Kara Gillis

There are several inputs I think about when considering product differentiation: 1. Specific target customer - There are many types of customers in a market. Who are you serving? Try to narrow your focus as far as you can to understand the specific problems faced by this customer to be as tailored to their needs as possible. Has a particular customer type been ignored or underserved in the market? If so, why? What value are they seeking but not able to find with existing products? 2. Specific va ...Read More

I used to be a product marketer. My ideal working relationship is to view product marketing as my key partner in product development, launch, and iteration. We are both stewards of the product success. I try to involve product marketing into the very beginning stages of product development - they help me amplify the voice of the customer, help me find reference customers by launch, fine tune messaging, speak to industry analysts educating them on the new product, enable sales and customers on th ...Read More

This is a tale as old as time. There are many ways to approach this. I have seen vendors heavily bid on the AdWords of their competitor names and promote alternative solutions (trials or marketing content). I have seen vendors who are challengers in mature markets create "Us vs. Them" web pages or blogs that outline the differences (according to the vendor publishing the info) what the major differences are. And, I have seen third-party research or analyst evaluations heavily promoted that rank ...Read More

These are two different questions with two different answers. How to break into product: I always tell people to try to transfer into PM within the company they are currently working. When changing something about your career, it is easier to change industries and geographies instead of functions - but typically you can only get two out of those three. So if you want to change functions - I recommend not changing much else. Why? People who already know you are solid at some of the following core ...Read More

I don't think the choice is binary. You can most likely find the intersection between your future vision and a current pain point that's significant enough to drive adoption now, while positioning you for the larger opportunity as the market matures. Find the immediate job-to-be-done: Using your JTBD understanding, identify if there's a current problem your technology solves, even if it's not the grand future vision. Many successful innovations started by solving a smaller, more immediate proble ...Read More

I tailor the product roadmap to the person / group with whom I'm communicating. I often will use Google Slides for a customer or sales facing presentation. With engineering, I'll often use a spreadsheet that lists roadmap initiatives in the order of priority and effort. Communicating with customers: Is this the first time we're speaking? How much time do we have? If it's the first time we're giving a roadmap presentation to the customer, I provide more context upfront to help the customer unders ...Read More

If the problem isn't growing as fast as you'd like, you need to check several key performance indicators that tell you it's a product strategy or go-to-market problem. Unfortunately, it also could be a little bit of both - but it's important to dig into specifics as much as possible so you solve the right problem. I'd look into: Product usage metrics: Are people who try your product continuing to use it? High churn suggests a product issue, while good retention but low acquisition points to go-t ...Read More

This really depends on the role I'm hiring for and what the current team lacks in skillset. And frankly, I probably didn't write the job description well enough for you to know exactly what that is - but hopefully I was transparent enough in the job description to give you a hint. A few scenarios I've hired for include: I needed someone who needed little to no training on how to manage a mature product in a very specific technology category (aka I needed to hire from a competitor) who could beco ...Read More