Madhav Bhandari’s Post

The law of energy conservation in relation to marketing

Product marketing prepares for launch several months ahead of time. 😎 1 day before launch… “Sorry, the launch is postponed” PMM: “Aha yeah no problem” Reality: ___ Tag a a product marketer who knows this feeling. 😂 #productmarketing

"What's product marketing life like?" A juggling act of pain 🐙 "Make it look pretty" "The product sells itself" "We're launching tomorrow" "Where's the help center article?" "Can you make a one-pager real quick?" "We already have this feature on the roadmap?" "Why don't we have this feature our competitor does?" "We need to add this feature, our biggest customer is churning." IYKYK 😂 👋 P.S. How do you annoy a PMM in 1 sentence? Go!

Joining the conversation sparked by the interesting McKinsey article on Product Marketing.  https://lnkd.in/gU59-cii Here's why it's resonating with me: - Recognition: Thrilled to see Product Marketing gaining the visibility it deserves. - Insights: The article hits key points worth sharing. - Community: Excited to hear others' thoughts. A standout quote for me: “Product marketing is the glue that keeps the product, the market, and the customer together.” - Goksu Nebol-Perlman, Vice President of Business Product Marketing for Meta I often joke that product marketing is the center of the universe, but this diagram reinforces our pivotal role, touching every aspect and nurturing vital stakeholder relationships. Jump in! What do you think? 

Every Product Marketing team wants a feature that is fully differentiated and brings such obvious value to customers that it sells itself. But guess what, those features are rare and if they weren't...you probably wouldn't have a job because well, the product would sell itself. So what that means is positioning your releases, tying together features with other benefits like services, integrations, and partnerships, and differentiating nuances vs competitors is core. Then how do you tell a consistent story, how do you enable, and make sure that the customer experience you promise is delivered. So while we all dream of that unicorn product release (and they do happen from time to time), the top product marketing teams do their best work on those other releases. 

Ever wondered why some amazing products never make it big? 🤔 It’s not just about having the best technology. The secret sauce is effective Product Marketing! 🎯 Building a product is undeniably challenging, but the real battle often begins after the product is built. Surprisingly, the primary reason most companies fail isn’t due to inferior technology but rather their inability to attract and retain customers. In my opinion, understanding customer experience and targeting the right market segment are vital to ensuring product success.🚀 To find out more check out my latest article, "Product Marketing Mastery: The Crucial Factor," the first of my article series on why product marketing is the most critical aspect of product success.🌟 #ProductMarketing #ProductManagement #MarketingStrategy #CustomerExperience #BusinessGrowth

Who took the "product" out of Product Marketing? 💀 We've been plagued by the lead-gen and enablement bugs for far too long. That's why we brought Becky Trevino on to help us bring us back to our namesake. Today you can get her take on: 〽 Which department is the best-fit for PMM 〽 What you can do to become PMs best friend 〽 The 4 superpowers of Product marketing...and which one Becky uses the most 〽 Why storytelling needs to hit on an emotional level 〽 What living in a household with a Product manager is like 〽 The million-dollar question: Sell what's on the truck...or give them the roadmap? If you don't know Becky, give her a follow. And if you do know Becky, then you know how she commands the room and the GTM And either way, make sure you watch until the end when she does impressions of her partner 💀

Product marketing is still misunderstood which means the onus is on **you** to explain what you do and why For team like Product Management and Marketing that are often pressured to perform/deliver and criticized often, it's doubly important to be sensitive to their needs and explain how you work I always try to give some context AND explain how we work together/my role. Something like: "Hey Cynthia! (PM lead) Super excited to be working with you on this launch. My job is to make sure that [Product name] launches on schedule and that the entire company is aligned on GTM strategy and execution. I'm constantly thinking through downstream impacts and upstream requirements, which means I ask a ton of questions to try to understand your work in a lot of detail. I know PM is often criticized and pressured by other teams – I'm here to partner with you and think through how your work (and everyone elses) impacts other teams. My goal is to bring to market this incredible product you've created in the best way possible. It's practically my job to show off your work and make you look good! For this launch, I'm focused on hitting [relevant KPI(s)]. What KPIs are critical for you?"

I've also had the experience as a Product Marketer of sitting under product and marketing during one tenure at a company, being moved from one to the other and back again. I am inclined to agree with this unpopular opinion. But I think it depends on the size of the organization. The largest problem PMM teams face in most organizations is that they aren't generally a well-understood function, and where they are, they are underutilized. PMM is such a cross-functional role that it really needs to be positioned strategically within the organization, as you suggested under the CEO, or perhaps tied to the CRO, as many of a PMM's activities are tied to pipeline generation. For PMM to truly be an asset in an organization, they need to have a broad view of corporate vision and strategy. I think PMM is often relegated to supporting product and feature launches, which, IMO, drastically underutilizes the function. This horrible eye chart in the comments is what I use to show how cross-functional the PMM role is in an org. I really should polish this, as it was a whiteboard activity that was specifically created for an interview case study that I participated in. Not shown in it is Analyst Relations/PR/Comms, which is another very important cross-functional collaborative team.

Following up on my post from yesterday, why don't product teams optimize product experiences for value realization in their products? I suspect it's a few of things: 1) Most product folks think functionally. They think of only the functional jobs-to-be-done and don't prioritize the social and emotional jobs their users might have. 2) They don't connect their product thinking with marketing messaging. In smaller companies, product marketing isn't even an investment yet, and much of this can fall on a product manager's shoulders. Thinking about how their product positioning shows up in the product is pretty low on their priority list, yet it's one of the highest-impact things to invest in because it creates stickiness and differentiation. When done correctly, you constantly answer "why I need this product" every day for the user. 3) Even if there is some level of product marketing investment, most product marketing folks are 1 way. They deliver products out to the market and don't deliver market insights back to the product team. What April Dunford calls inbound and outbound product marketing is not happening enough. So, product teams get further and further away from the customers, their needs and their "whys" and the PMM team, who should be delivering that back into the org isn't bridging the gap. What do you think? Am I missing anything here? What else is holding product teams back from focusing on building more value moments into their products?