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Katie Gerard

Head of Product Marketing, Workhuman

Content

How do you build out a launch process where one didn't exist before?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • August 9

Building out a launch process is actually fairly simple in concept. The hardest part is definitely getting cross functional alignment. This process can easily take 6 months in a larger organization, but I recommend being quick and scrappy and then iterating. The steps I take: * Understand what'......Read More

806 Views

What do you take into consideration when getting requests to create "leave behinds" and/or "one pagers" for a variety of different aspects for your company?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • May 12

It depends on where these requests are coming from! I'm always cautious with competitor specific one pagers because it's so easy for these to get back to the competitor. I've personally seen slides our competitors have made about us and this is a) legally risky b) detrimental to any partnership y......Read More

708 Views

How do you measure the success of your enablement program?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • May 12

The best way to get a handle on the success rate of your enablement program is to evaluate it both quantitatively and qualitatively. On the quant side, it's helpful to do some regular sales surveys around satisfaction, whether that's quarterly or after every launch. On a scale of 1-10, how confid......Read More

679 Views

What are some great examples of bold — yet tasteful — competitive positioning you've seen in the market? How can companies straddle the line without turning it into a game of finger-pointing?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • April 27

The easiest way to differentiate yourself is to have a really innovative product and solid marketing to back it up. My favorite example right now is a Klaviyo customer, Magic Spoon. They make low carb/keto diets for people on a diet but wish they weren't. On their website, they even have a taglin......Read More

652 Views

How does competitive positioning relate to general positioning? What frameworks do you use to help the company understand the difference?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • April 27

Competitive positioning is basically a zoomed in version of your overall positioning. If you think of a competitive matrix, your overall positioning puts you on the map. How you're positioned versus a specific competitor zooms into the matrix and describes your exact position relative to this one......Read More

613 Views

What is the best way to choose/prioritize channels for a product launch?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • August 9

This will depend on your specific goals for the launch. I like to define tiers for product launches and then have a bill of materials for each tier. That makes the process easy to replicate and facilitates cross functional collaboration, because everyone knows what to expect. For example, you mig......Read More

553 Views

How do you balance launch communications with an ever-changing roadmap?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • August 9

Staying on top of the Product team can be really challenging. Project management tools like productboard can help, but there will always be last minute changes. A few ways to handle this: * At Klaviyo, we actually have smaller launches every month and a big launch once a quarter. The bill of......Read More

550 Views

Can you describe a challenging situation where you had to make tough trade-offs between short-term revenue goals and long-term strategic objectives ?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • August 9

This is a great question and a super common scenario within PMM. At Klaviyo, we've played around with a lot of different launch cadences and resourcing levels for launches. Product launches tend to be more about product adoption than any short term revenue gain. Yet, everyone agrees it's importan......Read More

549 Views

How do you obtain competitive intelligence on a competitor's product that has very little public-facing marketing around it?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • April 27

This is a tricky one and there are definitely some more above and also below board answers. I've known people who have made up fake identities in order to get demos from competitors. If you're not a great actor, here are some other approaches: * Ask your customers. You may have a customer you w......Read More

548 Views

What constitutes a competitor, and what is the goal you have in mind when you conduct competitor analysis?

Katie Gerard

Workhuman Head of Product Marketing • April 27

I typically think of direct competitors as being other players in the same category of my org that are going after an overlapping share of wallet with an overlapping group of target customers. You may also spend time on your indirect competitors or even substitute products, but you're much less l......Read More