Release Marketing
How would you approach this product marketing interview assignment?
I interviewed earlier this year and did well except for this assignment. I'm hoping to better prepare for similar situations. Here's the quest:
As mentioned, the next part of this process is to complete a brief assignment. The purpose of this assignment is just to see your methodology get some insight into your approach to tasks.
For this assignment, I'd like for you to create a high-level go-to-market plan and strategy for our flagship product our event marketing platform. Our company traditionally has targeted enterprise b2b companies.
I'd like you to come up with high-level messaging, define who the target audience is, and then detail your strategy for informing the market about our event platform and getting more leads. Please identify which channels you would use, and what you would need for this go-to-market launch. Please keep your response under 2 pages
TigerData Head of Marketing • 4y
I have no idea how you prep your presentation. But for an assignment like this one, I think what employers want to test is your ability to assess the problem and provide ...
2289 Views
How do you assess organizational readiness ahead of a product launch?
Too often product marketing is seen as a collateral producing engine. But with substantial new launches, we are sometimes the only ones integrating needs, insights, and potential operational bottlenecks across all stakeholders, internal or external. I’m curious both of how you think of org readiness and how you incorporate this dimension into your launch motion.
Figma Director, Product Marketing • 5y
This is an awesome question.
The way we've gotten ahead of it when I was at Zendesk - which has worked well - is by creating an "Operations Council" who is responsible ...
1423 Views
Adobe VP, Product Marketing & GM, Next Gen Creators | Formerly Uber, Fivestars, Electronic Arts • 5y
Love this question. I take a 1 is greater than 0, even if it's less than 100 strategy here. Talking to any customers is better than talking to no customers. Obviously if ...
800 Views
How do you handle alpha/beta as it relates to your Release Marketing program and tiering framework?
Do you only include GA products / features in your releases? Do you tier alphas and betas, or have a different approach for classifying them with a corresponding level of effort / activities?
Oracle Product Marketing, Product Launch, GTM, ex-AWS | Formerly Amazon Web Services, Sprinklr • 10mo
Most broadly I look at launches across 4 major milestones 1/ Alpha/Beta, 2/ Limited Availability (LA), 3/ General Availability (GA), and 4/ GA continued (90+ day plan). I...
1932 Views
Observable VP, Marketing | Formerly Figma, Abstract • 3y
This is where tiering comes in handy. We adjust the depth and breadth of GTM plans based on the estimated impact of the launch. We also decouple product launches from pro...
1300 Views
How can I make it easier for my team and stakeholders to work with me on the marketing launch timeline when engineering releases are sometimes delayed?
Any tips for setting expectations and not losing team’s trust while ensuring we have a timeline to work towards?
Oracle Product Marketing, Product Launch, GTM, ex-AWS | Formerly Amazon Web Services, Sprinklr • 10mo
Build cycles can change, but it's best to focus on what you can control. Work with your stakeholders to set reasonable work back timelines for deliverables. For example, ...
2897 Views
What medium (slides, software, etc.) should be used to share product roadmap with customers without competitors getting access and without the risk of resources being shared that are out dated?
Trying to find a solution for our revenue team to share exciting product updates, while ensuring competitors don't get access to details and ideally not needing to make constant updates.
Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 11mo
Here are a few approachesPublic roadmap - high-level themes and directions (competitors will see this anyway)Customer-only portal - authenticated access with more detail ...
902 Views
Close Head of Product Marketing • 4y
A few things we've evolved over the years as we've trained sales teams for launches. Rather than leaning on broad sales trainings that include the entire sales org, we've...
835 Views
How do you manage the internal communication of releases?
Any tips for this to happen recurrently and clearly for all stakeholders who need to know this information in advance?
Meta Product Marketing Lead, Facebook Monetization • 2y
Good internal communication is a super power of great product teams but it doesn’t happen without concerted effort. The benefits are big though.
Gets everyone in the co...
1761 Views
Close Head of Product Marketing • 5y
First and foremost it is critical to make sure that Sales has plenty of visibility into what product is building, timelines around availability, and how PMM plans to take...
2823 Views
Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • 3y
This depends on where you are in the launch cycle. I'm coming from a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) context, which generally includes the following phases for launches: alp...
2093 Views
Vice President Of Product Management • 5y
It varies as you proceed in the various stages of the product development and GTM. For example, in the early product development phase, It is more ad-hoc where I rely hea...
574 Views
Figma Director, Product Marketing • 5y
Yes, we do! We use a number of frameworks depending on the tier (T1 to T3) of the launch. These have changed throughout the year as we've grown, but at their core they in...
17190 Views
Observable VP, Marketing | Formerly Figma, Abstract • 3y
We communicate updates and progress two ways. For each launch, we create a Slack channel specific to that launch and the people directly involved in decision-making and e...
517 Views
Samsara Vice President, Product Marketing • 5y
Love this question! It's funny - the first one that comes to mind was not actually a traditionally successful launch; it was the one where I learned the most, got to spen...
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24 Views
How do you think about the scope or deliverables for various launches?
Do you have a tiering system? What factors do you consider?
Arcade Head of Product Marketing | Formerly Zuora • 6y
Over the years, we’ve evolved the launch process at Zuora. When we were a smaller company, we launched products whenever they became generally available. Now that we have...
5545 Views
Verkada Vice President Product Marketing • 4y
Like many marketing organizations, we utilized a tiering structure to determine the priority of product releases as well as level of effort.
In general, I’m always looki...
1265 Views
Twilio Former Director of Product Management - Pricing & Packaging, CXP | Formerly Narvar, Medallia, Helpshift, Feedzai, Reputation.com • 6y
Customer stories and case studies. Proof!
The public facing spike in the intial phase (hype creation), needs to move on to proof (value creation).
We saw this at Help...
644 Views
Adobe Director of Product Marketing • 4y
Developing your team and how x-functional teams work together may seem “less pressing”, but while these things do not typically have urgent deadlines, they are extremely ...
2229 Views
What are your creative ideas, tips, or resources that can help to improve storytelling skills?
I'd love to get better at using storytelling in my product launches. I know of the basics e.g. knowing your audience, focusing on the benefit and value over features etc. but I'm looking any creative ideas, examples, or resources that could help me really sharpen things up and hone my skills.
I'd love to hear peoples recommendations and experiences of how they developed their skills in this area.
Adobe VP, Product Marketing & GM, Next Gen Creators | Formerly Uber, Fivestars, Electronic Arts • 5y
I think the basics called out here are nice building blocks, but a few more tactical examples to help:
Listen to customers. "Know your audience" is too broad of a term, ...
759 Views