Stacie Colendich

First things first, I like to define a good GTM strategy as one that clearly outlines: Business goals with measurable KPIs Target audience and the best channels to reach them Product positioning and messaging Pricing and sales/distribution plans Strategy to drive awareness and/or onboarding and engagement Comms/PR collaboration is critical in nearly every GTM. I have always found most success bring my comms peers in early to help them understand what we are trying to accomplish and to brainstorm ...Read More

I like to be specific, but reasonable when setting timelines. This is true for cross functional stakeholders as well as my own team. I find that everything tends to work more smoothly when folks understand both the context of the ask as well as the expectations from each individual or team. Specific ensures that everyone is clear on the ask and understands the expectation. You don't want to have ambiguity when there are dependencies involved. And when is there ever a project that doesn't have de ...Read More

Customer success is as important as sales in my GTM planning. Customer success can include pre-sales, solution engineering, post-sales support and, more often than not, understand the customer's day to day much better than sales people. I leverage customer success as: An outreach channel - they have a direct line to our customers, so I often leverage them as a targeted channel. Provide them with key marketing assets (webinars, events, content, etc.) and use them as a push mechanism. A feedback c ...Read More

This seems like a trick question - working independently without information, insights, or advice from key stakeholders is a huge mistake. PMMs must operate as the hub in the hub and spoke model. You must deeply understand: the customer problem (Customers direct and/or via Sales and CS) the product (PM) your differentiation (Research) how to sell (Sales and Enablement) timing (PM and Release Management) how to reach the customer (Marketing and Comms) If you are not collaborating cross functional ...Read More

This is a very common scenario and an amazing opportunity for product marketing. The first thing you want to do is understand what is (or isn't) resonating with customers. Riding along with sales or customer success is the best way to get first hand information. But, conducting and analyzing win/loss data is a close second. Having data, both quantitative and qualitative, will help you: Identify the gap between what is happening in the field and assumptions being made in product development Provi ...Read More

Starting a new job is always challenging, but it can also be one of the most exciting challenges. You have the energy, you have a fresh perspective, you have an opportunity to do things differently. When I start in a new role, I like to first identify who my stakeholders are going to be. Leverage your manager and teammates to make sure you know who should be on that list. And I like to go with a simple agenda to these meetings: What's working well? What's not working as well as it should? What's ...Read More

I would break this question into two parts. How do I set timelines for feedback on a specific deliverable? We all have deliverables - this could be a pitch deck you are working on, the keynote for an event, messaging for a product launch, and all of those things have an deadline. You need to set that deadline, have an appropriate work back plan and communicate it clearly to your stakeholders. This allows you to incorporate feedback with enough time to still hit your milestones. How do I continuo ...Read More

A lot! Especially at medium to large companies, there's functional expertise for a reason. I wouldn't expect product marketing to own any of the following: Product management - prioritizing features, writing requirements, managing engineering timelines. There is going to be overlap where PMM may inform a roadmap with customer needs or competitive intelligence, but the rest is not in scope. Demand gen / performance marketing - running paid acquisition, managing ad spend, optimizing conversion fun ...Read More

Focusing only on what PMs say instead of what customers wantThis is a common mistake - inside out vs. outside in thinking. It's easier to talk to someone internal, it's easier to take their statement as ground truth, it's easier to believe the story we have told ourselves. It's important to remind ourselves that ultimately we need customers to buy and use our product and if our GTM strategy and messaging doesn't reflect their problems, motivations, reasons to buy, then your GTM is flawed. Not ma ...Read More

There are a variety of ways to get buy-in - from large meetings with presentation and Q&A to 1-1s with all key stakeholders. I have had success in both strategies, but it really depends on your company culture. In large meetings, you have an opportunity to lead the conversation and provide the same story to all stakeholders at the same time. And often, the Q&A is really valuable to hash out key points across teams and make sure that everyone is aligned. The downside is that you can get s ...Read More