Crafting the Product Marketing OKRs that matter
PMM team goals and objectives must focus on OKRs that influence and drive impact.
OKR, Objectives and Key Results - is it a magic bullet? No, says John Doerr in his TED Talk: Why the secret to success is setting the right goals
I love the clear OKR on users that Sundar Pichai sets in this TED Talk (~08:13 timestamp). This shows the commitment and focus needed for 3 years to achieve the goal. Inspired by the TED talk, I set out to create my personal OKRs and this is a key to success on my own terms.
Establish the Right Foundation
With the right OKRs, Product Marketing teams can establish the right foundation and build value to showcase impact. It’s easy for PMM to be the catch-all if we don’t have our priorities well-defined.
This is the hardest part for PMM leaders. How do we add value and build on the momentum to grow and win together across product, sales and marketing.
If product is focused on long term (1-2+ years) and sales is focused on short term goals (the next month and quarter), finding the right synergy can be a herculean task.
What is the most important shared OKR across product, sales and marketing?
This question is one we discuss in our breakout in the Product Marketing Core class and I am fascinated by the stories and struggles. From the Go-to-market, sales enablement, demand generation to product adoption, depending on the product lifecycle stage - (introduction, growth or maturity), our shared OKR can range from product market fit to sales confidence to retention.
As a product marketing leader, here are some examples that helped to break down the OKRs to be meaningful for our team and influence the company goals.
In the first example, having only 3 OKRs (aligned to Customer, Business, and Employee) gave us the focus and clarity for the integrated marketing program, pivot to the new Enterprise segment and be one team across product, sales and marketing.
It was crucial to partner with the stakeholders across web, content, product and sales to track the right metrics and make sure our PMM efforts matters. This became our north star to see what were our top performing content to product usage adoption to persona growth to sales and marketing attribution.
Leading a team of 25 folks in 10 countries across product marketing and product management, we focused on positioning and led the Services lifecycle narrative. Amidst the pandemic, I was determined to support my team in any way I can and we focused on role clarity and mindfulness practices.
Buyer Journey
Everything that we do in Product Marketing is aligned to the buyer journey. From discovery to advocacy, each is a stepping stone to success for our customers. This is why we exist. Keeping this as our core value, allows us to be true and authentic.
Join us on PMM Talks | OKRS and Metrics | November 29 and learn from PMM leaders on OKRs and metrics that matter.
