The competitive set is defined by your audience, not you. And it changes all the
time. At Square, we compete against anything that enables anyone to participate
in our economy, not just other POS comp
Market Research
What is your philosophy when it comes to competitors?
17 answers
Global Head of PMM and Content Marketing, TIDAL at Square • March 24
Head of Product Marketing at Notion • February 4
Here is the competitive intelligence mission statement I've used for several
years (repeat from previous post but will add more detail). “Define ourselves
based on problems we solve and value we pro
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex • March 9
Thanks for asking this question. The exercise of defining your competitive set
is a critical, but at times under-emphasized aspect of conducting research.
There are three primary modes for competitive
Head Of Product Marketing at 3Gtms • March 30
Interesting question about how I define "compeititor" in and of itself. I tend
to look at competitors as barriers that keep people from buying the product I'm
selling. Sometimes its a comparable produ
Head of Product Marketing at Ramp | Formerly Zendesk, ThoughtSpot, Oracle • June 22
This one is tricky because I think there's a tendency to want to boil the ocean
and do everything for every competitor. Some combination of market research and
competitive win/loss analysis should hel
Head of Product Marketing at Retool • June 24
I think competitors are important, but developing your own unique perspective of
who you are, what makes you different, and who you serve is 10-100x more
important. A short-ish anecdote: I used to wo
Director, Head of Product Marketing at Webflow • July 13
"Competitor aware, customer obsessed" is something that I've internalized when
thinking about competitors. Competitors are a good thing - it validates your
space, your product-market fit and the marke
Director of Product Marketing at Culture Amp • September 23
For smaller teams that may not have a built out CI team or CI PMM it can get
tough to manage competitive research, positioning, creation enablement and
dissemination of assets on top of everything el
Head of Product Marketing, Cisco Meraki at Cisco Meraki | Formerly Tellme Networks, Microsoft, Box, Vera, Scout RFP, and Sisu Data, to name a few. • April 13
My primary philosophy around competitors is a little different than most: focus
80% of your energy on what makes you great as a product or service, and the rest
on what anyone else is doing. I've wo
Vice President Product Marketing at AlertMedia | Formerly TrustRadius, Levelset, Walmart • July 7
There are a few types of competitors to think about: Tier 1: Prime Competition -
Those who compete for the same dollars for a very similar product. You often end
up in feature battles with them and e
Market Intelligence Lead at Airtable • September 20
The goal of our work is to help our company build and express our competitive
differentiation. A competitor is anyone who has a similar value prop for the
same audience. Not necessarily the same solut
Product Marketing at Glassdoor • September 27
In the most simpliest terms, a direct competitor is solving a simliar or same
pain point as you are. One goal in conducting a competitive analysis as part of
your market research is to identify points
Head of Competitive Intelligence at ClickUp • October 18
1. Revenue impact 2. Product innovation I used to only focus on the first point.
That's an important one—and if you have limited bandwidth, I'd recommend you
start there first. These are the vendors
Director of Product Marketing at HubSpot • December 6
This is a great question because: fortune favors the focused. In our world,
there are thousands of SaaS offerings on the market. Many offer competitive
products and capabilities to us. However, only a
Senior Director, Product Marketing at MURAL • February 16
A competitor is anything that can be substituted for the value that your product
offers. Sometimes, that's a product with a very similar feature set. Sometimes,
it's a product that is designed for a d
VP, Product Marketing at Attentive • March 23
'I think a competitor is anyone who is in or adjacent to your space. Said
another way, a competitor is a vendor that can cause confusion or slow down your
sales cycle for some reason. There are a few
27 answers
Head of Lightroom Product Marketing at Adobe • September 13
I’ve had the best success with easy to digest “competitive battlecards” for
sales. The simpler, the better. They should give basic company info, pricing,
and how to handle objections. For larger sales
VP of GTM & Strategy at Novi • December 20
This is a little meta, but the best advice I have is to treat your sellers as
your customers. What would you do to try to understand how to get a customer to
use your product? Do some research - via
Director of Product Marketing at jane.app • July 5
Timeliness and accessiblity are also key to providing value to your team.
Providing a list of month-end/ quarter-end killshots speaking to the most
up-to-date intel and positioning you have on focu
Product Marketing Manager at BigCommerce • July 13
Getting sales buy in on what type of information they want early on can be
really helpful (it can also be useful if they change their mind later on).
Starting with a proof of concept then circulating
Senior Principal Product Marketing Manager at Red Hat • July 31
Agree w/ comments above. Easily digestible chunks of data presented in a battle
card format (2 pages) is very effective. Remember to keep it brief and concise
(e.g. 3 bullet points per topic). Ther
Director, Head of Product Marketing at Webflow • July 13
Great question and one that really hits home for me since I used to do
competitive intel while sitting in the sales organization at Medallia. The best
approach I've seen is first identifying the top c
Director of Product Marketing at Culture Amp • September 23
This is a great question and one that generally takes refinement over time based
on feedback from sales. Here's what you can do to make sure your competitive
intel is beneficial and leveraged by your
Senior Director, Product Marketing at Twilio • December 2
Competitive Battlecards are the best asset for sales but remember to KISS (keep
it stupid simple). Sales are often pressed for time so how can you clearly pick
apart your differentiators (vs the compe
Sr. Director, Product Marketing at Productboard • December 14
Love this question, because if sales doesn’t use your competitive intel then
what’s the point of investing time at the expense of your other competing
priorities. A few things I recommend: Work with
Associate Director Product Marketing, Creator Promotion at Spotify • March 16
When gathering competitive intel, I find the most important thing is to have the
goal for it clearly mapped out. Why does Sales (or product) want the competitive
intel? What will they use it for? If y
Director of Product Marketing, Global Insights Solutions @ Momentive at Momentive (SurveyMonkey) | Formerly SurveyMonkey, Nielsen • March 23
Hah! You kinda answered your own question here. Create competitive intel that is
easy to read and applicable to how Sales will use it! Sales doesn't want a novel
about each competitor. They want high
Head of Product Marketing, Cisco Meraki at Cisco Meraki | Formerly Tellme Networks, Microsoft, Box, Vera, Scout RFP, and Sisu Data, to name a few. • April 13
This is a fun one. An aphorism we could coin here is that "Competitive
battlecards are just like datasheets. Every salesperson desperately wants a new
one, but nobody ever uses them." The challenge
Director of Product Marketing at Indeed • July 28
I first start with really solid positioning, which should clearly identify how
your offering is differentiated from other competitors in the market and lean
into that. Second, I listen and shadow sale
Head Of Product Marketing at Square • September 14
Like any good marketer, it's about knowing your end customer and how they would
like to consume information. All sales teams are different and finding the right
communication methods (format, frequenc
Head of Competitive Intelligence at ClickUp • October 18
Get them involved. Interview them to learn about their encounters with
competitors. Here are things that I regularly ask my sellers. Which competitors
are coming up most in conversations with buyers
Director of Product Marketing at Snow Software • November 16
In my experience, the best way to communicate with sales people is to speak with
them. They are so busy, and I find they don't read emails from PMMs, especially
emails not directed to them personally.
Director of Product Marketing at HubSpot • December 6
Make it snackable. Make it easy to remember. Make it impactful. Show the impact
of reps applying this to amplify awareness and usage. Reps spend their days
diving into a multitude of different busines
Vice President of Product Marketing at GitLab • January 30
I think of competitive intel like product managers think about their product.
The first step is to listen to your stakeholders (or internal customers) from
sales, product, customer success and marke
Senior Director, Product Marketing at MURAL • February 16
One of the key things to consider with any information provided to a sales team
is making sure you answer two questions: Why does it matter? What should they do
with it? When it comes to competitive
Co-founder of Grow+Scale at Grow + Scale • February 19
If you're banking that your sales teams will use your materials then you ask
them first! Start with the top 2-3 sales reps or a sales manager who has a
low-down on the biggest objections and reasons
VP, Product Marketing at Attentive • March 23
I try to use the Pyramid approach to all content. Start with just absolute
essential information, then expand. This way sales reps are able to capture the
exact right amount of information in the most
12 answers
Global Head of PMM and Content Marketing, TIDAL at Square • March 24
I don't actually use market research for that, is the short answer. If we
believe that our solution is well suited for a particular vertical, we have the
budget to invest in GTM to capture business i
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Solutions at Matterport • December 29
There are a few questions you need to answer to determine if it's worth
targeting this new vertical: - Do you have product-market fit? Are you solving a
real problem for this vertical? - What is the s
Head of Product Marketing at Notion • February 4
Ensure verticalization aligns well with core competencies, market perception,
ability to deliver and differentiation. If you do not clearly understand the
definition of the target vertical, the trends
Senior Director, Product Marketing at Twilio • December 2
When looking to identify target verticals, I always prefer a data driven
approach. I'd work up a detailed analysis exercise and build a vertical based
TAM. I have a go-to bubble chart that I like to d
Product Marketing Lead at Google | Formerly DocuSign • January 25
Market research is a pretty valuable data point in terms of prioritizing
verticals (or any other segmentation slice), but so too is your product
ownership point of view and your internal usage data. S
Head of Product Marketing, VR Work Experiences, Oculus at Meta • February 3
Instead of a "vertical focus" go forward with a New Audience focus so you can
leverage the 5A GTM framework , and ensure you're thinking through a consumers'
need. Also, if you focus on a new user, y
Head of Product Marketing - Security, Developer Services & Hyperforce at Salesforce • April 5
Making the assumption here that vertical = industry. Industry definition - which
taxonomy are you using. NAICS, SIC, propietary, DUNS, Clearbit? This is
important because there is a lot of nuance h
Vice President of Product Marketing at GitLab • July 13
I believe that market insights are the #1 core product marketing capability.
Literally everything – from positioning and messaging to the products and
capabilities you deliver to the market – flows fr
Group Manager, Product Marketing at Lyra Health • August 3
Market research is near and dear to my heart and at the core of any strong
product and go-to-market plan. I have many examples of how you can use research
to inform vertical strategy, but my first tip
Head of Solutions Marketing at Iterable • January 11
When we first started to verticalize our solution, we looked at: TAM (total
addressable market) and SAM (sellable addressable market--what is realistic that
YOUR company can sell in to?) CARR Win Rat
Senior Director Product Marketing at Crossbeam | Formerly 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • January 23
We aim to diversify our revenue strategy with dynamic and compelling GTM
campaigns. We use market research from internal and external sources to fuel
decisions. Internal market research comes from our
6 answers
Head of Market Insights at Glassdoor • September 27
First of all, *hugs*. I've worked on both the vendor and client sides of
research, so I've had the opportunity to work with many different teams with
varying levels of interest in market research. Whe
Head of Product Marketing at LottieFiles | Formerly WeLoveNoCode (made $3.6M ARR), Abstract, Flawless App (sold) • September 30
Always come with data insights proving how your research will drive some numbers
up.
Head of Product Marketing at LottieFiles | Formerly WeLoveNoCode (made $3.6M ARR), Abstract, Flawless App (sold) • September 30
Always come with data insights proving how your research will drive some numbers
up.
Senior Director of Product Marketing at Zenput • October 4
Why do you want to do the research? For marketing content/reports? Show the CMO
and CEO all of the ways that you'll be able to get value out of it e.g.
packaging up into a report for demand gen, web
Senior Product Marketing Manager at AppDirect • February 21
Try to understand where any resitance might be coming from and be sure to tie
your research to business outcomes. Digital transformation in market research A
variety of self-serve tools exist today
14 answers
Head (VP) of Global Enablement at Benchling • May 18
Your CMS (content management system) should have some sort of archiving
parameters in place that should remind the PMM team when things get stale. With
that said, all the reminders in the world won't
Head of Product Marketing at Notion • February 3
Align on needs and get buy-in on the program from key stakeholders upfront,
otherwise, you will just be reactive and the expectations will be that every
request is handled and every asset is up to dat
Head Of Product Marketing at 3Gtms • March 30
In the "real world" this is a function of whose responsibility sales collateral
is. If it's product marketing, the answer is simple: Supply new collateral when
it's time for an update. However, if pro
Vice President & Head of Marketing at Fin.com • April 7
There's two parts to keeping all the above content up to date, including content
creation and content delivery: Content Creation: This is all about capacity
planning of the Product Marketing team on
Head of Product Marketing at Retool • June 24
Make it jointly owned. Your team will (almost certainly) not grow as fast as
sales, success, support, etc. Even talented PMMs struggle to keep these things
relevant and useful for every season of the
Vice President Product Marketing at Medallia • July 20
This really depends on your product and industry. Let me outline a framework
with four elements: The customer perspective The competitor perspective The
technology perspective, and The marketplace p
Senior Director of Product Management at Oracle • August 17
This is tough, but you can prevent foundational PMM assets from going stale by
having (1) defined processes (e.g., establishing which components of your market
intelligence are most important to updat
Associate Director Product Marketing, Creator Promotion at Spotify • March 16
I'm big on updating information based on actions that need to be taken /
decision that need to be made. When it comes to market research and personas,
clarify what decisions you need to make based o
Senior Director Product Marketing at Roofstock • March 21
Starting with the customer insight is always the #1 job of a product marketer.
Ideal customer profile, target verticals, buyer personas, etc these are things
that aren’t going to change on a weekly or
Director of Product Marketing at Snow Software • November 16
The good news is sales people notice when materials are out of date, and will
let you know it is time for a refresh. :) Joking aside, here are some proactive
tips on how to keep materials up to date.
Head of Core Product Marketing & GTM, ITSM Solutions at Atlassian • December 20
You have to establish a cadence of updates for different assets, which will vary
based on how they are used and your market dynamics. Personas don't change
often, so revisting them every 6 months migh
Co-founder of Grow+Scale at Grow + Scale • February 17
Outdated information is almost worse than having no information since you might
be making decisions from data sources that are no longer relevant or valid. To
make sure this doesn't happen to you, c
We don't have enough people to conduct lots of interviews or the money to hire a research firm or pay for reports they've already created. How can a one-person PMM team best spend their time and efforts to do effective market research that informs product, marketing, and sales strategies?
5 answers
Head of Product Marketing at Notion • February 4
I feel your pain! - Templates - Prioritize with execs what will drive impact +
Set expectations internal - Google alerts One other thing to think about...How
can you use market research for multiple
Product & Instructor Marketing, Director at Udemy • December 15
It truly does take a team to develop a strong pov on the market - a PMM can
drive it, but you'll want other internal subject-matter experts to contribute.
I'd recommend first aligning w/your leadersh
Co-founder of Grow+Scale at Grow + Scale • February 16
Oof. I feel seen. If you're in an early-stage startup or if your department is
usually quite small then you will have to rely on tools. If budget is the limit,
fret not, there are tons of free options
1 answer
President at Giant Stride Marketing Group • January 24
I have found that customers are more willing to share their experiences in
win-loss interviews than you might think. The keys are to: Make it clear that
you're not going to sell them. Make sure that
7 answers
Head Of Product Marketing at 3Gtms • March 30
Voice of Customer insights are a great way to 1) see trends among customers (if
enough are saying the same thing) and 2) check our own collective understanding
of what we do. Sometimes, VoC will sugge
Product & Instructor Marketing, Director at Udemy • December 15
Ideally, in everything :) Product Marketers should aim to approach our work from
the perspective of the consumer, and frequently bring that view into internal
conversations. This is why we closely eva
Associate Director Product Marketing, Creator Promotion at Spotify • March 16
We use voice of customer insights to inform messaging and positioning as well as
our product roadmap. At Spotify, we have monthly syncs with our partnerships and
sales team to just discuss feedback fr
Director of Product Marketing at Snow Software • November 16
I've used VoC insights to improve marketing messages, campaign focus and
customer experiences. Here are some examples. Customer onboarding: Analyzing
support case trends and feedback from product re
3 answers
Director of Product Marketing at Indeed • July 28
I love this question. I've done this in a really scrappy way at a start-up and
then approached this with significant budgets at a larger company. The scrappy
way was to identify a couple leads, reach
3 answers
VP of GTM & Strategy at Novi • December 20
This one’s a sensitive one, since it’s tough (and not necessarily good for the
business) to get in the middle of a sales process. I’ve found most success
reaching out to folks cold who are not in a
Director of Product Marketing at Indeed • July 28
Such a wonderful question. I'm a big proponent of doing this. First, identify
your target market and job titles of your target buyer. Then interview them to
get a good understanding of the problems th