Chandra Patel

I break down priority tasks on a quarterly, weekly and daily basis. Quarterly goals set the foundation for top projects and initiatives Weekly priorities map to those goals but are also broken down by urgency and importance Daily priorities map to the weekly goals but are broken down by the type of task (ex. messaging work vs. exec reviews) so to ensure calendar blocks for deep thinking, focus work, meetings I manage closely to the calendar and reserve "blocks" to work through specific tasks. By ...Read More

I document messaging in three unique documents that can be shared with various internal stakeholders and audiences. Visual messaging hierarchy - a 1-2 slide format. This is a summary of the product positioning that is used for executive alignment and as the guidepost for messaging The product or solution (+ the tagline if applicable) The overall value the product or solution delivers Who receives value from the product or solution The top benefits of the product (3-5) The capabilities of the pro ...Read More

Great question, and yes, prioritization is a challenge no matter where you work! I'm assuming that this question is about prioritizing PMM efforts across different products in the organization - so my answer is geared that way. I always start with what is the expected value or impact of the effort. So it could be a business case or ROI. It could simply be how it's relative "attractiveness" to the business, e.g., opening up new markets. Be very clear on the business value that your effort drives. ...Read More

Historically, yes, Customer Success is often overlooked in the Product Marketing motion. But before we go too far down that path, I want to be very clear that this is a very fine line that needs to be tread appropriately. Customer Success's primary goal is to ensure your customers are effectively onboarded and successfully using your product. Happy customers typically means more revenue, and repeat business. So, in terms of what Customer Success should get, and also knowing that Product Marketin ...Read More

You can begin with quick wins to influence the different teams you work with by having a clear set of annual goals, and then breaking down that plan by quarterly actions that align to those goals. In sharing that broadly across your stakeholders, providing an update on a weekly basis allows each of those teams to understand your priorities and what you're working on. So visibility and transparency in your work and how it maps to the overall goal is a great way to start building relationships and ...Read More

I'm a big fan of thinking about stakeholders side by side with programs and projects. Managing expectations is dependent on strong alignment. I use multiple tools and techniques to help navigate the web of stakeholders: I hold a regular cadence of 1:1 syncs (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly) with my most critical stakeholders. The frequency depends on the scope and nature of our relationship) to ensure we have a strong partnership and open-door policy for open conversation and overall al ...Read More

Quarterly feedback forums are very useful (more frequent maybe appropriate in an earlier stage organization) Alternate with sales and customer success so you are meeting with both 2x/year Keep the forum limited to 3-4 brief topics so the feedback is focused Share out the questions and materials in advance so there is less time presenting and more time talking Identify participants and have them serve as a potential "collective" on the topic Refresh the participants in the collective every year - ...Read More

Okay - I will say that I hardly use email at all anymore. My current firm is Slack first so we rely on that almost solely at this point. But that can quickly get overwhelming so here are my Slack best practices: Use sections to group channels. Examples are top projects, teams, announcements, resources Star DMs with most critical leadership so that is always on top and being read. Keep this list limited to a small number b/c not everything is super important Search function in Slack is AMAZING. I ...Read More