Grace Kuo

I love telling a good story...: Background: For internal stakeholders, you really have to set context/background. We are in the weeds with planning day to day for a specific launch or initiative, but you can't expect internal stakeholders to be the same. To help drive messaging home, set the right context.  What's the problem? Paint the problem that you're trying to solve, but sometimes what works best isn't just a statement of "We are trying to improve the checkout process..." but tell them a s ...Read More

The key thing for messaging frameworks that are shared with your org is know your audience. As PMMs, we are often creating different messages for different audiences. When you share your framework, be clear on how to use the messaging, and for whom the messaging is created for.  i.e. Whenever I prepare a launch, I always label the messaging the SALES team should use in talking to prospects, messaging Customer Success should be using for customers, key value props for Marketing, etc. For Leadersh ...Read More

This is by far one of my favorite questions (and most important). As PMMs, we have to go beyond talking about the feature functionality but orient on what the benefit is for the customer. A practice I take is by asking a series of questions that will help you narrow in and articulate the customer value. An easy framework is to follow: What is the feature? How does it work? How will this benefit the customer? What will it solve/what were the challenges before this feature was built? How do I now ...Read More

Great question - the difference can often be confusing to even marketers as well. I view positioning as the foundation to messaging. Your positioning should cover the following: Your target customer How your product fits into the market How your product differs from competitors Why it works Once you've researched and crafted the positioning to your product, your messaging is an extension and amplification of that core statement. Messaging then, should differ based on where it's landing (ads vs. ...Read More

Have a plan...and SHARE IT.  1. Stakeholder Management Milestone Meetings: I often share roadmap/GTM plans at key meetings like Sales Management meetings, CS team meetings etc. So that it shows you have a plan and are top of the launch. This should happen during development, beta, pre-launch, and at launch!  2. Weekly Updates: Here at Udemy I send out a weekly status update on key areas of the business. This again brings visibility and pro-active communication on status. 3. Weekly PM meetings: H ...Read More

Generally my approach to this is to build a plan on how to socialize and get feedback. Ensuring that key stakeholders have time to review, provide input, edits, etc. will help refine and reinforce whether or not you're communicating the value prop. XFN teams that are critical: Sales: is the messaging clear and concise? Do they understand the unique selling points of the product/service/software they're trying to sell? Subject matter experts: is there authenticity to the messaging? Is it hitting ...Read More

Yes! As we know, personalization is key in reaching your target audience, driving sales, and increasing customer loyalty. A few segmentation options I've tried in the past that have been successful: Based on pain points: You can create more resonance between the customer and your company by anchoring your messaging on the specific areas that your product/software solves. Based on customer journey: Although this is a similar to a "customer group", centering messaging on where the customer is in t ...Read More

Oh yes - startup mode often requires you to flex the skills of speed and scrappiness. When it comes to testing messaging, there are a few tools out there that are cheaper alternatives to give you signal on messaging effectiveness. Subject matter experts: One of the best results I've gotten when testing out messaging is by working with SMEs (internal from the company or friends+fam). It not only produces fast results, but can give you deeper insights into what works and what doesn't. This can be ...Read More

Great question!  In my experience, we work with SE to help them understand what's coming down the roadmap (big initiatives, product launches etc.) so they can plan and schedule training accordingly. Having a really tight relationship is critical so both sides have visibility into the needs of the GTM. Product Marketing should provide the core content but leverage the strengths and reach of SE to help deliver the training and structure it strategically. For example, SE can take a look at the trai ...Read More