The challenge

I was brought to VTS to start the product marketing function and department from scratch. VTS knew they needed product marketing (at the advice of OpenView Partners, the VC firm that recruited me) but nobody at VTS knew what product marketing was, what we do, how we operate or how they should work with us.

The goal

I needed to get everyone on the same page, fast. I needed something that anyone at VTS (regardless of their department or role) could pick up, read and understand what product marketing is, why we’re here and how they should work with us.

Results

This manifesto is a public declaration of the principles, beliefs and intentions that guide VTS’ Product Marketing team. It’s Product Marketing’s vision and mission statements. It informs everyone what they can expect of us and how we will work with them to help their department (and VTS as a whole) achieve its goals.

I emailed this to the entire company and keep it posted in Product Marketing’s area of our intranet. It paid dividends in several ways:

• It gave everyone a baseline understanding of the essence of product marketing, without ‘death by charts, diagrams or slides’ (reads like a story)
• It started a dialogue between me and other departments immediately and partnerships fell into place quickly – I had department heads and managers coming to me, instead of me having to seek them out (though I was going to anyway)
• It’s an asset that I refer or point to in times of confusion or uncertainty, to clear things up