Lara McCaskill

The most common pitfalls that can derail product launches are usually something like: Not planning for the unplanned Not having clear alignment around launch goals - across teams (Marketing, Product, Sales, etc.) Not having the right ICP/Persona Here's how I've navigated these in the past: Planning for the unplanned: has a product launch ever been delayed? Timelines shift ALL the time. Scope also changes. Having contingency plans and getting creative around hard launch dates has been a life save ...Read More

The most important thing with shifting launches and leadership whiplash is to assess impact. I typically run through a series of questions to better understand the context around any decision to shift a launch. What is the primary reason for the shift? Is it a hard requirement or a desired outcome? What is the business impact for the shift? Often days and weeks has very little impact, unless the launch is tied to an event that cannot be moved. What are the trade offs of keeping the plan of recor ...Read More

Predicting how AI will change things is pretty impossible. That said, here's what I hope AI changes within PMM in the next 1-2 years: 1. Automation of task based work becomes the value. PMMs are so often responsible for project managing and have a task tax that takes them away from strategic thinking. AI is already reducing this, we'll see broader adoption of this. 2. PMM does not rely on AI to create content/start content/influence content. I haven't seen the value here and it's obvious when co ...Read More

Product output has accelerated their ship cadence rapidly - which can be super noisy for customers. The way I have approached this by tackling two main challenges: 1. Align product releases by themes and planned marketing moments. Do this quarterly, bring product along with PMM so they understand when and how their features get coverage. 2. Creating modular content that allows for fast swapping in/out and quick updating. Avoid one-sheets/data sheets/anything PDF! Those never get updated and prol ...Read More

Having product launches follow a set process is hugely beneficial for any team, especially a rapidly scaling one that is likely launching often. I like to start with what are the launch tiers. Not every launch has the same customer impact and therefore the same deliverables. I like 3 tiers - think of that as Small, Medium, Large. You could even through in XS for the stuff that does not have any impact on customers current way of doing something and therefore does not require marketing support. F ...Read More

Three words come top of mind for this one: Sales, Enablement and Ops. In a B2B company, you often have 2 (or even more) customers: Sales and Buyers. Sales can be a wealth of information and they are typically highly motivated ($$$$) to get their problems solved and are never short of providing input and feedback to Product Marketing. This can also be challenging to understand what Sales wants versus what actually address Buyer needs. Working with Sales also involves some type Sales enablement fu ...Read More

Having a post launch plan is just as important as any other elements of your launch plan. Here's how I usually navigate the post launch activity at a high level: Retrospective needs to happen with 1 week of launch, when it's fresh and relevant for all Aligning with product prior to launch on the key metrics to be tracked across adoption and marketing activity. For marketing, monitoring the first few days to ensure there's nothing off with the launch Then weekly, assessing how you're progressing ...Read More

AI can be great for accelerating and jumpstarting content creation. Here's how I break it down: 1. AI doesn't know your audience like you do. You need to provide the specific details of who your audience is, what they care about, and the context around the content. 2. AI is very repetitive. It makes content appear "meatier" and more substantive than it actually is because it often repeats the same concepts just said differently. You need to ensure that your prompt avoids this and that you dilige ...Read More

This all comes down to how is the rest of the business organized. If you're organizing in a way that's incongrous to everyone else in the org, you will not be setup for success. With smaller nimble teams it's likely just based on bandwith and who has room to take things on. With larger teams, or as a team is being built out, it's best to align with your core cross-functional partners such as Product. There is usually overlap with PMMs working with 2-3 PMs. I've organized teams by product area in ...Read More

Living in San Francisco, it feels like AI messaging and products are literally taking over. And it all looks the same. Here's how I am thinking about it; 1. Focus on outcomes - great that AI is making XYZ faster, easier, better, some-superlative - but to what end? What is the overall end benefit. It could be a pineapple making XZY possible, but the pineapple (the how) is only so relevant. 2. Question the value of AI in your messaging. Does it really need to be there? 3. Look at your competitive ...Read More