as other who need to use your messaging ...Read More