How Product Marketers Lead As Company Quarterbacks with Kimberly Biddings, BIO-key International

Product marketing is at the intersection of many teams in a product company. The work of a product marketer supports the wider product team, sales, marketing, executive stakeholders, and most of all, buyers. It’s for this reason product marketers tend to play a quarterback role, says Kimberly Biddings, VP of Product at BIO-key International. As Kim knows from experience, they’re responsible for not just knowing a product in and out—they have to translate its selling points for others to use. Join Kim and Tina to hear more about the opportunities product marketers can bring to your growing organization.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways:  

• Product marketing starts from the second there’s a business idea. 
• Growing a business without product marketing is like driving a car without direction: aimless and unpredictable. 
• There’s more than one way to be a product marketer. 

Things To Listen For: 

• [0:30] Icebreaker: Who is on your dream interview list (aside from the amazing guests we talked to for Unlock Product Marketing)? 

• [2:00] Why did we create this series?

• [4:00] Introducing today's guest, Kimberly Biddings of BIO-key International

• [6:00] Takeaway: there are different kinds of product marketers, not just one

• [7:00] Intro to Kimberly Biddings and her cybersecurity product marketing career

• [8:30] How Tina and Kim met with product marketing and brand work through Innovatemap

• [10:00] In the beginning, many people did product marketing in marketing roles

• [10:30] What is a regional product manager? And why teams still need PMM advocates.

• [12:00] What are the jobs to be done by product marketing?

• [14:00] Product marketers are like company quarterbacks

• [15:00] If you need product marketing from day one, why is it typically one of the last roles to be hired?

• [16:00] The seven stages of product marketing as a company scales

• [18:30] You have to market yourself as a product marketer so people understand it

• [21:00] Find bite-sized ways to inject product marketing strategy into your interactions

• [27:30] Product marketing’s first question: does anyone actually care about this?

• [29:00] Don’t start with the what, start with the why

• [31:00] Always consider “who are you talking to?” and “what are you saying?”

• [38:00] Be your product manager’s best friend