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Marcus Andrews

Marcus Andrews

Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Pendo.io

About

I'm a Director of Product Marketing at Pendo. I live in near Boston now but also spent time in SF working at the startup Wildfire then Google, in GTM roles.

Content

What do you use or do to get people to buy into your positioning plans and consistently using them?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

Product marketing is often defined as the people who position the products, but I think it's as equally important (especially as you grow bigger) that Product Marketing is also the most cross functional role in marketing. Creating alignment, securing buy-in, and building momentum around a launch ......Read More

3859 Views

What are the most important parts of product positioning? How do you get the rest of the company aligned on positioning?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

Going to cop out on this one a little bit (all the parts are important!) and just tell you how we did it at HubSpot. There are many ways to slice it but our approach has worked really well for us. We always start with the change in the world. How people are different today, where they are headed......Read More

3682 Views

Can you please outline a "Launch Framework" and go through an example of implementing such a framework for one of the companies for which you have worked?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

This is a bit hard without writing a novel but luckily I wrote that novel not too long ago - check out this post. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/elements-flawless-product-launch-li It's pretty easy to find a good framework that you like - the trick is tailoring it for your busienss and......Read More

2209 Views

How often is too often when it comes to launching a new product feature/enhancement publicly?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

Great question! First and foremost your launches have to have substance and that should dictate the cadence more than marketing need. I've seen some companies try and do a launch every week and it starts off great but then loses momentum quickly because people stop caring. Thats a bad situtat......Read More

1867 Views

How do you and the PMM team communicate updates and progress on your product launch to the rest of the org? What is the format? What do you report back on? Etc.

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

There are a number of ways we keep everyone up to date on the progress during a launch. Luckily at HubSpot we also have project managers to help us. I’ll say it, I’m not a good project manager. It’s another level of organization that I was just not born with. These people really help during this ......Read More

1610 Views

How do we approach the launch plan that was pre-decided and what changes in approaches would you recommend?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

I know this pain! Part of working at a product driven company is that this will happen and it's ok. The health of the product should come first and that will disrupt markeitng plans for time to time. Stick it out. Don't stop doing product launches just because the timelines didn't work out a ......Read More

1400 Views

What stage in the product lifecycle is best for a product launch? What effort would you put into launching a product that is still very much an MVP?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

This is such a great question! At some point every PMM will find themselves in a situation when they are asked to launch a product that just isn’t ready. It’s always a mistake to go too early (launching too late isn’t good either but less dangerous). If it’s truly an MVP and you launch it w......Read More

1371 Views

What’s one piece of tactical advice and one piece of strategic advice for a small company (2 person marketing team) that’s doing a product launch and company rebrand at the same time?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

Strategic advice: Is it a good idea to do them at the same time? You could separate them and stretch out the pop you’d get from each. Also, can you tie them together? For many companies their brand story is tightly aligned to their product story, this is especially true for product driven compani......Read More

1350 Views

How does product marketing integrate with the PM team? Who decides what features to focus on in each launch? What documentation is provided to PMMs to help in crafting messaging?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

At HubSpot our PMMs are aligned by product line and are aligned to a Product director and GM, although we still meet regularly with our individual PMs. I think in general we try and tell a higher level story that doesn't really focus too much on any one feature but often certain features are v......Read More

1345 Views

What's the most effective way you've found to introduce/launch new features within the product UI?

Pendo.io Sr. Director of Product Marketing • June 26

I think you’re asking if it’s behind a pay wall and not just a free product? If that’s the case, you need material (video!) that can act as a demo, people want to see product, not just read about it. Salespeople who can give great demos and free trials are often a really effective a launch tool. ......Read More

1315 Views

Credentials & Highlights

Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Pendo.io

Top Product Marketing Mentor List

Product Marketing AMA Contributor

Product Marketing Soft and Hard Skills

Product Launches

Lives In Cambridge, Massachusetts

Knows About Competitive Positioning, Product Marketing Career Path, Self-Serve Product Marketing,......more