Aliza Edelstein

At a high level, for product messaging, you should have these things: Elevator Pitch Unique Value Proposition Competitive Positioning Supporting Proof Points For persona messaging, add: Buyer Personas/Ideal Customer Profiles Top Use Cases For Elevator Pitches, I like to structure them as follows (you can massage these so they don’t feel too rigid, but this is the gist of how you set up the story): Challenge Solution Benefit For the Unique Value Proposition*, I like to structure them as follows" ...Read More

I see three parts to driving alignment, both with execs and among all other stakeholders: First, bring them along for the journey. Messaging cannot be done in a silo, and it’s difficult to properly adopt if not everybody feels bought in. Interview your execs and stakeholders to learn their perspective, where they feel the company or product is differentiated, what customer pain it solves, what benefits it delivers. The answers will vary and will be meaningful inputs as you craft and test your me ...Read More

Two ways to answer this question: Follow best practices Use common sense Best practice: Survey fatigue isn’t as much about the time it takes to complete a survey but about the number of questions to answer, as well as question type. Best practices for the exact number vary, but the suggestion I follow is to keep the shortest path to under 35 questions. The question type matters as well—open-ended questions have a much higher mental load than multiple choice questions. This article has great sugg ...Read More

The key to keeping messaging initiatives on track is to ensure internal stakeholders are bought in and represented throughout the process. In addition to making sure they feel heard, your messaging, launches, and campaigns will be better with their input because they bring different perspectives to the table, and diversity of thought does two wonderful things: Helps you see things differently Surfaces blindspots in your thinking In terms of specific questions, for a messaging initiative for exam ...Read More

This is a big question so bear with the long answer! If you are on the research team, product team, or product marketing team, it is your job to synthesize your research. And, it’s even better if you can consolidate it with, or tie it to, another team’s complementary work (this can be a cross-functional and collaborative effort). I’ll answer your question two parts, since you’ll need to do both of these things: Formatting: Tactically speaking, my personal style is to make a visual deck on the to ...Read More

While surveys to a representative sample are a key input for keeping your finger on the pulse of industry trends, they likely won’t tell you what you aren’t thinking to ask.  Imagine being in a library and only picking out books that you want to read; you’ll continue to learn more about what you already want to know. Imagine instead that you ask others for some book recommendations; you’ll more likely end up expanding your horizons and learning things you didn’t even know to ask about. So, depen ...Read More

There are so many ways to conduct research on a limited budget—and even for free! Gen AI. You no longer need to hire expensive agencies or consultants to write well-structured surveys. Use AI tools as a starting point and refine it. (See for yourself what happens when you ask ChatGPT “can you write a 10 question concept testing survey that will help me validate 3 new product name options?”) Templates. Same point as above - here’s an excellent set of templates (scroll to bottom). Online communiti ...Read More

There are many points in a company’s lifecycle when messaging and positioning should be reassessed—such as product launches, rebranding, or when you’re getting consistent feedback from customers or prospects (or other customer-facing teams like sales and support) that things are unclear. Repositioning is often linked to a rebranding moment or major product launch, but not always.For repositioning a mature-market leading company, first be sure to identify the goal. Is it to develop a cohesive ove ...Read More

Determine what you need to answer, and then work backward from that. The research needs to be relevant to your company in order to move the needle. For example—Do you need to prioritize what to build from a feature request backlog? Do you need to create more demand from new audiences/markets? Do you need to drive adoption of functionality that customers are already paying for? Do you need to identify an unmet market need so you can build the solution? Do you need to figure out whether it makes s ...Read More