Derek Frome
Vice President Marketing, Ouster
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Video: Adventures in Messaging S02E05: With Derek Frome, Head of Marketing at Ouster
Vice President Marketing
I'm going to take a somewhat contrarian view on this and say that in order to
really break through in a crowded market, it takes more than clever messaging
(though that never hurts). You have to position your product correctly and you
have to prove that you are better. Now would be the time to in...more
Vice President Marketing
Painted door tests are your friend here (google it). You could create two or
three landing pages with different message variants, each of which leads to a
"request access" form. Depending on what your campaign is for, your message
testing could be as simple as running it by product managers or ac...more
Vice President Marketing
I'll take a more extreme position on this question. You're setting yourself up
for failure by asking us how to "defend" your messaging. Instead, I'd ask you to
listen to those people who you are used to "defending" your messaging from. It's
not your messaging - give up that pride of ownership in ...more
Vice President Marketing
To me, a solution is a prescriptive collection of products and features that
solve a well-defined problem for your customer. A product is anything you could
conceivably sell on its own, but a product can also be a collection of other
products. A feature is a component piece of a product that adds...more
Vice President Marketing
In my opinion, this is the wrong question to be asking. A much better objective
would be to aim for a promotion, not a pay raise. Of course, promotions carry
pay raises, but the point is that a promotion is more easily understood and
communicated. It's easier to ask your boss "what do you think I...more
Vice President Marketing
Mike's answer is spot on. Since you've been laid off 5 times in 10 years though,
I'll add one other thought. It's possible that you're focusing on outputs, not
outcomes. PMM done right is much more focused on outcomes - well defined,
measurable (as much as possible). It's the PMM lead's job to se...more
Vice President Marketing
At a previous company, we started by maintaining a wiki page for competitive
intel that was the "single point of truth" for the sales team. Mike is correct
when he says that at an early stage, CI is everyone's job and the PMM's job to
QB the effort. I would suggest that a solid level of competiti...more
Vice President Marketing
Big fan of Force Management for “traditional” SaaS companies with a business buyer.
Vice President Marketing
Honestly, pay them more. You can also look at getting them MBA interns for the summer, etc. Also, depending on how big your marketing team is, you can give them expanded scope outside of PMM, if that interests them. e.g. have them manage a couple copywriters who are contractors.
Credentials & Highlights
Vice President Marketing at Ouster.io
Product Marketing AMA Contributor