AMA: Gong Director of Product Marketing, Victoria Chernova on Influencing the Product Roadmap

I wouldn’t view them as necessarily conflicting, but more so that PMM brings a different perspective :) First of all, I would lean into data as much as possible. That not only makes the conversation more objective, but also strengthens your case. That could be quantitative (surfacing an increase in product usage by a new persona) or qualitative (buyer research with non-customers to identify market requirements). Secondly, I would think about where PMM can add a unique perspective; what are some of the product team’s blindspots in how they roadmap? Every organization’s culture is different, but let’s assume that Sales represents the needs of large, prospective customers, and product has quant and qual user feedback covered. Areas where PMM can add value are 1) representing the needs of non-customers (especially when aligned with business priorities); and 2) competitive differentiation (what are there gaps compared to the competition, or opportunities to be the first mover?). For #1:#1:#1:#1: I would think about which types of audiences are strategic for the company. For example, a new industry, persona, moving upmarket, anything else? It’s likely you don’t have a critical mass of users in these new segments on your platform today, so it would be difficult for product to fully understand their needs through user feedback. Consider conducting qualitative market research to map out their market requirements, and tie that back to your organizational priorities. For #2:#2:#2:#2: For a given product area, what are the pains that competitors solve for today? How are they solving those pains? What are potential pains they’re not solving for, and where your company can differentiate themselves? Consider creating a competitive matrix that prioritizes pain points based on gaps and differentiation opportunities.

A market requirements document (usually a spreadsheet) has been effective. When working with product, I’ve found that presenting requests as pain points, and preferably through actual customer quotes, is more compelling than feature requests. I would then score these pains based on how frequently customers have brought them up (volume), how painful they are (a simple high, medium, low will do), and which personas are affected. Then I’d add the competitive coverage - is this currently a gap for us, or an opportunity to differentiate since our competitors don’t solve for these pains today? The data behind the pain points is most important. Depending on your goals, this can be gathered through customer surveys, qualitative research with customers or non-customers, aggregate data from recorded customer calls, or consolidated feedback from sales/CS teams.

I saw this work really well at Asana with a VoC program, which was conducted on a quarterly basis and involved representatives across all “listening channels” at the company: Sales, CS, support, and PMM (which represented new market opportunities and competitors). The final deliverable was a consolidated list of feature requests ranked by pain level and frequency. If that kind of large-scale program isn’t possible (Asana had a dedicated program manager who ran it), then I’d lean into data as much as possible here. Conduct your own mini VOC and consolidate your findings. Ask Sales and CS to stack rank a list of their top customer requests, use tools like Productboard or Gong to quantify the volume of requests, leverage competitive research to surface gaps and opportunities. When working with product, I’ve found that presenting requests as pain points, and preferably through actual customer quotes, is more effective than feature requests.

I’ve touched on this in the answer above, but to summarize: 1) speak their language as much as possible by prioritizing customers pains points, not features; 2) bring a unique perspective (share research on an audience segment they don’t have access to, or market/competitive intel); and 3) lead with data (quant and/or qual).

For longer term roadmaps (a year out), I think about how to grow the company’s TAM. What are potential new personas, industries, or use cases we’re already seeing organic traction in and could build on if we had supporting product functionality? For a quarterly roadmap, I think about how I can influence the highest impact products already on the roadmap. Here’s a template you can use to identify opportunities to add value throughout the product development process. Quite honestly I haven’t been at an org yet where folks outside of the executive staff had influence over the 3 year vision.

Building on an earlier question, for a longer term roadmap (6-12 months out), I would get ahead of product’s planning process. One way PMM has been able to add value at Gong is by conducting market research ahead of half-yearly and annual planning. For shorter term influence, I would work in lockstep with your PM early in the product discovery process. Here’s a template you can use to find opportunities to add value throughout the product development process.

A full stack PMM requires the perfect mix of “left brain / right brain.” But there’s a reason why “whole brain” isn’t as popular of a cliché. I believe that anyone can build on their existing skills to succeed as a full stack PMM—whether that’s a data-driven person developing their creative/storytelling muscle or vice versa. In general, the most successful PMMs I’ve seen exhibit these 4 traits; they’re: * Evidence-based: They use quantitative and qualitative insights from the market, competitors, and customers to inform their GTM strategy, segmentation, positioning, and product recommendations. * Customer-centric: They have a deep understanding of customer and market needs, ensuring customer empathy in all their work. * Unifying: PMM uniquely sits between product, sales/CS, and marketing, driving collaboration between teams with product expertise at their core. * Storytellers: Given their deep understanding of their target audience, pains, and product solutions, they can craft compelling narratives that serve as blueprints for other teams creating messaging and assets.

Here’s a template you can use to find opportunities to add value throughout the product development process.