2-min Technical Product Marketing Insights: Feb 2025 Releases
Part 1 Release Date: Feb 13, 2025 (2 min read).
📈 4 MICRO [PRODUCT MARKETING] CASE STUDIES
[1] For AI Products: Run a closed beta for feedback loops to pick the narrow use case that's 10X better than general-purpose tools.
Granola is an AI meeting notes app with 70%+ weekly user retention. They focused on uncovering a narrow use case where their experience would be expectational versus tools like Claude and ChatGPT. Granola's closed beta and continuous feedback helped them avoid mapping too far into the future.
[2] Identify key moments in your onboarding to turn them into a series of small wins and maximize the 'onboarding completion rate.'
Headway - a productivity companion app - celebrates its users after they complete a specific questionnaire. They do so by getting the users to hold down a button to add weight to the commitment and 'seal the pact.'
[3] Validate your Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) with user research platforms, customer conversation tools, and pain mapping frameworks.
The former Head of PMM at Deliveroo suggests three practical tools for building evidence-based messaging: (i) collect feedback from specific customer profiles using tools like User Interviews and Pollfish, (ii) analyze customer conversations and sales calls with Grain and Gong, and (iii) use pain mapping frameworks to visualize customer challenges and map your product as the solution.
[4] Showcase the value of AI to your existing users by solving common mistakes they make or issues they face in their current workflows.
Loom noticed that new users were having difficulty getting views for their videos. Loom used AI to generate titles for the videos, add chapter markers, and provide brief summaries to attract viewers to the user-generated videos.
📚 1 BOOK & TOP 3 INSIGHTS
[1] Start with a focused question to guide your research. Don't feel shy to lean on your hunches to shape the question, but examine it using the 5Ws1H rubric - Who? What? Why? Where? When? How?
[2] Rank the most important tasks you want the users to perform with your product. Think about their outcomes, ideal actions, and progress to those outcomes. Then, analyze how your product performs on those pieces versus well-known UX best practices.
[3] Use note-taking to avoid making conclusions during your research process and to separate your observations, thoughts, and to-do items.
🧠 5 CURATED MARKETING THINK PIECES
[1] DeepSeek R1 explained to your grandma: concepts of chain of thought reasoning, reinforcement learning, and model distillation
[2] Revenge of the GPT Wrappers: Defensibility in a world of commoditized AI models
[3] What Senior Leaders Really Look for in Product Manager Performance
[4] AI-Led Growth: The Rise of the 10X Marketers and AI-Native Teams
[5] Product design fundamentals every product manager should know
Part 2 Release Date: Feb 28, 2025 (2 min read).
📈 4 MICRO [PRODUCT MARKETING] CASE STUDIES
[1] Popularize your AI feature by making it less of a black box, helping users refine prompts, and reducing fear of irreversible actions.
Bolt is an AI coding tool that recently reached $20MM ARR with over 2MM users within 2 months. Credit should go to their UX as it eliminates the ambiguity of typical AI features by offering users the options to refine their prompts, get explanations for their outputs, and reverse actions.
[2] Use product branding in your freemium products to build brand awareness for cheap if you answer YES to any of these questions.
These questions determine if your product aligns with 'one-to-many interactions' - "(i) Does your product require users to send something to others? (ii) Does your product facilitate collaboration between teams? (iii) Is there a way users can showcase their work to a broader audience?" For example, Superhuman adds a "Sent via Superhuman" footer on every email.
[3] Structure your product case study around these four questions to show enough depth and relevance to resonate with any audience of interest.
They are - "(i) What challenge was addressed? (ii) What approach led to the solution? (iii) How did this impact efficiency, cost, or growth? (iv) How can similar users apply these insights to their work?" Vercel's case studies offer details on technical implementation, how they integrate into existing workflows, and their overall impact on UX.
[4] Write down the top 3-5 perceptions you want your prospect/customer to have about your product and use them to shape your campaigns.
Think about what you want your audience to repeat back about your company. Use this as the starting point to write your 3-5 statements. Twilio's 2025 campaign - "Ask Your Developer" - sought to plant the perception that it was "trusted by and built for developers."
📚 1 BOOK & TOP 3 INSIGHTS
[1] The steps in Shopify's agile business development process to avoid dragging term-sheet discussions - (i) TICKLE: An email to the CEO stating simply, "Here's an idea; we think it's pretty cool. If you're interested, let us know." (ii) SIZZLE: Convey the details of the deal and highlight advantages for both sides. (iii) PIVOT & CLOSE: Move to the middle ground where interests overlap.
[2] Shopify benefits from "acqui-hiring" where they acquire startups not only for technical expertise but also to bring their founders into the fold. They normally become PMs who focus on a particular area with much freedom.
[3] Shopify's CEO maintains a logbook to jot down the reasons behind every decision he makes. He sees this as a way of getting better at his "job" of making better decisions. He also reviews the logbook every 6 months to see how those choices are faring.
🧠 5 CURATED MARKETING THINK PIECES
[1] How Fear of Doing Worse Holds Us Back From True Career Growth
[2] The End of Outside: How to Future-Proof Your Career Against the AI Apocalypse
[3] How do you design for a user that doesn’t use your product?
[4] Future is Lean, Mean, and Scary for UX Agencies
[5] Develop adjacent skills to become a sharper operator
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