Launch products with advocates like a Reddit PMM
Online communities are a goldmine for finding customer advocates who can supercharge your product launch - but too often companies rely on things like email blasts and paid campaigns, completely overlooking the power of engaged customers.
Within your own community are passionate advocates, ready to champion your product and influence others. Leveraging these voices in a launch isn't just about buzz - it’s about creating credibility, driving adoption and igniting that word of mouth growth that sustains long after the launch.
In this episode, I have the pleasure of sitting down with Kaavya Gupta, who currently leads a product marketing team at Reddit. Her specialty is caring for products that make it easy for anyone to find and engage with communities on Reddit.
In our conversation, Kaavya gives us the inside scoop on community-driven product launches and why they’ve become a model for most of her team’s launches.
Understanding the Role of Community in Product Launches
Kaavya believes that the true heartbeat of a successful launch lies not in what the brand dictates, but in what the users themselves express. Kaavya walks us through a recent launch that capitalized on community advocacy, demonstrating the importance of bringing users into the fold early through co-creation. The result was an enhanced product experience, validated and refined by the very community it was meant to serve.
The Process: From Research to Execution
For those wanting to replicate this community-driven model, understanding your audience deeply is the first step. Define who your product touches, quantify the impact and empathize with what matters to them.
Once you have this foundational understanding, Kaavya recommends outlining the key phases of your activation strategy: collecting user feedback, enabling internal teams and launching the product while always keeping an ear to the ground to gauge community sentiment. She steps us through the process of hypothesising, researching, segmenting and continually refining your messaging based on feedback from your community and stakeholders.
The Art of Messaging and Engagement
Kaavya emphasizes the crucial role that messaging plays in product launches. Messaging isn't just about the right words; it's about creating a narrative that resonates with your audience on a deeper level. This narrative acts as the backbone of your strategy, guiding the advocates to communicate the product’s value effectively. By crafting messages that speak to emotions and needs, you empower your advocates to become true evangelists of your brand.
Remember, at the heart of groundbreaking product marketing is the passion and authenticity driven by your community. Kaavya shares so many valuable insights with us, and I hope this episode leaves you with inspiration in taking the next step in your own PMM journey!
LINKS:
Connect with Kaavya:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaavyag/
Connect with Elle:
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/
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Elle: [00:00:00] Online communities are a goldmine for finding customer advocates who can supercharge your product launch. But too often companies rely on things like email blasts and paid campaigns completely overlooking the power of engaged customers.
So within your own [00:01:00] community are passionate advocates. Ready to champion your product and influence others. Their enthusiasm not only spreads the word, but also builds trust with newer customers. Seeking validation. Leveraging these voices in a launch isn't just about buzz. It's about creating credibility, driving adoption.
And igniting that word of mouth growth that sustains long after the launch. So with that, it is my pleasure to have Kaavya Gupta on the show today. You guys, I have been so impressed with Kaavya since I first met her back in 2019. Kaavya currently leads a product marketing team at Reddit where she cares for products that make it easy for anyone to find and engage with communities on Reddit.
But her foundation in product marketing stems from her experience across a number of verticals from grocery e-commerce in India to enterprise SAS at Twilio. You can bet she has a wealth of knowledge to share from these diverse audiences. But in every [00:02:00] situation she dives so deep into understanding the end user.
And that's why she's going to have something really special to share with all of you today on the show. she takes a keen interest in the creative arts. If you're on Spotify, try searching her name. You might see some nursery rhymes from a past project Kaavya did with Sony music in India. Kaavya, it is so, lovely to have you on the show today.
Kaavya: Thanks Elle. Thanks for having me, and thanks for that intro. I'm just so glad that our pots got to cross again, especially in the context of product marketing. I'm excited to chat about my experience. You know, I've been a PMM in the B2B space and B2C. And products might be different, the end user might be different, but you know, ultimately what I've seen is that effective marketing is really anchored in authenticity, and it's ultimately driven by the users, not by the brand or business.
So I'm really excited to chat about all of that today.
Elle: Yes. So the customer-centric approach is [00:03:00] so real. Okay, so let's dive right in. Tell me about your role at Reddit and more about how your team makes it easy to find and engage in communities.
Kaavya: Yeah, for sure. So yeah, I lead a product marketing team, uh, which is basically focused on building meaningful consumer experiences on the Reddit platform. And that means pretty much helping anyone kind of. Find and participate in conversations and communities, that are relevant to them. Kind of creating new ways for people to engage with each other on the platform, and making these community experiences really accessible to everyone globally.
Elle: Yeah. Yeah. So this topic of community experiences is going to be the heart of our topic for today. so the first segment of our show, I want to start with this case study of how you leveraged community advocates in, a community driven product launch. So let's talk more about this. What was going on with the product as you were preparing for the launch?
Kaavya: Yeah. [00:04:00] So I am gonna walk you through a set of updates that we launched last year. Uh, so just to give you some context. You know, the comment section is what people come to Reddit for. It's basically where all the redditer knowledge is accessible. And last year we made some foundational updates to the comments experience, and that includes.
Kind of faster comment loading. So we made some performance updates, uh, new navigational UX to the comments. So just making it easier for people to get to the comments and consistent flows in and out of the comment section as well. So regardless of whether you're consuming a text post or an image post, or a video post, we wanna make sure that people are finding their ways to the comments easily.
Now, these were individual efforts. That we're basically working towards making Reddit the best in the world at conversations, right? and so again, going in and out of [00:05:00] comments from the main feed is a core user journey on the platform. And any update that we make to that flow, could mean make or break for the user, right?
So it was really important that these updates land. So we brought the Reddit community along with us. We co-created with a group of Redditors, who expressed interest in wanting to test out early bills. and they provided us feedback and that really informed our product positioning as well. we knew that the only way, to get buy-in from the community and build a better experience was to include the community in the process.
and so we announced all of these individual updates that I shared earlier as a package, you know, to really show the cumulative value that this unlocks for users and simply just making comments easier and faster. and again, like this was a bundle and a package that we created for the community with the community.
Elle: I love that. Okay. [00:06:00] So, so often, especially in the SaaS world as pmms, we'll have small features that we'll have to, launch into the world and into the community. And it can be so, hard to launch several new little features at once.
And finding a creative way to do it, especially using customers, um, isn't something that you see too often. so I love that you were able to not only achieve. together multiple small features and making something bigger with it. but leveraging customers to do it. You know, at Cisco we talk a lot about, you know, what the launch vehicle is gonna be for a product launch.
Your launch vehicle is your customers. so that's amazing. Okay. So tell me more about what the result was
Kaavya: Yeah, no. when we launching it together, actually as a bundle, kind of created this overall seamless comments experience for users, right? Where we could really highlight the value that we were bringing, both at the time of users, kind of reading and finding their posts on the [00:07:00] feed, to then going to the comments from the feed and scrolling through the, comment section.
So really being able to show. how we were introducing a new update at every step of that user journey. Again, just showed bigger picture. And then through this launch, we actually built an official feedback loop with now over a hundred users who have helped us test early bills. For so many products, that followed this one.
And so that was a, that was a huge win for us. and we're so excited to be working with these Redditors, cause the feedback that they've given us, so like early on in the process has been so meaningful. Not only from a product perspective, but also kind of thinking through how we can better message it in the market.
Elle: I.
love it. The feedback loop that must have been so amazing for product also to in, influence your messaging. okay. I'm inspired as a PMM officially, so let's say that I wanted to try to. Replicate this or iterate on it somehow in my world. [00:08:00] you know, I'm trying to use a community driven approach leveraging advocates for an upcoming product launch.
I guess like to start, how would I know whether or not that approach is a good fit for my product launch? Like what are the attributes of
Kaavya: Yeah, I would probably say two things. one kind of really understanding which audience your product touches, how your products would impact them, whether it be good or bad, and, and what really matters to that audience, right? So on Reddit, redditors are really influenced by their communities.
Communities are also where conversations start on the platform. And so for us, as we think about product marketing, we really wanted to start at the core. Uh, again, consumers, users, people don't wanna be marketed at, right? And we know that they absorb more information when it's voiced by their communities, by their networks.
And so it was really [00:09:00] important for us to really start at the core, which was the community. And then I think the second piece is once you are clear on who that audience is, you really need to understand their context. So the changes that I just spoke about, it impacts all users, right? It impacts our core users.
These are the people who are probably coming on the platform every day and have their set ways of engaging with Reddit. And then you also have the casual folks who are probably coming in to find. Something very specific. And so for our core users, some of our core users are also community moderators.
They're also the most trusted on the platform. So it was really important for us to get them in the loop early, not only to kind of get their feedback. But then also build their trust through this effort, which would ultimately build trust with the rest of the community. And I think tactically what we did on the PMM side is [00:10:00] in our go to market documentation, we just, we created a grid, right?
With the audience type, what matters to them, the degree of impact to each of those segments, and then what would the expected sentiment be For those audience groups, and then this should really give you a good sense of which, audience you wanna start with and where you wanna begin that.
Go to market motion.
Elle: I love that approach and I love that you included the sentiment. for the customers or for each of those segments that is so often overlooked when I look at messaging with product marketers that I've worked with and multiple organizations that How does it make you feel? I. Thought is just often overlooked, like the emotion of it.
that was brilliant to include that. Okay. So again, I'm trying to replicate it for myself or as a PMM. It sounds like a way that I could abstract this is looking at my, my advocates, my passionate users, and, uh, figuring out their [00:11:00] context and. Which communities, if any, they are most active in? what's next?
Kaavya: Yeah, so I would probably step one as you kind of start building this out is one, do your homework right, and to what you just said about. Highlighting sentiment, all of that comes after you've done the homework, right? You are then being able to make a hypothesis on, okay. How will, how will these updates, or how will this product launch really make this audience feel?
so I would say first, do your homework. Gather all of your inputs and then formulate a strategy on that based on execution. So what we did was we identified the audience segments and again, why this product matters to them, what we just chatted about, and then do some user research. So like we did, some primary research secondary, so you can talk to users one-on-one or just based on past research that has been done or previous product launches, like what takeaways can you [00:12:00] pull from that and then you assess the impact.
Of the product on those specific audience segments, and then your opportunity size as well. Right? Like for us, because these updates were impacting all users, it was important for us to prioritize kind of which segment we go after first. And then once you have a better understanding of what your audience is, you build a narrative and the messaging around that.
and then you use that to sort of build buy-in internally and get your stakeholder teams aligned before you can start the kind of execution phase of the process.
Elle: Yeah, I have to double down on
Kaavya: yeah.
Elle: do do
the homework, do the research. Such a great tip. It's really tempting as a product marketer 'cause we love we're storytellers. It's fun. It's the fun part of being a pmm. It's easy to just jump right into the messaging or leverage really low hanging fruit customers, friendly customers, but.
Staying true to best [00:13:00] practices and studying customer segments and going for like the best fit customers and advocates, is a really great tip. Okay, so what happens
Kaavya: So
just completed the inbound. and next comes the outbound, right? This is, the execution phase. so I'd say that the next big chunk of the work that we did on the go to market planning side was. Chalk out the key phases of the activation strategy, right? And each phase can be defined by a specific goal.
and then you work back from the launch date to figure out when each phase should happen and how long each phase should be. So again, just like taking the, the launch that I just spoke to, phase one was really about. Feedback collection and that feedback was also really important to us because that also helped inform our messaging and positioning and let's just say phase one was X number of weeks.
And then phase two was really about internal enablement and socialization [00:14:00] across our teams, right? Making sure that our sales teams were equipped to talk about these like large consumer updates with our advertisers, making sure other kind of product teams. That could be working on these surfaces where we were making updates to the comments, like they were aware that this was happening and the message that we were planning to push out.
So phase two was really about kind of internal alignment. And then phase three is kind of your activation stage, right? This is where you're talking about the launch, launching the product both on and off platform. And then of course you track and measure whether that be sentiment, whether that be chatter, whether that be engagement, whichever metrics you're kind of focusing on, but.
Yeah, I would say like the, the outbound is, is the next phase is really about kind of chalking out the execution plan and figuring out when and why you would be doing those activations.
Elle: Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I just for clarity, so you mentioned activation strategy. What are examples of that? Is [00:15:00] that the three
phases Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think activations is basically what you're going to do in each of those phases. So phase one, where I said was really about feedback loops, so. What does the feedback loop mean? In our case, we had to recruit the redditors who were interested in testing out early bills, make sure they were equipped with the bills, making sure that we were collecting the feedback from them, and then relaying those back to product.
Kaavya: And then also being able to use that feedback for. Our messaging and positioning. So that was kind of the, that was the main activation for phase one. Uh, and then phase two was essentially the same thing, but for employees. Um, so this was like the internal alignment phase where we were collecting feedback from employees who had access to the build, making sure that we were collecting that feedback from them, equipping the sales teams, making sure we had the enablement materials in place, and kind of building internal awareness through.
The channels that we had available to us. And then [00:16:00] phase three, which was kind of the launch phase. The few activations in there was one kind of closing the loop with the users that we were collecting feedback from them, right? Showing them, okay, this is the feedback that we got from you. Here's how we incorporated it.
Here's the final build. Like, what do you think? rolling out the announcement comms, both to the community and to the broader market, and then in product education as well, right? Making sure that people who are engaging with the app were aware of the changes that, that we were making to the experience. and so that, that's pretty much the activation piece, which is the task or the action you are taking to achieve whatever goal it is in each phase.
Elle: Got it. Okay. Super helpful. All so backing up for a minute. First I do the research. I define the segments. I chalk out the key phases of activation. You mentioned feedback loop, internal. Was internal enablement? What was that? Okay. [00:17:00] And then basically close the loop with customers. So within that, where does building the messaging come in?
Is that part of the
Kaavya: Yeah, I would say it's kind of an ongoing process, both in kind of phase one and phase two. So we had three phases, which was. User feedback loop, you can say internal feedback loop and then the launch portion. Right. So I guess before phase three, you're kind of building and hydrating the message messaging as you collect the feedback and incorporate the feedback.
And I mean, going again, back to the launch that we were just talking about, for us it was, we actually landed on a very simple message, which was. Easier, faster comments for Reddit. it sounds really easy, but it, it took all of that feedback to finally help us get there.
because that feedback informed, okay, which of these product updates should we be bundling together?
What does each product update ultimately deliver for the user? And then higher level, what does it mean [00:18:00] for the overall experience? And does that higher level message really resonate with the community? Like all of that. Even for those five or simple words, it, it took all of that for us to be able to get there.
So to your question, I think the messaging, while we started with the vision and a goal for what the messaging should be, I think we were fine tuning alongside phase one and phase two up until the point that we reached phase three.
Elle: Yeah.
Even for those five words, it takes a lot of iteration. I bet. PM was just thrilled with how well you and your team were able to not only keep them so well informed into this process, but also bringing customers in. So I guess before you even. Decided to go this route with this community driven, advocate driven launch process.
How did you get in the PMs to buy into [00:19:00] that
Kaavya: I think we went into this knowing that PMM is essentially the CMO of the product, right? And so we wanted to be strategic partners. To our PMs and we co-created the go to market strategy with them. I mean, we started really early and we, we shared our homework, which is what we spoke about earlier, which was we shared more about the market landscape.
We kind of outlined the risks, the opportunities, the audience segments, and kind of various approaches and parts that we could take. From a go to market perspective, and then we worked with them to fine tune and figure out what that path or approach should be. The other thing that we did was, you know, sharing a narrative headline early, like share a vision, and that's what really excites product and it excites the broader like stakeholder, cross-functional team as well, because it.
it gives the entire team a better idea of, or a, not a [00:20:00] north star that we're working towards. So I think that was, that was something that worked well for us. And given that this was one of our bigger product announcements, we factored in time for reviews and discussions, right? Like we factored in time for that co-creation process with our product partners because we wanted product and product leadership to be.
Aligned with the plan and kind of before us as PMM started rallying the troops, right? You know, better than anyone. Product marketing is kind of working with 5, 6, 7 other teams to really get a go to market in motion. And so before we started kind of rallying those troops, it was important for us to get higher level alignment with product and leadership on kind of how we were approaching this.
and now this has kind of become a model for most of our launches, which is. Kind of sharing all of our inbound work, sharing higher level vision, or where we see this going, and then using that as foundation to then fine tune tactics, [00:21:00] outbound, et cetera.
Elle: I love that and something that you said I think is worth saying again, is coming up with a vision and that like headline, like PR headline, press headline to try to gain excitement from pm. Such a fantastic idea. I think so often I feel like pmms are having to prove themselves. To PM almost. but coming in hot with that, with a vision is a good way to ignite the enthusiasm.
Such a fantastic idea. So after you launched, how did this impact your success metrics? Or like, if you look at what a standard launch process looked like versus this, you know, community or, advocate driven launch process, do you think it influenced
the
Kaavya: Yeah, so this launch on the go to market perspective, since, since these were foundational kind of UX updates, success for us was more measured by how the community responded to them. So. we wanted [00:22:00] this to be additive to like the core user journey or the core job that's being performed on Reddit, right?
Which was jumping in and out of conversations and the launch was received really well with Redditers, really feeling like they're part of the process, like I mentioned earlier. Coming out of this, we actually made this feedback loop official, and now we have this set group of Redditors who are constantly giving us feedback early on in the product development process.
And this model of co-creation has become a known best practice with the broader community as well. So now when we refer to the work that we've been doing with this group of Redditors. People across Reddit know what we're talking about. And this has kind of become a benchmark for the rest of the community too.
so I'd say that's, that's how we, measured success, for this one.
Elle: Awesome. I love that it became this like proven, tried and true approach and now you have this [00:23:00] large group of advocates that are basically your field trial customers. I bet your PM team is just so thrilled to have to be working with you guys. Okay, so last question for you, KA sort of on this topic, but slightly different.
So. What advice do you have for a product marketer who just wants to try something new and maybe it's, try something new like this, like a totally different, approach to product launches. What advice do you have for
Kaavya: Yeah, so I would say, I mean, like I said earlier, as a PMM, you are CMO of the product, and quite frankly, CEO of the overall go to market strategy. And what's worked really well for me is one, thinking ahead, which is what we just spoke about, kind of doing your homework, communicating early. And deliver simple messaging.
Right? And an anecdote that comes to mind when I was at Twilio, you know, Twilio had complex products, right? With all the possible buzzword features to wow. Kind of any [00:24:00] enterprise buyer. But ultimately what we saw was that the messaging that really worked best for that audience was one, how does this help me and what matters to me?
And two, show me the data to prove it Yeah, back And so I'd say like the, the simple and the more direct you make it in terms of how it impacts what matters to your user or customer, I'd say the better you'd likely be in terms of your messaging, lending. And then, in your go to market proposal, we discussed this, but in the proposal or documentation or template, whatever you use.
write down your vision for what story you want to lend. Again, it may not be the story that you, eventually end up going out with, but it's just helpful to start with some sort of a baseline. I'd say the second thing to include is any assumptions you are using in order to make the plan or the message and validate these assumptions early.
Like I, I've been in [00:25:00] scenarios where. You use certain assumptions and much, much, much later on in the process, you realize that the assumptions that your whole plan was based on was actually not true. And so validate those assumptions early. And then the third thing would be kind of, chalk out your go-to market approaches with the impact, the risks, and then evaluate which approach makes sense with the rest of your team.
Right? have a few parts laid out. Know what your risks are and then collectively make a decision on, on how to take things forward.
Elle: Amazing. I love it. So one of the first things you said that stood out to me is you are the CMO of your product and the CEO of overall go to market. Let's empower pmms. take control over the future of your product and be the CMO own it. That's something that I share with my pmms on my team all the time.
Uh, you're the CMO, [00:26:00] you have the authority. I'm empowering you make the decisions on your own and I think once you have that, it's so much easier to follow your gut and to do the research and, build out a go to market proposal you can be confident in. that's awesome. much. okay, so now it's time for our second segment.
Uh, this is the messaging critique. So this is where we as product marketers, are going to analyze real world messaging. But here's the fun part. You ka my guest. Get to choose the company. So before we get started, lemme tell you about, the ground rules for this. So once you pick the company, we're gonna talk about three things.
First, you're gonna tell me something that you love about the messaging or the product, what's working really well, what makes the product stand out, uh, then you're gonna tell me something that you wish the PMM would've done differently. Maybe something that could have taken the messaging, made the messaging more clearer or stronger or more impactful.
And [00:27:00] then third, let's iterate a little bit. So where do you think the PMM could take this messaging next? Are there fun, creative campaigns they could use, or pursue that sort of thing? So this is all about learning and refining our craft. No negativity. Just a thoughtful, constructive critique. Are you ready? All right. Okay. So tell me about a product or company that has caught your attention. Good, bad, or
Kaavya: Yeah. So sticking with the theme of community marketing, have you heard of Duolingo?
Elle: I have heard of Duolingo,
Kaavya: Okay. so Duolingo, uh, some folks might know about it. It's, it's a language learning app, and their ethos is on making language learning fun and free. I think they have like 40 plus languages now, and have expanded to non-language courses as well, with [00:28:00] music and maths.
Elle: Oh, fun. Okay, so I just pulled up their website. Super cute illustrations. The most adorable little owl. don't know what it is with owls. It's like the big eyes. They're so, they're so lovable. I love it. Okay, so cute little owl. Their messaging headline on their homepage reads the free, fun, and effective way to learn language.
a exclamation point, which not not all websites or um, have punctuation at all, but I love, yeah, like this is, this
screams it's from millennial
Kaavya: Yeah. And so I think, um, in terms of who, dual linguist targeting is, it, it, I mean, it, it's pretty much anyone who wants to learn a language, but I think it's for people who have an, obviously an interest in learning a new language and. Most likely the casual learner. So tho those who don't, who don't need to learn a language but are just interested in, in learning [00:29:00] one.
And again, with the whole free aspect, it's for folks who may or may not have the means to take a, like a formal language course. So I imagine if this is targeted at Gen Z millennials, my partner, very much a millennial is, is riding the Duolingo train hard.
Elle: So great. Okay, so what are you loving about
Kaavya: so I think dual lingo marketing is, it's fun, it's bold, it's authentic, and the products, relatability is completely rooted in community, right? In fact, the dual owl, the owl that we were just talking about. It, it originated from the community and it started gaining momentum through community memes.
Right? There's, I mean, there's a subreddit on Reddit called r slash duolingo, and you can see that like one of the first memes that, that came out around this owl is a meme of the language bird crying. Basically, it's a meme around [00:30:00] how when you don't
a language lesson, like how the bird reacts, and then
on the
meme it says.
Elle: sad.
bird
Kaavya: on the meme it says, learn Italian today, or he will eat a poison loaf of bread. Right. You know, like. These like
really fun memes and the community really caught on. And now you have Du the Owl, which is kind of their, their like flagship mascot. I think the other thing here is that their authenticity is really memorable.
So again, just referencing Reddit 'cause are real, if you go on on r slash marketing, which is. A marketing focused subreddit. Lots of chatter about Duolingo. in fact, one of them, one of them says, about Duolingo marketing. It doesn't need to be groundbreaking. Du is a natural and being natural is key.
Right? So it is just, it's just all about Um. Genuine. And, and the second part is I think they're, they're, they're good [00:31:00] storytellers, right? Their messaging is like really anchored in conversations that are happening in the community today. it's simple and it, it's very grounded in social proof.
And, and that's what also informs their social, uh, channel choices. You see them primarily on social media. and it's where their audience is at, which Gen Z and millennials and, and, and where, I mean, where the conversation is taking place. And I think the third thing, is just, just on the topic of social proof, is they've created a space for people to advocate for DU lingo with each other, right?
And they've kind used similar mechanics in their product as well, which is what makes the experience just so attractive. It's everything is just about, about community, uh, and that's what's really fun about them.
Elle: yeah,
so they did a really fantastic job, not only with leaning into their fun branding and the messaging and [00:32:00] storytelling, but they did a really great job of matching their go-to market strategy with segmentation, understanding where their target market hangs out. brilliant. I love it.
Okay, so what's something A PMM should have considered or can considered, or maybe we can jump right into how they
Kaavya: Sure. Yeah. And this is me being the outsider here. I'm sure they've considered all of this, but you know, Duolingo has aced the art of getting people hooked. Right. I, I see it with my partner. He will go out of his way to make sure that he doesn't break his streak. And if you ask him why, it's, it's purely a way of kind of challenging himself, and that's what he enjoys.
And I think that that fun and enjoyment has very clearly comes through in their marketing. but one thing that I feel as a consumer who's not yet on the du lingo train is really understanding how effective the app or the product is in [00:33:00] actually teaching me the language. If I am investing every day in this, which it seems
Elle: time's
Kaavya: yeah. And know I'm
because I like my partner, like to challenge myself and wanna make sure I'm not breaking my street. I wanna know if I'm actually learning something right? Like am I actually learning the language? So it would be really cool to see in their marketing, I. If there were some proof points, and just like greater awareness of the tools that are available in the product that aid the process of language learning.
I'd say that that's probably the one thing that I've not seen. Again, this is something that they've probably considered, but be, it'd be cool to see more of.
Elle: Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking on their website, they say, backed by science, and I'm curious about that. I'm well, tell me more. Um, yeah, I love it. Okay. And then how can they,
where
Kaavya: Yeah, I think there's such a big opportunity with streaming. You know, their audience is exposed to so much [00:34:00] content in non-native languages and so deeply influenced by pop culture. Like wouldn't it be so cool to have a product marketing campaign where you can translate your favorite K drama episode or.
of Friends
Episode for non-English speakers using the tools that Duolingo has. I mean, that would be so amazing. Um,
Elle: fun. Such a great way too to like, 'cause Gen Z millennials, we love connection, especially online. I could see there being so much
Kaavya: Yeah, that would be really cool. But yeah, that was an idea that I thought of. But anyway, just hats off to Duolingo. They've done some, they've done some great work, uh, obviously amazing product. and I'm excited to see what more comes out of their marketing team.
Elle: Yeah, definitely. Okay. Duolingo, shout out to the pmms. You've got some fans, so great work over there. Okay, so caveat, before we go, I [00:35:00] want to give a gratitude moment and say thank you so much to you for your willingness to. Share your expertise and your knowledge with us in the product marketing community.
I'm so inspired by pmms like yourself. Um, then I'm curious, who are one or two pmms who
Kaavya: Yeah, for sure. Before I get into that, I want to thank you, and for just giving us pmms a space to talk about our experiences, and share whatever little knowledge that we have. And I'm. So excited to hear from all the other pmms on this podcast. so really appreciate, again, uh, you invited I would say the, the pmms that I, I wanna call out are.
one my current PMM colleagues at at Reddit, uh, Rachel Weber Calloway and Ali Shar. You know, Redditers are a tough crowd to please. You know, they are fans our [00:36:00] biggest critics, and both Rachel and Ali are just so good at understanding. The beat of our user and kind of packaging products in a way that really show value.
I'd say the second person is my dad, Vic Gupta. You know, he's been in marketing for 25 plus years in the fast moving consumer goods space, both in India and in the us. And I've always watched him observe, and I've seen him observe not only how. His product is placed on the shelf, but where it is placed in the context of the other.
And how a consumer responds to that, right? The consumer space is it's so fast. Things change so rapidly and usually the impact of that is never seen in silos. And I think just seeing how he has navigated his marketing career has really pushed me to keep my eyes and ears open for what's happening in the broader [00:37:00] landscape.
And that's kind of, that's what I've taken forward in all of my PMM experiences as well.
Elle: Oh.
it must be so fun to be able to
Kaavya: it's
Elle: with your
dad about marketing. Oh, I love that. Oh, hats off to your dad. Amazing. Okay, last question for you, KA. Where else can we access your expertise? Is it just best for
the
Kaavya: Yes. Yeah, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn?
DM me or send me a friend request. I think the spelling of my name should be in the description of this episode. yeah, feel free to reach out to me and I'm excited to chat more PMM or otherwise.
Elle: Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, KAA, and thank you to our PMM listeners for coming on this adventure with us today. I hope this episode leaves you with inspiration in taking the next step in your own journey. That's all for today. [00:38:00]
