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Hien Phan

Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing, Pinecone

About

I started my career in finance and investing, moved into consulting, then transitioned into Product Marketing. My Product Marketing superpowers are Competitive Analysis, Sales Enablement, Product Launches, GTM Strategy, AR, and Solution Marketing.......more

Content

How do you think about your first 30/60/90 day goals when coming in as the Head of Product Marketing in a startup that didn't have product marketing before?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • October 5

Oy! First, good luck! I have done the "first" before. I don't think you have the luxury of 30/60/90. I think it's more like 30 days to identify the problem and tackle easy wins. Sixty days build out a basic launch framework, then a GTM strategy, align both with leadership. Then 90 days to test an......Read More

2424 Views

What can I include in my marketing portfolio to standout from the crowd as a product marketing candidate.

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • October 5

First, welcome to PMM. It would depend on what kind of PMM they are looking to hire. I would do three buckets. (1) a thought leadership piece or website/landing page (2) a launch plan or GTM plan (3) examples of enablement like slides etc. They want to see if you have done core PMM activities: me......Read More

1770 Views

What are some cornerstone KPIs that product marketers should use for every Go-To-Market strategy?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • March 15

KPIs are hard for PMMs. (1) we don't directly influence everything. (2) we have a lot of indirect influence. But my rule of thumb is figuring out your North Star Metric, meaning what is that one metric you can influence that drives say, pipeline, and what are those input metrics? For ex......Read More

1602 Views

How do you think of GTM? What does it include, and what does it not include?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • March 15

When I think of GTM, it's from demand to advocacy. You aren't responsible for every step of this journey but are a significant contributor to enabling and owning the customer buying journey. Questions I always ask myself when I join as a GTM PMM are as follows: 1. Do my fellow marketers have w......Read More

1585 Views

How would you approach this product marketing interview assignment?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • October 5

I have no idea how you prep your presentation. But for an assignment like this one, I think what employers want to test is your ability to assess the problem and provide a solution. So before I would even start on the assignment, I would try to highlight the problem statement. What problem is thi......Read More

1531 Views

How do you start with a GTM strategy?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • March 15

1. Diagnosis - what's my opportunity? What's the pain I'm solving? What's the problem? 2. Guiding Principles - given the above. How should I address this problem? This section arent' tactics. 3. Coherent Actions - your tactics. Remember, if #1#1 isn't clear, focused, and concise, then #2......Read More

1328 Views

How do you use market research to inform priority verticals to go after in your go to market efforts?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • March 15

I'm biased. I'm a former consultant and market researcher— market research always follows priority verticals and market efforts. Depending on the stage of your organization, you might not have the luxury of full fledge research, but you need to at least talk to customers. Get some contextual......Read More

1211 Views

What are the common mistakes you see product marketers making when they launch new sales enablement programs?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • February 18

I see a few issues: (1) not think about the sales process and the customer journey (CS version, not the marketing version). You need to think about when they will need collateral and what kind of collateral. This will help you with effectiveness. (2) build persona and product messaging witho......Read More

1175 Views

What would you say are the core elements of a strong, repeatable GTM framework?

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • March 15

(1) It's a strategy, not a goal. You're diagnosing the problem and focused on how you should go to market. (2) There is an operationalization aspect for your marketing team. Marketers need the audience, message, and channels/communities these people live in. (3) There is an operationalization ......Read More

1170 Views

We are looking at a sales enablement tool to organize content, gather adoption metrics, and make it easy to train reps on new assets. Anyone having success using a tool like Highspot or Outreach? I want to make a shortlist before pursuing in earnest. Thank you!

Hien Phan

Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing • November 12

I have had experience with Highspot, Showpad, DocSend, and Seismic. I would recommend HighSpot and Showpad as they both are great for organizing content and gathering adoption metrics. ShowPad also has an LMS, but they are still working to integrate the LMS portion with its main CMS platform. I w......Read More

1146 Views

Credentials & Highlights

Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer Marketing at Pinecone