Lauren Hakim

This can certainly vary depending on the company! Here are some examples of areas that would be owned by different product marketing levels based on my experience: Messaging & Positioning * PMM: Crafts messaging and positioning at capability/feature level with some coaching * Sr. PMM: Drives messaging and positioning at the product/feature level and coaches others on product/feature level positioning * Director: Drives messaging and positioning at the category level and ensures alignment across teams Sales enablement * PMM: Creates materials and conducts enablement sessions on sales fundamentals (e.g. first call deck, demos) * Sr. PMM: Orchestrates enablement initiatives and programs at the product level or across multiple features. Identifies opportunities to increase pipeline by collaborating directly with reps and sales leadership. * Director: A mix of strategic/tactical partner to sales leadership for their functional area. Ensures execution of sales-facing content and training. GTM strategy & execution * PMM: Plays a specific role in building GTM strategy and execution for area of focus (e.g. buyer, competitors) * Sr. PMM: Drives GTM strategy work across multiple products, features, or initiatives (e.g. pricing, narrative). Makes recommendations to optimize methodologies and processes. * Director: Ensures the success of the development of GTM strategy and responsible for their teams’ execution of GTM programs. Considers the portfolio strategy (e.g. where a particular launch strategy fits in amongst other launches). Makes recommendations to optimize methodologies and processes.

Great question. At Zendesk, we do a lot of monthly/quarterly syncs with product leadership, sales leadership, marketing leadership, etc to discuss top programs and communicate achievements. Quarterly business reviews are another great way to share top wins and learnings. We also leverage supplemental channels like Slack, company/team all hands and our GTM newsletter. This can vary by company. To determine what works best for you and your team, you’ll need to figure out a way to speak the same language of the people that you’re trying to communicate with. Take the time to understand the priorities of your key stakeholders and executives so you can align your outcomes to their measures of success. Identify their communication preferences so you can establish a communication approach that best meets their needs. When you’ve taken these steps, it’s much easier to build visibility and communicate achievements in a way that resonates with your audience.

Product marketers have to work and communicate with a wide variety of stakeholders to push ideas and initiatives forward. Influence is critical for PMMs to be effective, and that comes with building trust. Invest time in understanding your stakeholders’ needs and pain points to help you determine how you can best work with them. By speaking the same language as your stakeholders and proactively providing the insights and information they need, the more they will lean on you and trust you to get the job done. Immerse yourself in your product, the market and your customers. Use those insights to identify opportunities where you can add value: influencing product roadmap, helping your sales team close more deals, ensuring your messaging is compelling, etc. Bringing valuable insights and a unique point of view to your stakeholders will improve your credibility and make you a more influential PMM.

PMM sits at the intersection of these various stakeholder teams and keeps them aligned. No matter how big or small your company is, you likely have similar stakeholders that you need to manage and communicate with. To be effective, product marketing needs to have a voice across the company. I’ve always found it valuable to forge trusting relationships with someone in sales leadership, product leadership, etc. Make sure you’re communicating with them on a regular basis. With product, catch up regularly on upcoming releases, voice of customer, strategic launches, etc. With sales, review performance, key customer wins, strategic campaigns, etc. Having a regular cadence with these teams while bringing them valuable insights and a unique POV will ensure PMM has a seat at the table.

Product launches take a village to execute successfully! Start by defining your launch goals and plan. This will make it easier to identify your stakeholders, which can include individuals or groups that will be involved in the launch execution and/or impacted by the outcome of the launch. At Zendesk, we use a tiering system to determine the level of effort required to support a product launch and the stakeholders that will need to be involved. For example: * A tier 1 launch is typically reserved for brand new product offerings that will have a major impact on our customers or the business. A tier 1 launch would span many different stakeholders across product (e.g. product managers, engineering, pricing, etc), core marketing (campaigns, events, PR, SEO, brand, etc.) and GTM (enablement, pre/post solutions consultants, partners, etc.). * A tier 3 launch may be a smaller update to an existing product with minimal impact. As opposed to a tier 1 launch, a tier 3 launch would require less stakeholder involvement. We may pull in the web team for website updates, docs team for release note updates, email marketing, etc. As with most product launches, things are constantly changing! Involve your stakeholders early and often, and make sure to get their buy-in on the launch goals and the role they will play. Proactively and constantly communicating with your stakeholders makes it much easier to pivot if necessary as things change or challenges arise.

Part of our jobs as PMMs is to drive alignment across teams of diverse stakeholders, all of which speak different languages, care about different things, and want to be approached in a specific way. When it comes to key strategic projects, I believe that tailoring your approach to meet the needs of your stakeholders is critical to achieve maximum success and collaboration! This could be as simple as reframing certain elements of a master deck/doc you’ve created for a key strategic project. Depending on who you’re communicating with, identify how you can adjust your project updates to ensure those particular stakeholders find your work important and valuable. For example, marketing may care more about how you helped them generate more high quality leads vs product may care more about product/feature adoption. No matter who it is you're communicating with, identify their key measures of success and think about how you can align your outcomes to their objectives.

How exciting! This should be super helpful in ensuring your GTM teams can have effective conversations with customers. I've listed some additional elements you may want to consider below. Competitive info: Identify competitors with similar offerings and highlight what sets you apart. This helps your sales teams position your product more effectively and win more deals by showcasing unique advantages. Resources across the customer journey: From my experience, providing resources for GTM teams and customers that align with each stage of the customer journey can be highly effective. This makes it easy for sales to provide the right assets at the right time—whether customers are just interested or actively evaluating a purchase decision. Roadmap: Outline planned features or updates to generate further excitement and show your ongoing investment in the product. This can help build confidence in your long-term vision and commitment. Customer references: Sharing real-world examples of how your product has solved problems for other customers is critical. Gather a variety of case studies, quotes, and video testimonials across different industries to provide compelling validation of your product's value. Objection handling: Support your teams by anticipating potential objections customers might have and providing key talking points to address concerns. This is especially important for handling objections related to pricing, product features, or competitive comparisons. FAQs: Put together a list of the most common questions you're hearing from both GTM and customers along with answers. This will help to ensure consistency of responses as your field is speaking with customers. This can continue to evolve based on feedback you continue to gather.

I would say this is not necessarily always the case. Adding new features can happen at any stage of the product lifecycle. It could be part of the early stage strategy to iterate or improve the product based on initial customer feedback, or a mid-stage effort to expand functionality and capture a broader target audience. If the product is in it's late stages, new features could be added to help retain existing customers. At Zendesk, we continuously deliver new features within our products to enhance value - regardless of the product's lifecycle stage.

Launching from a smaller organization can be challenging, but it also presents some unique opportunities. One of the greatest advantages of being at a smaller organization is the ability to leverage agility. You can pivot more quickly based on market feedback, which is a luxury that most larger orgs often don't have. Additionally, focusing on niche markets enables you to offer specialized solutions that big players can tend to overlook. Building strong and authentic relationships with your customer base is also critical. Identify customer champions by engaging with early adopters, gathering their feedback, and turning them into your best advocates. At Zendesk, our customer luminaries program has been instrumental in building a loyal customer base that organically amplifies our message. This approach can be incredibly powerful for smaller orgs.

Great question! Success metrics can vary across companies, but in my experience successful product launches consistently hinge on clear planning, targeted goals, strong cross-functional collaboration, and continuous measurement. Here are some key elements to focus on: Set clear goals: Establish and align on specific, actionable, and measurable goals well before the launch so you can measure success immediately post-launch and make data-driven decisions. Organize your team: Identify your core team early! Ensure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. It's always best to have a dedicated launch lead to keep all teams aligned and driven towards shared goals. Verify product/market fit: Do your research to ensure your product meets a genuine market need. This is crucial for generating interest and driving adoption. Identify your targets: You'll need to understand who your product is for and tailor your marketing plans to resonate with these audiences. This way, you can ensure to craft messaging that will land with impact for potential customers. Prepare your GTM teams & market: Make sure your GTM teams are WELL informed and prepared. You can do this by conducting training sessions and providing them with the necessary resources to help them effectively promote and support your new product. Pre-launch activities should also focus on educating the market to build buzz and excitement. Measure and adjust: Post-launch, you should track your identified success metrics across different stages. For example: - Awareness: Measure reach and impressions - Pipeline/purchase: Track how many leads convert into paying customers - Adoption: Measure how customers are using and maximizing their use of the product post-purchase Depending on the scale of your launch, you can set the appropriate cadence for these measurements, whether daily, weekly, monthly etc. Just make sure you track these regularly so you can adapt as necessary. Get feedback from your customers: Customer feedback is so important. Make sure you set up the appropriate channels to collect customer feedback post-launch to inform refining the product and adapting your marketing strategy.