Product Marketing Adventures

Elle Grossenbacher
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Marketing

Product Marketing Adventures is the only PMM show that goes beyond theory and into the real execution of product marketing. In each episode, experienced product marketers co-host two segments of the show: first a case study example of their work, followed by a messaging critique of companies we admire. Listeners enjoy a fun conversation packed with practical guidance to leverage in your product marketing career.

  1. May 26

    Know the "So What" Like a Digital Science PMM

    Ever been hit with the classic, “We’re launching next week. Ready? Go.” moment? In this episode, we talk about why that scramble happens, what it costs, and how the best product marketing teams avoid it by getting clear on success, ownership, and the difference between a release and a real launch. Doug Kimball joins me for a practical conversation on one of the biggest moves a PMM can make: rebuilding the go-to-market function from the ground up. Doug has led global marketing and product marketing teams, run major field kickoffs, and helped teams improve pipeline impact and collaboration using Pragmatic Institute principles. He also recently published a book on B2B positioning and messaging called So What? Why? Who Cares?. Doug breaks down how he approached rebuilding GTM at Digital Science without overcomplicating it. We get into how to look back at what worked and what did not, align PMM work to revenue outcomes, clarify roles across product and marketing, and put frameworks in place so launches stop feeling like one-off fire drills. We also do a messaging critique of OppTrack, a win-loss and competitive intelligence company, and talk about the difference between messaging that is clear and messaging that creates urgency. If you take one thing from this episode, it is this. Before you build the plan or ship the launch, nail the “so what.” LINKS Messaging Critique (OppTrack): https://www.opptrack.com/   Connect with Doug:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougkimball/   Book: https://sowhatwhywhocares.com/   Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/  Website: https://www.productmarketingadventures.com/

    45 min

  2. May 12

    Write Your Product Narrative Like a Zapier PMM

    Your company has outgrown the thing it is known for, but the market has not caught up yet. New launches land like add-ons instead of the next chapter, and suddenly you are trying to scale a bigger story with old positioning. In this episode, we talk about what it actually takes to evolve brand perception as your product expands. Wade Burrell joins me to break it down. Wade has 15 years of experience across product, go-to-market, and growth, with time at Worldpay, Square, and Intuit Mailchimp. He led SMS expansion across 37 countries and helped shift Mailchimp from being seen as an email tool to being understood as a multi-channel marketing platform. Today, he is at Zapier, leading product marketing for critical infrastructure in the AI era. A big part of our conversation focuses on Wade’s work repositioning Mailchimp’s SMS product. It started as a standalone MVP and was initially treated as useful but optional. Wade shares how they worked to shift that perception, connect SMS to the broader platform story, and make it feel like a strategic priority instead of a bolt-on. Wade also walks through a practical narrative playbook for PMMs, including how to audit your existing platform assets, run open-ended customer research, bring insights into roadmap discussions, and sharpen positioning through real constraints. Plus, we close with a messaging critique of Cursor and where their story could expand beyond developers to speak to larger engineering organizations. Key Takeaways Platform expansion creates narrative lag if your positioning does not evolve with the productNew products need to feel like the next chapter, not a bolt-onStrong narrative shifts start with an audit of what you already own and can credibly claimOpen-ended customer research helps you find the gaps that matter, not the story you want to tellSales feedback is a fast reality check on whether positioning holds up in the real worldGreat messaging can still get sharper by building a second layer for new decision-makers LINKS Messaging Critique (Cursor): https://cursor.com/   Connect with Wade: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadeburrell  Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/  Website: https://www.productmarketingadventures.com/

    58 min

  3. Apr 28

    Boost Product Adoption Like A GoFundMe Pro PMM

    Most adoption problems are not product problems. They are behavior change problems. In this episode, we dig into status quo bias and why customers often stick with what they know, even when your product is clearly better. If you have ever struggled to get users to switch, upgrade, or adopt a new workflow, this will feel very familiar. Keith Blazek joins me to break down how to drive adoption at scale across an entire customer base. Keith has spent over 13 years driving growth across SaaS and financial services in both B2B and B2C, and he helped scale Classy, now GoFundMe Pro, through major growth and transformation. During that time, the platform grew from $1B to $2.6B in annual nonprofit donation volume. Keith walks through his adoption playbook, starting with the step most teams skip. The audit. What assets and channels do you actually have, where does the product fit in the lifecycle, and what is really happening in onboarding and usage. From there, he explains how he builds a repeatable system rather than relying on one big campaign. We also get into practical segmentation, targeting, and positioning for buying committees, plus his Gain, Logic, Fear framework for getting different stakeholders on board without changing the core message. And in the messaging critique segment, Keith audits Wealthfront and shares why specificity and clarity matter even more when you are asking people to change. LINKS Messaging Critique: https://www.wealthfront.com  Connect with Keith:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-blazek/  Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/  Website: https://www.productmarketingadventures.com/

    1h 8m

  4. Apr 14

    Leverage Your Community Like An Expedia PMM

    Everyone seems to be talking about community right now, but what does it actually take to build one that people want to be part of? In this episode, Cara Gravett joins us to unpack why community matters more than ever in a landscape full of polished, AI-generated noise, and why belonging can be far more powerful than attention. Cara brings deep experience from Expedia, where she worked across product, partners, and revenue, helping shape growth in complex B2B ecosystems. She now advises companies on how to make product marketing more strategic, and also runs Between Launches, a community built for product marketers to learn from one another and grow together. In our conversation, we explore the difference between an audience and a true community, why smaller and more intentional groups are often more effective, and what Expedia’s Travel Agent Affiliate Program can teach us about building something genuinely useful. Cara also shares a practical lens for approaching community strategy without the fluff. We also touch on where AI can support community building, where it falls short, and why human connection still sits at the centre of it all. Plus, in the messaging critique segment, Cara breaks down Maven Clinic’s positioning and shares a smart reminder about the value of sharper audience focus. LINKS Messaging Critique: https://www.mavenclinic.com/  Connect with Cara:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cara-gravett/   Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/  Website: https://www.productmarketingadventures.com/

    48 min

  5. Mar 31

    Go Viral with Customers Like a Granola PMM

    If you spent any time on Twitter or LinkedIn in December 2025, you probably saw Granola Crunched everywhere. In this episode, Jack Cully joins me to break down how Granola turned a familiar year-in-review format into a deeply shareable campaign that spread fast across tech workers and generated millions of organic impressions. Jack is part of the team behind Granola, the AI meeting notes tool people genuinely love using, and before that he was one of the earliest marketers at Monzo, helping shape one of the most recognisable brands in UK FinTech. Jack shares why the campaign worked so well, starting with the fact that Granola already solved a real problem people cared about.Instead of forcing a trend onto the product, the team used real meeting data to create something funny, personal, and instantly recognisable. We get into how they built the experience, why it felt so shareable, and what made users want to post it rather than just look at it. We also talk about the details that made the campaign land. That includes how Granola balanced personalization with privacy, why launch timing mattered, and how hands-on social engagement helped turn momentum into something much bigger. More importantly, we unpack how the campaign shifted brand perception, moving Granola beyond a useful tool and into something people felt understood their working lives. We close with a messaging critique of Lovable and their line, “Some ideas are too loud to ignore,” including where the campaign is strong and where it could go further.  The bigger takeaway from the episode is simple: the best campaigns do not come from chasing trends. They come from knowing your product, knowing your users, and building something people genuinely want to share. Key Takeaways Viral campaigns work best when they amplify something users already valuePersonalisation only works when it feels useful, not invasiveFamiliar formats can still feel fresh when they are tightly tied to the productLaunch timing and active engagement can make a big difference to momentumGreat campaigns do more than drive attention, they shift brand perceptionStrong creative starts with customer insight, not trend-chasing LINKS Messaging Critique: https://lovable.dev/  Connect with Jack:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcully  Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/  Website: https://www.productmarketingadventures.com/

    58 min

  6. Mar 17

    Enable salespeople with AI like an Optiversal PMM

    Sales enablement only looks like a messaging problem from a distance. Up close, it’s usually a systems problem. No clear strategy, no feedback loop, and training that happens once, then disappears. In this episode, Michele Nieberding, currently head of product marketing at Optiversal, breaks down how she transformed sales enablement during her time at Treasure Data by starting with diagnosis, not deliverables. She shares how to spot the early signals, like stage-specific drop-offs and objection patterns, then use real rep conversations to build clear hypotheses about what’s actually breaking in the sales cycle. From there, Michele walks through how she rebuilt enablement through purposeful experimentation. Not one big rollout, but repeatable reinforcement that actually changes behaviour. We cover why one-off trainings don’t work, how to make learning stick through repetition and feedback loops, and why measuring even small improvements in cycle time or stage conversion is what earns enablement trust. We close with a messaging critique of ClickUp, including why “Every app, every team” is bold, but can lose clarity if it doesn’t quickly anchor on a specific outcome and reason to believe. Key Takeaways Enablement problems are often strategy and feedback loop problems, not just messagingStart with diagnosis by finding where deals go cold and whyTalk to reps to uncover real friction, then turn it into clear hypothesesRun experiments that reinforce learning over time, not one-off trainingsMeasure impact and iterate, even small gains build credibilityBig positioning still needs sharp edges, clarity, and a clear outcome LINKS Messaging Critique: ClickUp Connect with Michelle:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-nieberding/  Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/  Website: https://www.productmarketingadventures.com/

    51 min

  7. Mar 3

    Run Comp Intel Like an Award-Winning Klaviyo PMM

    You know the Slack message. “Hey, do we have a battle card for this competitor?” And you don’t, because it’s the 50th new name you’ve heard this year. In this episode, we talk about why competitive intelligence programs don’t fall apart from lack of effort. They fall apart because the problem is infinite, and scale becomes the real challenge. I’m joined by Mindy Regnell, an award-winning product marketer whose win-loss program won the 2025 Win-Loss Program of the Year from the Product Marketing Alliance. Mindy has spent nearly a decade in market and competitive intelligence, helping teams understand not just who they compete with, but why customers choose.  Mindy breaks down how she runs competitive intelligence at Klaviyo, and why her approach isn’t “build a battle card for every competitor.” It’s building a framework that makes the chaos manageable, especially for regional sales teams dealing with a long list of niche and unexpected competitors. We get into her Long Tail inspired framework, plus the practical steps for building it, pressure testing it, and getting leadership buy-in by tying it to outcomes. We close with a messaging critique of Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad and what it gets right about competitive storytelling without naming names. If you’re trying to build a CI program that doesn’t turn into a never-ending content factory, this one’s for you. Key Takeaways CI doesn’t fail because you’re not working hard enough, it fails because the competitor list is infiniteBuild a framework that scales instead of reacting competitor by competitorStart with your differentiation, then cluster competitors by the real problem they solvePressure test with fresh eyes and secure buy-in by focusing on outcomesBuild broad framework assets first, then go deep on tier-one competitorsStrong competitive messaging can create contrast without direct call-outs LINKS Mindy's Presentation "Streamlining Battlecards for Crowded Markets": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UpNBtOVUkdSRgh8osemE9dz4tsKAAcUa/view Mindy's Battlecard Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UOWT8klquy1-xWdtE4V7koMu2clfGKfPGVjfLU3HHmQ/edit?tab=t.0 Messaging Critique: Anthropic Connect with Mindy:  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mindyregnell   Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/  Website: https://www.productmarketingadventures.com/

    1h 2m

  8. Feb 17

    Reposition Your Platform Like an EventBrite PMM

    Platform repositioning is messy. You’re changing how the market understands you, how customers experience value, and how internal teams talk about the product. In this episode, I sit down with Jameelah Calhoun, VP of Market Strategy at Forter, to unpack what it really takes to reposition a platform when the pressure is high and the stakes are real. Jameelah shares what repositioning looked like at Eventbrite during COVID, when the events industry changed overnight. Eventbrite needed to expand beyond “ticketing tool” and be understood as a broader suite of marketing resources for event organisers. She breaks down how to start with the data you already have, spot where product market fit is soft, and find the moments in the journey where customers hit friction. From there, we get into the practical decisions that drive outcomes. Jameelah explains why segmentation is non-negotiable, how to identify the highest leverage problem, and what it looks like to reduce friction through changes to sign-up, packaging, and the path to value. She also talks about building internal trust through tight collaboration with product and engineering, plus using lightweight experiments and an experimentation roadmap to keep decisions focused and defensible. We close with a messaging critique of Calendly. Their homepage nails clarity by repeating “scheduling” relentlessly, but that same simplicity can undersell the more advanced value for sophisticated buyers, like integrations, payments, and workflow automation. We talk about the opportunity to keep the core promise while elevating the positioning so it reflects what the product has become. Key Takeaways Start with existing research and performance data before you build a new story Segment your audience properly, because different users need different value cuesFind the highest leverage problem, then focus your work thereBuild trust through close partnership with product and engineeringUse lightweight experiments and a clear roadmap to validate decisionsMessaging should stay clear, but still reflect the full value of the product LINKS Messaging Critique: Calendly  Connect with Jameelah:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameelah-calhoun/  Podcast:  https://www.unpopulardecisions.com/  Connect with Elle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/

    1 hr
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5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Product Marketing Adventures is the only PMM show that goes beyond theory and into the real execution of product marketing. In each episode, experienced product marketers co-host two segments of the show: first a case study example of their work, followed by a messaging critique of companies we admire. Listeners enjoy a fun conversation packed with practical guidance to leverage in your product marketing career.

Information

  • Creator
    Elle Grossenbacher
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    32
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Product Marketing Adventures, LLC

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