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Chapter 2 The Fundamentals of Product Marketing

You know that red squiggly underline that automatically appears any time you've misspelled something in Word?

It debuted after an executive team edict proclaimed every product unit had to simultaneously ship its next version together with the upcoming release of Windows. The team's development time was slashed in half, which meant we'd only be able to ship a fraction of the number of features as the prior version.

This was in the peak of the feature arms race era, a time when value was equated with stickers on boxes highlighting hundreds of features packed inside.

Not only were there far fewer features in the next version, but many of them weren't major game changers. They were clever enhancements of features already in the product. How could we take our feature-light version and make it feel like a worthy, full-fledged release?

It was in a team brainstorming session that a product marketer pulled out an instrumentation study the product team had done. It analyzed every keystroke of hundreds of users. He pointed out the planned enhancements fell into two categories:

1 Functions most people used most of the time—like formatting text

2 Features used less frequently, like bulleted lists, but for the people who did use them, they used them a lot

It was a eureka moment—this is how we can tell this version's story: it focuses on what matters most for how most people use Word.

Back then, press and analyst meetings mattered a lot because one review could define a product's reputation for years. Product marketers would go on dedicated in-person tours showcasing the product to key influencers and pundits.

Usually, these meetings led with a polished PowerPoint. The product marketing team decided to ditch the slides and instead freestyle on a whiteboard (Figure 2.1) to share the data and have a conversation. They then demoed the product using a story of how an ordinary office worker used Word in her daily work.

The story that went along with it went something like this: 75% of the actions someone takes in Word fall into basic categories like formatting and file management. We focused our features on those areas so every user could benefit from them. When we examined how features actually get used, we also saw some that aren't used by as many people but for those who do use them, they use them a lot. That told us those features have a lot of value but aren't easily discovered. This version implements those features on behalf of users so they can experience their value without changing how they work.

Figure 2.1 Whiteboard recreation.

Case in point: spell-check. It now ran in the background and underlined misspelled words as people typed instead of making someone remember to hit the spell check button.

Walt Mossberg, then of the Wall Street Journal and the most preeminent word-processor reviewer of the time, had a justly earned reputation as immutable. When he asked why this version had a highlighter feature, beyond showing him the research, we sent him an email from a beta user raving about the feature and how much she used it.

When his review finally came out, it surprised even us.

Welcome to this week's colum. Wait, that's wrong. I meant this week's column. There, that's better. The word-processing software with which I'm writing this noted that typo and flagged it for me by instantly underlining it with a squiggly red line…For the new Word, also known as version 7.0, Microsoft has concentrated on a host of small but clever refinements that automate and enhance the writing process, like the aforementioned “Spell-It” and improved “AutoCorrect” features. It converts the asterisks or hyphens you use to mark items in bulleted lists into indented symbols…There's a feature that simulates a yellow highlighter pen…Taken together, these new features make an already excellent word processor even better, in my view. Word continues to be the best writing tool out there.” ¹

The approach of framing the why of the product's features together with actual user behavior—and presenting it in a less traditional way—paid off. That version became Word's best reviewed and most successful version up to that time.

Product marketing worked with the product team to come up with compelling positioning and spearheaded everything else to bring Word to market: coordinating a product launch, creating sales tools for the field, readying customer testimonials, influencing pricing, enabling product evaluations, preparing competitive response tools, educating channel partners, and working with direct marketing and advertising teams to create compelling campaigns.

These are tools of product marketing's trade but remember, they aren't its purpose. The job is to drive product adoption by shaping market perception through strategic marketing activities that positively impact the business.

The work of Word's product marketing team made the difference between the product just going to market versus setting the standard for the category. It did this with the focused application of the four fundamentals in everything it did. They were ambassadors between customer, product, and market insights that enabled great storytelling that positioned the product. This set the foundation for activities and tools that let others evangelize through all the go-to-market machinery. This was all guided by clear strategies, the most important being to leverage a new operating system release.

Let's explore each of these fundamentals to explain the range of activities they encompass and how to do them well.

Fundamental 1. Ambassador: Connect Customer and Market Insights

Everything a product marketer does must be grounded in customer and market insights, which is why it is the first fundamental. Product marketing brings this expertise to how a product makes its way to market. This goes beyond knowing what problems a product solves and who target customers might be. It's about providing market and customer insight into any situation.

The range of work encompasses segmenting customers, knowing frustrations and problems that drive them to seek something new, and delineating the steps they take along their journey to become customers. It includes knowing what makes raving, loyal fans and the “watering holes” that create influence or amplify influencers. It means understanding which activities engage future customers as well as existing ones.

It also requires deep product knowledge of what customers find useful. Product teams should already have a clear idea of why customers choose to use or buy a product. Product marketing brings: knowledge of the buyer's frame of mind, how the competitive landscape might affect a decision, and what that means for how a product should be positioned.

It is both quantitative and qualitative knowledge, a shared effort with product, insights, or research teams. It's about understanding how desired customers think and act, then applying it to product go-to-market.

Fundamental 2. Strategist: Direct Your Product's Go-to-Market

How do you make every market-facing activity you do matter? By defining a clear product go-to-market plan whose strategies align directly with business goals.

Strategies guide the tactics (activities) that get you from A to B. A good product go-to-market makes clear the why and when for certain activities in addition to the what and how.

Product marketing considers why a customer might want a product and how they are likely to find it, then plans accordingly. Does a customer rely on peers at networking events to learn what's new? Does she primarily do her research online and prefer to try new technology herself?

Much like product managers use discovery techniques to determine if a product is valuable, usable, feasible, and viable, in product marketing, aspects of product go-to-market can only be discovered by trying things in-market. For example, a company might not know whether or not trial or product-led growth will be an effective way to grow versus using a direct sales force. These are expensive investments, but the range of go-to-market models are now broad enough that which is best for a business can't be presumed without some experimentation.

This means defining a strong product go-to-market is iterative. The purpose behind activities is made clear, then thoughtful actions are executed—both planned and opportunistic. Learnings are then applied to evolve a product's go-to-market plan. It's normal that some things don't work well. A product's go-to-market plan must be resilient enough for experimentation and failure.

That's why defining strategies—and all their associated activities—well requires a strategic and learning mindset.

Fundamental 3. Storyteller: Shape How the World Thinks About Your Product

Not everything that's said about a product is in a company's direct control. But the foundational positioning work that strongly shapes how the world thinks about a product is.

Positioning is the place a product occupies in people's minds. It sets a context in which a product's value becomes clear. The key messages supporting that positioning are what marketing and sales teams say and promote over and over to reinforce that position. A broader story narrative is what stiches it all together to make it stick.

Positioning is a long-term game, while messaging is a shorter-term one. But success with both requires a combination of perseverance (as you find what works) and patience (as you build on it).

For positioning, every marketing action can reinforce position, but defining the goalposts by which your product and category are measured are some of the most important. For messaging, the range of work includes iterative development of messages that connect with the right audiences and helping people make more informed decisions.

In the modern era, this means being genuinely helpful without being overly promotional or authoritative. It requires restraint and knowing what is most meaningful to audiences, not trying to say everything all the time.

Our brains process stories differently than straight facts. It's why positioning and messaging is best done through stories—an employee's, a customer's, the product's, or the company's—and why product marketing must be good at telling stories that bring it all together.

Fundamental 4. Evangelist: Enable Others to Tell the Story

Another benefit of stories is they are easier for others to tell. Today's hyper-competitive environment means you can't expect to sell a product that doesn't have other people talking about it.

Evangelism only works if it feels authentic. The range of work to make this happen includes providing direct sales teams with the right messages and tools to make them sound like genuine advocates, not just salespeople trying to sell.

Evangelism also means finding the most meaningful influencers that move your market—key customers, analysts, pundits, press, bloggers, social influencers, online forums—and inspiring them with stories and evidence so they advocate for your product. In the broad digital landscape you see this in reviews, press articles, analyst reports, communities, or any social or developer communication platform, and includes all in-person events and evangelism too.

Healthy growth of any business relies on this organic flywheel working well. It's the only way for organizations to scale their market footprint cost-effectively.

The next four chapters explore each fundamental in more depth with stories that show you what they look like when applied and techniques to help you do them well.

Note

1 1 Walter Mossberg, “Personal technology: Word for Windows 95 Helps Sloppy Writers Polish Their Prose,” Wall Street Journal, October 5, 1995.