The Product Marketing Experts Jeffrey Vocell, Sharebird

As a PM at Google, Vishal Naik focuses on Google Assistant integrations with other products. Before that, he spent valuable years at DocuSign and TriNet, getting to know the SaaS space inside out.

In this episode, Jeffrey and Vishal talk about his experience at Google, the ways in which a product marketer can influence the product roadmap, and how operations are set up when you work on a product used by more than 500 million people.
Want more insights from Vishal? Check out his Sharebird profile.
Looking to connect? You can find Vishal on LinkedIn.

Questions covered in this episode:

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey into product marketing?
What does the average day look like for a Google Assistant product marketer?
How do you approach the cross-functional nature of your role? How are you building connections between different product teams at such a huge company like Google?
As a product marketer, how are you bringing the customer’s voice into the conversation?
PMMs sometimes run the risk of becoming the middleman between teams. How are you ensuring you are adding unique value?
Do you think product marketers should be able to influence the product roadmap?
What’s a piece of advice you picked up during your career that has served you well?

Mary Sheehan’s career began in the early days of Google, where she started as an Account Manager fresh out of college. Switching lanes to Product Marketing, Sheehan now heads the Product Marketing team for Adobe Lightroom.
In this interview, Jeffrey and Mary talk about her newly launched book “The Pocket Guide to Product Launches”. In this interview, you'll hear her tips on product tiering and what kind of metrics are best for determining the success of a product launch.
Mary's book is now available on Amazon - you can check it out here!
Questions covered in this episode:

1. Please share a little bit about yourself and how you got into product marketing?
2. How would you advise others to start building out their go-to-market strategy? Where to begin?
3. In your experience, how long does it take to execute a gold launch versus a bronze launch?
4. How do you bring people along for process X? Especially given different, overlapping timelines and priorities, for example in the cases when a product marketing team is pulled in a number of different directions — how do you make sure that everything is going according to plan?
5. Can you tell us a bit more about how you measure the effectiveness of the launch process?
Want to learn more from Mary? Check out her most recent AMAs on Sharebird. Connect with Mary on LinkedIn.

"I define product marketing as a function which takes into account your market, your customer, and your product truths to drive go-to-market outcomes." -Sahil Sethi

Before he was a VP of Marketing at Klaviyo, Sahil Sethi spent incredibly valuable years with McKinsey, Microsoft, and Qualtrics, among other companies. 

In this episode, Jeffrey and Sahil tackle the topic of product-led growth (PLG), and challenge the idea of PLG and enterprise sales being polar opposites. 

We also talk about the ways that product-led and sales-led growth can coexist, and discuss the eternal question: Should PMs have influence over the product roadmap?

Want more insights from Sahil? Check out his Sharebird profile.
Looking to connect? You can find Sahil on LinkedIn.

Questions covered in this episode:
1. How did you get into product marketing?
2. Can you provide us with an overview of what product-led growth (PLG) is, how you've used it, and how it intersects with enterprise sales?
3. How have you structured your team around supporting PLG? How does structuring a team in a traditional PLG-first company differ from an enterprise company?
4. How much of a role do PMMs have in the customer journey in your experience?
5. How do you test your messaging with PLG?
6. How do you build a strong relationship between the product leader and product teams?
7. Should PMs have some influence over the product roadmap, in your opinion?
8. How have you operationalized the feedback loop between product marketing and development?
9. Are there any books or other reading material that you found especially 
impactful during your career as a product marketer and in your role as a leader?

“I’m guided by a deep sense of curiosity.” - Tiffany Tooley

Tiffany Tooley started her career as a one-person marketing team of a small cookie manufacturer. Today, she’s the Head of Product Marketing at Hubspot. Throughout her journey as a product marketer, she nurtured a strong growth mindset – as someone who thrives when presented with a challenge, Tiffany’s always ready to learn new things and tackle problems as they arise. 

In this episode, Jeffrey and Tiffany talk about her career path, share tips for ensuring employee satisfaction and promoting growth, and discuss Gartner’s, as well as her own, guidelines on what makes a world-class PM.

Looking to connect? You can find Tiffany on LinkedIn.

Questions covered in this episode:

How did you get into product marketing?
2022 has been a rough year for many. How is Hubspot walking that tightrope between handling the effects of the recession and retaining talent?
How do you set your team goals and align them with wider company initiatives?
Hubspot is one of the leaders when it comes to building an inclusive, welcoming company culture. Can you tell us a bit more about the organization’s approach to DE&I programs?
A big part of building strong teams and driving employee engagement is giving praise and recognition where it’s due. What are some strategies Hubspot employs to this end? 
What are some of the skills you look for in your PM candidates?

Chad Kimner is a Product Marketing Director for AR/VR solutions at Meta, where he is currently spearheading the go-to-market strategy for privacy and responsible innovation.

In his role at Meta, Chad is embracing the powerful opportunity to shed more light on the capabilities of augmented and virtual reality, and be part of Meta’s exciting venture into the AR/VR space. One of the most important things he’s learned in the role is what it takes to create a trustworthy product – to meet consumer expectations when it comes to data privacy, diversity, and inclusion, feeding consumer insights back into the product every step of the way is essential.

In this interview, Chad and Jeffrey go into detail about the role AR/VR plays in Meta, quality product-specific messaging and organizational models for PM teams, as well as chat about Chad’s love for music and how it‘s shaped his approach to product marketing.

Want more insights from Chad? Check out his Sharebird profile.
Looking to connect? You can find Chad on LinkedIn.

Questions covered in this episode:

Can you tell us a bit more about the role of the AR/VR division at Meta?
What has your passion for music taught you about marketing?
How does product messaging and positioning tie into the Meta ecosystem as a whole? 
How do you approach product-specific messaging?
In your previous role at Mozilla, how did you structure your work? Did your team operate in sprints and have goals in the kind of traditional agile methodology framework?
What are some of the most effective organizational models for product marketing you’ve picked up over the years?
Many consider messaging and positioning as synonymous, or complementary. Where do you draw the line between the two?
What are some useful tips on messaging you’d like to share?

“You should be listening to your customers every day – it should be a fundamental part of what you do because you represent that customer, and you are their mouthpiece.” – Kristen Brophy

Kristen Brophy is a Senior Director of Marketing at the NBA, leading product marketing efforts on NBA’s direct to consumer side, including the NBA app and the association’s streaming service Lead Pass.

Before coming to the NBA, Kristen was part of Uber and Square, where she picked up important lessons on scaling and strategic alignment. When building a strategy, Kristen doesn’t start with a goal – she outlines the outcome first.

In this episode, you’ll hear about the evolution of NBA’s product marketing, ways to maintain strategic alignment with cross-functional partners, and the importance of creative briefs for positioning.

Want more insights from Kristen? Check out her content on Sharebird.

Looking to connect? You can find Kristen on LinkedIn.

Questions covered in this episode:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your current role at the NBA.
What are your thoughts on the function of product marketing? How do you approach structuring PM teams?
In your current position, have you noticed the role of the product marketing team change over time?
How is your team at the NBA organized? How do you approach their organization in order to reach viewers and new subscribers?
How do you and your team approach strategic alignment with cross-functional partners?
As you build your team, how do you equip them for career growth?