Lindsay (Saran) Gatta

I like to use the Care-Do-Impact framework for materials like this. So why should the customer care, what should do they do about it, what is the expected impact they should have if they take the recommended action. That will help the sellers make this case study more action-oriented too. So with the materials you have, think about leading with the strongest customer quote. And closing with the strongest stat. You can always do an additional appendix with the secondary quotes and stats to show it works across multiple customer segments. Another idea is to make 1 template and then scale it out for your top industries or customer segments. It appears you have a lot of material to work with so instead of cramming it all into one single two-pager, how can you get legs out of your assets AND make them more usable for your sellers?

Here are some I like: -What's good product you believe is marketed poorly? -What's a product you believe is not a market category leader but is because of its marketing? -Tell me about the last time you promoted someone on your team. What was that process like? -What inspired you to pursue a career in product marketing? What do you think is unique about product marketing than other types of marketing? -This is not a personal favorite but I always get it personally: Tell me about a time when you influenced a product roadmap.

I've had the pleasure of working across both and there are some key differences I'd take into account if you have the opportunity to pick a lane: -B2B planning cycles are a bit more predictable than B2C ones- i.e. you have a good sense for what the key buying patterns might look like for your product/service, what the key events that reach that audience are and when they happen, etc. I personally found there isn't a ton of reactive planning in the B2B world unless there is a massive competitor shift driving that reactivity, in comparison to B2C which I find to be somewhat unpredictable as there are always new trends you're trying to be relevant for as well as constantly shifting and evolving consumer mindsets. -In the B2B world, a key audience in addition to your external customer is the internal one - your seller. You need them on board just as must as you need the buyer/customer. And yes the customer journey is often times longer in terms of sales cycles, but the number of key decision-makers/ people you need to influence is usually bigger and therefore more complex. -Pending the product/service, your budgets might be bigger on the B2C side, especially if you have a decent advertising/above-the-line budget. I have loved both B2B and B2C - I was pretty hesitant to take a B2B marketing role and I loved it so much more than I ever thought I would. Both experiences are valuable, and you might end up having a preference if you try both. Think about what motivates you most - do you prefer to touch/see/feel your product so you can have a deeper personal connection to it? If you do, B2C might be for you. Or if you know you like being close to the traditional sales model and enjoy relationship building, B2B might be for you.

This is certainly not revolutionary but I think of ChatGPT as my editor. If I believe a positioning statement could be stronger or punchier, I ask it to provide me stronger alternatives. Or if I need synonym inspiration, I ask for a list of them. All of the things I used to ask Google for (like "What's an alternative word for empowered?") are things I now have ported over to ChatGPT.

I would ask about a few things: -What types of marketing decisions do the founders want to be involved with? What types of decisions are they comfortable giving you autonomy to run? -What is your budgeting process? Are the founders involved in that? -Has the founder worked with a product marketer before? What did and didn't go well in their working relationship? Can you talk to that person? -How does your founder(s) define product marketing? -(If more than 1 founder), what types of approvals and decisions will each of them manage, or will you need 2-3 approvals/rounds of feedback with the majority of your day to day work?

This is a great question and I don't think there is one right way to do it :) I would probably do BOTH. Be bold for your overall value prop statement - lean into the fact that you are category leading. And then I would back up your value statements with reasons to believe from the product in areas where they already have a mental model/anchor. So for example, no consumer is likely to have a mental model/anchor for different types of GPT models (3.0, 3.5, 4.0), BUT they do understand the difference between a third grade teacher and a physical professor's knowledge. Metaphors and analogies go a long way to make new categories seem more relatable.

Back when I was on the Chromebooks team, customers really unpacked the nuances between "powerful," "simple," and "simplicity" for us, via qual research. For example, "simple" had a negative connotation to it whereas "simplicity" had a more positive connotation to it. This really helped us update our positioning, messaging and taglines as we learned the way we were communicating simplicity was undermining our product at the time.

Is your company comfortable with sharing the vision of where the product will eventually land and the stage-gates to get there? If they are, this type of thought leadership can distinguish your company for corporate audiences and press, especially if it is a differentiating product. This is an area where I think it is important to be transparent and honest about what hasn't been figured out yet but instead acknowledge the types of questions you are working to answer. This approach will also rally internal audiences to better understand your medium to long-term product strategy. Win-win.

IMHO, the best way to do that is through a unique competitive, consumer or industry insight -- if no other company is leaning into that type of insight, you will be novel and differentiated. You can also try validating how differentiated your messaging is through customer testing -- they will tell you if they have heard what you are trying to say or not before.

I love following Occam's Razor for tips and tricks on storytelling: https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/