I’m a product marketer who makes complex software clear to enterprise and government buyers
I’m a product marketer who makes complex software clear to enterprise and government buyers
Across six years at Benevity, Dataminr, Upland, and Ethos, I’ve taken B2B SaaS products to market for Fortune 500 companies, mid-market and SMB businesses, and government organizations.
I start by learning who uses the product and who buys it, what their day-to-day looks like and what each of them needs to hear to buy in and keep using it. Staying close to the teams who talk to customers every day is how I get up to speed fast in a new industry.
How I think about product marketing
How I think about product marketing
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
Know who uses it and who buys it
At Dataminr, watch center analysts cared about workflow and ease of use, while the executives who signed off on it cared about fewer incidents and safer people. At Upland, the person who could buy a cross-sell usually sat on a different team from our existing users, so I leaned on internal intros to reach them.
I build messaging for both, and I make sure the user has what they need to become the champion.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
At Ethos, Air Force messaging didn’t land with everyone in the room. I worked with sales to learn what Space Force, Air Force, Army, and Navy each wanted to hear, then rewrote the language and matched case studies to the branch. At Upland, I wrote each cross-sell campaign for a specific industry, so a bank and a healthcare customer never got the same pitch.
The wrong word tells a buyer you didn’t take the time to understand them.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
At Dataminr, I reviewed 1,200+ pieces of sales and customer feedback, worked with Product to get issues actioned, and reused customers’ own words in the materials that won new prospects and expanded seats.
Sometimes it changes the plan. At Ethos, sales told me prospects already owned a learning system and had no budget for another, so I positioned Ethos as a layer on top of it instead of a replacement.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
I use AI every day. At Ethos, I built a design system that let sales and customer success draft their own materials, and turnaround dropped from days to under a day. I also used it to build a competitive intelligence dashboard that one person could keep current.
The risk is volume. Unedited AI output can carry a wrong number or an off-brand claim, and buyers notice. At Ethos, one AI-drafted proposal hurt a large deal with a hospitality company that caught numbers it had never given us. In public sector, where buyers all know each other, a claim like that travels fast. I think product marketing is becoming the team that decides what’s true and what’s worth saying, and checks every claim before it reaches a customer.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
Share work early and build relationships first
Product marketing runs on trust across sales, product, and customer success. I keep regular check-ins with each team and show drafts at 40 to 50 percent, before the copy and screenshots are final, so feedback arrives while it’s still cheap to act on.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
Know who uses it and who buys it
At Dataminr, watch center analysts cared about workflow and ease of use, while the executives who signed off on it cared about fewer incidents and safer people. At Upland, the person who could buy a cross-sell usually sat on a different team from our existing users, so I leaned on internal intros to reach them.
I build messaging for both, and I make sure the user has what they need to become the champion.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
Not every launch deserves a splash
I size launches by business impact, expected revenue, and whether we’re first to market. I brought a tier 1, 2, and 3 framework from Upland to Ethos, where tier 1 was the Readiness Engine launch, a months-long effort across the whole company, and tier 3 covered small fixes and one-off requests. A big splash for a feature competitors already have only tells the market you were late.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
Principle
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
When adoption stalls, I talk to customers and prospects to find out why. It could be missing features, a new workflow, education, perceived complexity, or price, and each one needs a different fix. At Ethos, moving customers off the legacy Learn to Win product meant working through three separate objections: a completely different workflow, a higher price, and features they’d had in the old product.
Know who uses it and who buys it
At Dataminr, watch center analysts cared about workflow and ease of use, while the executives who signed off on it cared about fewer incidents and safer people. At Upland, the person who could buy a cross-sell usually sat on a different team from our existing users, so I leaned on internal intros to reach them. I build messaging for both, and I make sure the user has what they need to become the champion.
Know who uses it and who buys it
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
At Ethos, Air Force messaging didn’t land with everyone in the room. I worked with sales to learn what Space Force, Air Force, Army, and Navy each wanted to hear, then rewrote the language and matched case studies to the branch. At Upland, I wrote each cross-sell campaign for a specific industry, so a bank and a healthcare customer never got the same pitch. The wrong word tells a buyer you didn’t take the time to understand them.
Speak the buyer’s language, down to the branch
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
At Dataminr, I reviewed 1,200+ pieces of sales and customer feedback, worked with Product to get issues actioned, and reused customers’ own words in the materials that won new prospects and expanded seats. Sometimes it changes the plan. At Ethos, sales told me prospects already owned a learning system and had no budget for another, so I positioned Ethos as a layer on top of it instead of a replacement.
Customers and sales know things the roadmap doesn’t
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
I use AI every day. At Ethos, I built a design system that let sales and customer success draft their own materials, and turnaround dropped from days to under a day. I also used it to build a competitive intelligence dashboard that one person could keep current. The risk is volume. Unedited AI output can carry a wrong number or an off-brand claim, and buyers notice. At Ethos, one AI-drafted proposal hurt a large deal with a hospitality company that caught numbers it had never given us. In public sector, where buyers all know each other, a claim like that travels fast. I think product marketing is becoming the team that decides what’s true and what’s worth saying, and checks every claim before it reaches a customer.
AI makes content cheap, so judgment matters more
Share work early and build relationships first
Product marketing runs on trust across sales, product, and customer success. I keep regular check-ins with each team and show drafts at 40 to 50 percent, before the copy and screenshots are final, so feedback arrives while it’s still cheap to act on.
Share work early and build relationships first
Not every launch deserves a splash
I size launches by business impact, expected revenue, and whether we’re first to market. I brought a tier 1, 2, and 3 framework from Upland to Ethos, where tier 1 was the Readiness Engine launch, a months-long effort across the whole company, and tier 3 covered small fixes and one-off requests. A big splash for a feature competitors already have only tells the market you were late.
Not every launch deserves a splash
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
When adoption stalls, I talk to customers and prospects to find out why. It could be missing features, a new workflow, education, perceived complexity, or price, and each one needs a different fix. At Ethos, moving customers off the legacy Learn to Win product meant working through three separate objections: a completely different workflow, a higher price, and features they’d had in the old product.
Find the real blocker before fixing adoption
How I stay current
PMM Camp
Sharebird
Product Marketing Alliance
ADPList
Community
PMM Camp
A community of product marketers who share what’s working. I joined when I became a solo product marketer, to get an outside perspective from peers when there wasn’t a team down the hall to test ideas with.
PMM Camp
Sharebird
Product Marketing Alliance
ADPList
Community
PMM Camp
A community of product marketers who share what’s working. I joined when I became a solo product marketer, to get an outside perspective from peers when there wasn’t a team down the hall to test ideas with.
PMM Camp
Sharebird
Product Marketing Alliance
ADPList
Community
Sharebird
A Q&A community where product marketing leaders answer questions from practitioners. I use it to learn how leaders at other companies approach the problems I’m working on.
PMM Camp
Sharebird
Product Marketing Alliance
ADPList
Community
Product Marketing Alliance
A global community and learning network for product marketers. I use it to keep up with new frameworks and research, and to see how other product marketers are tackling the same problems I am.
PMM Camp
Sharebird
Product Marketing Alliance
ADPList
Mentoring
ADPList
I mentor product marketers and people interested in getting into the field, sharing what I’ve learned across four companies, from building a product marketing function on my own to supporting global sales and customer success teams.
Tools I use
Outside of work
Outdoors
Rabbit holes
Building
Snowboarding and golf
Outdoors
I’m based in Calgary, Alberta, so on winter weekends I like to get out for snowboarding in Banff and the Rockies. In the summer I like to golf with my close group of friends.
Outdoors
Rabbit holes
Building
Snowboarding and golf
Outdoors
I’m based in Calgary, Alberta, so on winter weekends I like to get out for snowboarding in Banff and the Rockies. In the summer I like to golf with my close group of friends.
Outdoors
Rabbit holes
Building
Coffee and homemade pizza
Rabbit holes
I love my espresso machine and ripping a good flat white at home, but I also end up at my local coffee shop more than I’d like to admit. When I’m not making coffee, I’m making pizza.
Outdoors
Rabbit holes
Building
Design and DIY
Building
I’ve built desks, tables, decks, and done some tiling as well. I’m big on simple design with natural materials, especially Finnish design.