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Savita Kini

Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI, Cisco

About

I consider myself an accidental marketer. I started my computer engineering career building complex products that I can proudly claim are in the backbone of the internet. Being an extrovert, and feeling stifled about not using my creative side, I ......more

Content

How have your product marketing teams traditionally worked with your demand generation / growth marketing team?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • February 4

Love your above answer. Even campaign plans have to be defined together because demand gen team will need guidance on - who to target - type of customers - segments, size, revenue, etc - what type of campaign - lead gen, awareness, account-based marketing campaign, nurturing existing cu......Read More

1498 Views

What companies have product marketing that you really admire, either overall or particular elements?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • April 11

May be I am baised, but in the large Global 500 space, infrastructure -- I would say my experience at Cisco was the best. For me thats kind of the benchmark now - both in terms of strategy and execution cadence that I learnt. From products to solution to positioning platforms, working with ecosys......Read More

1190 Views

What responsibility for demand gen do product marketers have in your company?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • January 22

I am writing this perspective from my recent experience on what was missing and how I would lead in the future as a product marketing leader. Given that most demand gen folks are well versed in campaign orchestration tools and mechanics, and less on the market/customer/segment/product fit, they n......Read More

1142 Views

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

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • August 6

Product positioning is really a complex thoughtful approach, requiring perspectives on brand, pricing and packaging coming together. I believe strongly that its starts day-one when you build the product, define product features, who and where you want to compete with especially the type of custom......Read More

1122 Views

How is your team making the transition from “product” marketing to “solution” marketing? Do PMMs share both product and solutions marketing responsibilities? Or do PMM now speak more to the users and solution marketers to the buyers?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • January 7

The transition from products to solutions requires a company wide buy-in from the top otherwise PMM's cannot make any impact. The reason we move to solutions in the first place is because the customers prefer a more holistic solution to their problem/pain point versus a point-product. To build a ......Read More

1089 Views

How does your company define the difference between Marketing and Product Marketing teams and how do the responsibilities differ?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • January 19

In addition to above, since all content is so closely tied to how/where it shows up and who needs to see it, versus 10 yrs ago when product marketing would created a set of standard content and post on the website. I would recommend sitting down with Demand Gen team, PR/AR to figure out what is n......Read More

1052 Views

How important are brand marketing skills for product marketers compared to analytical skills?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • January 19

Just a feedback on the last comment, as I reacquaint myself to the "new" bay area. I have noticed more emphasis on demand gen skills amongst many startups. If there are stakeholders in the company already like product management and technical marketing who are also good at writing, messaging, pos......Read More

1043 Views

Should product marketing report into Product management or Marketing?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • March 11

I have been in marketing and product org -- both places and see pros and cons for both. It all depends on the strength of the PM team and their skills. > If PM team is strong enough to own end-to-end product responsibilities including how to build for new verticals etc, -- then PMM under mark......Read More

1016 Views

What did you wish you knew at the very beginning of your product marketing career as a Product Marketing Manager?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • March 22

This is an interesting question. It really depends on the size of the company where you join. I switched to product marketing after almost 9 yrs in engineering including a MS in computer Engg. I had spent lot of time in the labs in Cisco to the point I think my hearing is partially damaged becaus......Read More

1004 Views

As a Product Marketer, what typical tasks, projects, or commitments do you find the most challenging in your job? How have you excelled in those challenges/solved those problems?

Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • February 23

Chiming in here 1. Messaging and positioning - can be difficult, again its very industry and segment dependant as well as what type of product/technology. Being on enterprise infrastructure and software in my career, in the current scenario, where you have to influence and convince multiple "......Read More

986 Views

Credentials & Highlights

Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI at Cisco