Build a Customer-First Product Marketing Strategy with Lindsey Dillon
Key Takeaways
- Insights for leveraging customer feedback at every stage of product development
- Strategies for aligning a diverse teams to achieve common objectives
- Techniques to foster creativity and innovation within your marketing team
Listen to Your Customer at Every Stage
An effective approach involves constant engagement with the consumer to ensure the product resonates with their needs and expectations. You should be bringing the customer with you, through the entire journey of building, launch, optimization, growth, and even sunsetting. A systematic, research-based approach will allow your marketing team to deliver a product that meets market demands and grows your customer base. Involving customers early and often ensures a better product-market fit and higher adoption rates.
Build & Optimize Your Product Funnel
Early-stage founders build and optimize better product funnels by leveraging a "pod" structure. This means assembling a diverse, cross-functional team of experts, including a product marketer, product manager, design specialist, engineer, and an analytics expert. By working closely within pods, teams can quickly iterate on product features, ensuring they meet customer needs more efficiently. Rapid iteration, quick learning, and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach are also valuable ways to de-risk new product launches.
Creating a Culture of Innovation and Creativity
While you scale, focus on creating a psychologically safe environment where team members can feel comfortable expressing themselves and exploring new ideas. As a leader, maintain your own work ethos at every career stage to encourage collaboration and empower team members to take ownership and push the boundaries of what's possible. Tactics for maintaining creativity ( in both in-person and remote work environments) include:
- Sharing inspirational materials and personal context
- Creating a ‘swipe library’ of artifacts that can spark creativity
- Running workshops focused on idea generation and constructive feedback
Growth@Scale: Embrace failure, measure success
This episode of Growth@Scale features MAVAN’s very own VP of Growth, Malachi Rose. Malachi joins Matt Widdoes for a discussion about growth strategies, the ever evolving landscape of growth marketing, and why experimentation and iteration are critical drivers of growth for any company.
The Evolution of Growth
Over the past two decades, the concept of growth has evolved significantly. Previously, growth was seen as separate functions within a company, such as marketing, product, and data. However, the emergence of growth as a centralized swim lane has transformed the way companies approach growth. Today, growth teams consist of cross-functional experts who work together to solve problems and drive scalable growth.
The Challenges of Early-Stage Growth
In the early stages of a company, there are common pitfalls that can hinder growth. One of these is an overreliance on intuition and optimism. Founders often have a strong vision and belief in their product, but they may rush into growth mode without addressing critical product health issues. It is essential to focus on customer research and product development before diving into growth strategies. Additionally, many companies underestimate the time and effort required for growth. Scaling a business takes time, and it is crucial to have sufficient capital and patience to navigate the challenges along the way.
The Importance of Testing and Learning
Testing is a fundamental aspect of growth. It is essential to approach growth with a mindset of continuous learning and experimentation. By running tests and analyzing data, companies can gain valuable insights and make informed decisions. It is crucial to define success metrics and have a measurement plan in place to track progress. By embracing failure as part of the learning process, companies can iterate and improve their strategies over time.
Breaking Down Silos for Scalable Growth
As companies grow, they often become siloed, with different teams and departments working independently. This siloed structure can hinder communication and collaboration, leading to inefficiencies and slower growth. To overcome this, it is important to foster a culture of cross-functional collaboration and shared goals. By aligning teams and breaking down silos, companies can leverage the collective expertise and drive scalable growth.
The Power of Customer Insights
One of the most valuable resources for growth is customer feedback. Many companies overlook the importance of talking to customers and gaining insights into their needs and preferences. By actively engaging with customers and incorporating their feedback, companies can improve their products, marketing strategies, and overall customer experience. Customer insights should be an ongoing process, with regular communication and feedback loops to drive continuous improvement.
The Role of MVPs in Growth
The concept of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) is crucial for growth. By focusing on the smallest version of a quality product, companies can quickly validate their ideas and gather feedback from customers. MVPs allow for rapid iteration and learning, enabling companies to make data-driven decisions and optimize their strategies. By embracing the MVP mindset, companies can minimize risk and maximize learnings, leading to more effective growth strategies.
The Importance of Data-Driven Decision Making
Data is a powerful tool for growth. Companies should prioritize data collection and analysis to drive decision-making. By measuring everything and having a clear understanding of success metrics, companies can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. Data should be used to validate hypotheses, track progress, and optimize strategies. By leveraging data, companies can gain a competitive edge and achieve sustainable growth.
Conclusion: Unlocking the Power of Growth
Sustainable, predictable, and scalable growth is essential for business success. By adopting a problem-focused approach, embracing failure as part of the learning process, and leveraging customer insights and data-driven decision-making, companies can unlock the power of growth. Breaking down silos, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and maintaining a culture of continuous learning are key to driving scalable growth. With the right mindset, strategies, and tools, companies can navigate the challenges of growth and achieve long-term success.