Harsha Kalapala

Copied over from a similar question: There are a lot of things you could do - and it's easy to get distracted as a product marketer. First 30 days - Listen, listen, listen. Ask a TON of questions. Hold back from providing ideas unless you are really sure about it. Help others behind the scenes on ongoing projects with work you are good at - like writing or editing copy, preparing slides, etc. Help them look good and make allies. This is also a great way to learn the business. Talk to customers - ...Read More

There are a lot of things you could do - and it's easy to get distracted as a product marketer.  First 30 days - Listen, listen, listen. Ask a TON of questions. Hold back from providing ideas unless you are really sure about it. Help others behind the scenes on ongoing projects with work you are good at - like writing or editing copy, preparing slides, etc. Help them look good and make allies. This is also a great way to learn the business. Talk to customers - jump in on existing calls and ask g ...Read More

Any new product should have a “product brief” associated with it to help not just sales, but any internal stakeholder to be on the same page about the purpose and positioning of the product. Enabling sales can be done effectively without ever involving a deck. My focus is on content and training vs. deck creation. The product brief contains things like a problem to solve, buyer personas addressed, why it is important now (urgency), competitive landscape or what you are replacing, discovery quest ...Read More

You can't change/improve what you don't fully understand. When you join a smaller team where product marketing didn't formally exist before, it is important to recognize that product marketing always existed, but was probably executed as a team sport. It may have been carried by the product manager, the CEO, the CMO, or a content marketing lead.  I would always begin by learning what worked and didn't work with product-marketing related efforts (which likely was not seen a product marketing work ...Read More

Tech is always a hard question for product marketers who don't have a ton of budget. I try to push for tools that are beneficial to more than product marketing. Tools that help me do my job better with my key partners - sales, CS, product. One way is to just get a seat to jump in on software they are already using. Some of my most helpful tools have been: Appcues (partner with product and customer success) Google analytics/Heap (helps you see what's working and where you need to focus) DocSend ( ...Read More

The first step to engaging other teams is to make sure they are a key contributor to the go-to-market plan, and they are not just on the receiving end being told what to do. I try to understand the organizational goals of a launch, and also pay attention to what are the success metrics/criteria for each team involved. Every team involved in a GTM plan has to get a win out of it. It's also important to understand teams = people. I get people excited by bringing them along the journey, sharing the ...Read More

There is no single golden arrow. Every piece of material has its role in the process. I look at effectiveness from two perspectives. One - did the salesperson use it? Two - did the prospect use it? Fortunately, there are tools for this today. You should be using a tool like Seismic, Highspot, or Docsend. These tools also allow for a third important measure - did the prospect pass it around to the buying group? Now you’re hitting the right notes. If the salesperson doesn’t use something, it doesn ...Read More

Don’t overcomplicate it. Just find the fastest way to talk to customers. You could set up a formal feedback session with surveys, incentives, and all the jazz - which still gives you biased feedback. Or... you can just hop on an already scheduled customer call TODAY and casually ask customers for their quick qualitative feedback. Here is a sample message to your customer success folks: Hey {CSM name] - I am just trying to get a quick and casual reaction from our customers on this new messaging I ...Read More

This is an important question. The marketing rule of 7 exposures applies here as well. I try to get on as many opportunities as I can to educate and train partner stakeholders. Ask for a few minutes on their weekly team meetings — the product team, the customer success/support team, the sales team, etc. and walk them through the same talk track on the partnership. Why is it important for you and your customers? What does it do? When does it come out? What can you do, based on your role? Where ca ...Read More

If you build it, they won’t come. Product marketing assets are ineffective without proper sales enablement efforts - whether there is a separate team for it or not. The simplest analogy I use is that product marketing creates the juice, and sales enablement makes sure the sales team drinks the juice AND keeps it down. Now that’s oversimplified in some ways. The partnership between both functions begins at the problem identification phase. Both teams should be on the same page about the gaps in d ...Read More