John Hurley

When it comes to defining goals for product launches, we tend to consider both short-term and long-term objectives. In the short-term, our goals may be centered around acquisition, engagement, and awareness. For example, we might aim to gain a certain number of new users, or to generate a certain amount of buzz on social media in the weeks following the launch. These early indicators can help us understand whether our product is resonating with our target audience, and can give us some early fee ...Read More

One approach to proactively identifying areas where PMM can add value is to conduct a thorough analysis of the market, competitors, and customers. This includes identifying gaps in the market and opportunities to differentiate, understanding the competitive landscape, and gathering insights on customer needs, preferences, and behaviors. Some questions to consider when conducting this analysis include: What are the key trends and challenges in the market? What are the biggest unmet customer needs ...Read More

I like to frame questions in two parts. 1) Walk me through (WMT) an example of...XYZ. I do several of these that each map to the key responsibilities I'm looking for. I want to hear real-life stories – both for experience and ability to articulate. This was inspired by my product partner when I was at Amplitude. Great article here: https://runthebusiness.substack.com/p/wmt-interview-questions 2) Follow the WMT question with some form of why, what did you learn, what would you have done different ...Read More

Marrying company objectives and vision with customer pain and value – which is informed by user/buyer research and market research. Leads to themes that will help drive value with company and customers. Within those timebound themes, you have product innovation (bundles of features, new products) that teams will be involved in.  So you can think of it like this  Company objectives and vision with customer pain and value > Themes > New/Improved Capabilities > Launches Features do not nec ...Read More

PMM is hard (and awesome) because we are a hub, not a spoke that often controls the final outputs. We’re not growth marketers, or demand gen manager, or brand marketers. However we do influence, inform, manifest, and/or articulate growth strategies and campaigns. Product marketing needs other growth teams to commit and execute. Same goes for traditional demand gen and campaigns – we have a bit more influence there and ability to define demand programs and contribute content, but still heavy reli ...Read More

Align on needs and get buy-in on the program from key stakeholders upfront, otherwise, you will just be reactive and the expectations will be that every request is handled and every asset is up to date. By setting a strategy upfront, defining the set of deliverables and the cadence at which they'll be updated, and creating rules of engagement and set venues / channels for to communicate with teams, you can create a scalable system. For larger orgs, you may have to create SLAs between your team a ...Read More

Simple answer here is a great Tiered model, a NPI process (for larger companies), and differentiating between Launches and Releases. Often see many product launches that are really more release marketing versus integrated product launches.  You have the greatest outbound marketing launch in the world, but ultimately all the launch and growth levers in the world won’t make new products successful in market without 4 things… Top-Down Accountability: Executives setting and aligning around targets, ...Read More

When scaling from 5 PMMs to 20+ PMMs, it becomes increasingly important to have a well-defined team structure and organization. One approach is to ladder individuals into verticals based on their area of ownership and area of expertise. As the team grows, it may be necessary to have discipline leads and managers to help with collaboration and alignment. Here is a simple little progression: How PMM teams grow and mature over time… Generalists (with some diversity but broad and deep ownership and ...Read More

I like to create what I call an Opportunity Assessment. Here is the general table of content for the presentation:  - Problem Hypothesis - Target Market- Market Opportunity- Business Metrics / Revenue Strategy- Competitive Landscape- Our Differentiated Solution- Basic Solution Requirements- Go-to-Market Overview (Timing and Concept)If it's an existing market, include- Competitive Feature Comparison- SWOT Analysis for top competitor Looks like the formatting is a bit off, but attached you can fin ...Read More

Good question. Constant tension. Don't abandon the consumer, but focus on where do we make money (b2b). Find the right investments and channels that will support the consumer (community, influencer, social, specific time-relevant consumer campaigns like 'Back to School' or 'New Year Resolutions'), but we focus 80% of time on B2B audiences and use cases because that's the core of the business. Only once we really feel we have the B2B side nailed do we think about the consumer side. Whenever possi ...Read More