Kevin MacGillivray

Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services, Shopify

Content

Have you taken this course (productmarketingbootcamp.com)? I am looking to hone skills/knowledge in product marketing. Coming from content marketing and marketing ops, it hasn't been as easy to merge into PMM. Any other course recommendation is appreciated too!

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

I have not taken a product marketing course recently, but they can be great options that help introduce the fundamentals of the craft. The Product Marketing Alliance also offers some great material and certifications if that is an area you want to explore. Outside of coursework, there is a ton......Read More

866 Views

How do you best structure and leverage beta releases to assist the product team (with iteration, feedback) and Product Marketing (positioning, messaging, enablement, onboarding)?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

Beta releases or early access programs are a fantastic opportunity to get a sneak preview of how users/customers will interact with and use a product or feature. It is really important to capture feedback early and often and package the "so what" back to your internal stakeholder group. This incl......Read More

864 Views

How do you structure your Product Marketing team?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

I have led several product marketing teams throughout my career and it is certainly not one size fits all. A couple of models that have worked well: Mirroring Product * In an environment where roadmaps are tightly aligned with product and where deep context is a must, I like to set up ......Read More

849 Views

As a PMM charged with balancing both self-serve and enterprise customers of the same product, what are the nuances between the two?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

These two audiences are VERY different. And it's important to be clear on the difference between audiences and channels. Enterprise merchants often move through a sales led funnel. SMB's in many cases are the ones going through a self-serve funnel. A few nuances for each: Self Serve * ......Read More

848 Views

How do you define product marketing differently in a product-led growth company vs. a traditional company with a normal sales and marketing funnel?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

At its core, product marketing remains focused on the same goals and outcomes in both cases. It is mostly the available tools and surfaces that differ. Things like segmentation, messaging frameworks, persona building etc. are applicable everywhere. They could be deployed in building out the right......Read More

845 Views

How do you manage people who don't necessarily report into you?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

This is one of the most powerful skills you can develop as a leader and especially as a PMM. PMM by nature sits at the juncture of many, many stakeholder groups - both within product and within commercial. I wouldn't necessarily say the task is to "manage people". I would boil it down further ......Read More

838 Views

What do self-serve product marketers spend their time doing, given that they don't have sales enablement responsibilities?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

Sales enablement is only a small portion of what the product marketing craft entails. That said - there are definitely roles and organizations where enablement makes up the majority of the job. IMO PMM work generally falls into (3) categories: Upstream Product Marketing * Includes: voice ......Read More

834 Views

What is your process for collecting user feedback?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

There are a lot of great ways to collect user feedback: * Focus Groups --> any time you can get a small handful of users (either individually or together) to give some of their time for an extended conversation, take advantage of it! This model works really well when you've got a mea......Read More

828 Views

How much emphasis is put on creating messaging/driving adoption for a new product with existing clients versus focusing on using that product to drive new business?

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

Both are very important. And in both cases the new product serves to further enhance an existing narrative. Driving adoption with existing clients can serve a few really important purposes. First - it is a safer space to test out something new with users that are already familiar with your pro......Read More

819 Views

How to make sure the voice of our consumer is heard when product marketing may not be involved during the product roadmap development process.

Kevin MacGillivray

Shopify Director of Product Marketing - Payments and Financial Services • March 14

The short answer is that everyone in an organization should care about the voice of the customer - regardless of craft. If you feel like voice of customer is not being represented during the product roadmap process, you should take action! Getting closer to the customer and bringing this intel......Read More