“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 BrophyKristen 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?

Kevin Wu is the Head of Solution and Category Product Marketing at Airtable, where he has been building a product marketing program from scratch.In his role at Airtable, Kevin has been reinventing the product’s messaging and positioning framework. When it comes to SaaS B2B companies, he says, the messaging should start at the demo. In this episode, you’ll hear essential questions to ask when building product demos, how Kevin’s experience at Salesforce shaped his later approach to PMM, and how he enables his team to grow.Want more insights from Kevin? Check out his content on Sharebird.Looking to connect? You can find Kevin on LinkedIn.Questions covered in this episode:Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Airtable.How do you think about the production and messaging around huge events like Dreamforce? What goes into the product side of these events?When it comes to product positioning, there is a very specific balance that needs to be struck between the executives’ vision and voice and a PMM’s knowledge of the product. How do you achieve that balance?For a company that size, Salesforce moves at an incredible pace. How do you look at your experience at Salesforce overallHave you kept the same kind of lens on messaging and positioning once you moved from your role at Salesforce to AppDynamics and Airtable?What are the key ingredients for building a great product demo?How do you approach your team’s organization and ensure your team members have room to grow?

“Always put on your own personal research hat.” - Jameelah CalhounJameelah Calhoun currently serves as the Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite, where she drives go-to-market and monetization efforts to launch new product experiences for both event creators and consumers.In her role at Eventbrite, she is working on continuing the evolution of Eventbrite from its roots as a ticketing tool to a platform that covers the intersection of helping creators and small businesses alike thrive.As a PMM, Jameelah considers market research the bedrock of everything she does. Analytics and UX research are the foundation of understanding the customer and championing their needs – and that’s why the synergy of market research and product marketing is becoming increasingly important in rapidly shifting market conditions. Want more insights from Jameelah? Check out her {Sharebird profile.}Looking to connect? You can find Jameelah on {LinkedIn.}

“Don’t launch it and leave it - launch and learn.” -Brianne Shally In this interview Jeffrey and Brianne discuss what being a PMM leader for a consumer product marketing brand is like as well as Brianne’s path into PMM. Brianne is a former strategy consultant who considers herself a business leader first, and pmm second. What she loves to solve is, how can she and her team accelerate the growth of local businesses and make word of mouth in communities more innovative to serve SMBs? As product marketers, they are passionate about helping small businesses be successful and bringing communities together. As we know, small businesses are challenged more than ever to grow and tools and products like Nextdoor help to facilitate growth and better serve the community by fueling SMBs, creating messaging and positioning that ties back to the market trends, and using insights to inform their GTM strategy.   Want more insights from Brianne? Check out her Sharebird profile.Looking to connect? You can find Brianne on LinkedIn.Questions covered in this episode:Tell us a bit about yourself and your path into Product Marketing at Nextdoor.Since you focus specifically on SMB, can you share what that entails at Nextdoor? How do you think about the success of SMB and the strategies of your PMM team?What are some of the differences from your strategy to ones Enterprise is executing? And how do you work together with any colleagues focused on up-market activities?How have the past ~2 years changed your PMM strategy and SMBs you're working with, or targeting?How do you work with, and “power” SMB-focused marketing and GTM efforts at Nextdoor?As a leader, what is one key challenge you're facing and how have you thought about overcoming it? What recommendations would you have for aspiring product marketing experts to level-up their own career or skill set?

Rekha is an engineer turned marketer who has a technical background and fell in love with the PMM craft. Two aspects that she thoroughly enjoys in the GTM process are the naming and positioning of new products and features. She advocates for involving every team in the launch process and both internally and externally creating messaging that clearly states the nuances of new releases. She also discusses how Salesforce tiers their launches on a 1-3 scale and reiterates the importance and value that comes from conversations with customers. Want more insights from Rekha? Check out her Sharebird profile.Looking to connect? You can find Rekha on LinkedIn.

Whether you’re looking to break into PMM or have been a practitioner for years, this interview is full of advice on how to further develop your career.  We are joined this week by Mike, VP, Product Marketing at ClickUp, who has had an amazing career finding the right roles and ultimately landing him a VP role.  Mike and Jeffrey discuss how to gain credibility, evaluate your future role, prioritize the right goals to advance your career, and expand your horizons outside of product. Connect with Mike on LinkedIn.Join Mike on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview:Tell me about your career path to becoming a PMM? What’s your outlook on the career of Product Marketing? Is it a good place to be right now? What’s one nuance about Developing Your Product Marketing Career that you only know now because you understand it deeply? Around doing it effectively. 

In this week’s episode Natala and Jeffrey are talking all about product launches. How do you make the magic happen while getting the organization excited and aligned? It’s not just about storytelling and designing a great narrative for your product, rather it’s creating a product that delivers on those items. Tune in to hear how to create a distinctive narrative and story in a competitive landscape, what it means to “work backwards”, and how to conquer any divisions and fractions amongst teams by serving as the “glue” to repair. Also, Grammarly is hiring. So be sure to check out their available positions! Connect with Natala on LinkedIn.Join Natala on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview:Tell me about your career path to becoming a PMM? What’s your outlook on the career of Product Marketing? Is it a good place to be right now? What’s one nuance about Product Launches that you only know now because you understand it deeply? Around doing it effectively.

Alex is a former product manager and consultant who has found his way into the adtech world, and specifically measurement. This interview is all about how him and his team leverage research and measurement. When it comes to measurement, he and his team look at how well advertising is working and it’s overall performance. In regards to research, he talks about what it’s like to work for a company that is incredibly data and experiment driven, the importance of talking to customers, and how research informs what they build. Tune in to hear how him and his team build and manage a large ecosystem of products. Connect with Alex on LinkedIn.Join Alex on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview:Can you tell me a bit more about your path into product marketing and also more specifically measurement?Can you share a bit more about how you think about Measurement at Facebook?How do you use that data you gather at Facebook to influence other activities like the roadmap, marketing strategy/campaigns, product launches, and more?How have you gone about segmenting your audience and then use that information to inform content?What’s one thing a manager, colleague, or mentor has taught you that’s served you well in your career? Can you share a bit about it?

We’re on a messaging kick! This week we are discussing how Sophia and her team approach messaging and positioning that serves both B2B and B2C target audiences. Sophia and Jeffrey discuss what Glassdoor has done to maintain a position of leadership in a crowded market and how they’ve evolved their messaging while remaining true to the core values of the company that have not changed since day one. They also discuss how to measure the success of messaging and positioning and navigate the competitive landscape. Connect with Sophia on LinkedIn.Join Sophia on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview:Can you share a bit more about your path into PMM and how you got into product marketing?Can you share a bit about how you think of the category Glassdoor is in, and how you made some of the tradeoffs in positioning and messaging?With a lot of different use cases and audiences, how do you ensure the messaging you and your team are releasing is consistent?How are you measuring the success of your messaging and positioning?Differentiating from competition is crucial as we know, but how do you think about competitive intelligence and how your key competitors are positioning themselves as a part of your messaging process?What’s one mistake you’ve found a lot of PMMs make with messaging?What’s one thing you’ve learned from a mentor, colleague, or manager that has served you well in your career? Can you tell me a little bit about it?

From startup companies to being at a large scale organization, Jeff has been doing product marketing work since before it was even defined as PMM. In this interview you’ll hear his point of view on the emergence of self serve and how it’s impacted the role of product marketing. He shares how the environment at many companies has made the switch from a sales led environment to product led and why product marketers are earning their seat at the table in making big decisions. He also discusses the co-creation that exists with sales, how to position yourself in the market, advice on how to conduct listening tours and better serve as the cross functional diplomat to reduce friction amongst teams and champion stakeholders. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn. Join Jeff on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview:Can you share a bit more about how you got into product marketing, and also into more of a growth role?Product-led Growth is clearly a hot topic everywhere around us. How do you think about product marketing differently in a product-left growth company versus a more traditional sales or marketing led company?How have you structured your growth PMM team? How would you say it’s different from a traditional team?Beyond just structure, how is the role different for an individual PMM? Are there different traits or skills your looking for that a traditional PMM would need to develop?With your focus on growth, how do you draw lines on what you and your team handle versus others in marketing or product development?How do you think about driving user adoption at Calendly?Is there anything that a mentor, colleague, or manager has taught you that has served you well in your career? Can you share a bit about it?