AMA: Zoom Product Marketing - App Marketplace, Sharon Markowitz on Market Research

I am a huge advocate of Pragmatic Institute’s work on professional training and certifications for product marketers and product managers, oftentimes embraced at the organizational level across divisions at enterprise companies. Also, as a former employee and customer, perhaps I have an understandable bias! There are other resources as well through reputable firms such as Product School, and PMA. Buyer personas are one of the most important efforts a marketing team can embark on as it is used to understand who the target customer is across sales, product, and marketing. Buyer personas start with: 1. Understanding your current customer base and relevant segmentation 2. Conducting research interviews with the target customer (decision maker) to inform relevant information, specifically: * Demographic and/or firmographic data * Key customer challenges or pain points * Identification of any barriers to using a new product * Ways to reach the decision maker and/or influencer in the buyer process (think of funnel stages and relevant GTM tactics) Oftentimes there is more than one buyer persona, and it may be relevant to include information about the influencer as part of understanding the buyer process for developing relevant GTM campaigns and sales efforts. Partnering with sales and product for input and alignment is critical.

Effective market research begins with a comprehensive understanding of two key elements: (1) the objective and (2) the target audience. It's essential to align on these foundational components, before selecting any specific methodology, such as in-house research or industry specific reports. In-house research demands significant resources compared to utilizing industry-specific reports for insights. Generally, if the research is pivotal for brand and product, conducting in-house research or engaging a vendor may be warranted. For instance, when substantiating claims, customers often seek company validation, positioning it as a product differentiator, and therefore, conducting research would be relevant.

This is a great question, and those I’ve worked with, know that I will get on my soapbox any day as ultimately we are in business because of our customers. When I worked at Intuit, I loved that if you encountered founder Scott Cook at the office, he would stop and ask if you had any customer insights to share. It wasn’t if you were a marketer, it was that it was part of the DNA of the company, and what I feel makes a company that is now 30+ years old continue to innovate with sustainable growth. Customer feedback and gathering insights is everyone’s role. However, I recognize, that not all cultures foster that, and you have an amazing leadership opportunity to set the tone. I would use the analogy, of crawl, walk, and run, as change doesn’t happen overnight. Think about the impact you can have with insights, as it: * Plays a role in influencing the product roadmap * Informs relevant messaging for GTM campaigns * Provides feedback that is invaluable to teams that are regularly interfacing with customers, from sales to customer service, on how to improve and add more value It's important to identify who is best in partnership with product marketers to track the impact of VOC-driven initiatives on key metrics such as customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue. I hope this provides some ideas of how you can infuse your customer-centricity with the rest of the organization by partnering, educating, and showcasing the impact of insights to action to drive results!

The initial focus is to conduct a market assessment. I’d recommend you leverage third-party research and SMEs (subject matter experts) inside the company. When appropriate, you can embark on qualitative research, but there should be significant industry documentation that would be of reference. This will become a cross-functional effort, including brand, finance, marketing, sales, product, strategy, and research. A market assessment would include, at a minimum, the following: 1. Target Market (TAM, growth) 2. Competitive Analysis (direct and near-adjacent competitors) 3. Customer Needs (customer data, industry trends to showcase demand) 4. Distribution Channels and GTM Strategy

An ICP or Ideal Customer Profile is meant to serve as a guide for who to target, attract, and retain as the most valuable customers. In other words, an ICP is about advising your sales team on accounts that they should be targeting based on specific qualities, but can be more broadly considered to support marketing and product teams. Here are tips for creating an ICP: 1. Talk with internal stakeholders, like product, sales, and other subject matter experts (SMEs) in the industry that work at your company to determine what exists before “starting from scratch”. Getting input early on is always helpful as well to guide the process as it is a team effort. 2. Review current customers to identify patterns and characteristics in your most successful and satisfied customers. Ultimately, the focus should be on themes to allow a grouping of the most relevant information to support the sales team to isolate who to target, and similarly, who not to target. Consider: * demographics (characteristics of a population, more likely in B2C), * firmographics (characteristics of businesses and organizations, more likely in B2B such as industry, geography, company size, revenue), * buying process (such as decision makers, budget to spend on product, likely time to close a deal) * satisfaction scores, like CSAT 3. Conduct necessary customer research to further refine findings, and better understand * customer pain points and challenges related to finding a solution like your product * business goals on what they are trying to achieve

In product marketing, it's important to have a clear objective before collecting insights from your target audience so you can translate insights into action. If you already conducted market research, here are the suggested next steps for messaging: 1. Identify the Key Message & Benefits: Identify the key message and supporting benefits most relevant for your target audience. 2. Tailor to Audience Segments: If you have insights relevant to more than one segment of your target audience, you can tailor your message accordingly. 3. Test & Optimize: While you’ve already conducted market research, you may consider several ways to refine the message to ensure it is relevant to the customer such as: 1. Concept testing: Showcase a few concepts of your message to the target audience through qualitative research for optimization. Consider leveraging in-house resources like sales, subject matter experts, customer advisory boards, and external resources, like market research firms. This is using a qualitative approach. 2. In-market testing: Use A/B testing methodologies from email to the website. This is using a quantitative approach. 4. Monitor & Adapt: The market evolves (industry, customer, competition) and at times you will need to reflect that in your messaging to stay relevant. Keep up to date on industry trends and monitor customer feedback channels at your company. If you are a Sharebird Pro subscriber, you will gain access to my qualitative market research template.

Generative AI is reshaping how both in-house market research teams and agencies conduct their work, offering opportunities for enhanced efficiency and deeper insights. However, the ways in which they utilize generative AI may differ. In-house market research teams may benefit from automated data analysis and personalized customer insights. * Traditionally, market research involves gathering insights from various sources such as social media, research interviews, customer service logs, and community forums. With generative AI, the laborious task of manually reviewing and analyzing this data can be automated, allowing for more efficient and effective analysis. * Generative AI enables organizations to gather and analyze data at scale, leading to greater opportunities for personalization and segmentation. Market research agencies are already benefiting from leveraging AI in their own fields of expertise, such as survey design & analysis and predictive analytics. * Popular firms, like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics, are already utilizing AI to optimize survey designs, such as question formulation, survey flow and respondent targeting. AI algorithms can then analyze survey responses in real-time to identify trends, patterns, and correlations for more accurate data interpretation. This is a huge value add for clients of these firms. * Market research firms Nielsen and Ipsos, commonly used in the consumer goods and retail industries, integrate predictive analytics models powered by AI to forecast market trends, consumer behavior and product demand. This would have been a life saver during my time at Safeway, and Del Monte to remove the significant time spent in analyzing the business in spreadsheets for forecasting data based on Nielsen.

There are trade-offs when shipping a product or project that relate to balancing speed, cost, and quality. Ultimately, you can have two, but not all three. In this scenario, it is important to limit the risk of low quality, given you have a limited budget and time to conduct user research. To start, determine the objective and target audience to facilitate a user research study. Then, consider 2 options for budget allocation: Option 1: Allocate the budget to users to expedite responses, implying you will be conducting the research efforts in-house, with the development of a research guide OR Option 2: Allocate the budget to an existing vendor and explore how they can partner to quickly deliver user research given the budget and timeframe while limiting the risk of low quality.

In my experience across consumer goods and retail industries before transitioning to SaaS, market research played a pivotal role in crafting successful go-to-market (GTM) strategies. The nature of consumer goods and retail, where margins are often lower, requires marketers to function as general managers, necessitating thorough research efforts before product launches or marketing campaigns. I share this as there are multiple methods to conduct research as I've been able to apply those in SaaS. Effective market research, irrespective of the industry, begins with a comprehensive understanding of two key elements: (1) the objective and (2) the target audience. It's essential to align on these foundational components before selecting any specific methodology, such as surveys. It's common for cross-functional stakeholders, including marketing teams, to default to familiar tactics like surveys without considering alternative approaches. This presents a valuable opportunity to educate the team internally about market research, showcase your leadership, and then, determine the right approach to get results.

It is important to align with the product team before connecting with customers for input, as they own the product roadmap. This alignment also ensures that stakeholders are brought along the journey of gathering customer feedback effectively. Here are the top 5 ways I’ve found most efficient for conducting research with existing customers to influence the product roadmap: 1. Engage the Customer Advisory Board (CAB): Share concepts with 2-3 questions for feedback. 2. Connect with Customer Success Managers (CSMs): Engage CSMs who are already connecting with the target customers to establish research calls and gather input. 3. Include in Beta Testing: Promote participation through proper channels for including customers in beta testing to provide feedback. 4. Develop Ongoing Surveys: Incorporate surveys as part of the product experience to gather relevant feedback. 5. Partner with Product, Engineering, and UX Teams: Include stakeholders in qualitative and quantitative research efforts with customers. By implementing these strategies, you can effectively gather insights from existing customers and use them to inform and influence the product roadmap.

I have recently published an article discussing Duolingo's expansion from Software as a Service (SaaS) to Consumer Goods. This offers a good example of how a company, Duolingo, can extend its brand to a new vertical. This exploration could be particularly relevant from a general management viewpoint, especially considering that in product marketing, brand extension might not always be the primary focus.