Julien Sauvage

I would be super metrics-dr :iven here. Maybe show a few functions you've owned (or contributed to), from top of the funnel to middle and bottom of the funnel, with the corresponding programs and the metrics you've optimized for each. For ex: - Owned awareness plan - running exec programs and targeted PR, I could increase the share of voice of my company by x% - Built strategic narrative - creating company messaging and enabling field, resulting in y% in sales velocity and z% competitive win rates - etc. Hope it makes sense! 

In my playbook there are 8 steps to a successful product launch: 1. Identify the key stakeholders 2. Outline the deliverables and set the dates and the measures 3. Define your messaging 4. Track progress towards the plan. This is where you start having weekly stand ups. 5. Execute! The day of the launch 6. Measure success and impact 7. Celebrate the wins of your launch - making sure people feel celebrated and rewarded 8. Create an ongoing adoption strategy Ryane Bohm and myself actually spend some time explaining these steps in details in our presentation given at a product bootcamp and called “Building the ultimate playbook launching new products”, check it out: https://info.gainsight.com/product-led-bootcamp-growth-webinar.html

Things like ❌ Downmarket deal support ❌ Enablement strategy ❌ Design ❌ Content Strategy/Blogs ❌ Technical Product Documentation ❌ Release Notes ❌ Alpha & Beta Programs

I see Pricing and Packaging as both a science and an art. What do I mean by that? It’s a science in the sense that you have to run a lot of business simulations and crunch the numbers to do the revenue projections. That is the science aspect of it. Yet there's also an emotional aspect to your product price, which in my mind also makes it an art. And because of the art aspect of it, you have to do a lot of testing. You have to test your assumptions in terms of charge versus include. Test with your account executives, with your existing customers, even maybe with prospects, if you can (via a third party agency to do a web survey). A big guiding principle for me is to always put your buyer’s hat on - always, but even more when doing Pricing & Packaging. If the product that you're launching is reaching a new line of business or a new persona, then that probably means a new SKU or even a new BU or product line. You also have to think about product dependency. If the new product or module you’re launching has a strong dependency on an existing product (AKA the new product only works if you bought the previous one), then you might have to consider an add-on approach - or an Edition approach. Big rule is always shooting for simplicity, both for the buyer and the seller. I am a big fan of a “Good/ Better/ Best” packaging approach - aka Editions. I think add-ons are to be used sparingly… because you always want to avoid SKU proliferation, and i’ll tell you, add-ons can be the best way to get there, you end up with a lot of SKUs and a very long pricelist which everyone hates. I always prefer to include new features in the correct edition to justify my product prices. Rough rule is if less than a third of customers would value that feature in an edition, then don't include it, and charge as an add-on.

Some of the soft skills and qualities that I seek: Strategic yet hands-on , Storytellers yet tech savvy , Measured yet creative , Customer and sales facing , Running the business . Then in terms of values: * Collaborative. We ask others for ideas. We listen to their inputs. We share information. * Accountable. We establish our goals. We stand by our actions. We stay engaged and we own our stuff. * Impactful. We get it done. We have an impact on the business – because of what we did and how we did it.

See above. Gong, of course :) Come join us (https://gong.io/careers) I mean I'm biased but on top of that, I think Salesforce took the Product Marketing to the next level back in the days, and helps elevate the function in the industry. At the end of the day, it is all about cutting through the noise and finding your own voice. I think the companies that excel at PMM actually see Brand, PMM and Corp Narrative as different sides of the same coin. Telling your story. Your brand is your reputation in the market, and PMM naturally helps tell stories that foster that reputation.

Measuring the success of your launch is a fascinating topic, and no easy task. You can think of 5 dimensions of success: global impact, digital impact, revenue impact, employee impact, product impact. 1) Global impact The global impact is really about how your launch made your brand more popular, how did it help with brand awareness? Of course, the metrics that go with this are things like a share of voice and VOC studies. A good product launch has the potential to make a big splash! 2) Digital impact The digital impact is the most common or well known one. You can measure the organic engagement, as well as the paid digital engagement with all the metrics that you can think of. For web, things like web traffic, CTR etc. For Paid, the views, reach, ad recall, etc.. 3) Revenue impact The third one is the revenue impact. How much pipeline did the launch influence or help mature? How much ARR or revenue, what about my close rates? Am also a fan of velocity as a metric. Did your launch impact your sales velocity? How fast do the existing deals move through the stages there - before and after launch? There’s numerous ways to measure revenue impact. 4) Employee impact One that is often overlooked is the impact on employee morale and happiness. If you do a launch well, it is a great way to align everybody across your company around one given theme. One big news, one exciting moment. And as such, you should measure that with a pre and post launch survey. Has engagement increased? It should! 5) Product impact Lastly, the product impact also has to be measured with things like product adoption, Monthly/weekly/daily active users as well as page views, clicks, things like that. So as you see, there's many ways to measure success for a product launch from the top of the funnel metrics, to the digital impact, all the way down to the revenue impact, the impact on employees and on product. That’s why I can't get enough product launches as a marketer 😊 Note: More details on metrics in this podcast (around minute 32): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kristinajaramillo_how-top-product-marketers-will-create-a-strong-activity-6824424440084865024-ZmvF

Launch isn’t just about market awareness, pipe and ARR/ revenue, it’s also about product adoption - MAU, WAU, DAU, product page views, clicks, etc. To optimize your post-launch product adoption, you need an integrated campaign approach where you reuse a lot of the content that was put together for the launch. Remember, a lot of time and effort was put into that launch and as such, it's your responsibility to reuse a lot of that content, repackage it to make it live a second or third life after launch! Of course, tweak the existing content, change the format, mix the channels, break it down into chapters, but always keep hammering the same message that you had at launch. In-app as a channel works really well for adoption. Also think about your other customer channels like a customer community, a learning management system, etc., Something else I've seen work really well at Salesforce is doing hand-on product workshops at in-person events where people would be clicking along. Lastly, I would say Champions if you have a champions group or if you built a champions program with your customer marketers. Work with them to show the value that users are getting from the product. This should go a long way for product usage.

I think Messaging / Positioning / Storytelling are absolute must-haves, but then - in true Product Marketing fashion, you have to clearly identify your edge. What’s your core differentiation on the market? I personally love skills such as * Customer facing skills (if you come from a sales/ CS background) * Being able to go deep into the tech - you can build demo, not just decks * If you have an intimate knowledge of the customer journey, you can work on adoption programs * If you like teaching then Enablement will be your BFF * etc.

The expansion in scope! A director owns a function. Is able to partner with senior leaders and build strong relationships in other departments to establish strategic plans and objectives. Be as metric driven as you can in your current senior manager role, show the impact, then your manager should be able to see how that expertise you've built could apply to the entire function.