Today, due to a litany of personal and professional challenges, I had to delay the Product Marketing Summit by 30 days.
Getting the first Summit off the ground has been a haul, though I and our community (700 strong!) strongly believe in the vision.
These emails are never easy to write – for the author but also for the brand the author is associated with. Companies f*ck up all the time. There are two ways for companies to handle this– own it or deflect blame. I believe the former is the only way to avoid further damaging trust. I also believe it gives companies the best platform from which to repair and rebuild.
I wanted to share the email I authored in hopes that if you find yourself having to write one of these, you’ll have something to look at. (There were none of these on ReallyGoodEmail.com)
I am sorry.
2017 has been a year of learnings for me… on career, on life, on people…and on the amount of work it takes to release a Summit by myself.
I said we’d go live with the Product Marketing Summit on November 14th. We won’t go live. We could… except it would only have 10 sessions (instead of the 30-40 we promised). And I know that’s not the Summit that we all want & need.
I regret not communicating this delay sooner and I’m sorry for the disappointment it causes.
How did we get here?
I won’t offer excuses. (Fact is, I’m late.) I will offer some context.
Currently, I’m the solo PMM at my day job and one-man show with the Summit. My partner & I also had two deaths in our families in the past two weeks, so lots of airplanes & time off work. There’s also some other items I’ll share with you later.
In short, I didn’t proactively identify & address constraints as well as I should have.
This community deserves the best. I’m not talking about a perfect Summit…but I am talking about one that doesn’t leave you underwhelmed.
Way forward
I’m moving the Summit to December so we have more time to grow our speaker/session list and close more sponsors. The extra 30 days will give me more time to bring the total speaker/session count north of 30 and provide you with 3 days packed with learning. Since we’re approaching the holidays, let me know which week you think is best for the Summit?
I’m also discounting our All Access Pass by 50% ($299 -> $149) as an “I’m sorry.” All of you currently have a Free Pass that lets you access sessions & content for the duration of the 3-day Summit. Once the Summit is over, the All Access Pass grants you lifetime access to the sessions & content. (This is how I recoup costs for software, hosting, my time, etc. and reinvest in the Summit so it gets better every year. This is going to hurt but I believe it’s the right thing to do.)
Finally, I’ll be granting everyone free access to the Product Marketing Summit Slack Community. Part of our mission is creating a community, and I believe this is a great way for all 700 of you interact with each other. I’ll have more details on this and the All Access Pass shortly.
Again, I’m sorry
In the absence of delivery, I hope that my humility has built some trust. I care about doing what’s right, and if that involves giving up my pride to retain my dignity, so be it.
I hope that between the gestures above and an awesome Summit in December, I’ll have made good on the delay and any disappointment.
As always, I love hearing from our community. If you’d like to chat, hit ‘reply’ and you’ll get a response. Don’t forget to let me know which week you think is best for the Summit!
I’ll be in touch soon.