CREATED BY:
SPONSORED BY:
STATE OF
GO-TO-MARKET
REPORT 2022
Part x - xxx
Part 1
3
Part 2
6
Part 3
9
Part 4
17
Part 5
22
Part 6
26
Part 7
30
Part 8
38
Part 9
55
Part 10
59
Part 11
75
Introduction
Meet the participants
The launch process
Collaboration with stakeholders
Go-to-Market budget
The importance of product launches
Launch effectiveness
Go-to-Market challenges
Go-to-Market tools
Go-to-Market tips
Conclusion
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Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 1
Introduction
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Introduction
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Introduction
With more professionals taking the plunge and pursuing a product marketing (PMM)
career, the multifaceted nature of the role is often cited as a major appeal to existing and
prospective practitioners.
While duties such as messaging, product positioning, and competitive intelligence are
amongst the obligations a product marketer has to fulfill, implementing an effective Go-toMarket strategy and bringing products to market very much sits at the core of the PMM craft.
But why is it so essential?
A well-defined Go-to-Market plan offers clarity for internal teams and key stakeholders. It
also reduces time to market for products and services and helps teams deliver accomplished
product or service launches.
We surveyed product marketers to establish how Go-to-Market strategies are being
implemented at companies across the globe, focusing specifically on:
>
•
The launch process
•
Collaboration between product marketing teams and key stakeholders during launches
•
Go-to-Market budget
•
The importance of product launches
•
Launch effectiveness
•
Go-to-Market pain points
•
Go-to-Market tools
•
Tips and tricks
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Introduction
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Key highlights
We don’t doubt for one minute you’d love to sit down and read the entire report, but if you’re racing
against the clock, here are the main takeaways:
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•
Over half of respondents (51.2%) said they launch 2-4 products quarterly, more than any other category.
•
Most product marketers (42.9%) launch 2-4 non-products, (i.e. new features/product updates) per
•
61.9% said they always put together a strategy when taking products to market, yet only 33.3% have a
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81% of respondents said GTM is product marketing’s remit, with product teams a distant second at 22.6%
•
When we asked product marketers to disclose their typical launch budget, 58.3% of respondents fell into
quarter.
systematic approach that’s consistently implemented.
of responses.
the $0 - $20,000 bracket.
•
Just under half of the respondents (47.6%) said they believe their company under-invests in launches,
•
When we asked respondents how much importance their company places on product launches, on a
•
70% of respondents said launches have either a “notable” or “major” impact on revenue.
•
When we asked product marketers to rate their Go-to-Market maturity/effectiveness on a scale of 1 - 10,
•
61.9% of respondents identified lack of communication with product as their main challenge during the
•
85.7% said they use tools to support documentation/decks, with this category closely followed by
overshading the 27.4% who believe the right amount is being invested.
scale of 1 - 10, this generated a respectable average of 6.8.
this generated a fairly mediocre rating of 5.4.
Go-to-Market process.
communication/messaging at 82.1%.
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Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 2
Meet the
participants
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Part 2 - Meet the participants
Meet the
participants
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
To gain a comprehensive understanding of Go-to-Market strategies, we surveyed product marketers
from companies varying in size, the number of employees, industry, and product type - here’s how they
looked, at a glance:
Region
Job title
2.4% Associate Product Marketing Manager
7.1% Asia
31% Product Marketing Manager
1.3% Australasia
20.2% Senior Product Marketing Manager
21.4% Europe
2.4% (People) Manager of Product Marketing
1.2% Middle East
3.6% Head of Product Marketing
69% North America
1.1% CMO
27.4% Director of Product Marketing
6% VP of Product Marketing
Market
Product
1.1% CEO
4.8% Other
75% B2B
8.3% Physical product
6% B2C
76.2% SaaS product
19% Both
15.5% Both
Company culture
Company stage
28.6% Customer-first
1.2% Marketing-first
38.1% Product-first
32.1% Sales-first
8.3% Early pre-product market fit
25% Early post-product market fit
28.6% Mid-growth with established
Go-to-Market team
20.2% Late growth/scale-up
17.9% Enterprise
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Part 2 - Meet the participants
Meet the
participants
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State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Which organizations took part?
A breadth of companies lifted the lid on their Go-to-Market knowledge and experiences for this report.
These included:
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Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 3
The launch
process
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Part 3 - The launch process
The launch
process
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
As we’ve established, the business world is home to organizations varying in size and type, and any Goto-Market strategy should be designed to fulfill the specific needs of the company in question.
For instance, launch processes for a start-up will vary dramatically when compared to enterprise
businesses that can launch products on a much wider-scale.
We asked survey participants a range of questions to establish what the launch process looks like at
their company.
How many products/features do companies launch per year?
Teams fine tune strategies with the launch of a solitary product or feature on the horizon.
However, there are instances whereby companies launch multiple products during the same calendar
year, with over half of respondents (51.2%) saying they launch 2-4 products quarterly, more than any
other category.
51.2%
22.6%
14.3%
9.5%
1
(we launch
things annually)
Sign up for our specialist
certification Go-to-Market
Certified, and discover
how to design, launch, and
measure an impactful
GTM strategy. >
>
2.4%
2-4
(we launch
things quarterly)
5-12
(we launch
things monthly)
12+
(we launch things
weekly/bi-weekly)
Other
Products launched per year
“I’ve worked at organizations where launches occur 1x per month. And even
now at Amazon Web Services, it’s not uncommon for each product category
to have a release every 2-3 months.
“Note I use the terms ‘release’, though. Release to me relates to the update of
an existing product vs. a net-new addition to a solution offering. It’s common
to have multiple releases a quarter vs. large launches 1-2x per year.”
Holly Watson, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon Web Services
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Part 3 - The launch process
The launch
process
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
How many non-product/feature launches do teams manage annually?
We were also curious to establish how many non-product/feature launches teams manage as part of
their Go-to-Market strategy, i.e. events, campaigns, etc.
As was the case when we explored feature launches, we discovered product marketers launch 2-4 nonproducts per quarter, with 42.9% saying this is the case at their company.
It’s also worth noting that the number of monthly launches for non-product launches increased when
compared to annual product launches, with 34.5% of respondents saying they launch things monthly.
42.9%
34.5%
11.9%
6%
1
(we launch
things annually)
2-4
(we launch
things quarterly)
5-12
(we launch
things monthly)
12+
(we launch things
weekly/bi-weekly)
4.7%
Other
Non-products launched per year
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Part 3 - The launch process
The launch
process
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
How often are Go-to-Market strategies used?
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Successfully taking products to market is part and parcel of a PMM role, and incorporating a honed,
polished plan can contribute to the launch’s success.
When asked how often Go-to-Market strategies are used, it was encouraging to see most of the
respondents (61.9%) said they always formulate a blueprint when taking products to market.
That said, it was surprising to see anyone say they never use a Go-to-Market strategy within their team.
Never
1.2%
Unspecified
0.7%
Occasionally
21.4%
Rarely
3.6%
Always
61.9%
Sometimes
11.2%
Derek Osgood, Founder & CEO at Ignition, gave his perspective on introducing a regulated and
transferable Go-to-Market strategy:
>
“One of the #1 Go-to-Market tips any experienced product
marketing leader will give is to define and operationalize a
repeatable process. Shockingly, most teams I talk to about Ignition
haven’t done this, and yet they wonder why they feel like they’re
drowning every time it comes time to launch something.”
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Part 3 - The launch process
The launch
process
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Who leads the Go-to-Market process?
The most effective Go-to-Market strategies are the product of collaboration, teamwork, and
communication.
That said, there needs to be a team that assumes responsibility and spearheads the process - and
GTM isn’t exempt from the rule.
Respondents were asked who leads the Go-to-Market process at their company, and an
overwhelming majority (81%) said GTM is product marketing’s remit, with product teams a distant
second (22.6%).
Product marketing
81%
Product
22.6%
Program/product management
11.9%
Sales/CX
9.5%
Other
7.1%
NB: Respondents could pick more than one response for this question.
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Part 3 - The launch process
The launch
process
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
How long do teams spend on each launch?
It’s been established that a fruitful Go-to-Market strategy requires a scrupulous approach to
achieve the desired results.
When we asked our crop of Go-to-Market experts how long they spend on each launch, the
consensus was that it depends on the size of the project:
“It depends on the size and complexity of the feature. If it’s a major
component level, it can take as long as 250 hours in total.”
Scintilla Wang, Director of Product Marketing at Guandata
“We haven’t measured exactly, but my guess would be about 100 hours
for each person.”
Dennis Duckworth, Director of Product Marketing at EDB
“I’d say approximately 40 hours per week, on average. However, this does
depend on the launch tier.”
Pavithra Sudhakar, Product Marketing Manager at WebEngage
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Part 3 - The launch process
The launch
process
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“I’d guess close to 100 for higher priority launches; we spent roughly
3-months on planning and execution.”
Miles Price, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VHT
“It depends on the type of launch. Tier 1 launches can take 6-9 months.”
Iman Bayatra, Head Of Product Marketing & Strategy at Coachendo
“This depends on the launch. We approach each market from the
outside in, which takes ~8 weeks from kickoff, research, to execution. It
takes 40 hours to coordinate weaving in new features to industry GTM
strategies.”
Jamie Claeys, Director of Industry Strategy at FarEye
“This certainly depends on the size and scale of the launch. I’d estimate
3-10 hours per week, per launch, over 2-3 months.”
Courtney Brewer, Senior Product Marketing Manager at TIBCO
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Part 3 - The launch process
The launch
process
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“If it’s a tier 1 launch, we spend over 100 hours per week. Tier 2 and tier 3
launches depend on geographies, partners, and other marketing motions
involved.”
Priyanka Tiwari, Product Marketing Lead - AWS Data & ML at AWS
“The time spent on a strategy depends on the size of the launch. For
a small enhancement, somewhere between ~1-3 hours. For a major
launch/campaign generally a minimum of 200 hours; this is spread over
a greater period with parallel priorities.”
Jeffrey Vocell, Director of Product Marketing at Iterable
“This varies greatly. If the launch is an enhancement to an existing
product or feature, then it takes a few days. If the launch is for a new
capability or partnership, it can be 4-6 weeks. We rarely plan further out
than that due to constantly shifting roadmap priorities, as is the nature
of technology companies.”
Laura Foster, VP of Product Marketing at Innovid
“The time spent on a strategy can vary based on several factors including
the perceived impact on the total addressable market, the introduction of
a net new product SKU or not, and the timing of the year.
“These factors will influence how your product strategy is put together. For
larger, high-impact launches, it’s not uncommon to spend upwards of six
months on the preparation of a strategy.”
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Holly Watson, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon Web Services
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Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 4
Collaboration with
stakeholders
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Part 4 - Collaboration with stakeholders
Collaboration with
stakeholders
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
The relationship between product marketers and key stakeholders is at the heart of a prosperous
Go-to-Market strategy.
PMMs need to form a healthy relationship with their superiors to breed confidence, minimize uncertainty,
and elevate key decision-making.
Respondents gave an insight into how they collaborated with key stakeholders during the launch
process.
“A Go-to-Market document with a timeline is agreed and regular
meetings are scheduled. These are bi-weekly to start, and are then
weekly within 3 months of launch). Typically, there are less than 6-8
people involved.”
Dennis Duckworth, Director of Product Marketing at EDB
“We meet weekly as a group and I meet with my manager bi-weekly.
Also, work alongside 2 or 3 other people.”
Beth Adams, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Pyramid Analytics
“The discussions are continuous, during which time we seek and
leverage the strengths of verticals and other distribution networks.”
Avinash Chandra, Head of MSME Go-to-Market Strategy at Spice Money
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Part 4 - Collaboration with stakeholders
Collaboration with
stakeholders
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“We meet with key stakeholders for pre-defined check-in meetings.
Additionally, we utilize project tracking software and executive
summaries. I work with 10-30 people to keep the project on track.”
Steve Bozic, Senior Launch Readiness Manager at Seismic
“For the launch, I work with stakeholders from different departments product, customer success, marketing, and sales.
“I get involved with the product managers early on in the process, and
thereon looped at every stage of development, so I can plan for the
launch and create the resources.
“Once the resources are ready and we have a demo-ready version
of the feature, I conduct an internal enablement session with all the
teams. In this session, I’ll go over the problem statement, solution, our
value prop, what our positioning the recommended messaging is, target
personas, resources, et al. I also conduct office hours till the launch.
“I collaborate with the marketing team to ideate, craft, and execute
marketing campaigns - right from the teaser campaigns to the
advocacy campaigns.”
Pavithra Sudhakar, Product Marketing Manager at WebEngage
“Meetings with stakeholders increase the closer we get to the launch. We
usually work with a couple from sales, one from brand, one from creative,
and one for product management.”
Yehuda Kirschenbaum, Product Marketing Manager at Nortek Control
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Part 4 - Collaboration with stakeholders
Collaboration with
stakeholders
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“I usually have weekly syncs with key stakeholders to keep things on
track and get on the same page. In addition, we use Slack for quick
updates.”
Iman Bayatra, Head Of Product Marketing & Strategy at Coachendo
“The job of the product marketer is to quarterback the Go-to-Market
process both in my current and past roles. That means collaborating
with channel owners in both marketing and sales.
“This ensures that the product value proposition, positioning, and
messaging is clear and cohesive across all and that the overall plan of
action for each channel is captured in a single place.
“This is usually a deck so that, together, it can be looked at like a game
plan and analyzed to ensure that each team, each activity is building
toward the story we’re telling (and the overall win).”
Amanda Chagoya, Senior Product Marketing Manager at IDEO U
“At Innovid, we have a detailed Go-to-Market brief and timeline template
we follow for every launch (while always reserving the right to go “offbook” when it suits the brief).
“We normally work with 3-8 people, depending on the product or
partnership launch size and the projected value to the market.”
Laura Foster, VP of Product Marketing at Innovid
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Part 4 - Collaboration with stakeholders
Collaboration with
stakeholders
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“I work hand-in-hand with product in the early stages to determine
the product-market fit and handle some market research, competitive
intelligence, and other items that flow in product design decision making.
“Closer to finalization of the product and its ultimate launch, I’ll pull
together the GTM/marketing strategy for how we communicate
it internally and externally, and connect with Sales and Marketing
(specifically MarCom & Demand Gen) to identify channels of
communication.”
Emily Pathmajeyan, Director of Product Marketing at Pivot
“We break down ownership by OKRs and the OKR owner of the launch
(usually PMM) leads the cross-functional group and provides updates
to leadership stakeholders. This usually involves 5-7 partners across 3-4
teams.”
Lara McCaskill, Senior Product Marketing Manager at HomeLight
“We have a weekly cadence call for all things Go-to-Market with this
product portfolio in which launches are discussed. Attendance includes
product managers, our GTM team within product management, and our
product marketing teams.”
Andrew Hatfield, Head of Cloud Strategy at NetApp
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Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 5
Go-to-Market
budget
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Part 5 - Go-to-Market budget
Go-to-Market
budget
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Taking a product to market is an exhilarating part of the product marketing role, but to execute a
successful strategy, companies need to loosen their purse strings, splash the cash, and give product
marketers the resources needed to thrive.
What is the average launch budget?
When we asked product marketers to disclose their typical launch budget, 58.3% of respondents
fell into the $0 - $20,000 bracket, followed by 17.9% who indicated their companies dedicate in the
region of $21,000 - $50,000 to product launches.
$101,000 - $250,000
6%
$251,000 - $500,000
1.1%
$51,000 - $100,000
16.7%
Average
launch budget
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Certified, and discover
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measure an impactful
GTM strategy. >
>
$21,000 - $50,000
17.9%
$0 - $20,000
58.3%
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Part 5 - Go-to-Market budget
Go-to-Market
budget
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
We dug deeper and asked product marketers what proportion of the total launch budget was
spent within the launch window (+/- 30 days from the launch date).
76% - 100%
13.1%
51% - 75%
25%
0 - 10%
19%
The proportion
of the total
budget
11% - 25%
17.9%
26% - 50%
25%
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Part 5 - Go-to-Market budget
Go-to-Market
budget
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
We set out to establish if product marketers are happy with the level of investment being devoted
to launches - and there’s room for improvement.
Just under half of the respondents (47.6%) said they believe their company under-invests in
launches, overshading the 27.4% who believe the right amount is being invested.
Noticeably, there were considerably more respondents (64.3%) who said their company was
under-investing or significantly under-investing, as opposed to over-spending or significantly
over-spending (8.3%).
How do you feel about your company’s current level of investment?
We significantly
under-invest in
launches
16.7%
We under-invest
in launches
47.6%
We invest the
right amount in
launches
27.4%
We over-invest
in launches
4.8%
We significantly
over-invest in
launches
3.5%
Derek Osgood, Founder & CEO at Ignition, echoed the sentiments of the respondents that companies
need to invest more to facilitate the wider success of product launches:
“Too many companies treat launches as an afterthought. Across all
industries, McKinsey found 25% of all revenue came from a new product
or feature launch. But for some reason, non-PMM execs at many
companies seem to think an email or two and a blog post is all the
investment their ‘launches’ warrant”
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Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 6
The importance of
product launches
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Part 6 - The importance of product launches
The importance
of product
launches
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Suffice it to say, a product marketer who fails to recognize the prominence of product launches is hard to
come by.
In fact, the State of Product Marketing Report 2021 revealed 79% of product marketers consider the
process to be a fundamental element of their role.
However, is this sentiment shared by the companies where they’re plying their trade?
When we asked respondents how much importance their company places on product launches, on a
scale of 1 - 10, this generated a respectable average of 6.8.
One-fifth of product marketers (20.2%) rated their companies as an ‘8’ on the scale, but most
encouragingly, this was closely followed by 19% of PMMs who awarded their company with a perfect 10.
On a scale of 0 - 10, how much importance does your company place on launches?
6.8
5.9
Avg. 6.8/10
>
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1.2%
1.2%
1.2%
4.8%
7.1%
11.9%
16.7%
13.1%
20.2%
3.6%
19%
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Part 6 - The importance of product launches
The importance
of product
launches
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Do companies have defined launch processes?
Having a defined launch process supports the prioritization of workloads, makes meetings more
effective, and improves communication and collaboration between key departments.
When we asked product marketers if a defined product launch process is in place at their company, over
half of the respondents (52.4%) said they have a process that’s informally defined and is implemented
on an inconsistent basis.
One-third of respondents (33.3%) said they do have a defined process that’s formally defined and
consistently implemented, while 14.3% said they don’t have a process in place at all.
No - we don’t have a process
14.3%
Yes - it’s formally
defined and
consistently
implemented
33.3%
Defined
process?
Sort of - it’s informally
defined and/or inconsistently
implemented
52.4%
>
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Part 6 - The importance of product launches
The importance
of product
launches
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Product launches and revenue
Companies need to generate revenue to post profits; the less revenue a company has, the less money
it’ll make - it’s the lifeblood of any organization.
Product launches have an undisputed role in revenue generation. When a new product/feature is
released, this paves the way for customers to invest.
We asked product marketers how much they believe launches positively impact revenue at their
company, and the results were encouraging, to say the least.
Almost half of the respondents (46.4%) said launches have a notable impact on revenue, while a
further 26.2% went one further and indicated launches have a major impact on company income.
Nonetheless, it’s certainly worth noting there’s still room for some improvement. 23.8% indicated
product launches have a minor impact on revenue at their company, while 3.6% said they have no
impact whatsoever.
Launches have a notable
impact on revenue
46.4%
Launches have a major
impact on revenue
26.2%
>
Launches don’t
impact revenue
3.6%
Launches have a minor
impact on revenue
23.8%
29
>
Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 7
Launch effectiveness
>
30
>
Part 7 - Launch effectiveness
Launch
effectiveness
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Go-to-Market maturity/effectiveness
When we asked product marketers to rate their Go-to-Market maturity/effectiveness on a scale of
1 - 10, this generated a fairly mediocre rating of 5.4.
This perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise, given half of the respondents (52.4%) said their
company’s Go-to-Market strategy is informally defined and isn’t implemented consistently.
Avg. 5.4/10
5.4
5.9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1.2%
4.8%
3.6%
8.3%
11.9%
17.9%
20.2%
17.9%
10.7%
3.5%
0%
Go-to-Market fundamentals
A multitude of factors contributes to a successful Go-to-Market process.
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach when strategizing, so we asked product
Sign up for our specialist
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Certified, and discover
how to design, launch, and
measure an impactful
GTM strategy. >
>
marketers which factors they consider to be indispensable when it comes to successful GTM practices.
“Cross-functional collaboration that has clearly defined roles and
expectations for what each person does/owns.”
Emily Pathmajeyan, Director of Product Marketing at Pivot
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>
Part 7 - Launch effectiveness
Launch
effectiveness
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Stakeholder alignment, process planning and reporting final results.”
Madhumita Bhattacharya, Product Marketing Manager at Kubermatic GmBH
“Alignment and communication from end-to-end so there are no gaps
between the customer and the product team.”
Burton Jones, Product Marketing Manager at Icertis
“The ability to make a decision and stick to it stands out to me as the key
to a successful product launch.”
Laura Foster, VP of Product Marketing at Innovid
“Collaboration and alignment. Clear goal setting and clearly defined
success metrics for all stages of launch (pre to post).”
Regina Scolaro, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Clearbit
>
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Part 7 - Launch effectiveness
Launch
effectiveness
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Anticipation and alignment between marketing plans and product
roadmap.”
Marion Joffre, Product Marketing Manager at Decathlon
“Agreed upon success metrics, good knowledge management, learning
materials, and consistent messaging are all pivotal to the GTM process.”
Steven Choi, Senior Product Marketing Manager at MediaMath
“Alignment on a proper plan - who does what by when.”
Jeff Hanrahan, Director of Product Marketing at RealPage
“A clear understanding of the desire for the product/feature, a success
metric/goal, and a clear campaign/communication plan.”
Sarah Schneider, Product Marketing Manager at AffiniPay
>
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Part 7 - Launch effectiveness
Launch
effectiveness
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Understanding the customer and product, having validated messaging,
buy-in from leadership, and a post-launch plan to drive adoption.”
Kristy Cuddeford, Product Marketing Manager at Thoughtfarmer
“Defined goals for 6 - 12 months, bringing the partners on board and
getting buy-in. You also need to make sure everyone is actually on the
same page and has aligned expectations.”
John Leonard, Product Marketing Manager at Zivid
“Proactive communication. It’s critical in our roles to over-communicate.
Even if you feel like everyone is already on the same page, communicate
for transparency.”
Jeffrey Vocell, Director of Product Marketing at Iterable
“Base your process on consumer research and be sure to close the loop
with stakeholders to identify when a pivot is needed.”
Amanda Chagoya, Senior Product Marketing Manager at IDEO U
>
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Part 7 - Launch effectiveness
Launch
effectiveness
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
What % of product launches are successful?
The aforementioned factors play a fundamental role in the delivery of successful launches.
But, after weeks, months, in some cases maybe even years of build-up to release, what percentage of
launches are deemed to be successful, i.e. what proportion meet or exceed financial and/or adoption
targets?
We put the question directly to product marketers, and the majority (39.3%) said launches are deemed
successful 51% - 75% of the time.
Interestingly enough, more respondents said launches were successful 0% - 25% of the time (13.1%)
than those who said launches are successful 76% - 100% of the time (10.7%). This is a definite indicator
that there are clear margins for improvement as far as Go-to-Market strategies are concerned.
Product launches are successful 51% - 75% of the time
0% - 25%
13.1%
26% - 50%
36.9%
51% - 75%
39.3%
76% - 100%
10.7%
% of launches deemed ‘successful’ by PMMs
Derek Osgood, Founder & CEO at Ignition, delivered a damning assessment of the proportion of launches
that fail, imploring companies to put their hands in their pocket to improve product success rate:
>
"Too many launches fail. And in my opinion, it's because of the old adage 'fail to plan, plan to fail'.
Companies underinvest in their GTM processes, and expect results that will never come."
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Part 7 - Launch effectiveness
Launch
effectiveness
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Product adoption rate
Product adoption has been identified as one of the parameters for measuring the success of product
launches.
Product adoption is intrinsic to a prosperous launch because when consumers fully adopt your
product, this mitigates customer churn and paves the way for greater retention rates.
Just over half of the respondents (52.4%) said their typical adoption rate of new products sits in the
region of 26% - 50%, more than any other category.
0% - 25%
20.2%
Average product
adoption rate for
new products sits
between 26% - 50%
76% - 100%
8.4%
51% - 75%
19%
26% - 50%
52.4%
>
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Part 7 - Launch effectiveness
Launch
effectiveness
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
The proportion of sales within 90 days
Having worked meticulously planning and executing a Go-to-Market strategy, it’s natural to have lofty
expectations and set high goals.
In some cases, a product hits the ground running, and in others, success can be spread over a more
sustained period.
When we asked respondents what percentage of a new product’s sales occur within 90 days of
launch, 41.7% answered 0% - 25%, more than any other group. This was closely followed by the 26% 50% category (38.1%).
76% - 100%
9.5%
51% - 75%
10.7%
0% - 25%
41.7%
26% - 50%
38.1%
>
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Part x - xxx
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
PART 8
Go-to-Market
challenges
>
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Part 8 - Go-to-Market challenges
Go-to-Market
challenges
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Whilst Go-to-Market’s undoubtedly exciting, like every other part of product marketing, it isn’t without
its challenges.
Product marketers gave their two cents on what they’d change to improve the overall standard of the
Go-to-Market process.
“More formalization of process. This is a new thing for us so we are
working up the learning curve.”
Dennis Duckworth, Director of Product Marketing at EDB
“I’d like to see a bit more resources devoted to launching.”
Steve Bozic, Senior Launch Readiness Manager at Seismic
“I’d like to see improved accuracy of product availability and better
communication from the product team who’s working on the timeline.”
Yehuda Kirschenbaum, Product Marketing Manager at Nortek Control
>
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“More support from PMs as subject matter experts to help with content
creation/webinars/client-facing resources.”
Miles Price, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VHT
“More time should be spent with customers/customer data post-launch.”
Melissa Jackson, Product Marketing Consultant
“Remember: the weight of launches varies greatly, so not every launch is
viewed as important.”
Matthew Ziegler, Product Marketing Manager at Claroty
“More transparency is needed on product readiness.”
Michele Bové, Manager, Customer Lifecycle and Product Marketing at Audible
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“Think of Go-to-Market as a solution or industry. Individual product
launches will not maintain exponential company growth nor position
confidently in competitive markets.”
Jamie Claeys, Director of Industry Strategy at FarEye
“I’d close the loop and ensure that once activities are completed, the
team is informed of how it went/whether we should do it again.”
Amanda Chagoya, Senior Product Marketing Manager IDEO U
“A more reliable product roadmap so that GTM planning can be done
more thoroughly.”
Aimen Chouchane, Head of Content and Product Marketing at Sona
>
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challenges
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Correlation between launch size and GTM problems
Large launches can be prone to more complications, in comparison to more modest launches.
For example, a strategy for an update for a Playstation 4 title would’ve paled in significance to Sony’s
strategy for the launch of the Playstation 5 video game console.
When you’ve got a bigger project on the table, you have more components that need to be aligned. As
a result, this can leave more room for failure.
We asked respondents how GTM problems have differed between large and small launches, in their
experience.
“The degree of seriousness of sales and relationship teams in small
launches are a concern.”
Avinash Chandra, Head of MSME Go-to-Market Strategy at Spice Money
“Small launches are harder to communicate because we don’t devote
any PMM resources to help illustrate the value.”
Steve Bozic, Senior Launch Readiness Manager at Seismic
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“Smaller launches usually happen more at the feature level - as a result,
we tend not to prioritize those for the PMM team, rather focus on a few
efforts that will have the most meaningful result. As a result, it’s harder
to ensure consistency in key messages at a small launch because there
isn’t one person overseeing all messaging end-to-end.”
Ali Turhal, Director of Product Marketing at ClassDojo
“The launch plan and investment are grouped by ‘size’ more, instead of
business value.”
Scintilla Wang, Director of Product Marketing at Guandata
“For large launches, I’ve got the buy-in from everyone. Everybody’s
excited and this is reflected in how the CSMs and Sales Reps
communicate the release to the users. More budget is allocated and
more marketing campaigns are executed. Additionally, there are also
more resources created.
“On the other hand, with small launches, not many people are interested
in equipping themselves with the nuts and bolts of the feature. There’s
less budget allocated, and fewer marketing campaigns and resources.”
Pavithra Sudhakar, Product Marketing Manager at WebEngage
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“Smaller launches are often looked over, yet tend to have the biggest
impact on customer ops/support volume. Larger launches get the most
attention and most detail but often don’t apply to the majority of users,
there’s an imbalance in the attention.
“Internal stakeholders see the game-changer, big launches as they drive
new rev. But it can create tension with existing customers who are eager
for the small launches.”
Melissa Jackson, Product Marketing Consultant
“Big launches are more complicated and expensive, this is why a clear
GTM strategy that articulates what the business wants to achieve with
the product/service including target audience, a resonating message,
and how to drive the desired outcomes is indispensable.”
Iman Bayatra, Head Of Product Marketing & Strategy at Coachendo
“For large launches, more groups need to be involved. This complicates
the process. Small launches are easier as there aren’t as many people to
factor into the process.”
Jamie Claeys, Director of Industry Strategy at FarEye
“Fewer people are aware of smaller launches, so we’re provided with
fewer resources.”
Alyssa Lieberman, Product Marketing Manager at Foreground
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“Arguably, small launches are more problematic - it’s more difficult to
judge how much time and resource to dedicate to them.”
Aimen Chouchane, Head of Content and Product Marketing at Sona
“Larger launches require many more stakeholders and coordination,
often creating obstacles, confusion, and additional work needed to
align.”
Patrick Tripp, Senior VP of Product Marketing at Cheetah Digital
“Large launches might require more stakeholder alignments or more
resources that you might lack on. And obviously, more complexity means
more time needs to be spent on the planning side and making sure that
all stakeholders have buy-in from the beginning to the end.”
Bettina Jakobsen, Product Marketing Manager at Google
“Large launches are more complex and tend to involve more last-minute
changes due to all the stakeholders.”
Miryam Amsili Meir, Senior Director of Product Marketing at SecurityScorecard
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“We are just now developing the maturity to quantify the value of
launches from an estimated monetary perspective. Therefore, it’s difficult
to differentiate between large and small.”
Courtney Brewer, Senior Product Marketing Manager at TIBCO
“There’s more scrutiny on large launches, therefore, this can magnify any
underlying issues. Small launches are a much lighter lift on everyone, so
it’s easier to get product and other teams to deliver on time.”
Julie Rockett, Director of Product Marketing at Fastly
“Generally speaking, problems come down to three key areas:
communication, timing, and strategy. Regardless of large or small, all issues
tend to tie up to those things.
“For smaller launches, timing tends to be a problem. In some cases it means
finding out about a launch late from product, resulting in product marketing
scrambling. For a large launch, it means pulling in the right people at the
right time and ensuring we have the proper strategy in place.”
Jeffrey Vocell, Director of Product Marketing at Iterable
“The biggest challenge is consistent access to creative and campaign
resources, especially for mid-sized launches where these activities still
matter.”
Stephanie Rubenstein, Product Marketing Manager at NVIDIA
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“There are more stakeholders to gain approval from when planning a
large-scale launch, which can slow the process down. Smaller launches
are generally easier because we don’t have cycles of approvals.”
Laura Foster, VP of Product Marketing at Innovid
“Large launches have a higher level of executive involvement due to higher
stakes. As such, many fingers are in the pie, and the rule-by-committee
approach is less informed and efficient.
“Planning for larger launches takes more time and can get complicated
given our resource constraints. Often we choose quality over quantity.”
Madhumita Bhattacharya, Product Marketing Manager at Kubermatic GmBH
“Smaller launches slip through the cracks; engineering/product won’t tell
the group until after release, while larger launches tend to get pushed
back due to delays.”
Jessica Andrews, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Copper
“Alignment on a proper plan - who does what by when.”
Jeff Hanrahan, Director of Product Marketing at RealPage
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“A clear understanding of the desire for the product/feature, a success
metric/goal, and a clear campaign/communication plan.”
Sarah Schneider, Product Marketing Manager at AffiniPay
“Defined goals for 6 - 12 months, bringing the partners on board and
getting buy-in. You also need to make sure everyone is actually on the
same page and has aligned expectations.”
John Leonard, Product Marketing Manager at Zivid
“Large and small launches will vary based on the impact the solution has on
your target audience and market and the introduction of a new product SKU
vs. an update.
“Smaller launches usually imply that the product or service already exists
and the product team is enhancing the functionality for the existing
audience. Large product launches typically mean a net new introduction to
the offering is becoming generally available or the solution is being offered
to a net new audience.
“Agreeing on what size a launch is with your product team and other
stakeholders is crucial before you start your planning.”
Holly Watson, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon Web Services
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challenges
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
How can Go-to-Market be improved?
There are some elements surrounding Go-to-Market strategies that can be improved, and areas that
prove intrusive and impede product marketers when bringing a new offering to market.
We asked product marketers what measures they think their company could introduce to improve the
quality of their Go-to-Market process.
“Give more importance to positioning and messaging, introduce internal
enablement sessions, and implement a post-launch plan.”
Pavithra Sudhakar, Product Marketing Manager at WebEngage
“Have more dedicated cycles of launches, i.e. always launch at trade
shows or certain times of the year.”
Yehuda Kirschenbaum, Product Marketing Manager at Nortek Control
“I’d like to see leadership-level sessions to align the whole company on
this process moving forward.”
Miles Price, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VHT
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“We need to start getting the data architecture right; it’s a guess
with measurement and there are too many gaps being closed by
assumption.
“Having a better data picture and analysts would validate hypotheses.
This would give more attention to the imbalances that exist in small vs
large launches when it comes to customer satisfaction and retention vs.
acquisition and net new business. Therefore, this’d give a better picture
of what features are contributing to what metrics.”
Melissa Jackson, Product Marketing Consultant
“Avoid delays in product releases as much as possible to make it easier
for my team and stakeholders to work with me on the marketing launch
timeline.”
Iman Bayatra, Head Of Product Marketing & Strategy at Coachendo
“A project management process with accountability, work back
schedules, and service-level agreements from all teams.”
Nicole Maddox, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Avalara
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“Better analytics and connection between marketing levers and product
adoption.”
Madison Leonard, Senior Product Marketing Manager at ClickUp
“Accountability across all execution arms of the business (sales,
marketing, product, partners).”
Jamie Claeys, Director of Industry Strategy at FarEye
“They need to establish a clear product roadmap and hire more
engineers so we can stick to a launch schedule.”
Alyssa Lieberman, Product Marketing Manager at Foreground
“Introduce a workflow with ideal timing and follow-up when deadlines
aren’t met.”
Amanda Chagoya, Senior Product Marketing Manager at IDEO U
>
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“From experience, I think that in B2C businesses, measurements are
extremely easy to set and you generate immediate learnings on setting
up targets and see what the outcome is.
“On the other hand, in B2B (e.g. when you’re organizing events) and want
to measure revenue or direct product adoption metrics or scale these to
different markets, that can be very tricky. I would love to see companies,
in general, developing GTM strategies and measurements.”
Bettina Jakobsen, Product Marketing Manager at Google
“Firstly, I’d use a Go-to-Market review board - consisting of senior leaders
across GTM teams. This is to ensure the strategy is set appropriately,
everyone is enabled, and communication is planned appropriately.
Secondly, I think an informal feedback group would be beneficial to help
product marketers push on messaging and strategy of a launch.”
Jeffrey Vocell, Director of Product Marketing at Iterable
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Part 8 - Go-to-Market challenges
Go-to-Market
challenges
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Common Go-to-Market obstacles
The best things don’t come easily - you need to overcome challenges to accomplish your goals and
fulfill your aspirations.
This notion particularly rings true when it comes to Go-to-Market strategies. There’re various
complexities product marketers need to overcome en-route to launching a product, which is why it’s so
satisfying when a product is finally unleashed on consumers worldwide.
We were intrigued to understand what product marketers considered their biggest obstacles when
bringing a new product to market, and respondents lifted the lid on the most common difficulties they
often face.
Communication with product was identified as the most prevalent issue, with 61.9% saying this team, in
particular, often fails to communicate roadmaps and timelines effectively.
Additionally, 59.5% of respondents indicated that they find GTM challenging because it’s difficult to
measure the success of the launch itself.
NB: Respondents could select more than one option for this question.
>
Product doesn’t communicate roadmaps/timelines effectively
61.9%
It’s difficult measuring the impact of launches
59.5%
Collecting customer research fast enough to inform plans
48.8%
Difficulties communicating plans/aligning stakeholders
47.6%
Cross-functional work is hard to stay on top of
47.6%
No defined, repeatable process
40.5%
Psst... turn the page for further feedback on this question.
>
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State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
I have to create all the copy/assets myself with little/no support from other teams
I’m not 100% convinced I’m building the best possible plan
Too much tool fragmentation
Other
34.5%
25%
20.2%
2.4%
“Getting accurate timelines out of product teams is like pulling teeth.
As a PMM you’re too busy to go chase them - you absolutely must find
a way to surface their roadmaps in real-time to yourself, and in the
absence of that at least get regular check-in meetings on the books.”
Derek Osgood, Founder & CEO at Ignition
>
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PART 9
Go-to-Market tools
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Part 9 - Go-to-Market tools
Go-to-Market
tools
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
There’re a variety of tools on the market designed to support practitioners in every element of product
marketing. From messaging, collaboration, and design, to competitive intelligence, research, and
positioning.
Go-to-Market doesn’t buck the trend, and companies utilize specialized tools to alleviate their workload
and improve the standard of the final product.
With so many options available on the market, we wanted to establish an understanding of which are
being used the most.
Which tool categories are being used the most?
There’s a berth of options available on the market to assist product marketers with various elements of
Go-to-Market.
We asked the survey participants which categories of tools they use during the GTM process, and
85.7% said they use tools to support documentation/decks, with this category closely followed by
communication/messaging 82.1%.
The average product marketer is using an average of 5.9 tools to manage their Go-to-Market process,
with some using as many as 11.
Given communication is critical to the success of all processes, it was encouraging to see 73.8% of
participants use collaboration tools to ensure they’re liaising with peers to their optimum potential.
Sign up for our specialist
certification Go-to-Market
Certified, and discover
how to design, launch, and
measure an impactful
GTM strategy. >
>
At the other end of the spectrum, asset management was the least popular category with 25% of
respondents indicating they use this type of tool.
NB: Respondents could select more than one option for this question.
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Part 9 - Go-to-Market tools
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tools
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Documentation/decks
85.7%
Communication/messaging
82.1%
Project management
79.6%
Collaboration
73.8%
Roadmapping
54.8%
Analytics
53.6%
Design
48.8%
Surveys/research
47.6%
Marketing automation
42.9%
Asset management
25%
Other
1.2%
“It’s criminal how underserved product marketers are by software.
Because there are so few tools built for them, the number of tools they
have to jump between is insane.
“You have work getting tracked in Jira (product), Asana (marketing),
your own Go-to-Market tracker to bring it together, dozens of docs and
presentations, and all the real work/research happening externally in
tools like Surveymonkey.”
Derek Osgood, Founder & CEO at Ignition
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Part 9 - Go-to-Market tools
Go-to-Market
tools
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Recommended Go-to-Market tools
As we highlighted in the Product Marketing Tools of Choice, there’re a variety of tools on the market to
ensure product marketers are supported with the most challenging elements of the proceedings.
Ignition, Asana, Microsoft Excel, Google Analytics, and Jira were amongst the tools earmarked by
respondents being particularly useful for their Go-to-Market process.
Top 10 Go-to-Market tools
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint
>
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PART 10
Go-to-Market tips
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Part 10 - Go-to-Market tips
Go-to-Market
tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
We’ve said it time and again: Go-to-Market strategy is rudimentary to the success of any product and
the release of a flop could also have catastrophic repercussions for the company itself.
With the stakes so high, there’s very little room for error, so we’ve gathered advice from experts who’re
well-versed in overseeing successful product launches.
“Start early! Double the amount of time you think you will need. Having
the runway behind you is useless.”
Dennis Duckworth, Director of Product Marketing at EDB
“Stay connected to a larger sample of targeted segments.”
Avinash Chandra, Head of MSME Go-to-Market Strategy at Spice Money
“Get feedback on the GTM plan early from both the cross-functional
team and leadership, then communicate progress early and often
leading up to progress and post-launch on results.”
Ali Turhal, Director of Product Marketing at ClassDojo
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“Get aligned with all stakeholders.”
Scintilla Wang, Director of Product Marketing at Guandata
“Before you start anything else, get feedback on the messaging.”
Jacqui Gilchrist, VP of Product Marketing at Curriculum Associates
“Get your process defined as early as possible and make adjustments
along the way.”
Yehuda Kirschenbaum, Product Marketing Manager at Nortek Control
“You need to have a Go-to-Market tracker that all stakeholders have
access to. Marketing uses Asana but Product uses Jira, for example.
That’s why I’ve resorted to an Excel sheet as the GTM source of truth that
the whole organization has access to.”
Miles Price, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VHT
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Go-to-Market
tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Have a single owner. Yes, you need team collaboration but Go-toMarket cannot be a committee to run efficiently.
“In the beginning, it’s fine to have 2-3 people leading, but once a
process is tested and set, let one person drive, own, and learn from there
so that one person can be the centralized person for feedback and
improvements.”
Melissa Jackson, Product Marketing Consultant
“Have a clear Go-to-Market strategy that includes all key elements and
keeps all stakeholders aligned.”
Iman Bayatra, Head Of Product Marketing & Strategy at Coachendo
“Know how your use cases are affected by a new release.”
Matthew Ziegler, Product Marketing Manager at Claroty
“Sit in on every beta customer review call.”
Nicole Maddox, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Avalara
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Go-to-Market
tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Communicate early and overshare.”
Madison Leonard, Senior Product Marketing Manager at ClickUp
“Create Go-to-Market with phases. You won’t achieve maximum value
when first launching. If you build a Go-to-Market strategy out in phases
coupled with bridges across phases, a full strategy can be achieved.”
Jamie Claeys, Director of Industry Strategy at FarEye
“Get alignment on the story you’re trying to tell first- everything else
should flow from that.”
Amanda Chagoya, Senior Product Marketing Manager at IDEO U
“Think multi-channel - how can you leverage one launch event for
maximum impact by maximizing distribution of your product-related
content?”
Aimen Chouchane, Head of Content and Product Marketing at Sona
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tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Product launches are rolling thunder; they’re not a big bang or waterfall
process - we’re always launching. The launch is often the beginning of a
longer process.”
Patrick Tripp, Senior VP of Product Marketing at Cheetah Digital
“Always start with the user/customer pain points and data points, and
identify who your audience is. Never work on assumptions, and don’t kick
off projects by not having an overview on these.”
Bettina Jakobsen, Product Marketing Manager at Google
“Understand the goals of stakeholders/leadership and overcommunicate those goals every single meeting.”
Ryan Platten, Product Marketing Manager at Park Place Technologies
“Get your cross-functional stakeholders involved early on. Every big launch
should be seen as a program. This means it’s not a one and done, it’s
a cross-functional program that builds consensus, collaboration, and
excitement from the start.”
Miryam Amsili Meir, Senior Director of Product Marketing at SecurityScorecard
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tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Over-communicate, especially as your group gets larger and more
dispersed.”
Larry Goldman, Director of Product Marketing at Spinnaker Support
“Don’t do it yourself. Others absolutely must weigh into the process and
execution with domain expertise.”
Courtney Brewer, Senior Product Marketing Manager at TIBCO
“Make checklists every morning and keep your tracker updated.”
Vivek Joshua, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Paytm
“Define product management deliverables and requirements for launch
upfront. If PM never delivers an NPI or changes launch requirements
during the launch process, it causes much more work on product
marketing and concerns and inefficiencies from the launch team.”
Julie Rockett, Director of Product Marketing at Fastly
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Part 10 - Go-to-Market tips
Go-to-Market
tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Go-to-Market is a change management process. You’re trying to change
the way your customers operate by introducing a new product or service so treat it like one. Bookend the GTM process with customer research and
feedback. Meet customers where they are and make the change easy for
them through messaging and launch materials.”
Priyanka Tiwari, Product Marketing Lead - AWS Data & ML at AWS
“Be transparent and over-communicate. Sunlight is the best disinfectant,
and the best results from launches come when everyone is aligned.”
Jeffrey Vocell, Director of Product Marketing at Iterable
“Get involved with product as early as possible, and create solid Go-toMarket feedback loops.”
Rich Mauser, Product Marketing Manager at Logixboard
“Don’t reinvent the wheel with each launch! Template your process and
improve upon it.”
Stephanie Rubenstein, Product Marketing Manager at NVIDIA
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tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“The product is not the process - be flexible with the GTM process.”
Jeff Hanrahan, Director of Product Marketing at RealPage
“Communication, collaboration, and clear team and overarching goals
are key.”
Regina Scolaro, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Clearbit
“Make sure you give your stakeholders enough time to prepare
for launch with sales playbooks, training, and marketing collateral
completed in time.”
Rore Okoh, Product Marketing Manager at Monzo Bank
“Come in with a POV. If you don’t have one, get one.”
Laura Foster, VP of Product Marketing at Innovid
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Go-to-Market
tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
“Make everyone feel involved in launching the new product/feature.”
Benny Waelput, Go-to-Market Marketeer at Teamleader
“Always be ready for last-minute surprises.”
Madhumita Bhattacharya, Product Marketing Manager at Kubermatic GmBH
“Create a GTM roadmap; don’t rely on the product roadmap to be the
source of GTM strategy. You likely can’t control dev timelines or product
decisions, and it’ll cause frustration.”
Fiona Finn, Director of Product Marketing at Jane App
“Build in one week or more to allow for buffer room when planning
execution.”
Jessica Andrews, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Copper
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Go-to-Market
tips
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Executing and measuring great Go-to-Market strategies
Whether you’re launching a new product, feature, or working in B2B, B2C, or SaaS, as product marketers,
we all have the same end-goal:
We wanna knock our respective Go-to-Market strategy out of the figurative ballpark.
To decipher whether you’ve demonstrated GTM sorcery, you need to understand what a successful plan
looks like, and how to measure the quality of your work.
Respondents gave their insights into what they think success looks like, and the processes they put in
place to ascertain whether they’ve hit their goals or not.
“A great Go-to-Market strategy starts with the roadmap, using
identifiable milestones and good metrics. Success should be measured
by how tightly activities align with outcomes, and increases in sales and
new logo customers.”
Beth Adams, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Pyramid Analytics
“The product’s attributes should be on basis of customer feedback and
hidden needs. Success is the use of the products and services.”
Avinash Chandra, Head of MSME Go-to-Market Strategy at Spice Money
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”A successful Go-to-Market means you’ve launched a unique product or
service into the market and customers are aware it exists and (ideally)
are using it.
“Awareness and adoption tend to be the core metrics we look at. We
measure success at a channel level, using benchmarks as a forecast
then, once we launch, we roll all those performance metrics up to see
how we track our stated KPIs.”
Ali Turhal, Director of Product Marketing at ClassDojo
“The most successful Go-to-Market process has operational buy-in
across the whole organization, it’s repeatable, and it’s been standardized
specifically for that organization. The measure of success there is not having
to start from scratch every time and it’s an expected focus from product
marketing.”
Miles Price, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VHT
“Company employees know about the changes and can speak to/sell
those before customers. Combined with that, success means that our
customers are talking about our launch.
“This can be good or bad; either way, we drive conversation and have
internal employees fully educated about how we changed, why we
changed, and our hypothesized value. This creates incredibly valuable
conversations with customers to drive into the feedback loop of
development.”
Melissa Jackson, Product Marketing Consultant
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“Solid understanding of the market, consumer, and competitive
landscape. A successful launch is also based on clear launch goals and
strong communication and partnership across cross-functional teams.
Speed is also essential. You and your team need to demonstrate the
ability to get more work done in less time to meet the launch timeline.”
Iman Bayatra, Head Of Product Marketing & Strategy at Coachendo
“A successful Go-to-Market process is when everyone knows what they’re
doing, why, when, and how (and follows-through).”
Amanda Chagoya, Senior Product Marketing Manager at IDEO U
“In a successful Go-to-Market process, stakeholders and teams strive to
unite around shared goals/visions.
“Outside of KPIs (like revenue), I like to measure success with straw
polls of our sales teams. How well did they digest our positioning and
messaging? How comfortable are they with the product?”
Ryan Platten, Product Marketing Manager at Park Place Technologies
“A successful Go-to-Market process means that customers are aware,
partners are aware, and sales and customer success are armed and ready
to sell. This can be measured in multiple ways, including product adoption,
sales asset utilization, and, of course, by revenue.”
Miryam Amsili Meir, Senior Director of Product Marketing at SecurityScorecard
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“In a great Go-to-Market strategy, everyone feels informed, materials are
produced with plenty of lead time, sales is prepped, and someone owns it
enough to track progress after launch.”
Larry Goldman, Director of Product Marketing at Spinnaker Support
“Joint ownership and regular contribution by key stakeholders are crucial
in Go-to-Market.”
Courtney Brewer, Senior Product Marketing Manager at TIBCO
“It’s cyclical and not one-time; success measurement is based on adoption,
lead generation, and/or revenue.”
Siddhartha Kathpalia, Associate Director of Marketing (Americas & Product)
at VWO
“A successful Go-to-Market process is where all the XFN teams are tightly
aligned and working towards a shared goal of making the customer
successful.”
Priyanka Tiwari, Product Marketing Lead - AWS Data & ML at AWS
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“It’s successful when the sales team understands quickly what the launch is
about and its benefits for the customers, etc.”
Mélanie Debeauvois-Noël, Product Marketing Manager at Cision
“I think an optimal process is lightweight, to allow for creativity and
knowledge of a product marketer to drive a strategy that makes the
most sense. While also ensuring the fundamental needs to the business
are being accomplished (training, comms, etc).”
Jeffrey Vocell, Director of Product Marketing at Iterable
“A successful Go-to-Market process is smoothly implemented, executed
with minimal friction, and meets our set objectives. I’d measure this by
how well the team performed, and whether we hit our KPIs.”
Stephanie Rubenstein, Product Marketing Manager at NVIDIA
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“Research your market and determine the appetite for the product/
feature to understand where on the roadmap the feature lives. Work with
outside teams to determine success criteria (financial, churn reduction,
etc.), and plan campaign assets and timelines, before meeting regularly
with stakeholders up until launch to track progress, and launch on time.
“Follow up with a survey to gauge reaction, and track adoption and
success. We like to measure success by comparing our success criteria,
whatever we previously determined, to what happens in the months
following the launch.
“Customer satisfaction surveys also help us see how our target
segments feel about a new feature.”
Sarah Schneider, Product Marketing Manager at AffiniPay
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Conclusion
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Conclusion
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Richard King, Founder of Product Marketing Alliance, gave his reaction to our inaugural exploration of
Go-to-Market strategy:
“Go-to-Market is the bread and butter of product marketing. It’s no
exaggeration to say that the process is the difference between success
and failure; it can make or break a company.
“It was encouraging to see a significant proportion of survey respondents
(81%) say product marketing is responsible for strategizing at their
company when launching new products; it’s a clear indication that the
specialisms of PMMs are being recognized.
“One area for potential improvement would be the amount of money
that’s being dedicated exclusively to launch budgets. It’s unsurprising
that practitioners aren’t happy with budgets that don’t tend to surpass
$20,000.
“I was somewhat surprised and disappointed to see PMMs highlight a
lack of communication with product teams as a source of their struggles.
Hopefully, this’ll improve, and collaboration between these teams will
facilitate smoother launches.
Sign up for our specialist
certification Go-to-Market
Certified, and discover
how to design, launch, and
measure an impactful
GTM strategy. >
>
“Overall, I was intrigued by the findings, and I look forward to seeing what
the 2023 report has to offer.”
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A special
thank you
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Supporting sponsor:
Ignition is a collaborative hub to manage Go-to-Market processes end-to-end. It helps product
marketing and product teams create more stakeholder alignment by centralizing launch plans,
assets, and execution in a single, visual source of truth, which automates internal comms, and
predictively estimates whether features are on track to ship on time or not.
The platform even has embedded tools that help execute critical Go-to-Market work like conducting
customer/competitive research, publishing public changelogs, and dynamically recommending
planning improvements based on your goals, helping you create better plans, faster.
Ignition is backed by Product Marketing Alliance, Jack and Max Altman, Bling Capital, and top product
marketing leaders from companies like Uber, Sentry, Opendoor, and Airbnb.
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A special
thank you
State of Go-to-Market Report 2022
Contributors
Lawrence Chapman
Senior Copywriter
Lawrence is our Senior Copywriter here at PMA who loves crafting
content to keep readers informed, entertained, and enthralled. He’s
always open to feedback and would be thrilled to hear from you!
Richard King
Founder of Product Marketing Alliance
Rich is the Founder of Product Marketing Alliance and is at the helm of our
voyage to elevate the PMM role worldwide. He’s responsible for what happens
next with the community so if you’d like to have your say, don’t hesitate to get
in touch - Rich is always open to invaluable feedback and ideas.
Bryony Pearce
Head of Content
Bryony is the brains behind the Aladdin’s Cave of content we generously
churn out for members and non-members alike. She’s known as the Product
Marketing Alliance ‘Oracle’, and has a never-ending supply of new ideas. Feel
free to share your feedback with her - she’d love to hear it!
Jon Sayer
Graphic Designer
Jon is our graphic designer and looks at all our design requirements.
He’s responsible for the layout and visual elements in this report and
is always happy to hear your thoughts!
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