Caroline Silverkorn

The three biggest things that have helped me build influence as a product marketer have been: 1) Understanding the big picture workings of the business, including how you grow, earn, and retain revenue. 2) Building up strong credibility as a user advocate based on data and first-hand research. 3) Taking ownership and stake in the success metrics that matter most to your product, design, and engineering counterparts. This means, pitching in to get results! Strong business understanding: The reaso ...Read More

I love this question because it’s a challenge I’ve certainly faced in conducting segmentation and persona work. The reality is that different stakeholders need different things out of segmentations to make them actionable for their type of work and ideally you want different user models to be simple enough to ladder up to something the entire company can easily understand and get behind. First, let’s talk about the benefits of each type of segmentation you mentioned. Then we’ll talk about how to ...Read More

Great question! I think this is always a great aspiration, because when you do it right, you can empower your whole company to be much more self-service in how they tap into company intelligence and institutional insights. That said, getting organized in this way can be a big task depending on how much work your team has built up. You’ll want to make sure that any repository is going to be well-used before putting too much time and effort into it. When deciding how to build the right kind of res ...Read More

We have a product pod structure at Quizlet. Each product pod has 1-2 very clear business goals and usually owns certain product lines or domain areas. Every pod has a PM, a PMM, a designer, a product analyst, a product support specialist, an engineering manager, and an engineering team.  This structure allows teams to determine the best working cadences and divisions of labor that work for them. I've found it to be a very liberating structure because it gives the teams a lot of autonomy over dec ...Read More

Beyond the 5 “don’t”s I listed in another question, here are two others: Not having tight enough clarity and communication about what the launch stages look like for all stakeholders. Sometimes it’s fine to have a more decoupled feature/product release and marketing launch, but oftentimes that creates a poor experience for users and steals some of the thunder from your "moment." Not to mention, it tends to create some internal churn and chaos. This one seems like a given, but it's common for eng ...Read More

If you can get it, the most important thing is executive buy-in for a team structure that honors marketing not just in the end phase, but also as a crucial thought partner to product and design. If you’ve had product launches that haven’t landed with the impact expected, those are great case studies to use to ask for that. After executive buy-in and team structure, pure relationship building can get you a long way. If you get to know your PMs and show your support in other ways they are more lik ...Read More

If your industry thrives on frequent technology updates, quarterly can make sense, or potentially even more frequently than that. It really comes down to how you balance out your marketing and product calendars. What events or “moments” has your company established that serve as anchors your loyal customers begin to rely on? Try to rally around those. You may also need to invent new moments that position your brand relative to other industry events, typical purchase cycles, and news. How tech sa ...Read More

Yes! I can relate! Feature-level messages are so limited on the marketing side. Part of your job as PMM is help recommend the best way to 1) connect features benefits, 2) roll benefits into value props, and 3) provide positioning statements for your target markets.  PMMs can take the lead on drafting this work but it's really beneficial to include your PM and other key stakeholders in the process to get their buy in. Once you settle on the place you want to go with regard to value prop, consider ...Read More

Other than the things already mentioned throughout my answers (relationship building, offering to facilitate planning sessions, etc.), I would also try to show them your own marketing calendar/roadmap.  Share what you think your goals will be and ask to compare it to the rough product roadmap. Start by asking questions and sparking discussion. As you gain rapport and trust with your product teammates, they'll be more likely to bring you in at early stages, knowing that you are there to be a part ...Read More

I would bake in as much buffer time as you can in your marketing timelines. If they have a track record of not shipping on time, I'd start assuming that. If your product partners get upset about that, explain the marketing dependencies that you can't deliver results when timelines are always in flux.  This is super frustrating and I feel your pain. Perhaps you can also find other leaders who sympathize and don't want resources to go to waste to help you make your case and begin to shift the cult ...Read More