Sarah K. Metcalf

Working on product launches is what made me fall in love with product marketing. It's the only time where as a PMM, you get to flex (future pun intended) every single one of your strengths. PMMs will usually experience a few career defining product launches. My first one was launching observability with Lightstep. My second one? Gitpod Flex. For months now, Gitpod has been working on the Phoenix launch. It sets the stage for everything I imagined to be possible when I first joined Gitpod. It's a sparkly reminder for me on why I think cloud development environments (obviously Gitpod) are going to be the platform that everyone develops on. Gitpod Flex introduces five new features. They all deserve the spotlight ✨ 1️⃣ Automations: think GitHub Actions but for automating development workflows unique to dev environments 2️⃣ Gitpod Desktop: bringing you the power of automated, standardized dev environments to your laptop 3️⃣ Dev Container support: our most requested feature of the year! 4️⃣ Zero-trust environments:shifting security left to ensure that the place developers interact with the most is also the most secure 5️⃣ Runners: the infrastructure that enables you to self-host in your cloud in literally under 3 minutes. This is Gitpod's second act. In many ways, I also feel like it's mine! I can't thank the internal team enough for the crazy late nights, consistent push to raise the bar, all while not losing connection with one another (🚀 Lou Bichard Siddhant Khare Philipp Pietsch Johannes Landgraf Christian Weichel Lucas Valtl (MANY MORE) and for Austin Prasad Eva Hyder Kai Klasen for keeping the machine running and GROWING while we focused on launch) And to all the folks that gave us feedback along the way, can't wait to see how this lands with the industry! Especially Manjunath (Manju) Bhat Thomas Murphy James Governor Cheers to changing the future of software development, one automated, standardized development environment at a time. Link in comments 👇

64

14 Kommentare

Considering adding product ops to your org? We’re teaming up with one of the biggest voices in product ops, Antonia Landi, to answer this question on April 18th. Product ops becomes a critical part of your product team when done correctly and at the right time. If you want the road map for this, join this conversation for: ✔️Signals to look out for that indicate you need a product ops function ✔️Techniques to uncover the gaps (for product ops) in your product workflow  ✔️Practical advice for encouraging product ops<>team cohesion See you there!

5

Employer branding is a big topic at Energage. A strong employer brand impacts internal company culture and external reputation. Here, Fast Company explores why employees struggle to think about the future and how important it is to make people feel seen.

2

Most product marketers believe a website headline will magically communicate their positioning. Good product marketers understand positioning is forged through consistent messaging that resonates. Great product marketers know they can't control how the audience perceives the brand, but can influence it through strategic positioning and consistent messaging across channels. If you understand why, you're on the right track. #productmarketing #marketers #productmarketers

9

What connects product management and the rise of the far right? Chatting to a talented UX friend recently about her psychology degree - and how valuable it is in her professional work - set me thinking about an imbalance I see in the product world.   We talked about how people get stuck in extreme opinion bubbles, not knowing reality from fantasy, lacking historical context, and how that can so easily be abused. And I hear a lot about a degradation in funding - and I suppose social respect - for the study of subjects that aren’t hard technical or business disciplines. It struck me that Product belongs to the Humanities. The respect for evidence, the independence of thought, the hard questions about human behaviour and value. And just as society as a whole seems skewed away from parts of its own toolkit for understanding, product feels skewed away from a crucial part of its own foundations. The focus on people. I mean the focus on people both in terms of understanding users and markets, and for empowering and inspiring teams. At least, that's how it looks based on a lot of what I read and hear within the profession, which often seems technology obsessed rather than starting from people or even business. Of course, I’m exaggerating. I’m suggesting a course correction, not a pivot. I want us to employ the full spectrum of what product should be as a discipline. It’s not that tools, technologies and intricate techniques aren’t important. But product needs a little course correction back towards people and humanity. Especially given its fundamental role in making sense of AI. 

36

💡 PMM Tip #2: Strategy vs. Tactics - Why You Need Both to Succeed As Product Marketing Managers, we juggle countless tasks daily: launch plans, messaging updates, sales enablement, and more. But here’s a truth I’ve learned: execution without strategy is like running on a treadmill: you’re moving fast, but you’re not going anywhere. Think of it this way: Strategy is your North Star: it’s the 'what' and 'why' behind your actions. Tactics are the steps: the 'how' that gets you to your goals. 🔑 A strategy-first mindset ensures every action ladders up to your product goals and drives real business impact. Before jumping into execution, take a step back and ask: 1️⃣ Does this align with my overall product goals? 2️⃣ Will this help achieve measurable business outcomes? Here’s the magic: Strategy without tactics? It’s a dream that stays on paper. Tactics without strategy? Pure chaos. As PMMs, we don’t just execute, we connect the dots between strategy and action. When you anchor your tactics to a solid strategy, you not only get things done, you make an impact. 📌 Pro Tip: Block time in your calendar every quarter to re-evaluate your product strategy. If it doesn’t align with your current market, customer needs, or business goals, pivot before diving into execution. How do you balance strategy and tactics in your role? Drop your insights below! 👉 Follow me, Diana-Andreea Fuiorea, for more weekly insights into the PMM role and let me know in the comments: what’s one thing you wish you had learned earlier in your PMM career? #StrategyVsTactics #PMMInsights #ProductMarketingTips #PMM #PMMTips #GrowthJourney #Innovation #Leadership #100PMMTips

4

1 Kommentar

This is spot on. In my experience, design can be a game-changer when it’s treated as a strategic partner, not just a service. At RealizedCare, I’ve seen firsthand how elevating design to a peer level with Product, Clinical, Marketing, and Engineering drives real, lasting impact. It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about reshaping how we solve problems and create strategies that fuel growth. That shift in mindset, especially at the leadership level, is what unlocks design’s true potential to transform business outcomes.

19

3 Kommentare

Working with talented, driven, and supportive people every day can change everything. When product and product marketing teams really sync up, the impact is huge. Together, we make sure the product vision actually matches what the market needs, leading to much smoother launches and better results. But even more… Great teammates push each other to be better, celebrate wins together, and tackle challenges head-on. It’s that mix of different perspectives, skillsets and collaboration that drives real innovation. While it’s not always easy to align these teams, I’m lucky to work with some amazing people— Especially those who get how important it is for product and product marketing to be on the same page. Orly Shitrit - here’s to another sweet new year of alignment at Oktopost 🍏🍯🐝🐙 #Teamwork #ProductMarketing #Gratitude

48

4 Kommentare

A lot of our work in product marketing is playing the long game - personas, positioning, strategic narratives - but I think balancing these with some quick wins that help drive revenue is a great way to showcase the value of product marketing to stakeholders that don't quite understand what we do. One of my tips? Dive into customer campaigns! Especially in start-ups and scale-ups, most of the times we're sending emails or in-app messages to our customers are during the onboarding period and when we launch a new feature. But what about the in-between or after? Use campaigns to help customers get the most out of what they're paying for, discover features they might have missed, and learn how to do their job better. You likely be increasing LTV and open up the door for an easy upsell (hello revenue 👋 ). I shared the rest of my tips to drive revenue by year-end with my friends at SaaSiest along with some other B2B marketers who have some great ideas I'll definitely be borrowing 💡. Read more in the comments 👇

62

11 Kommentare

An opinionated take on design: In a meeting with CTO, CMO, and the CSO last month, they mentioned that they are a fairly mature org in design practices, and their product shows it. —If a certain small set of customers are not too happy about a certain experience, this is because those stories are not a priority on the roadmap, and they are in transition from our legacy systems to more modern systems, and they will update the design team *at the right time*. ⏰ —They added that the org has a strong and favorable engineering culture—but they can be design mature org within the engineering culture. 🧫 I agreed to the last part but not on the priority and communication practices—and certainly not the communication model within that priority matrix. They asked me for an open and brutal honest opinion and this is what I wrote👇🏼. --- "In a leadership workshop that I attended many years ago, the presenters asked the audience to raise hands if they were honest in their work. A few hands were raised." "Next, they asked the audience to raise hands if they were dishonest. A few hands raised and there were a set of common participants too who raised hands in both the groups." "When asked, the common participants said that they were slightly dishonest—say two percent, or ten percent, because there is context." "The presenter said that either one is honest of dishonest. For example a crook cannot say that they are honest because they cheated only for one penny." "Design is not as black-and-white but it is close to this example. If design cannot address the concerns of right communication practices in the transition, and regardless of <whatever-centric culture>, you are not a design mature org *yet*. The silver lining is that you aspire to be." ----

1

Our latest launch—the Chrome Extension for LinkedIn—is a case study in how we think about product innovation at Common Room. We try to be very thoughtful about how we sequence our roadmap. Based on what matters most to our customers, it’s a healthy mix of new functionalities and quality-of-life updates. But here’s the thing: When your customers are on the bleeding-edge of go-to market, your EPD team has to be, too. Industry leaders like Notion and Zapier simply aren’t satisfied with the status quo. We constantly push ourselves to reimagine what’s possible because that’s where the alpha is for our customers. Our new Chrome Extension for LinkedIn is a great example. LinkedIn is hands-down the most important prospecting channel for B2B companies. We’ve always auto-captured LinkedIn signals for our customers—reactions to their company posts, comments that mention their companies—but these were explicit engagements. What about all the LinkedIn signals that don’t call out your company by name? People engaging with posts related to your industry. People engaging with posts from business-relevant thought leaders. People engaging with posts from your top competitors. Each one of these is a powerful signal. And each one is incredibly difficult and time-consuming to capture. Or at least they used to be. Our new Chrome extension allows you to: - Pull everyone who engages with any LI post into Common Room and send them to a prioritized burndown list. - Uncover contact details to outbound with AI-powered waterfall enrichment. - Access a contact’s Person360™ profile while browsing their LI profile page. - Take the next best action (think adding to a sequence or syncing with your CRM) with zero tab hopping or manual data entry. What does that mean for our customers? Social engagement plays powered by our Chrome extension produce: - 50% higher open rates - 3x higher reply rates - 2x higher booked meeting rates No more dealing with subpar web scraping tools. No more spending hours updating spreadsheets. No more struggling to manually qualify for fit. Just the ability to reach the right person, with the right message, at the right time—all on the most-important channel for modern GTM teams. LinkedIn is just the start. I’m so excited to see how our customers put our new Chrome extension to work. Sign up for Common Room and download our Chrome Extension for LinkedIn today. Or check out the blog post in the comments for more info ⬇️

34

3 Kommentare

This is a first step but certainly not the last step in ensuring effective Product - #ProductMarketing collaboration to lead to successful launches. I've always used a similar Product Marketing Overview template w/my #ProductManager partners. It becomes my 'Inside ⚾ Baseball' info repository for all the cross-functional works that required. A few elements to keep in mind: ⏰ Timing: It's critical that this info is collected well in advance of any product being released (both internally or externally). Minimum 30 days, if not 60 days+ is a good guideline, depending on complexity and launch requirements. By being aligned w/Product leadership, you'll know what's on the roadmap for the next several quarters, so you can start working on this for each substantive release w/plenty of lead time. ⛏ Digging Deep: This is not a 'one and done' exercise. And certainly not just a solo 'homework assignment' for the PM. This should be a joint exercise, with a lot of back and forth, with Product Marketing pushing to get as much info from Product as possible. There should be a lot of "right, but why?" And "how can we prove that?" And "but why does someone care?" And "what does this let the customer do now that they can't already do?" Only by asking lots of Qs to your product manager can the salient points be codified (or info gaps identified!). The process can sometimes be a pain, but the results are always worth the effort. 💡 Continuous Progress: In addition, as development of new functionality occurs and the product becomes more refined, more knowledge is gained. That's why it's important to continually revisit the info you collected w/your PM partner, to augment as you get closer to launch. Many times, new benefits and values become more apparent as products get more fleshed out and tested in more 'real' environments. 📖 Words Matter: Spend time on getting the right terminology and verbiage in your descriptions w/your partners - before sitting down to work on website content, collateral, press releases, etc. Make the effort to align w/the Product Managers ahead of time on how you characterize and describe things, before you start creating messaging, content, etc. This eliminates the last minute fire drills and resultant pushback on any of this content when it's about to go live. 🤝 Cross-Functional Collaboration: Share the info you're collecting with your partners across the org: Customer Success, Implementation, Tech Support and across GTM/Sales. This will help you identify what enablement materials are needed (both for internal and external needs) ahead of time so you're not frantically putting things together at the last second. With appropriate planning and work in concert with your internal partners and internal customers, you'll find yourself in a much better position to drive successful product launches that deliver real impact 💪, from driving revenue to boosting customer satisfaction 📈.

5

3 Kommentare

Business Match 2024 results •  We ran 3-4 tests per weekly sprint—sometimes even 5 small tests per week. 👉 Sounds impressive? 👉 Or maybe too slow? Reality check: We’re a tiny team. Some weeks we outperform teams of 7+ people who couldn’t maintain this pace. Why? Prioritization and process over headcount. •  100%+ growth in a year—good enough? We doubled our growth this year (even more!). But what if I told you we did it with minimal costs on paid marketing? No massive ad budgets. No growth hacks. Just focused execution, rapid experiments, and product improvements. •  We’re still chasing positive ROI, but our paid users have strong retention! Retention > Acquisition. Product Love > Growth Hacks. • We’re not viral (yet), but 3 out of 4 new users come organically. We are building systems that: attract high-intent users, turn them into loyal advocates, keep them coming back. Are these numbers impressive, realistic, or risky? Drop your thoughts in the comments—I’d love to hear your perspective! And.... Happy New Year!! 🎄🎊🎁

18

2 Kommentare

End of the workweek. As the day was winding down, I decided to take a quick look at our NPS scores. We launched our first scoring a couple of weeks ago, asking users to rate how we're doing from 0 to 10. Up until today, we’d only received 10s, with a few 7s and 8s sprinkled in. I can’t express how much I appreciate those high scores- they’re a testament to the trust and confidence you have in us, and that means the world to our team. But perfection is a journey, not a destination, and only positive feedback might mean we’re missing the chance to fine-tune our service even further. 🤔 And then today, we received a 3. This particular client has around 10 fund accounting users, and one of them rated us low, mentioning that the system felt slow. So, we dug into the telemetry and noticed that this client is using our API to pull all historical transactions. We built the API to help users automate tasks with master data - it works great for things like syncing investors with their CRM or automatically creating capital call transactions. Pulling millions of allocated general ledger entries via the API is technically possible, but it’s not ideal. That’s why we’ve developed a much better process for clients with in-house development teams. We support a zero-copy clone from our Snowflake to their own Snowflake instance with just a few clicks. This approach ensures the system isn’t overloaded, while providing a real-time, always up-to-date copy that they can use however they need 🚀 whether it's connecting to their data through Power BI, Tableau, or any other tool of their choice. Starting Monday, I’ll be reaching out to the client to see if this solution works for them. At Entrilia, we’re not just software as a service - we’re value as a service. While you focus on serving your clients and investors, we’re working tirelessly behind the scenes to make your platform even better. Wishing everyone a great weekend! 🌟

55

The hidden secret behind why some content strategies succeed and others flop (hint: it’s not about quantity, it’s about relevance). 😉 As Head of Product Marketing at Rellify, I want to share a bit about what makes our platform special, especially when it comes to content strategy. I remember when we all (content creators) relied on guesswork for content planning. Well, we didn’t think we were guessing because we had a tool set that worked like magic, right? Ultimately, we were guessing, and it was stressful and a lot of work! But with Rellify’s custom AI-powered Relliverse™, we’ve turned that around. And no, it’s not just an LLM with a UX on top. We’ve been in the game for four years now. 😉 With our platform we can pinpoint the topics that truly resonate with our audience and align with industry trends. One of the things I like best is how we can gain insights into content gaps and competitor topics. It’s like having a secret weapon that helps us stay ahead. Plus, with just one click our smart briefs and AI-assisted writing make it so much easier for our team to create high-quality content quickly. And it’s refreshing to actually know what to write about. The Rellify platform blends custom AI with human expertise, creating a tailored approach that’s easy and effective. 🧐 If you’re still testing AI tools and haven’t found something that works for your content creation process, I’d love to chat. And now for an AI sentence 😅: Let’s unlock your brand’s potential together!   #ContentStrategy #Marketing #Rellify #AI 

11

Check out this interview with one of the most well-rounded and smartest PMs I know. Then consider hiring him for a consulting project 😉

15

"Dear Roadmap, I think there is not enough accuracy in what I set out to do 6 months ago and what you actually delivered. You make me go through lengths to estimate, design, re-estimate, re-design, and ultimately estimate again. Lots of churn occurs when the developers aren't prepared for requirement design review session and its like pulling teeth. I am sick of having to under promise to my customers so that l am not always missing the mark on what was promised." #roadmaps #prodmgmt #productmanagement

7