Setting Your Product Marketing Objectives for Success - with Aika Zikibayeva, Partner Marketing Manager, Cockroach Labs

“It's not an easy task. When it comes to software development, it starts with the product and your engineering team. Those are the folks that are building the essential features. That's your first stakeholder.

Your second stakeholder will most likely be your sales and or customer success team because those are often in the front line talking to the customers who are eventually going to be using that product.

Then there's the marketing team.

Product marketing lives in the middle of all of the various stakeholders. To set up a successful product marketing strategy, a team and a plan, you need to speak to those stakeholders. You need to identify those common objectives that all three departments sometimes want to achieve together and figure out when it comes to their key metrics of success. What can you do from a product marketing standpoint that kind of funnels up to that larger objective? That's on a larger scale of how you want to think about product marketing.”

- Aika Zikibayeva, Partner Marketing Manager, Cockroach Labs

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Transcript

Introduction: 0:04
From Revenue Rhino, I'm Brad Hammond, and this is The Lifelong Customer Podcast. We're interviewing successful sales and marketing leaders in discussing ways in which they're building lifelong relationships with their customer.

Brad Hammond: 0:19
Welcome to The Lifelong Customer podcast. I'm your host, Brad Hammond.

Ice Artificio: 0:24
And I'm your co-host, Ice Artificio.

Brad Hammond: 0:26
Today, we have Aika Zikibayeva from Cockroach Labs. Aika, it’s very nice to have you on.

Aika Zikibayeva: 0:32
It’s very nice to be here.

Ice Artificio: 0:35
We're super excited to have you, Aika. Thank you so much for making the time for the episode. And before we get started with anything, we'd love to know more about you. What's your marketing story? What's the journey behind that?

Aika Zikibayeva: 0:47
Sure. I'd love to share that. So I started out in marketing kind of by accident. I studied politics in college and did work in that sphere for a few years after graduating. And it was really when I moved abroad to Denmark that I began my journey in tech marketing for various software companies. And it really was a tip from a friend who just said, you come from the U.S., English is a native language for you. A lot of European companies look up to tech companies in the U.S. 

So they're always looking for professionals who can kind of inject that americanism into their company. So that's how I started into marketing and then eventually found my way into product marketing, which has kind of been my passion for the last 6 or so years.

Ice Artificio: 1:33
Sounds like a bit of a whirlwind of a ride. So that sounds pretty exciting. Can you tell us more about Cockroach Labs? What are you focusing on from a larger marketing strategy standpoint?

Aika Zikibayeva: 1:45
Of course. So Cockroach Labs is a U.S.-based New York headquartered company. We are a distributed cloud-native SQL database. Now that's a mouthful. Essentially, our database was built for all the modern data-intensive applications that you see today, whether it be DoorDash or some kind of a gaming platform that some of the teenagers these days are on. So it was founded by a group of engineers from Google, who basically did not see an open source database out there and decided to build one from the ground up. 

Currently, we're actually working on a new product launch, which is super exciting. It's coming out in beta in about a month. It's going to be our fully managed database called CockroachDB Serverless. So that's really where a lot of our resources is into currently. Our whole marketing team, the whole revenue team, obviously, the product team is laser-focused on making sure we launch the product successfully. And this is going to be adopted by our own customers as well as hopefully gaining a bunch of new ones.

Ice Artificio: 2:48
It sounds exciting.

Brad Hammond: 2:50
Really cool. Let's dive into today's topic, which is setting up your product marketing objectives for success. So maybe for those less familiar, we could just start by talking about how do you define product marketing and then we can start to talk about how to set up your objectives there for success and all that.

Aika Zikibayeva: 3:10
Yes. So the way I define product marketing and I often have to do this with my family who none of them are in tech world. So easily I say to them, listen, we know products as physical things, be it a desk or a computer, use something tangible, something you can point to and say, a desk has 4 legs, that's their features. But what does it do for you? What is the value of a desk? Well, you can eat and have a gathering around it or you can use it as a workstation. 

When it comes to software and products that live in the cloud, we often have to tell an entire new story around those features and how those actually relate back to what people are doing with that particular software, be it ordering food online, ordering their next Lyft ride or booking their next travel, what have you. So product marketing is the engine behind that storytelling to really speak to the customer and the end user as to why they should be using a particular software and application and what will that do for them. How does that actually build into their aspirations, if you will? So it's a lot of storytelling magic.

Brad Hammond: 4:21
Very cool. So as we think about product marketing objectives, let's dive into how to set up all this for success. So how do you go about planning your objectives and making sure that, well, they're actually set up for success.

Aika Zikibayeva: 4:36
Yes. And it's not an easy task. And the reason being, as you can imagine, when it comes to software development, it starts with the product and your engineering team. Those are really the folks that are building the actual features. So that's your first stakeholder. Your second stakeholder is most likely going to be your sales and/or customer success team because those are the ones often in the frontline talking to the customers, who are eventually going to be using that product. 

And then there's the marketing team, right? So when you have a product, you have a customer base hopefully. And now you need to let them know that you have a product out there, and you want to create content around it. So product marketing really lives kind of in the middle of all of those various stakeholders. 

So to set up a successful product marketing strategy and a team and a plan, you need to be able to speak to all of those stakeholders, identify what are those common objectives that all 3 departments intend more, want to achieve together and figure out when it comes to their key metrics of success, what is it that you can do from a product marketing standpoint that kind of funnels up to that larger objective? And I can get into detail. But that's kind of on a larger scale as how you want to think about product marketing.

Brad Hammond: 5:50
Nice. And yes, let's dive into those details of boots to ground, what that looks like, and maybe some of the challenges you experienced and all that stuff.

Aika Zikibayeva: 5:59
Sure. So this really works well if, as an organization, you already have top-level objectives because that usually is what's going to waterfall down to the department and then teams and then your individual objectives. Some examples that I often see, especially let's take a product launch. So I would start with a conversation with probably the first stakeholder, which is the product team, and figure out what are they trying to achieve. Is it more monthly active users? Are they trying to expand their product usage beyond just like the core features? 

So I outlined what the objectives are there. And from there, we really try to figure out, okay, so when it comes to these features and this journey that a particular user would take through this product, who are those perfect use cases for? And why would they want to use this product? What are those challenges that we're trying to solve? So when we're starting to add that human element to it, that's when I start the conversation now with our revenue teams because, like I said, they are the ones who are actually on the phone with our customers, defining what the challenges are that they're trying to solve within their business. 

And by figuring out, is this a product that's going to help them gain new market share? Or is it a product that's going to help them with their own user bases? Or is this a product that's going to help us as a company get into new markets ourselves. Understanding those revenue objectives helps with figuring out what are those customers that are really going to benefit from this product. So that adds the human element to it. 

And then we also talk with the marketing team. The marketing team is there to generate leads, generate qualified new pipeline and really drive that through for the sales team. And we do that through content, obviously, with newsletters and other channels that we want to activate. So I want to align the product launch with various campaigns that we're potentially running more on a thought leadership and high level to figure out how this particular use case and a feature will benefit the overall campaigns that we're running with the marketing team.

Brad Hammond: 8:12
Totally. So as you're doing this, as you're setting this up and talking to all the various stakeholders, what are some challenges that you run into? And how do you get around some of those challenges?

Aika Zikibayeva: 8:23
I think the #1 challenge is communication and being timely with how you want to activate various channels. Whenever it comes to product launch, there's always going to be bugs that come up. Perhaps during beta testing, there are certain things that the product team realized that we cannot roll out because it just doesn't actually meet the needs of the customer. So they need to make changes, make adjustments. So that delays obviously the product launch, which, by then, we have to then kind of shift everything when it comes to internal enablement with our own sales reps, making sure they have the right content. 

They want a full on sales deck. They want to understand what those solutions actually look like in real life. But when you don't have a product kind of out there in the market, a lot of it is based on your own assumptions. And hopefully, a lot of the research that the product team or the UX team has done, again, aligning that with the marketing campaign. The timing is definitely something I've always found a little bit challenging. 

The way I go around it is whenever I set out to plan a product launch, I'm always giving myself off a room, again, talking to those teams and trying to understand what cycles they go through. Are they doing sprints? How does that work? So I really want to gauge the product launch to how they're working. So that if we need to delay certain things, it's nicely staggered and it doesn't necessarily conflict with how people actually do their cycles within the different departments.

Brad Hammond: 9:56
Nice. And if we think about the future of product marketing, what are some things that you see that are going to be trends for the future, things you're thinking about actively like the direction you're headed in and all that?

Aika Zikibayeva: 10:11
It's not necessarily a trend, but I think it's something that a lot of product marketers and just marketing professionals miss a lot. And it's about putting the human element into your products. We often just end up reverting to selling features and no one really wants to buy -- again, you don't buy a table because it has 4 legs. So how do you really extract that almost aspirational psychological element from your customers and, hopefully, your new customers and relate to their pain points. 

And it's a lot of work. You really need to understand various personas that you're selling into or that will be your customers. A lot of that research is often skipped, I believe, in a lot of companies because it takes time and it's not easy work. You really have to, as cheesy as it sounds, put yourself in their shoes and walk a mile and really understand why as a customer experiencing certain challenges within their business and tying your products into their challenges. 

And the other thing I would say is if it just doesn't fit, if a challenge does exist within a business and your product just doesn't solve for that, that's not for you, leave it. The market is very saturated. There's going to be a lot of competitors, and let them win where they win best. And you do your best work in those use cases and  benefits that you produce where it makes the most sense.

Brad Hammond: 11:47
Totally. So as other marketers out there are listening today and they're figuring out, when and where does product marketing fit in? And how do we tackle this? What are some of the land mines or some of the pitfalls to avoid when it comes to product marketing? What are some of those things that it's like, hey, I would advise others to navigate around a few of these things, FYI or some of those?

Aika Zikibayeva: 12:13
In my opinion, it's the message. If you are aligned across the organization on your North Star, your taglines, again, your benefits, your use cases, your differentiators, how you stand out in the market against competition or just if you're kind of a groundbreaker, the entire company needs to know that message like the back of their hands. So I think a land mine that can often be avoided is spending a good amount of time on enablement internally and start with your sales organization and make sure that, again, everyone kind of is consistent in how we talk about the product. Because the last thing you want to do is have an SDR go out there and basically talk about benefits or features that we just don't support. 

And then that customer is basically sold on a false hope. And that just causes a lot of headache for not just the sales team, but, of course, the marketing team as well. And then, let's say, that customer actually does buy your product, and then they're just disappointed and they churn and no one likes to see a churn customer. So if you ensure that the message is fundamentally consistent throughout your organization and everyone knows how to talk about the strongest use cases that you offer, then you're golden.

Brad Hammond: 13:42
Totally.

Ice Artificio: 13:42
I love that. And it's nice to have that North Star for everybody to know exactly where you guys are going. So let's step back a little bit. We'd love to know, what's the craziest marketing initiative you've done in the past?

Aika Zikibayeva: 13:55
So funnily enough, it's actually not exactly product marketing related, but I think I was tapped for this, and I'll let you know what it is in a second, because of a lot of the skill sets I learned while doing my product marketing job day to day. So when I was at a company called Falcon.io, this was back when I was living in Denmark and Copenhagen. Falcon.io is a social media management platform. So kind of in the frontlines of digital marketing, especially in Europe. 

And at this point, we were on the market for about 10 years, and I think it was time for us to go out there and really gather all the various customers we had, users and just the community around social media and digital marketing into a conference. So our CEO decided, let's do the first of an annual conference called Spark, and they tapped me to basically lead the whole project management for it. And not only did I not have necessarily an event marketing background, but I was tapped to do this in February with a launch date or the conference date of November. 

So if you ever planned conferences, you know it takes a long time to plan. There's a lot of work that goes into it. So we really have to get real scrappy. And it was a crazy initiative because we set a goal of having over 400 attendees at this conference in Copenhagen. And like I said, it was the first of its kind in Northern Europe to have a social media management or social media and digital marketing conference like this. 

And the skill sets that I really honed in on is I was working really closely with a lot of different stakeholders, who basically needed to meet various deadlines as we were approaching the conference. And it was my job to set up milestones and be really realistic about what we could accomplish. So just like in a product launch or when you're doing product marketing, say, a messaging exercise, you have to be realistic as to what you can accomplish. And with this conference, we definitely had to turn it down to where it was realistic to execute on it within the 9 months that we had and considering that we still had to do our day-to-day jobs and put in the right resources to make sure this conference took shape. 

And I don't know if I should add anything more but...

Brad Hammond: 16:27
I love that story.

Ice Artificio: 16:28
No, that was really good.

Brad Hammond: 16:30
And I'm hearing this reoccurring theme and that's communication with stakeholders and getting by it. And I love for the audience just to hear a little bit of insight into your process and the way in which you go about doing that. How do you go about getting buy-in and communicating with all these various stakeholders?

Aika Zikibayeva: 16:49
So I do attest this to the fact that I was an international relations manager and learned a lot about diplomacy. So I apply essentially a tactic, where I try to figure out what motivates my colleagues, what motivates specific departments or teams. Again, revenue is motivated by pipeline and pipeline generation and closing those deals. Marketing is motivated by building that pipeline and getting as many qualified leads as possible. 

So when I know that, I basically try to figure out, what can I give to a specific department? How can I make their lives easier just a tiny bit so that they can give two, threefolds back to me for what I need from product marketing? An example is, let's say, I know that there's a campaign on a specific theme, and our entire content team is rallying around this. I have identified that within my own role and within product marketing, I'm working on, again, a product launch. So if the use case is aligned nicely, and usually, they do, because, again, we are working towards the same objectives, then I take upon myself to create maybe a little bit more of an information around the target personas or write out an entire message dock. 

That way, I give that over to the content team and say, here's what our product launch looks like. I've kind of done my homework on who we're talking to and why we're talking to them. Now can we turn that into a block post that would also help you all with the number of block posts you have to create. I'm also happy to write a social copy if you want me to do that because, again, I know my audience the best, and I know how this would resonate with them. So it would help you with getting more eyeballs onto our social media channels and get more click-throughs to our block post.

Brad Hammond: 18:39
I love that approach and strategy. That's amazing. So as we're wrapping up here, what final advice would you give to other marketers out there listening today?

Aika Zikibayeva: 18:49
Without getting too high level, I would say just kind of be true to yourself, know where your skill sets are, where you are strongest. And like I said, I count myself to be a diplomat, and that's probably why I fit so well into a product marketing role that does sit in this juncture of various departments. So from an early days, try to figure out what you're good at and really hone in on those skills. And if you don't know how to get there, talk to your peers because they probably will see kind of from an outside perspective as to what you're best at. Is it writing? Is it data? Is it speaking to customers? Perhaps, you should be in a different department altogether. 

So figure out where your powers lie and cultivate them through your work. And whenever you feel that you just don't know how to do something or you maybe aren't -- that you're getting out of your comfort zone, again, try to figure it out. Is this something you can actually push and learn and get into new territory? Or is this kind of outside of your powers? And then talk to your colleagues and try to figure out how you can tag team on something because they're right there with you. They probably look at you and say, oh, wow, this person is really amazing at this. I wish I could be that. So just come together, and that's how you create a team.

Brad Hammond: 20:02
Love that advice. 

Ice Artificio: 20:03
Really nice.

Brad Hammond: 20:04
Thank you so much for joining the podcast here today and sharing all your insights. Really appreciate it.

Aika Zikibayeva: 20:09
You're welcome. 

Ice Artificio: 20:09
Thanks, Aika.