PMA Top 50 Influencers
PMA Top 50 Influencers
TOP 50
PRODUCT
MARKETING
INFLUENCERS
2019 REPORT
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
2019’s
Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Product marketers sit at the intersection of organisations. From sales to product to operations to
service to IT to finance, they’re the cogs behind some of the world’s most well-oiled machines.
But, while not every company understands the true value they bring to the table, we do.
They master buyer journeys. They drive demand. They marry messages up to mediums. They nail
maximising ROI down to a T. They carry the customer’s voice before, during and after launch. And they
are one of the single most important factors behind successful products.
So, to celebrate the role and everything it entails, we’ve brought together our top 50 product marketing
influencers of 2019.
Thanks to them, the role of the product marketer is gaining recognition and importance. Quickly.
>
> 2
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Aaron Brennan
Director of Product Marketing at airSlate
Aaron’s the Director of Product Marketing at What would your advice to a new or aspiring
airSlate where he’s responsible for the customer product marketer be?
journey experience and driving better, more
My advice would be to focus on the data. The
active user experiences from interest to 10 years
market knows itself better than you do and it will
into the product.
always give you the information you need if you
Aaron has been a product marketing manager just focus on it.
for nearly a decade at companies like Google -
If you had to sum up the role and value of a
launching Google+ and Google Glass, to LogMeIn
product marketer, what would it be?
- working on LastPass, LogMeIn Pro and LogMeIn
Central, as well as a couple of startups like The Product Marketing role is hugely important
HelpLightning and RedPoint Global along the way. and is a strategic role to an organization. It’s
responsible for the customer journey and what
message is presented at each part of the journey
- from I have no idea what this is to I have been in
this product for 10 years!
>
> 3
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Amy Saper
Venture Capitalist at Accel
In her current role at Accel, Amy invests in Going back to 2010-2015, Amy spent time at big-
early-stage businesses with a focus on name brands like Uber and Twitter and during her
e-commerce, health and wellness, SaaS, and spell with the latter, she led an award-winning
API-first companies. company-wide Hackweek team of engineers and
designers who created the product that laid the
Before she moved into the investment arena, Amy
groundwork for Twitter’s Mobile App Promotion
spent three years at Stripe where she built and
product offering. She also managed the
managed the team leading the business’ product
expansion of Twitter’s business in the Middle East,
marketing efforts for application products like
Southeast Asia, India and Australia, and relocated
Billing, Atlas, Sigma, the Dashboard, Mobile Apps
to Singapore to help open their Asia Pacific HQ.
and Reporting. Before that, she led the product
marketing efforts for Stripe Connect, a set of
APIs and Dashboard tools powering the world’s
leading marketplaces and platforms (including
Lyft, Deliveroo, Grab, Shopify, and Squarespace).
>
> 4
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Anand Akela
Product Marketing Leader at Nutanix
Anand Akela is a seasoned product marketing If you had to sum up the role and value of a
executive, an accomplished speaker, and leads product marketer, what would it be?
the GTM strategy and Solutions marketing at
Product marketing is responsible for taking a
Nutanix.
product or solution to market by building the Go-
Previously, Anand worked at Tricentis, CA To-Market strategy and driving its execution via
Technologies, AppDynamics, Oracle and HP in differentiated product messaging and launches,
various product marketing, product management thought leadership and awareness, demand-gen
and engineering roles in the DevOps, systems support as SME and sales enablement.
management, servers, data centre energy
Who should product marketing report to? Or
efficiency and enterprise software areas.
should they be their own entity?
Anand has more than 20 years’ of experience
Product marketing can report to the CMO or the
in product marketing, product management,
business unit General Manager, but it must be
strategic planning and software development.
accountable for the Go-To-Market strategy and
He received his MBA from The Fuqua School of
execution.
Business, Duke University and a B.S. in Computer
Science from Pune University in India.
>
> 5
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
April Dunford
Speaker, Author, CEO at Ambient Strategy
April’s a positioning expert and CEO of
Ambient Strategy where she helps companies “April is a phenomenon. Trained as a systems
successfully launch new products by shaping design engineer she has applied her rapier-
the markets they compete in. Before Ambient sharp mind, gift for communication and
Strategy, April had a 25-year career managing ability to think deeply about problems. She
marketing and product teams at a series of seven has played an instrumental role in building
successful startups, six of which were acquired. value in a series of tech businesses by
understanding how product positioning is
During her in-house career, April launched 16
a key driver of value to sales and marketing
products into the market, three of which became
teams and ultimately company shareholders
billion-dollar businesses. At Ambient Strategy,
through exits to IBM and Siebel among
she’s worked with dozens of startups helping
others. She’s hilarious, polished, professional,
them position their products for growth. April is
sharp on her feet and someone who has not
a sought-after international keynote speaker
only talked the talk, she’s walked the walk,
and author of the bestselling book “Obviously
repeatedly. Her clients, rightly, rave about her.”
Awesome, How to Nail Product Positioning so
Customers Get it, Buy it, Love it.” Mark Littlewood, Founder of The Business
Leaders Network
Go check out...
>
> 6
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Ashwin Somakumar
Head of Product Marketing at OpenTable
Ashwin leads Product Marketing at OpenTable. What’s been your greatest product marketing
Before his current position, he held Associate achievement to-date?
Director, Pricing and Senior Manager, Pricing
I’m most proud of the diverse, high-performing
Strategy roles at the same company. Before
PMM team we’ve built here at OpenTable. As a
OpenTable, he was a management consultant
team that is the glue between our Product, Sales
helping SaaS companies with monetization and
and Marketing functions, there are very high
go-to-market strategies.
expectations of us and we consistently deliver
What’s the one thing that keeps you motivated beyond those expectations. I believe in my team
day in, day out? and trust them to continue making meaningful
contributions to drive the business forward.
I’ve been lucky enough to work on some amazing
products and as a marketer, I get motivated
by the challenge of connecting those products
to users who need them and contributing
to making those products a success. The
continuous experimentation involved in bringing
products to market, to cut through the noise,
capture a user’s attention, and get them to use
the product is extremely motivating. And I love
having data be the measure of my progress
against that challenge.
>
> 7
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Axel Kirstetter
VP of Product Marketing, Content Marketing & Pricing at Merill Corp
Axel’s been heading up product marketing intersection of a lot of different threads and puts
functions for grown-up, accelerated growth and you in a prime position to accelerate and launch
start-up organizations in the US and Europe. His your career.
contributions led to successful IPOs, Divestitures
In terms of previous jobs and education, what
and CAGRs in triple digits and he’s currently VP
did your product marketing journey look like?
of Product Marketing, Content Marketing and
Pricing with Merrill Corporation - a software I started in a sales operations role and did a lot of
company for the M&A lifecycle. marketing and events type work and then quickly
migrated and did a bit of PR Investor Relations,
His accolades include multiple Gartner MQ and
and that was the first 10 years of my career. Then
Forrester Wave placements, SiriusDecisions
I pivoted over to product marketing full-time,
Portfolio Marketer of the Year and numerous other
initially with more of a post-purchase focus, so
industry awards. As a recognized thought-leader
the adoption cycle and growth aspect, and then
for the as-a-service business model he has to his
just standalone ownership of all facets of product
name multiple Tier 1 product launches.
marketing - I’ve been doing that in an exclusive
What’s your favourite aspect of being a fashion since 2008.
product marketer?
>
> 8
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Bill Trinen
Director of Product Marketing at Nintendo of America
Bill’s a strategic thinker who sees business Bill’s spent over 23-years at Nintendo and since
opportunities and creative solutions where he started in 1998, he’s been a Communication
others see challenges. He has a passion for great Coordinator, Bilingual Product Specialist,
products and a unique knack for identifying and Associate Localization Producer, Localization
conveying what makes products great. Producer/Manager, Product Marketing Manager,
Senior Manager, Product Marketing and he’s held
Over the years, Bill’s leveraged this talent to
his current Director of Product Marketing position
help disrupt an industry and attract a broad
for almost 10 years.
base of new consumers and he brings a proven
track record of motivating teams to consistently
achieve exceptional performance.
>
> 9
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Carol Carpenter
VP of Product Marketing at Google Cloud
Carol’s a geek with a passion for technology and What’s your favourite aspect of being a
solving customer problems. She’s been in tech product marketer?
marketing for most of her career, starting as a
I love being at the intersection of our products,
Product Marketing Manager at Apple. She loves
solutions and customer needs. The best part
building and scaling new products and has
is working with customers, learning about their
done that at both small and large companies in
businesses, and solving their hard business
varying roles as CMO, GM and most recently as
problems.
CEO before joining Google Cloud.
If you had to sum up the role and value of a
She’s particularly proud of the high-performance
product marketer, what would it be?
teams she’s developed and the fact that many
of her prior marketing mavens are all doing The role and value of product marketing is to
impactful work across tech companies. She express the distinct value of our solutions to
>
> 10
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Christophe Wilhelm
Chief Revenue Officer at Spoonflower
Christophe’s a seasoned marketer with
15+ years of experience in marketing “Christophe gets it. When it comes to
communications and product marketing. delivering marketing, he has the precise
He comes with a proven ability to leverage mix of enthusiasm, realism and “can-
customer data to develop and implement do” attitude that is rare in his peer group.
strategies and tactics to increase customer We had the opportunity to work together
acquisition, engagement and retention. on a wide-sweeping consumer loyalty
and engagement strategy for PayPal’s
Passionate about building capabilities and
best customers. Despite unprecedented
experiences to delight customers and drive
demands on his time, Christophe took the
business results, Christophe believes in strong
reigns on major workstreams, went to bat
results-oriented and customer-first cultures.
across the company for resources, and
He would describe himself as analytical with demonstrated a genuine passion to do what
a passion for data and driving actionable, was right for the customer.”
measurable objectives; self-motivated, John Paasonen, Co-founder & CEO at
resourceful and able to both strategize and Maxwell
execute; and able to work both collaboratively
and independently with an entrepreneurial spirit.
>
> 11
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Dain Hansen
VP of Product Marketing for Cloud Platform (PaaS/IaaS) at Oracle
Having been at Oracle for 11 years, Dain’s Before Oracle, Dain led the product marketing
responsible for driving marketing vision and team at BEA Systems for managing the SOA and
strategy across the company’s key public BPM product portfolio. Dain was also a business
PaaS and IaaS offerings including Autonomous analyst for companies such as HPE, Bechtel, and
Database as part of Oracle’s Gen 2 Cloud multiple startups.
Infrastructure offerings.
When he’s not working, Dain loves spending
During his time at Oracle, Dain’s launched time with his two kids (one boy and one girl),
multiple successful product lines including and he’s a wine snob, movie-junkie, and lover of
Oracle Cloud at Customer in 2016, as well as - science fiction. He’s a total nut when it comes to
the first of its kind - Autonomous Database in social media.
2018. In addition, he was instrumental in helping
What’s your favourite aspect of
launch the Oracle and Microsoft interoperability
product marketing?
partnership which was unveiled this year.
Helping companies represent their ‘best selves’
Dain’s an active participant in writing corporate
through content, creativity and passion. As
blogs and has helped deliver content and
human beings we always strive to represent ‘our
messaging for Oracle’s top executives. He
best selves’ through the way we act, our goals
continues to be a key stakeholder in integrated
and aspirations, and the way we communicate
messaging for Oracle’s overarching Cloud story
our most positive self-image. Marketing helps
and delivers his own videos and keynotes as well.
companies in the same way, project an image
Recently, he travelled to Seoul, Korea to keynote
and emotion or a set of ideas. Marketing is
their Oracle Cloud Day event (+2,500 attendees).
more than ‘simply’ communication and it’s this
idea of creating a product ‘best self’ that I am
most interested in helping define and take from
inception to completion.
>
> 12
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Dain Hansen What’s the one thing that keeps you motivated Go check out…
day in, day out?
His blog on ‘What A Hamster Can Teach You
I am really fortunate that I have a rock-star team. About Artificial Intelligence’.
Without many of the folks on my team, I simply
couldn’t be as effective and efficient at the tasks
at hand. And outside of my team, there are so
many intelligent and collaborative people at
Oracle, I find it’s really the people (not necessarily
the technology) that keeps me engaged the
most. In addition, my product marketing charter
is a global role and I really enjoy meeting
customers, partners and sellers across all parts of
the world.
>
> 13
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Dan Leveille
Director of Product Marketing at DeviantArt
Dan has a passion for social web, web products
and entrepreneurship. He’s been at DeviantArt “Dan not only sees opportunity where others
for more than 12 years and is responsible for the miss it, but beyond that has the creative
research, opportunity assessment, launch, and problem-solving abilities to come up with
ongoing marketing of their products. a solution, the skill set to implement it, and
the social media prowess to efficiently
Back in 2010, Dan graduated from the Rochester
market and promote it. In addition, I really
Institute of Technology majoring in Web
appreciate Dan’s ability to see the whole
Development with a double minor in Marketing
picture and constantly keep the user in
and Communication. In his spare time, he has
mind when creating an interface and
been and currently is building Equaldex.com,
experience. His insight and ideas have
Chacy.com and Dododex.com.
been essential to creating a complete and
effective application that not only works but
makes sense as a whole.”
Dustin Horton, Software Engineer at Remind
>
> 14
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Daniel Lahl
Vice President of Product Marketing at SAP
Daniel’s dedicated almost a quarter of a century
to SAP. He comes with deep knowledge of the “Dan is a very smart, effective executive. In
infrastructure software market as well as senior addition to being a deep analytical thinker
management of product marketing teams and strategist, Dan brings humanity and
across multiple software disciplines/categories. humor to his job and has a deep knowledge
of both technology and business to make
Being ethical and hard-working towards
him successful in everything he works on. I
customers, prospects and colleagues is a key
have always been impressed with his ability
value and driving principle in his life and his
to balance long-term strategic thinking with
speciality sits in enterprise software, with an
more immediate tactical business issues.”
emphasis on data management and movement.
Dan Auker, Vice President of Product
Marketing at Tradeshift
>
> 15
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Daniel Murphy
Director of Product Marketing at Drift
Daniel’s the Director of Product Marketing at What’s been your greatest product marketing
Drift. He’s also worked in demand generation achievement to-date?
and marketing ops – and prior to joining Drift
I don’t know if I have a greatest achievement
was a customer, leveraging conversational
in product marketing, I think in my career it’s
marketing to accelerate sales at his previous
probably been writing this book: This Won’t Scale.
company. Dan loves to geek out over marketing
strategies and technology. Go check out...
What would your advice to a new or aspiring His talk from SaaS Breakthrough’s 2019 Summit
>
> 16
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
David Johnson
Senior Director of Product Marketing at Model N
David’s a seasoned enterprise software product
leader with experience in end-to-end campaign “David has a get-it-done attitude and a
strategy and execution, full product lifecycle positive way of working with the people
management, developing and evangelizing around him. He has striven to get the best
product roadmaps, vision and strategy and results on the projects he works on and
managing products from inception to launch. David’s work at Avocent proves he can
drive business success while increasing
Before joining Model N, he spent just over five
team productivity.”
years at Oracle as a Senior Product Marketing
Paul Nashawaty, Digital Transformation
Manager and then Director of Product Marketing,
Strategist at Kentico Software
where he led all product messaging and
positioning for the company’s B2B cross-channel
marketing within the Oracle Marketing Cloud.
>
> 17
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Div Manickam
Director of Portfolio Messaging (Product, Industry, and Solutions) at Boomi
Div’s the Director of Portfolio Messaging Who should product marketing report to? Or
(Product, Industry, and Solutions) at Boomi (a should they be their own entity?
Dell Technologies business) and is passionate
Product Marketing spends 90% of their efforts
about building a high-performing and mindful
with the Product team, then Marketing and Sales.
team. She has led product marketing efforts in
If we are aligned with the Product Management
startups and Fortune 500 technology companies
team then our initiatives will be most effective.
and has a Masters in Cyber Security, Bachelors
Our product and solutions marketing team
in Information Technology from India, and an
recently rebranded to Portfolio Messaging to
MBA from California State University - East Bay.
help showcase our value and I report to the
In 2019, she was recognized for contributions in
Chief Product Officer in Boomi. We are a cross-
her profession and community – 2019 40 Under
functional team and we engage with every team
40: Cal State East Bay.
in the company depending on the business need
In her current role, Div leads the team supporting and project. We are internal enablers supporting
product, industry and solutions marketing, teams to achieve their goals with three core
enabling sales and helping customers build a principles: inspire, influence and impact.
connected business with the Boomi platform.
We are on the next evolution for product
Div is also a Forbes Communications Council
marketing to Portfolio Messaging. Just as we now
member sharing her experiences on first-time
have a Chief Customer Success Officer, it will not
leadership and product marketing. Just as
be too long before the Portfolio Messaging leader
committed and passionate, Div is also an avid
will have a seat at the executive table, to be the
traveller, foodie, and a proud Google Local Guide
voice of the market and pulse of the buyer needs.
exploring the world around the corner.
>
> 18
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Go check out…
>
> 19
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Elizabeth Brigham
Head of Product Marketing (Software) at Morningstar
In her current role at Morningstar, Elizabeth do is understand our clients and understand the
covers go-to-market strategy for new and people out in the market who can be potential
existing advisor and asset management users of our product, we have a much higher
software product lines, demand generation and level kind of lens and we have a purview that cuts
event marketing. across the core of the business strategy. I think
that’s something that’s differentiated, let’s say,
Before joining Morningstar in 2017, Elizabeth led
from being in product management.
product marketing and product management
teams at enterprise technology start-ups in If a C-suite exec’s reading this who doesn’t
Chicago and at public companies, such as Jive see the need for a product marketer in their
Software and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. While company, what would your advice to them be?
at the latter, she led the team that developed the
There’s a quote out there that says anywhere
strategy to redesign the digital guest experience
between 80-90% of new businesses fail and when
for Disneyland Paris across 12 regions in EMEA.
some of those reports went back and asked CEOs
Elizabeth serves on the Board of Visitors at or others within the C-suite, well, why do you think
Davidson College, is a mentor for TechStars you failed? The number one answer that came
Chicago, and holds a B.A. in English from Davidson back was product-market fit. Product marketing
College in Davidson, NC. She also holds an MBA in takes down or lowers the risk of investing a lot
corporate strategy and marketing from the Ross of money, whether it’s in people or product
School of Business at the University of Michigan. development or acquiring something new, and
de-risks that investment. I think that’d be a fairly
What would you say your favourite aspect of
compelling argument to any C-suite execs.
being a product marketer is?
Go check out…
I think there are a couple of things. One, I have an
amazing team. Every day my job is to coach and The submission that led to her Product Marketing
help them be their best, and so I love that. I think Leader of the Year award.
>
> the second piece is that because what we really 20
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Francis Larkin
VP of Product Marketing at InVision
Francis is the Vice President of Product Marketing I did that for about four years until I discovered
at InVision, where he oversees product growth product marketing and I was immediately
and adoption for the digital product design hooked. I could quickly see the unique value that
platform. He previously served in marketing product marketing creates in an organization
leadership roles at Facebook, Pinterest, Airtable and I enjoy the ability to work with a wide variety
and other fast-growing startups. of teams, the intellectual challenges of working
across multiple products and industries, and the
At Pinterest, Francis built the marketing team
strong orientation around understanding and
responsible for shopping and advertiser solutions
helping our customers.
and helped scale revenue in the years leading up
to the IPO. Francis also served as the Director of What’s been your greatest product marketing
Product Marketing at Facebook, where he led a achievement to-date?
global team responsible for news, video, gaming
It’s hard to pin down a single achievement
and developer products.
that I’m most proud of, but I do love helping
Francis graduated from the University of Notre companies grow into new markets. It’s really
Dame and lives with his wife and daughter in Palo hard but fulfilling work. It brings together data,
Alto, California. creative, research, sales strategy and so much
more into a single measurable outcome. At
What did your journey into product marketing
Facebook, we moved into the gaming and
look like?
mobile app markets. At Pinterest, we expanded
It’s accurate to say I stumbled into product into shopping and search advertising. And
marketing. I had a passion for technology and at InVision, we’re growing our focus from just
marketing but didn’t know the career path designers to engineers, product managers and
existed in the early 2000s. One of my first jobs all the other disciplines involved in creating great
out of college was in product management and digital experiences.
>
> 21
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Jarod Greene
VP Product Marketing at Apptio
Jarod’s a former Gartner Research Analyst who If you had to narrow it down to one, what would
has led global product marketing organizations you say the most important skill is that’s helped
at Cherwell Software and now Apptio. In both get you where you are today?
roles, he led go-to-market strategies with
Communication and prioritization. You have to
responsibilities for messaging, positioning,
be a skilled communicator who can speak the
analyst relations, thought leadership – working
language your stakeholders understand with
closely with product management teams to
clarity and confidence. You also need to know
build and launch products, demand generation
how to manage your time so you can deliver
teams to build pipeline, sales enablement teams
things when you say you will deliver them.
to accelerate pipeline, and customer success
Sometimes this means saying no to things but
teams to ensure customers ascertained the
communicating trade-offs.
value they paid for.
What’s been your greatest product marketing
The effort of his teams has led to increasing
achievement to-date?
Annual Recurring Revenue and improved
conversion and accelerated sales cycles. He also Being able to positively impact individuals’ lives
has a Bachelor’s Degree from Trinity College and both professionally and personally on a regular
a Master’s Degree from the University of Georgia. basis. Product Marketing is such a strategic,
connect-the-dots function, so the ability to affect
change broadly is an incredible feeling.
Go check out…
>
> 22
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Jen Snell
Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing at Verint
Jen is Vice President of Product Strategy and that, for me, the most important skill that’s helped
Marketing for Intelligent Self-Service at Verint. get me where I am today has been optimism. I
As a recognized marketing leader for emerging see things as they are, visualize how they might
technology and enterprise artificial intelligence, be better and take action to make them so.
Jen’s leading the product marketing strategy Behind the scenes, getting a product to market
and user engagement programs. is messy. And, success with that product doesn’t
happen overnight. The perseverance to work
She’s a frequent speaker and a leading
hard, stick-with-it, and drive long-term success is
contributor on topics shaping the development,
way more fun as an optimist.
experience and design of interactive
technologies. Some of Jen’s work has been What’s been your greatest product marketing
noted in the New York Times, WSJ, USA Today, achievement to-date?
TechCrunch, and Forbes. As both a visionary and
Being part of creating the intelligent virtual
a pragmatist, she translates the broad visions
assistant and conversational AI market, and
of technology leaders across the enterprise into
doing so while delivering long-term, meaningful
actionable insights and purposeful solutions.
success for enterprises, and scaling data and
Jen ensures that Verint’s Intelligent Self-Service
insights so AI innovates and grows with their
solutions deliver remarkable user experiences
business and vision.
that advance their clients’ business goals.
Go check out…
If you had to narrow it down to one, what would
you say the most important skill is that’s helped Her articles in MarTech Series and Medium, and
get you where you are today? videos on all things AI here, here and here.
>
> 23
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Jeremy Wood
Head of Product Marketing (APAC) at Adobe
Jeremy’s a marketing and internet executive
with 20+ years of progressive experience in “Jeremy is an exceptional product
entrepreneurship and leadership in B2B and marketer, translating customer needs
SaaS companies globally. His specialities into meaningful platform, feature and
include go-to-market and strategic planning, functionality differentiation that helps our
data analytics and insights, partnerships, team customers succeed with social. He is also a
leadership and mentoring. powerful partner marketer, building strong,
mutually-beneficial strategic relationships
Before joining Adobe, he spent just under
with industry giants and emerging tech
three years at Hootsuite as their VP of Product
companies alike - all to the benefit of
Marketing where he led all areas of the function
Hootsuite’s customers.
to bring the company’s products and services to
18 million users all over the world. Prior to that, he “Most importantly, Jeremy is an incredible
had spells in Pipedrive, Xero and Google. leader and partner, coaching and advising
not only his team but those around him, to
help everyone grow and achieve as part of
a high-performance environment.”
Greg Perotto, VP of Corporate Marketing,
Brand & Communications at TripActions
>
> 24
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
John Heywood
Director of Product Marketing, Service Cloud at Salesforce
John’s a seasoned product marketer and
has current and past experience working for “John’s ability to work cross-functionally
big-name brands like Salesforce, 18Birdies across our marketing, sales, customer
and Twitter. During his time at 18Birdies, service and business development teams
he introduced product marketing and led was quite impressive. He has an innate
the development of their growth marketing ability to place himself in his teammates’
strategy, owned all their consumer product shoes, understand the ask, and efficiently
initiatives and in launching their Premium solve the task at hand. John was able
Membership plans, generated the company’s to balance all these demands while
first stream of revenue. successfully executing on a demanding
product roadmap schedule by effectively
During his time at Twitter, John grew the Global
managing the app design and engineering
Ads team to 40 (from two), brought more than
teams located in Shanghai.”
10 core products to market - including Keyword
Josh Hayes, On-Air Host at Sirius XM Radio
Targeting, Twitter Cards and TV Targeting, and
expanded ad revenue from $250M to $2B annually.
>
> 25
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
John Woods
Tech & Entertainment Marketing Leader
Over the course of his ~20-year career,
John’s worked on some of technology and “John is hands down the best product
entertainment’s most recognizable brands and marketing manager I’ve worked with
he brings a broad set of marketing skills to any at Google. He is extremely motivated,
leadership team: growth, lifecycle engagement, persistent, ever friendly, and knows how
brand strategy, and go-to-market planning. to get along with both technical and non-
technical sides of the team. He sincerely
Through his leadership, John’s teams have
cares about the product itself and
married breakthrough creative, analytics
constantly pushes for improvements in the
and technology to deliver relevant consumer
right ways, has great market insights, and
experiences and business success. These efforts
always delivers without stressing the team.
have resulted in numerous awards and a patent
It’s always great to see awesome creatives
filing at Google.
and marketing campaigns return in
His resume includes globally-known brands like numbers, and John has a knack for making
Google, Yahoo, EA and The Walt Disney Company this happen regularly and still surprise
and he earned his MBA from Berkeley’s Haas everyone every time.”
School of Business. Sophia Yang, Product Manager at Google
>
> 26
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Jonathan Cowan
Vice President, Product at Sage
Jonathan’s a commercial and marketing
professional with 20 years’ experience in “Jon is an exceptional leader, his
technology businesses, covering a range of professionalism, work ethic and ability to
disciplines from product marketing, product manage all stakeholders is second to none.
management, brand management and In my whole career, I’ve yet to see a senior
proposition development through to strategy leader who is as well-liked as Jon. He’s a
and planning. brilliant strategist and has the rare skill of
a very creative, innovative mind backed by
Whether he’s got his sleeves rolled up or is
strong commercial acumen which makes
thinking about the bigger picture, he’s equally at
him the perfect all-round product marketer.”
home and is motivated by challenge, growth and
Nicole Matues, Head Of Marketing at
the opportunity to learn.
MyFirmsApp
Jonathan’s specialities include bringing
propositions to market, building effective
relationships, simplifying the complex and putting
the customer at the heart of things - without
forgetting the economic fundamentals.
>
> 27
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Julie Triolo
Vice President, Product Marketing at WarnerMedia
Julie’s a brand and business marketing
executive with a proven track record of “Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we? Julie
successfully launching digital products, Triolo ROCKS. Yes, in all caps. She’s smart,
platforms and content into the market and organized and works her a-- off. She’s an
developing national brands into category amazing people person, fantastic tactician,
powerhouses. She’s a true expert at and fearless when it comes to standing up
identifying opportunities to expand revenue for the work. She’s also hilarious, knows how
by unlocking the value of new tools, services to keep the room “up” when stuff’s going
and monetisation solutions for advertisers and down, and...is just an all-around awesome
agencies. human being. When Julie’s on a project
everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Because
As well as her current tenure at WarnerMedia, Julie
you know it’s going to turn out great. It
spent almost seven years at another globally-
always does.”
known brand, Yahoo, where she drove downloads
Jason Siciliano, Global Creative Director/VP
and increased engagement for the company’s
at SquareTrade
Weather, News Digest and Finance apps.
>
> 28
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Justin Pirie
Senior Product Marketing Manager at Twilio
Justin’s a Product Marketing, Product
Management, Marketing and Communications “Justin is one of those infectiously energetic
specialist with a particular focus on B2B SaaS guys who can do in 24 hours what many
and Cloud companies. In his current role at Twilio would feel an achievement in 48! A font
he’s focused on product marketing for video and of wisdom on all things Saas his success
in a previous life, at Mimecast, he helped grow in building the largest online community
the company to over 10x in Annual Recurring around the theme is a testament to his skills
Revenue and from five employees to ~550. not just as a communicator but a motivator
and insightful speaker.”
He lives at the intersection of technology and
Nigel G, Associate Director & Senior Adviser
business and is always thinking simultaneously
at NCC Group
about how technology can change people’s
lives and how to go to market with them. Data-
obsessed, testing oriented and driven to find the
optimal solution to move key metrics, Justin’s also
wrote for several industry publications and runs
the largest SaaS community on LinkedIn which
boasts more than 100,000 members.
>
> 29
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Kevin Mole
VP of Product Marketing at Ripple
Kevin’s the VP of Product Marketing at Ripple, border payments, but we had a portfolio of
where he leads the go-to-market strategy, three product offerings. These two things didn’t
pricing, co-branding and partner marketing match up in my mind, and I quickly realized
efforts. Kevin has over 10 years of experience that there was similar confusion in the minds
advising financial institutions and payment of our customers. We were asking them to join
technology providers while at McKinsey & our payments network, but they weren’t quite
Company and the Boston Consulting Group. sure which of the product offerings would give
them what and how, if at all, these offerings
During his time as a consultant, Kevin led
interoperated.
payments initiatives in the fields of digital
commerce, blockchain and real-time payments The idea, which came to life earlier this year, was
across three continents. Prior to this, he started to create a single RippleNet offering – moving
his career as an investment banker with UBS in away from a product-centric discussion with
New York, focusing on mergers and acquisitions the customer to a network-centric discussion.
and capital raising. Kevin received his MBA Our customers understood this, being in the
from Kellogg School of Management, where he payments industry, the value of a network is
studied Marketing and Strategy. readily apparent.
What’s been your greatest product marketing Internally, however, moving away from the three
achievement to-date? products was difficult given how embedded
they were in the organization. We had teams
I joined Ripple about 18 months ago, and there
structured along product lines, we had branded
was one thing that clearly needed to be fixed
these products, the company positioning was
from a Product Marketing perspective. Our
aligned with them, and so on.
goal was, and still is, to build a single network
of institutions sending and receiving cross-
>
> 30
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Kevin Mole I am proud we were able to align internally and with any Co-marketing programs, you need to
externally on this and the work of my team to convince them that it is the right thing to do for
make this real – from managing organizational the account. The list goes on…
changes, to updating all our documentation, to
The scope of influence and role of the Product
influencing a shift in the mindset that permeated
Marketing team will vary across companies, but
the “old world”. Product Marketing is one of the
we are lucky enough at Ripple Product Marketing
few functions in my mind that can actually
to have a seat at almost every table in the
bridge the internal and external in a way that
company when it comes to big decisions. We are
requires this type of scaled change across an
the voice of the customer and the market, and
organization.
in many ways, the strategy advisor -- bringing
What’s one product marketing tool you those together can be quite powerful. Of course,
couldn’t live without and why? assuming we get others on board.
>
> 31
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Krista Seiden
Founder & Principal Consultant at KS Digital
Krista’s the principal digital analytics What’s been your greatest product marketing
consultant at KS Digital, an analytics achievement to-date?
consultancy she founded which helps
Helping guide Product Management and
businesses make the most of their investments
Engineering teams to see Product Marketing (as
in digital marketing and analytics.
well as UX, Design, Sales, and Commercialization)
Previously, she was VP, Product Marketing & as part of their core team to bring a new product
Growth at Quantcast and before that, she was or feature to market. I’ve done this a number
at Google for nearly seven years where she led of times at Google and Quantcast, and each
Product Management efforts across the Google time it’s almost magical to see the impact and
Marketing Platform and served as the external efficiencies gained by taking a team approach.
evangelist for the Google Analytics suite of Product marketing is a core component to driving
products. Krista’s a keynote speaker, practitioner, this and is the glue that helps bring it all together.
writer on Analytics and Optimization, and
Go check out…
passionate supporter of #WomenInAnalytics.
Her website, it’s full of tonnes of awesome and
What’s your favourite aspect of being a product
actionable content.
marketer?
>
> 32
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Lindsay Bayuk
VP of Portfolio Marketing at Pluralsight
Lindsay’s the VP of Portfolio Marketing at The old world of product marketing (writing
Pluralsight (Nasdaq: PS). She joined in 2016 market requirement docs and building one-
and currently leads a global team of product sheets) is dying. The new era of product
marketers, brand marketers, content marketers, marketing is focused on market and customer
analyst relations and customer advocacy. research and has a fluid organizational structure
that can quickly respond to market and company
She previously held product marketing and
demands.
product management roles at various other
venture-backed and bootstrapped startups. Who should product marketing report to? Or
Lindsay’s an advocate for market-focused, data- should they be their own entity?
driven marketing and product development, and
Product marketing in fast-growth organizations
is a B2B SaaS geek.
should always report to the CMO.
If a C-suite exec’s reading this who doesn’t
Go check out…
see the need for a product marketer in their
company, what would your advice to them be? All her Medium posts, this one in particular: How to
organize product marketing teams.
Product marketing is the “tip of the spear” for a
go-to-market strategy. If you want to be a fast-
growth business with a clear GTM strategy you
must have product marketing. As businesses
continue to move faster, product marketing
needs to maintain the lead out front. Product
marketing is data-informed storytelling. It’s a
craft, not a job.
>
> 33
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Liza Collin
Market Readiness Director at Visma
Liza has over 10 years of experience in Product What’s the one thing that keeps you motivated
Management, digital transformation and day in, day out?
commercialization in Media (Schibsted Media
Telling the story in such a way that it resonates
Group), Telecom (Get - acquired by Telia)
with our customers and clients.
and Software (Visma). She has also been
ranked as one of the 50 most prominent tech What would your advice to any new or aspiring
Liza is customer-centric, has always been Be curious, ask what has been missing that is
interested in improving people’s lives, and her hindering sales to reach their targets, what will
past includes companies that create a better make a difference for them, and just do it!
>
> 34
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Liza Sperling
Head of Product Marketing at Upwork
Liza’s a seasoned B2B marketing leader with
15 years of experience and three successful “As a marketer, Liza has a keen sensibility of
exits. She currently leads the Product Marketing storytelling, ensuring positioning, messaging
team at Upwork but previously, she built out and packaging is aligned to the strengths
the Product Marketing team at Stack Overflow, of products with the needs of the customer.
where she partnered with Product, Sales, and She builds detailed marketing programs out
Marketing leadership to influence roadmap of whole cloth that clearly communicates
decisions and product strategy for both B2B the value of the offering. Liza is a strategic
SaaS and B2D products. problem solver and employs her excellent
communication skills to influence optimal
Liza’s an entrepreneurial leader, cross-functional
outcomes. At Stack Overflow, she introduced
problem-solver and excellent communicator.
the concept of Product Marketing to the
She’s energised by empowering users through
company and built the team from scratch
technology and her expertise includes defining
and was always a great sounding board
and executing results-driven GTM strategies
for ideas and helped our team bring a new
and product launches, building out people and
standard of excellence to our work and
processes in fast-growing organisations, driving
the company.”
complex projects and aligning, communicating,
Bryan Turriff, Director of Product Marketing
coordinating and influencing stakeholders across
at Cribl
teams, departments, and organisations.
>
> 35
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Margaret Dawson
Vice President, Portfolio Product Marketing at Red Hat
Margaret’s a technology executive and strategic
marketing leader with proven, global success at “Margaret is a true game-changer. I had
spearheading entry into new markets, building the privilege of working with her during the
brand positions, and increasing revenue for creation of our Cloud Helion rebranding at
emerging and Fortune 500 companies. HP. I watched her manage exceptionally
high expectations, constricted timelines,
During Margaret’s many start-up gigs, her
and demanding business unit executives
creative leadership and integrated marketing
with professionalism and leadership. The
plans built bigger than reality brands that
successful go-to-market launch of Helion
resulted in several successful acquisitions. In
can be directly attributed to Margaret, her
her time, she’s used her intrapreneurship and
vision, and her abilities.”
collaborative management to drive new global
Douglas Chey, Chief Portfolio Technology
initiatives, including cloud at HP, security at
Officer at Leonard Green & Partners
Microsoft, international e-commerce at Amazon.
com, and portfolio product strategy at Red Hat.
>
> 36
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Mark Bloom
Director of Product Marketing at Zendesk
Mark has over 15 years of sales, marketing and pre-sales system engineering side of the house
business development experience in a variety of with strong technical capabilities that we mould
financial service and high-technology markets. into strong product marketing skill sets. I was a
In the course of his experience, Mark’s helped programmer then a product manager before
Fortune 100 organizations develop technology settling on product marketing. We all have
infrastructures, build global strategies and different journeys to get us here.
execute sales and marketing programs with
What’s the one thing that keeps you motivated
strategic partners.
day in, day out?
Past clients/employers have included Ford,
It comes down to a few things:
Motorola, United Technologies, Cisco, Chrysler,
• Being passionate about the business problems
SonicWall and Compuware. Mark holds a Bachelor
your company’s trying to solve
of Commerce degree in Management Information
• The people: get out from behind your deck and
Systems and an MBA in International Business.
Slack and engage in face-to-face conversation
As Director of Omnichannel Product Marketing for • Good life balance: work, exercise, family and
Zendesk, Mark drives omnichannel messaging, vacation are all important
positioning and GTM activities, in addition to • Collaborative, no-ego environments - culture
presenting at trade shows and symposiums. trumps capabilities anytime
• People knowing what’s expected of them,
Do you think there’s such a thing as a ‘perfect
feeling their skills are being put to good use and
path’ to getting into product marketing? And if
that they can make an impact
so, what would it be?
• A company that is transparent and
I don’t believe there’s a perfect path to anything. communicative
Everyone’s life journey is so very different. For • An organization that solicits employee input to
example, we hire people right out of school and make better business decisions.
train them on the job. Others come from the
>
> 37
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Marla Schimke
Head of Product Marketing, Business Management Solutions at Broadcom
As the head of product marketing for As an avid speaker and technologist, she
Broadcom’s business management solutions, frequently presents on digital marketing
Marla brings more than 20 years of experience trends and writes about marketing, emerging
in marketing leadership for both start-ups and technology and agile marketing for publications
Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, CA like AdWeek, CMO.com, and WIRED. Marla also
Technologies and Ernst & Young. founded the Behavioral Targeting Standards
Consortium and was named a “Mobile Marketing
She’s a thought leader who combines a unique
Woman to Watch.”
blend of technology and marketing experience
to successfully position cutting-edge solutions to Who should product marketing report to? Or
B2B and consumer audiences. Before Broadcom, should they be their own entity?
Marla held executive product marketing and
CEO, CMO or Head of the Business Unit depending
demand generation roles at CA Technologies
on the size of the company. Here at Broadcom, I
until they were acquired in November of 2018.
report to the head of our business unit - Enterprise
She’s led marketing for Zumobi, the leading Software Division’s Business Management.
mobile content marketing platform, where
What’s one product marketing tool you couldn’t
she helped revolutionize how brands find and
live without and why?
engage their targeted audiences on mobile.
Before Zumobi, Marla managed corporate and Definitely Clarity PPM which is a product in
she was instrumental in helping them achieve leverages Clarity to plan all of our product
year-over-year double-digit revenue growth and launches, marketing campaigns and customer
>
> 38
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Martin Aguinis
Product Marketing Manager at Flutter, a Google company
Martin’s the winner of the 2019 Rising Star in On top of all this, he was also recently announced
Product Marketing award and he’s established as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in their 2020
and led global marketing for Flutter, Google’s Marketing & Advertising list.
open-source mobile application development
What would your advice to a new or aspiring
framework, including strategy and execution
product marketer be?
of all initiatives. In the 2+ years since joining,
Flutter went from zero to the #1 fastest-growing Think about that 99%. What I mean by that is
platform among software engineers according you most likely won’t reach 99% of your users in
to LinkedIn, the #2 most-liked developer tool person for any product. Even when you have big
worldwide, and being used by brands like events and conferences, a lot of the time, people
Alibaba, eBay, Groupon, BMW, Capital One for aren’t actually there that are using your product,
Martin’s a Keynote speaker and has presented One example I always give is during our launch
in over 10 countries at conferences attended by event last year, when we launched the full
150,000+ people total including Mobile World product, we actually had a pre and post-show
Congress in Spain, WeAreDevelopers in Germany, where we’d take questions from online and we
PMM World Summit in the USA, Google Developer also set-up viewing parties around the world so
Days in China, and Google for Mobile in India. that people all over could actually participate
and not just the lucky 250 developers who were
Outside of Flutter, Martin’s stretched his
invited to the event itself. So really thinking about
marketing knowledge to other parts of the
the global impact and ways to scale out your
company including Google AI where he’s making
existing content as a marketer is a really good
information more accessible to Latinx developers.
skill to have.
He was also previously on the YouTube team
working on VR and before Google, started
businesses in the events and ride-sharing space.
>
> 39
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Go check out…
>
> 40
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Marvin Chow
Vice President, Global Marketing at Google
Marvin is currently Vice President of Marketing between the product engineers and the end-
at Google. He leads Global Marketing for user. PMMs should be an expert on the user and
some of Google’s largest and most strategic their needs. Great PMMs champion the voices
products including Search, Maps, the Google of all users and celebrate and elevate diverse
Assistant, Photos, Health, AR and Google AI. He perspectives. During the go-to-market process,
also oversees Google’s global efforts in social PMMs should own the launch plan, working to
marketing and the Google News Initiative. make the product a reality for all users.
Before Google, Marvin worked in strategy, If you had to narrow it down to one, what would
marketing and general management. Most you say the most important skill is that’s helped
recently he was at Nike, where he led marketing get you where you are today?
efforts for Greater China, Japan and Korea, as
Particularly in marketing, it is so important to
well as strategic global projects like NIKEiD and
keep the broader business context in mind
NIKE+. His career also spanned a number of
when working through problems or launches.
different brands such as Nickelodeon, Reebok and
We generally work across products and have
starts-ups created by Michael Jordan, John Elway
the opportunity to assess the organization
and Benchmark Venture Capital. In addition, he
from a broader perspective. We are constantly
is an investor and advisor to startups like WayUp,
working cross-functionally with product, PR, user
GIFS.com, CapitalG and Gradient Ventures.
experiences, legal, sales, etc. This elevated view
If you had to sum of the role and value of a provides us with valuable context we should
product marketer, what would it be? leverage and share with our stakeholders.
PMMs have the ability to bring together multiple
Recently, the role of a PMM has become
functions with many points of view. It is our job to
differentiated and instrumental. PMMs work to
align them into one unified story to the user.
connect the value of products with the story
of a user. The ultimate role of a PMM is to liaise
>
> 41
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
>
> 42
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Meghan Keaney I also have found that adaptability has helped Go check out…
Anderson
me as I’ve grown my career in general. HubSpot
Her podcasts over at the The Growth Show.
has grown quickly which has meant that the
opportunities in front of me are almost never ones
that I anticipated or am perfectly prepared for.
Being adaptable has given me the confidence
to tackle new opportunities, even when they’re
a bit outside of my core skill set. And that has
made all the difference. Finally, what I love about
adaptability is that it is inherently a humble skill.
It requires you to know that you’ll never know
everything. The confidence to adapt comes not
from having everything figured out, but rather
from being comfortable with uncertainty.
>
> 43
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Meghann York
Vice President of Product Marketing at Ticketmaster
Meghann’s the Vice President of Product If you had to sum up the role and value of a
Marketing for Ticketmaster, a division of product marketer, what would it be?
LiveNation, and she and her team help sports
Product Marketing is the voice of the sales
teams, venues, performing arts organizations
organization and the voice of the client in the
and music artists re-imagine the fan experience
product development and release process. If
through technology.
you’re a product marketer and not spending
Before joining Ticketmaster, Meghann led Product lots of time talking to your field and lots of time
Marketing for the Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s talking to your clients, get out there! We can’t
Data & Analytics solutions, including Einstein create product messaging, sales enablement
for Marketers and the partnership with Google or campaigns in a vacuum. Everything we turn
Analytics. Meghann’s deeply passionate about out as a product marketing group needs to be
female mentorship initiatives and giving back created with our customer at the center and
to the community, most recently serving as serve to inspire them about the possibilities
Corporate Walk Chair for the Leukemia and of using our technology to better serve their
Lymphoma’s Light the Night Walk, helping her customers.
hometown of Indianapolis become a One Million
Who should product marketing report to? Or
Dollar City for the first time.
should they be their own entity?
Meghann graduated Magna Cum Laude from
Product marketers are connectors within an
Miami University and in her free time she loves
organization. The most successful product
seeing live music, travelling and cheering on
marketers have a unique brain wiring or skill set
her kids from the sidelines of the basketball and
that allows them to understand the technical
volleyball courts.
components of products and translate those into
value for the customer. In every organization
>
> 44
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Meghann York I’ve been with, product marketing reports into Go check out…
the head of products and it’s very important that
Her podcast on ‘Why AI is nothing without the
product marketing has the respect of and deep
human touch’ and this video on ‘Intelligent
access into the product development areas of
marketing for the empowered consumer’
their organization.
(Meghann takes to the stage at around 24m25s).
However, product marketing isn’t successful
without tight relationships and thought partners
in creative, design, communications and brand.
>
> 45
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Michael Tchao
VP Product Marketing at Apple Inc.
Michael’s specialities lie in consumer
technology, new product/service strategy “I’ve known Michael since 1983 and in that
development & design, product & brand time he’s earned my respect many times
marketing, intrapreneurship and partnerships. over. He’s a true team player and wise
He’s held his current position at Apple for more beyond his years. He’s highly influential,
than a decade and he also dedicated his career seems to be everywhere all at once, and
from 1986 through to 1994 to the company. always has a smile on his face. Designing
products is like a game to him - he makes
In between his two spells at Apple, he set-up
it fun for everyone. He’s a great guy to work
his own technology, marketing and strategy
for and a huge asset to anyone he reports
consultancy where he worked with big brands
to and I’m always impressed by Michael’s
like Disney, Canon, IBM, Koda, Microsoft and VISA.
accomplishments.”
Michael also spent seven and a half years at Nike
David Siegel, Public speaker, Advisor,
in a General Manager capacity.
Thought leader, Advocate for 21st-century
innovation
>
> 46
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Pedram Yasharel
Director of Product Marketing at Smartly.io
Pedram’s an accomplished product marketing
professional with an MBA, over 10 years’ of “Over the two years I worked with Pedram,
marketing experience and a track record I was consistently impressed with his
of driving product awareness and adoption creativity and commitment. Pedram always
through savvy marketing. came up with innovative campaigns,
figuring out ways to use the latest
He has a proven ability to combine vision,
technology to build ideas that were new
creativity and strong business acumen with well-
and fresh. He has a great eye for creative
developed project management and leadership
and copy, is committed to using data to
qualities to support go-to-market efforts,
measure his successes, and he is always up
positioning companies and products for success.
for a challenge. Finally, his teamwork and
His CV includes big-ticket businesses like Intel,
loyalty are unmatched and I always knew I
Myspace and eBay.
could count on him for anything.”
Radhika Delfosse, Advisor, Investor and
Consultant at Delfosse Advisory Group
>
> 47
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Priya Doty
Vice President, Product Marketing at IBM
Prior to IBM, Priya was most recently at CA into the corporate masterbrand through its
Technologies, where she was a Senior Director product portfolio - building equity that adds
of Solutions Marketing and a key marketing value to the masterbrand and differentiates
driver of the transformation for their mainframe the product brand from its competitors. Good
business. Before this, she was a Vice President- product marketing simplifies and targets a
Global Consulting Partner at Ogilvy Consulting, product such that its pipeline creation actions
where she spent two years with Samsung to are more successful; and ultimately speeds pipe
position B2C products towards B2B solutions, closing and product growth toward a more rapid
and led the marketing strategy and digital trajectory.
demand generation for UPS My Choice, winning
What’s been your greatest product marketing
an ECHO direct marketing award.
achievement to-date?
Earlier in her career, she built the marketing
Partnering with the GM of a $2B business at CA
portfolio function to align capital spend to
Technologies to make a marked shift in the way
strategy at Verizon across three business units,
analysts, customers and employees thought of
set-up the first Thomson Reuters finance call
our products; shifting messaging from a product
center operation in Bangalore, India, and was an
to solutions and benefits-driven approach. The
e-commerce and Oracle developer at Deloitte
results were: positive analyst press, positive
Consulting.
customer adoption and ultimately a better
She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BA position for the business.
Economics from Northwestern University.
Go check out…
If you had to sum up the role and value of a
Her blog on consumer attitudes towards data
product marketer, what would it be?
privacy and what CISO’s can do about it.
It’s the product marketer’s job to imbue meaning
>
> 48
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Richard Seroter
VP of Product Marketing at Pivotal
Richard’s the VP of Product Marketing at Pivotal What’s one product marketing tool you couldn’t
and holds a master’s degree in Engineering live without and why?
from the University of Colorado. He’s also a 12-
Trello plays a big part in our team’s marketing
time Microsoft MVP for cloud, an instructor for
sprints, but personally, I’d be lost without my RSS
developer-centric training company Pluralsight,
reader and social media. I use Feedly and Twitter
the lead InfoQ.com editor for cloud computing,
to absorb and learn so much, while also field-
and author of multiple books, including a recent
testing messages or ideas before turning it into
one on Modernizing .NET Applications.
something that our sales folks can use.
As part of his current role, he built and lead a
Go check out...
talented team that does product, technical,
customer, and partner marketing. His team’s blogs, whitepapers, ebooks, podcasts,
and award-winning webinar program.
What’s your favourite aspect of being a product
He’s also proud of the executive-oriented
marketer?
property they created, called Intersect.
I definitely enjoy a good product launch! But
day-to-day, I thoroughly enjoy the responsibility
of explaining what our products and services are
all about. Without good product marketing, good
engineering goes to waste, and being a hands-
on technologist means I can use the products
and then given an authentic summary of what
matters. It’s very rewarding.
>
> 49
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Richard Leonarz
Director of Product Marketing at Samsung
Richard’s an accomplished business leader Richard’s also a skilled presenter with deep
with 15+ years’ of product marketing experience experience in delivering a message that
developing marketing strategies in both B2B and drives people to action and before his current
retail channels, and he believes success is built eight-year spell at Samsung, he spent nine
by developing customer-focused strategies years at Sony.
with clearly defined value propositions. Just
some of his specialisms include building
high-performing teams, product life-cycle
management, pricing negotiations, media
relations and business development.
>
> 50
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Serena Ehrlich
Director of Product Marketing at Business Wire
Serena’s an outstanding leader and mentor with
the credibility, expertise and experience needed “It would be easy, far too easy, to say that
to build and execute successful, integrated Serena is a brilliant strategist and that she
marketing programs that meet and exceed knows social media like the back of her
business goals. hand. But the mere fact that her genius is
offered effortlessly and altruistically makes
Her experience is primarily in building
her an absolute go-to resource. Couple
communications-based marketing programs
that with a flawless ability to execute on her
that align with sales and business goals.
knowledge, and there’s really no reason to
Understanding that communications platforms
look further.”
are ripe for customer complaints, she creates
Scott Lerman, Vice President, Engagement
communication and crisis plans and triage
Lead at Health Advocacy Strategies, LLC
programs that build deeper relationships,
resolving issues in real-time while building a
long-term online reputation.
>
> 51
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Stephanie Buscemi
EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce
Stephanie’s passionate about building and
leading amazing teams, is driven by innovation “Having worked with and studied some of
and speed to market, and has proven the most innovative and path-breaking
experience advancing market leadership within women in the technology-intensive
a category, creating thought leadership, strong industries over the last 15 years, I feel very
influencer engagement and brand awareness. confident in stating Stephanie is a game-
changer. I have yet to see a leader who is as
She’s highly focused on the value proposition
fearless as Stephanie at leading large scale
for the customer and translating key messages
transformation at an incredibly accelerated
into amazing products and rich experiences -
pace. She has the cross-enterprise and
all with the ultimate measures being customer
tough-as-nails chops of a C-suite executive
success and strong revenue growth. She has
and the authenticity and charisma of a
also been recognized on Adweek’s top Chief
transformation leader who inspires those
Marketing Technology Officers (CTMO) list, which
around her to be innovative, customer-
honours CMOs leading the charge on digital
driven, and seize a new way mindset and
transformation and redefining the traditional
collective organizational behavior.”
approach to marketing.
Patti Fletcher, Producer and Creator at
Disrupter Productions
>
> 52
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Susan Park
Head of Gaming Ads Product Marketing at Facebook
Susan “Spark” Park is the Head of Gaming Ads Is there a perfect path to product marketing, if
Product Marketing at Facebook. She leads a so, what would that be?
team focused on building and commercializing
After working with, mentoring, and learning
marketing solutions for Gaming Marketers, a
from fantastic product marketers with eclectic
multibillion-dollar business unit for Facebook.
backgrounds, it’s clear that there is no perfect
While her background includes serving in the path because the work itself opens an incredible
U.S. Navy, Spark started in ad tech at Google, amount of career choices after you’ve done the
where she was the Global Product Lead on the job. Product marketers can move to Product
Remarketing business. Under her tutelage, her Management, Engineering, Marketing, Operations
products hit billion-dollar run-rates. and even C-level positions. It’s an incredible
role that teaches you humility, technical acuity,
Following this success, she departed for Spotify
influence, and critical communication skills. Most
and played a pivotal role in the 10x gain in Spotify’s
of all, you must be rabidly loyal to the customer
advertising business. She was the first ads product
and product value proposition, which drives the
marketing manager at Spotify and ran the launch
best work for all of the teams you influence.
and commercialization of their video, audio and
display formats on mobile. Within her four years, Product Marketing is the unsung function, yet
they transitioned a desktop-heavy ads business to it is critical for innovative, fast-launch focused
mobile, strengthening the overall health of Spotify companies. There is no perfect ticket to get into
revenue in the pivotal pre-IPO era. the product marketing club, but if you’re lucky
enough to do so, strap in because it will be an
Outside of her work, Spark is passionate about
incredible journey!
enabling product marketers to push their own
boundaries to be better at their roles. She is
well-known as a mentor across different types of
businesses and has led mentoring and networking
events for 100+ global participants.
>
> 54
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Susan Park Is there one product marketing tool, in • Google Docs/Quip: Collaboration tools are
particular, you’d recommend? critical. Collaborative documentation is the
only way you can get scaled comms around a
A successful product marketer must use a variety
product— which will allow you to sleep at night.
of tools in order to have a fully informed opinion
• SurveyMonkey/Google Forms: Lightweight
and argument. In descending order, my favorites
questionnaires for surveys.
would be:
• E-marketer: Critical for a B2B marketer in
• Tableau/Data Visualization Dashboard: Data
advertising and a good research tool for a
will drive influence beyond the anecdotal.
consumer PMM. If E-marketers has written
Without this, gut decisions will be made
about it, it’s a thing. And if they haven’t yet, you
based on taste and you’ll have to rely on luck.
may have time to be the first.
Data provides a measured approach, drives
sustained growth, and offers repeatable
innovation.
• Your Network: Organizations like the Product
Marketing Alliance will help you think critically
about your role and how to accelerate your
influence. Networking is essential for success
and is incredibly handy for competitive
intelligence.
>
> 55
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Todd Tauber
Vice President of Product Marketing at Degreed
Todd helps build education and information
businesses through data-driven insights and “Todd is one of the most innovative and
creative strategies. Right now, he leads product forward-thinking people ever to hit the
marketing at Degreed, a fast-growing SaaS organizational learning space. He has the
start-up and before that, he managed the ability to quickly assimilate data, draw
enterprise learning practice at Bersin, Deloitte conclusions, and present new ideas in a way
Consulting’s human capital research business. that is both engaging and actionable. He
has a firm understanding of the challenges
Going back to 2012-13 he did market development
facing businesses and is constantly looking
at Nomadic Learning and during his time at The
for better solutions.”
Economist, Todd co-founded and launched
Dani Johnson, Co-founder & Principal
the business’ digital education division. He also
Analyst at RedThread Research
directed go-to-market strategies that yielded
thousands of users at dozens of Fortune 500
companies in year one.
>
> 56
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Ty Heath
Global Lead, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn
Ty is Global Lead, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn. We’ve done research on thought leadership in
Passionate about connecting people with partnership with Edelman over the past three
the information needed to make intelligent years and our latest report is titled: “2020 B2B
decisions, she delivers educational content to Thought Leadership Impact Study.” In the study,
help marketers stay on top of the latest in digital we find that thought leadership has more
marketing strategy with a bit of humor. influence on sales than marketers realize – and
it’s growing. Thought leadership increases trust in
She teaches B2B marketing, inbound marketing
an organization and enhances brand reputation
strategy, account-based marketing, social
among other benefits.
selling, content marketing as well as leadership,
diversity and inclusion. Ty is also the author of If you had to sum up the role and value of
“Marketers of Tomorrow: A Step by Step Toolkit product marketing, what would it be?
for Inbound Marketing”.
I have chosen to pursue a career in marketing
What’s been your greatest product marketing because information, inspiration and action
achievement to-date? are catalysts for transformation, particularly in
markets where a dearth of information leads to
I’m really proud of our continuing work to empower
people and communities being left behind. We
leaders to show up on LinkedIn. Out of the
live in a connected world. Digital, social, mobile
narratives I’ve worked on this year, I have most
and now, artificially intelligent technologies
enjoyed delivering “How to Become a Thought
are bringing us together like never before.
Leader on LinkedIn.” It’s been a pleasure to help
Against this backdrop, product marketing is
business leaders take thought leadership to
about building relationships while addressing
LinkedIn with an approach to sharing meaningful
business challenges and opportunities. Through
and insightful content. It is a leader’s responsibility
relationships, marketing is uniquely positioned to
to share vision, mission, direction and ideas and to
shape what people think is possible.
help make sense of the uncertain and complex for
customers, stakeholders AND employees.
>
> 57
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
William Chia
Senior Product Marketing Manager at GitLab
William’s a technical marketer who’s been keeping more customers is important to you,
crafting both code and copy since the late ’90s. then you’ll need a robust product marketing
Currently a Senior Product Marketer at GitLab, practice that feeds valuable market insights to
William leads product marketing for GitLab your product team and arms your sales and
CI/CD & Ops including new technologies like marketing teams with impactful messaging and
Serverless and Kubernetes. differentiated positioning.
Before joining GitLab, William’s career focused Who should product marketing report to? Or
on understanding and communicating with should they be their own entity?
technical buyers at companies like Twilio and
In healthy organizations PMs and PMMs are
Digium, the sponsor of open source Asterisk.
peers, each with their area of responsibility and
Outside of work, you can find him cooking, taking
tightly aligned with each other. The PM is the
walks, and playing video games with his wife and
cross-functional leader and final person directly
three children.
responsible for the product in R&D. The PMM is the
If a C-suite exec’s reading this who doesn’t cross-functional leader and final individual directly
see the need for a product marketer in their responsible for the product in the go-to-market
company, what would your advice to them be? org (sales & marketing). As such, reporting into the
CMO usually makes the most sense.
Some companies deliver products without really
understanding their target market. The features Go check out…
they build don’t meet their buyer’s needs, so they
His video on ‘Empowering non-developers to
have fewer customers. The way they talk about
use Git’ and articles on ‘Digital Transformation
their product doesn’t resonate with the buyer, so
Technology and Process: More Similar Than You
they have fewer customers. Their sales team can’t
Think’ and ‘Strategic marketing at GitLab’.
position their products well in the buyer’s mind in
a way that differentiates against the competition,
so they have fewer customers. If getting and
>
> 58
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
Yoni Solomon
Head of Product Marketing at G2
Yoni’s Head of Product Marketing at G2 (formerly If an executive baulks at any of these three key
G2 Crowd) - the world’s largest marketplace for areas (and they’re all equally important), my
B2B technology, and he’s spent a decade launching advice would be to build a Product Marketing
new products, partnerships, and acquisitions for practice. And quickly.
Chicago’s top SaaS companies, including Vibes
What’s one product marketing tool you couldn’t
($45M raised in 2016), and PowerReviews (#49 on
live without and why?
Deloitte’s Fast 500, #1 in Chicago in 2018).
That’s tough, but I’m going with Asana if I had
Yoni’s thought leadership on go-to-market
to choose just one. The tool is tailor-made for
strategy can be found in Forbes where he’s a
managing our go-to-market launch plans and
frequent contributor. He’s been recognized as
makes collaboration, tagging, commenting and
one of technology’s top product marketers by
tracking easy. Asana gives us the ability to amplify
the Product Marketing Alliance, which named his
our cross-functional talents; and especially on
team at G2 the industry’s best in 2019.
‘launch days’ quite literally puts everyone else in
If a C-suite exec’s reading this who doesn’t the right place, with the right deliverable or task, at
see the need for a product marketer in their the right time. All to ensure a successful launch!
company, what would your advice to them be?
Go check out…
I would start by first asking three simple questions in
His Forbes contributions on:
response. 1) How confident are you that your Product
• The future of software product marketing isn’t
Org is building capabilities that they’ve vetted
in software or marketing
market demand (and pain) for? 2) How confident
• A repeatable go-to-market playbook to launch
are you that your Marketing Org has the messaging
your next great software product
and context they need to actually introduce your
• Our global future will ultimately be decided by
capabilities to the world and get them adopted? 3)
marketers -- here’s why
How confident are you that your Sales Org actually
• Software’s next great battle will be fought over
understands what you sell, why it’s important, how
>
> its storytellers 59
much it costs, and who to sell it to?
#PMAtop50 2019’s Top 50 Product Marketing Influencers
richard@productmarketingalliance.com.
“2019’s been a year of firsts for us and this is yet another report I’ve been really excited about and if we want
to continue elevating the role of product marketing, we need people like this list to help us drive awareness.
“Of course, there are tonnes more product marketers who excel in driving the role forward and this list was
really hard to narrow down, but we look forward to celebrating lots more awesome product marketers in
the coming years.”
>
> 60
#PMAtop50