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11 Answers

Angela Zhang
DocuSign Director, Product Marketing • November 26
That’s always a challenge in a resource-constrained world! My goal is to spend 80% of time on 1-2 big strategic projects, routine launches, process improvements, and leave 10%-20% of time for ad-hoc requests which I’ll prioritize based on some combination of interest in problem, development oppor......Read More
1969 Views

Judy Abad
TripActions Global Director, Business Strategy and Comms • September 19
This is a tricky one because you need to prioritize your work and hit your goals. At the same time, you want to be flexible if new projects come up that supersede what you’re working on. There are ways to ensure you arrive at the best decision for the good of the company. At the end of the day......Read More
1142 Views

Eileen Buenviaje Reyes
1Password VP, Product Marketing • February 11
The quarterly planning process is critical in order to set expectations up-front about what product marketing can and cannot tackle. Ideally as part of that process, each PMM leaves a bit of capacity unaccounted for (my goal would be 10-20%). This buffer should accommodate any last-minute emergen......Read More
1168 Views

Roopal Shah
Benchling Head (VP) of Global Enablement • March 10
So I use sprint planning for business. When it works well and we're compliant, it works beautifully. Here, we break our work into two week sprints and continously prune backlogs and review ad hoc requests. We also try to allocate 'white space" within the two week sprints for things that may pop u......Read More
771 Views

Catlyn Origitano
Fivetran Senior Director of Product Marketing • April 13
We work with our PM team to create a quarterly roadmap. This helps us align with them on the major releases that are happening, discovery work we need to do, and align on key activities to influence growth. We also then do a big marketing team-wide planning every quarter to ensure that, for e......Read More
301 Views

Grace Kuo
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Product Marketing • March 5
Great question and something I deal with on the daily! Ad-hoc requests: * Set expectations: Be clear with the requestor on timelines (why you can't get to it immediately, etc.) and try to let them know when you can get to it. * Gauge importance of the request. If it's HIGH priority fo......Read More
742 Views

Loren Elia
Xero Global Head Of Product Marketing • January 23
Ah, that's the million dollar question. At the beginning of each half we align with the leadership team which features and projects we're going to work on. This helps set expectations. Then I socialize with PMs what PMM is working on, which usually includes other projects besides feature launches......Read More
856 Views

Daniel Waas
AppFolio Vice President Product Marketing • April 6
There are many answers to this question depending on how large your team is, how much budget you have, etc. Some pointers: * Get clear on your goals for your product marketing team (even if it's just you) and how they ladder to the business goals. * Build an annual plan. It's surprisin......Read More
326 Views

Steve Feyer
Eightfold Product Marketing Director • September 25
This is a great question. I have at least a half-dozen executives whose interests I seek to manage with my workstream. I keep a running list of my main projects and bring it with me anytime I meet one of these execs. I show my priority among them which is driven by immovable dates on the calendar......Read More
642 Views

Gregg Miller
Oyster® VP of Product Marketing • January 18
I think a lot of it has to do with a combination of setting expectations and being realistic that important ad hoc requests will -- not might, but will -- come up. The most important time to make sure you're in that mindset and proactively communicating with your manager, team, and stakeholde......Read More
712 Views

RJ Gazarek
Refactored Marketing, LLC Principal Product Marketing Manager • January 15
We do this in our team at Veracode! So we actually operate in a SCRUM/Agile fashion, with 2 week sprints. We point all of our work, and plan for an 80% capacity. This ensure we have time to drive ad-hoc requests and return immediate value to the business when they come up. In the event that we do......Read More
860 Views
Related Ask Me Anything Sessions

Demandbase VP Product and Industry Marketing, Jackie Palmer on Stakeholder Management
August 22 @ 10:00AM PST

Calendly Head of Product Marketing, Jeff Hardison on Messaging
May 17 @ 10:00AM PST

Demandbase Director Product Marketing, Ruth Juni on Messaging
May 4 @ 10:00AM PST
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Kristen Ribero
Handshake Senior Director of Corporate Marketing • October 29
I’m a big believer in experimentation in any marketing activity. And messaging should be included in that. I see a lot of enterprise product marketers get caught up in taking on a huge messaging and positioning project/revamp that typically cuts across multiple teams and stakeholders, which can f......Read More
1336 Views
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Sarah Lambert
Symphony Talent Head of Product Marketing • October 20
This is a tough one but I would suggest doing a messaging framework for each product and then the platform as whole. This will help to determine what the true value of the platform might be - is it purely that you have the products together in one place or are you mitigating risk by integrating t......Read More
980 Views
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Diana Smith
Twilio Director of Brand and Product Marketing, Twilio.org • July 16
We think of messaging in three tiers and have different frameworks for each. Product marketing usually collaborates with PR and brand for Level 0 and Level 1, while we own Level 2. Level 0 Messaging: Highest-level company messaging, found in press releases, first sales decks slides, the “about u......Read More
9458 Views
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Derek Frome
Ouster.io Vice President Marketing • September 5
I'm going to take a somewhat contrarian view on this and say that in order to really break through in a crowded market, it takes more than clever messaging (though that never hurts). You have to position your product correctly and you have to prove that you are better. Now would be the time to in......Read More
1122 Views
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Priya Gill
Momentive (SurveyMonkey) Vice President, Product Marketing • December 8
As counterintuitive as this may sound, simple messaging isn’t always the way to go. It really comes down to your target buyer(s) and the set of messages that resonate with them, which may need to be simple for a line of business buyer like Marketing or HR or more complex/technical for an IT/Devel......Read More
760 Views
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Matt Hodges
Atlassian Head of Marketing, Confluence • October 31
Great question–tough to answer without getting too specific about Intercom and what works for us based on our own situation and approach in general. But, here goes. :) For us, a product is a container for a set of mutually exclusive features that enable specific workflows to be completed. For......Read More
1603 Views
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Loren Elia
Xero Global Head Of Product Marketing • January 23
I like to use a 5 question messaging framework: Who am I? What am? Who am I for? Why am I good for you? Why should you buy me here and now? I start by answering these questions. I do user research to really get the insights to answer to "who am I for" and "why am I good for you", and I do......Read More
1776 Views
Related Questions
How does experimentation fit into improving messaging? And if you find something that works in one channel, can you translate it across channels?What is a good way to create product positioning and messaging when launching a platform of multiple products? In this case, launching product #2 jointly + integrations to create a true platform.What are good messaging framework resources that you use?How do you develop messaging that grabs attention in a crowded market?How do you balance succinct simple messaging with a complex technology product and or set of products.What are your thoughts on how to distinguish between what is a product, feature, and solution?