Nisha Goklaney

This is a great question! Given messaging is such a subjective topic - it's super important to quantifiably test and iterate on it to ensure it lands well in the market. Here's a few strategies and tactics you can use to quantifably test it:  1. During the process of creating the messaging, work with your market research team to test aspects of the messaging with prospects and customers. This can be both qualitative tests where you test specific aspects of your pitch and differentiated value or ...Read More

There are a host of good training options out there:  Sharebird - a great place to start. Here you can get real industry expertise and resources from folks in the field Podcasts - Women in Product Marketing by Mary Sheehan (Sharebird Podcast), Product Marketing Insider are a couple of my favorites.  Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It" by April Dunford. Another best practice I like to follow is actually spending time on other brand sites (examp ...Read More

Yes, there are plenty resources out there for you to continue to sharpen your toolset and learn from others in the community as well. Here are some of my favorites  1. Listening to podcasts - Women in Product Marketing by Mary Sheehan is by far my favorite. She brings on a host of Senior PMM's in their field to discuss topics from messaging, positioning, pricing, getting into PMM, GTM strategy etc.  2. Following thought leaders on Linkedin. 3. Spend time on other websites - Some website I have c ...Read More

I have used several different messaging frameworks, but one that we are leveraging quite a lot these days is the Jobs to be done framework, accompanied by durable, evergreen messages that are centered around our key customer personas and their pain points. In this framework you start by:  First, Understanding your ‘who’ (aka your key buyer personas) - who they are, what are their goals, their challenges, what keeps them up at night and what pain points they are most struggling with. We get super ...Read More

Brilliant question. If developed correctly, your messaging pillars should be evergreen (i.e. should not change on a dime) from campaign to campaign. Ultimately, your messaging pillars bring to life the core value your product/service delivers to customers and hence should be foundational. As you release new product features, think about how they ladder up to your core messaging pillars (aka the value you deliver to customers) and map them as such.  Here are some best practices to ensure you get ...Read More

If your goal is to influence the product roadmap there are a few pitfalls you should avoid. Don't treat the roadmap as something fixed/set in stone - Having a roadmap is super crucial to helping focus product teams + also giving the market a clear sign on where you are going. However, there needs to be a fine balance here, so that you don't miss opportunities to meet the moment. A better approach - is to recognize that roadmaps are dynamic, frame your input as a way to enhance priorities or resp ...Read More

Product marketing plays a key role in sharing the roadmap externally to ultimately help buyers buy and sellers sell. Here's some key ways to on how to do this: Public roadmap pages or tools - Share high level public facing roadmap that helps give customers insights into the areas the product is investing in and the use cases, themes and problem areas where the product is doubling down to support. Customer advisory boards - share the roadmap selectively with top-tier customers (in certain upmarke ...Read More

What works here in my experience is having regular touchpoints for alignment + strategic reviews to influence direction. Here's a framework: Weekly or bi-weekly syncs - for ongoing collaboration and alignment. This is where you discuss progress on current roadmap items, any changes to product launch timeframes, updates on GTM plans, customer feedback and market trends. Why it's important: Maintains a constant feedback loop and prevents surprises as features move through development Quarterly roa ...Read More

This is a great question. An important thing to remember is Products should be built with a market in mind - and that's where a PMM comes in. They should be experts in the 'market' (customer, competitor, market sizing) and use this as their grounding. Here's what worked from my experience: Coming to the table with data and insights - Product teams value concrete, actionable insights so bringing data that they can't ignore helps. Use customer feedback, rep feedback, competitive analysis and adopt ...Read More

I rely on alerts and curated newsletters, dedicating early morning hours to focused market intelligence review. I set up alerts for key topics and subscribe to specific newsletters that I trust to keep me informed about market developments. I carve out dedicated time for deep work, usually very early in the morning before my kids wake up, to review this information and stay current. It's important to be realistic - with markets changing so quickly, it's impossible to know everything about every ...Read More