Run Sales Enablement Like a ServiceNow PMM
It’s easy to look at companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, or ServiceNow and assume the work must be easier because the resources are endless. Big budget, big teams, specialists for everything.
Then you get inside one of these companies and realise the resources are real, but they’re not sitting around waiting for your next launch. They’re spread across hundreds of products, thousands of sellers, and a matrix org that can make even a seasoned PMM feel like a tiny speck.
One of the biggest surprises is this: even in a company with tens of thousands of employees, you can still be the only product marketer driving a launch day to day. Positioning, messaging, enablement, competitive, partner story, launch plan. All of it. And you’re still expected to make it scale. That’s exactly why I brought in Anna Startseva: someone who’s lived the enterprise reality and can show what it actually takes to create clarity and scale when you’re effectively a solo PMM.
Meet Anna Startseva
Anna has done product marketing across the full spectrum, from startups to mid-size companies to ServiceNow.
What stands out about Anna is her approach to the craft. She believes great messaging starts with listening. Listening to buyers, listening to sellers, listening to the people closest to the deals. That’s how you find the language that actually lands in the market.
In this launch case study, Anna walks through how she created clarity for sellers in a crowded market, built scale as a solo PMM, and used AI in a way that amplified the work instead of replacing it.
The Launch Problem: Crowded Outside And In
Externally, Anna was launching in a mature category where ServiceNow is already well known: IT service management. It’s been around for decades, and it’s crowded. The competition isn’t just traditional SaaS anymore either. AI-native companies are entering the space and changing expectations.
Internally, the challenge is just as real. ServiceNow has hundreds of products and segmented seller motions. Even within one segment, sellers are already carrying multiple solutions. A launch has to earn attention inside the portfolio, and it has to be positioned clearly so it doesn’t confuse the field.
That’s the enterprise PMM reality. You’re competing for mindshare in two directions at once.
What The PMM Job Actually Is In Enterprise
Anna described two core jobs.
First, build clarity. What problem does this solution solve, for which buyer, and for which segment of sellers? In enterprise, the story can’t be “this is for everyone.” It has to be specific and intentional so sellers know when to lead with it and when not to.
Second, build the launch in a way that scales. In a large company, you can’t ship a deck and hope sellers find it. You have to be proactive about distribution, access, and how the story fits into the broader corporate narrative so field marketing, analyst relations, campaign teams, and sales can all run with it.
Ecosystem First, Then Alignment
This part is a lesson a lot of PMMs learn the hard way. The launch didn’t start with messaging. It started with understanding the ecosystem.
What are the company priorities? What are the OKRs? What’s the broader narrative the company is already telling? Where does this launch fit so it can be seen as strategic and worth resourcing?
Then came early alignment with product, strategy, and sales. In enterprise, alignment isn’t a meeting. It’s a phase. Lots of calls, lots of stakeholders, lots of repetition. It can feel slow, but it’s what prevents the field from filling in the blanks with their own version of the story.
Nucleus: Grounding AI So Everyone Speaks With One Voice
Anna explained how ServiceNow built a grounding layer for AI called Nucleus. Think of it as the place where the organisation stores the context that makes AI outputs specific to ServiceNow.
Brand voice, buyer personas, competitive context, and Messaging Houses live there. AI apps sit on top of that foundation so teams aren’t pulling generic answers from the internet. They’re pulling from approved, aligned, company-specific truth.
The payoff is speed and consistency. Campaign teams can generate assets faster. PMM doesn’t have to review every single page. Sellers can search for sales plays and get the latest messaging tailored to the account they’re working.
The Human Work Still Matters
Anna was clear about what she kept manual.
She did interviews with buyers and sellers herself. She listened for the words buyers use to name their problems, what excites them, and what makes them hesitate. That customer voice is the raw material for messaging that feels real.
She also pulled research from sources like Gartner to understand how the segment buys, what the buying group looks like, and where they go for information.
She did use a tool called Evidenza for synthetic persona research, which gave her high-volume directional insight. But the point wasn’t to outsource judgement. It was to add another input into the foundation.
Her rule was simple: AI can scale your work, but you have to feed it something authentic first.
What AI Helped Scale After The Foundation
Once the Messaging House and personas were solid, the scaling became real.
First call decks, call scripts, website copy, sales plays, enablement materials, partner launch docs. Anna described moving 50% faster, sometimes closer to 70%, because she wasn’t second-guessing whether the language fit the audience. She could pressure-test against the persona and iterate quickly.
That’s the pattern: foundation first, then speed.
Sales Enablement At ServiceNow: Sales Plays, Not Random Assets
One of the most practical parts of the conversation was how ServiceNow thinks about sales enablement.
Sellers don’t go hunting for individual decks. They sell through sales plays. A sales play is a step-by-step motion tied to an account, with the buyer, the problem, the maturity stage, what to show, what to say, and the assets needed to win.
In the field, sellers can pull the relevant play from their account dashboard, generate what they need, and run a consistent motion. The messaging foundation flows through the system so the story stays aligned.
Launch Is The First Goalpost
Anna had a great line: launch is a moment in time, not the finish line.
After launch, the work is staying close to the field. What’s landing? What’s not? What’s confusing? What needs to be updated in the assets or even the Messaging House?
She also shared a simple momentum tactic: document wins and feed them back to sellers in the channels they already use. Slack, Teams, wherever they live. Who bought, why they bought, who you competed with, and what the seller did to land it. It becomes snack-sized, just-in-time enablement that keeps the story moving.
The Enterprise PMM Playbook In Four Steps
When I asked Anna to coach a PMM through the process, the flow was clear:
First, get the buyer truth right and write it down in a way other people can actually use. That means talking to customers and sellers yourself, listening for the exact words they use, and capturing what makes them say yes, what makes them hesitate, and what they already believe about the category. In enterprise, this isn’t just “nice research.” It’s the difference between a story that lands and a story that gets politely ignored.
Second, build the story into a single source of truth. At ServiceNow, that’s the Messaging House. In your world, it might be a messaging doc, a message house slide, or a positioning brief. The format matters less than the function: it needs to be specific, approved, and easy to reuse. If your story is too broad, sellers won’t know when to lead with it. If it’s not aligned, the field will fill in the blanks for you.
Third, make the story reachable in the tools and workflows the field already uses. This is where a lot of launches quietly fail. You can have a beautiful narrative and still lose because it’s trapped in a folder. Enterprise enablement is distribution. It’s sales plays, account-based context, first call decks, call scripts, and the “what do I do next” steps that help a rep move a deal forward without thinking too hard.
Fourth, treat launch as the first goalpost and keep the momentum alive. Stay close to the field, watch what’s working, and update the assets before confusion becomes the default. Then feed sellers with small, real proof: win stories that explain who bought, why they bought, who you competed with, and what the rep did to land it. It’s snack-sized enablement, but it compounds.
Messaging Critique: Microsoft Copilot
We wrapped our conversation messaging critique of Microsoft Copilot.
The product benefits are clear for knowledge workers, especially around finding information, catching up after time away, and summarising what matters. But the website copy felt generic, full of words like “empowering” and “supercharging” that can make people tune out.
Anna’s advice was to bring in more human language, be clearer about how Copilot is different from other assistants, and remember the distribution reality in enterprise. Most people won’t buy Copilot from a landing page. They’ll get it through packaging, procurement, and field sales.
Final Advice For New Enterprise PMMs
If you’re new to enterprise PMM, Anna’s advice is refreshingly specific: understand your company ecosystem and where your launch fits.
It can feel unnatural to spend so many hours aligning internally, but that alignment is what makes everything else easier. In enterprise, clarity and context are what unlock resources, adoption, and scale.
LINKS
Messaging Critique (Microsoft Pilot): https://copilot.microsoft.com/
AI tool mentioned:Evidenza
Connect with Anna:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-startseva-pmm/
Connect with Elle:
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[00:00:41] Elle: Have you ever looked at a huge company like Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, or even ServiceNow and thought, "Wow, they must have a ton of resources?" Resources like a huge budget and a whole team of designers and marketers who specialize in their craft, dedicated teams for messaging, competitive intelligence, enablement, launches, you name it.
[00:01:02] I used to think that, too, and then I went to Cisco, and I, learned something that completely changed how I think about enterprise marketing. Yes, of course, enterprise companies have incredible resources, but those resources are not sitting around waiting for your next marketing initiative. Instead, they're spread across hundreds of products, hundreds to thousands of sellers, countless priorities, and a matrix organization that can make even the most experienced PMMs feel like one tiny speck in a very, very big machine.
[00:01:35] In fact, one of the biggest surprises for me was this: even inside companies with tens to thousands of employees, you're often still the only product marketer working on your launch. You're responsible for the positioning, the messaging, the enablement, the competitive, uh, strategy, the partner story, the launch, literally everything, and somehow you're expected to make it all scale.
[00:02:00] That's exactly what today's episode is all about. With that, it is my pleasure to welcome Anna Startseva to the show. Anna has done product marketing across the full spectrum, from startups to mid-size companies, to one of the world's largest enterprise software companies, ServiceNow.
[00:02:17] Every stage has taught her a different way to solve problems, which gives her a unique perspective on what changes and what doesn't as companies grow. What I especially admire about Anna is how she approaches product marketing. She believes great messaging starts with listening, listening to buyers, listening to sellers, listening to the people closest to the deals, because that's how you uncover the language, the pain points, the positioning, and all, everything that actually resonates in the market.
[00:02:45] Today, we're going behind the scenes of one of her recent product launches to talk about what enterprise product marketing really looks like how she created scale as essentially a solo PMM, and why the most valuable work we do as product marketers still can't be automated. Anna, it's amazing to have you
[00:03:03] on the show
[00:03:04] Anna: so great to be here, Elle. Thank you so much for having me
[00:03:07] Elle: Of course. I've been looking forward to this conversation since we first connected a few months ago. so just to set the stage a little bit, I can't imagine anyone would not know this, but just to keep it clear and get our listeners up to speed, how would you describe ServiceNow to someone who has heard the name but doesn't exactly know what they do?
[00:03:27] Anna: Sure. So ServiceNow is all about workflow and automation. If you've ever filled out an IT support request at your work, or you've had a customer service interaction through chat or phone or a bot, or you've done-- gone through a thing like new hire onboarding, then there's a good chance that you've seen ServiceNow in action.
[00:03:47] So we work with some of the world's largest companies, uh, such as Walmart, Amazon, FedEx, Bell, um, you name it, we probably work with it, as well as some cool growth companies
[00:03:58] Elle: Yes, thank you for that. And I [00:04:00] personally have experienced the ServiceNow product at a few of the companies
[00:04:03] that I've worked at. So I can attest it was very easy to use as an employee as well. okay. So today's episode is really about the enterprise PMM motion, and I feel like your time at ServiceNow is a perfect environment to talk about this because we are not talking about a small team where one PMM can just gather everyone in a room and align the whole company in a single afternoon.
[00:04:31] That cannot happen in this kind of environment. We're talking more about a company with tens to thousands of employees, thousands of go-to-market people potentially, and a huge product portfolio, and a very mature enterprise motion, to say the least. So for the first segment of our show, I want to start with your case study.
[00:04:50] You were launching a specific solution into a segment that was underserved by ServiceNow, but, already a still very competitive market. So help set the stage for us. What was going on in the market and inside the company when this launch all got started?
[00:05:05] Anna: Yeah, absolutely, Elle. Thank you. So at ServiceNow, we n- we sell all kinds of different, uh, products across categories, and one of the categories that we're very well known for is IT service management, and this product w- is exactly in that very well-known category. So IT service management has been around for roughly 30 years, and ServiceNow is a leader in, in many of the elements of IT service management.
[00:05:32] So you can see us in G2 crowds as well as, in Gartner Le-Leadership Quadrant. So doing really well. It is, however, a very, very crowded market, especially now that it's not just the traditional SaaS, uh, competitors that are coming to our market share, but also others such as the AI native companies.
[00:05:52] So there's a lot of competition in the space, and it's, it's a little bit challenging to stand out with a product that's been there for a while, [00:06:00] um, that is well known, but is now facing, um, different headwinds from different competitors. So that's the external situation. Now let me tell you about what's happening internally. So as you mentioned, ServiceNow is a large company, multi-metrics company. We have hundreds of products and very matrix go-to-market motions. So sellers are segmented. Even within a segment, they're already selling different solutions, right?
[00:06:26] So the launch is for the specific solution, we needed to really nail down what segment of our sellers will be selling it, how is it differentiated out in the market space, but also within our own solution set. So what is its place within the broader ServiceNow story? And it's very, very important to get that right so, so that we don't confuse our sellers and we don't confuse the market.
[00:06:51] Elle: yes. Okay, so what I'm hearing is that it's really crowded in two ways. The first way is, as you mentioned, externally, right? Um, the market category had been around for quite a while, so there.
[00:07:03] were-- It was quite mature, and everyone's trying, I'm sure, to add in their AI story, I can imagine. And then also internally, the launch was competing for seller attention inside this massive portfolio, um, which is so typical set for an enterprise PMM, this kind of, environment to be operating in.
[00:07:26] So let's talk about the task. What did you actually need to accomplish as the PMM for this launch?
[00:07:33] Anna: Yeah. So there were just a couple of things. Number one is to build clarity. It's very important to understand internally even what is the need that we're trying to solve with this solution. So what are we taking to our sellers? And then also to build out that story externally, right?
[00:07:51] So we already have 100 products, how come none of them fit the need and can't solve it? So why is there the need for this specific solution, [00:08:00] right? So, um, there was a lot of work done before we ever got started with messaging and positioning. There was a lot of internal work done to define exactly which segment, um, this solution was for, which problem it was solving.
[00:08:14] We wanna f- stop confusing and avoid actually confusing the sellers by positioning, the product too broadly. So it, it really has to be very specific, usually quite narrow, to really help the sellers understand when they need to lead with the solution over everything else that they have, um, going on.
[00:08:33] So yeah, that's, that's kind of the, the building a story component that's very distinct, I think, from, um, maybe some of the jobs that other PMMs are doing in some of the smaller companies where they can really take the liberty and kind of like go wild with the story and tell that, big, big grand story and present a solution that's solving everything for everyone, right?
[00:08:54] So, um, we have to be specific, and very intentional. And then the second job is really to build a launch as a leading PMM. So, as you mentioned, I worked on this launch myself day to day. I was the lead PMM. there was, of course, my, my leader who attended all the steering committee meetings and kind of led the strategy.
[00:09:17] But then day to day with all the deliverables you mentioned, like, you know, building the launch plan and the decks and the enablement and the competitive, it was mostly me, doing all of that work. And something that we need to think about when we're in an enterprise company is that The, the efforts need to scale.
[00:09:39] So, right? So we're not just, we're not just putting things in on the shelf and kind of waiting for sellers to come and get it. Um, we need to be very mindful and proactive about how they're gonna find this information, um, how we can make it easy for them to access it, and also how we scale it, not just for the sellers, but for the whole go-to-market, [00:10:00] kind of like team.
[00:10:00] So the field marketing folks and the analyst relations folks and everyone else who has a job to do, how do we make it super easy for them to find the right information, to know exactly how this specific launch fits in everything else that the company is doing into our, corporate narrative? How do we talk about it, um, with regard to our kind of brand and the principles that we're following so that, that it all comes together and it can scale?
[00:10:27] So that's kind of like the building a launch as a lead PMM part there.
[00:10:32] Then I also had a personal goal. I really wanted to be an AI first PMM and use it as much as possible. I kind of had to because I was the lead PMM on this launch, and it just... You know, you have to use some sort of automation, and you have to scale yourself, otherwise it can pretty much kill you.
[00:10:49] So you, you-- I needed to use it, but I also wanted to use it well. And that, for me, came down to a decision of when to use AI and when to still do the manual work, the research, kind of like the human intelligence part that's needed to really nail down the message.
[00:11:05] Elle: okay, so you mentioned a couple things that I think are really important, and the biggest thing is that you've clarified what I think is a misconception for PMMs who maybe aspire to work in enterprise but haven't actually worked in an enterprise-sized company, and they think that they're gonna, you know, have, like, five PMMs swarming a launch like this, and that's not the case.
[00:11:29] Like, as you pointed out, you have this, priority of driving clarity for the sellers, but then also f- building the launch itself and all of the work that goes into it. so, uh, yes, it's true that enterprises have access to tools, but as we know, it's not quite what we think. So I have a feeling we're gonna get into some of the tools and the AI stuff as part of your story, so I'll hold on on my, like, eagerness on act- asking some of those questions just yet.
[00:11:59] [00:12:00] but give me a lo- a sense of, like, what does, what does the action actually look like here, okay? So once you, you reali- you had your big objectives, you know, the task at hand for what you were trying to achieve. Where did you actually get started in all of this?
[00:12:13] Anna: Right.
[00:12:13] For me, the first area, we, we always have to be strategic. So within a large organization like ServiceNow, it's about getting to know and understanding the ecosystem of this company. Kind of what, what are our OKRs? What is important? And where does this launch land in this ecosystem? so we know that kind of we need to tell a story from what internally, from what people already know, kind of these are the five main priorities, and we need to launch AI native SKUs, and this is where this specific launch highlights our leadership in this space, and this is why it's important.
[00:12:50] So, um, that's the story that we were building in order to make this launch spec- specific, strategic, but also get the resources that we needed to support it and make it scale, right? So it's, for me, it doesn't even... the launch doesn't, didn't even start with kind of your traditional, uh, research messaging positioning.
[00:13:08] It starts with understanding the ecosystem, where we fit in, and then being able to kind of advocate for yourself and the launch with the larger ServiceNow community, um, to make sure it's part of the plan. So then, the second thing that I did was work very closely with our product and strategy and sales to get an alignment on all of these, all of these pieces, because it is es- essential, and if people don't agree on the importance and the priority and kind of where this launch fits in for a specific segment of sellers, then, you know, everything else falls apart.
[00:13:43] So we need to have early alignment, and that means lots of Zoom con- conversations with lots of stakeholders. Um, more so than I've ever had in companies of smaller sizes. So folks, folks need to get ready for that. That's, [00:14:00] that's, uh, there's Uh, there's a lot, a lot of hours there spent on calls just hashing everything out and make su- making sure everyone's on the same page.
[00:14:09] then, you know, we got very specific, uh, with, with my counterparts on the segment, the buyer, the product, and the problem that we're selling-- solving in the market, as well as the maturity stage of our buyers, very important. Um, and the positioning. Like, I also had the temptation of going big and telling this grand story about how we were gonna solve every single problem, and then
[00:14:31] folks were PMMs have that temptation
[00:14:34] like, "Wait a minute." Exactly. You kinda wanna, you know, 'cause that's why you're in marketing. You wanna tell a grand story. Yeah. kinda need to pull ourselves back and, figure out how to make it work f- with your kind of constraints and your focus, right? So then the story, the story had to be adjusted to really fit, you know, again, the segment and the needs of the buyer there.
[00:14:57] it ended up being a very, very specific story that we're solving for a buyer, and we're preparing to launch with that very specific set of sellers. So, you know, it's just nailing down those details and making sure there's alignment for e- for everyone involved. That's very important in an enterprise motion.
[00:15:16] Elle: Yes. Uh, I feel so seen hearing you just describe some of that as a prior enterprise PMM myself. Like, I love that you started with understanding the broader ecosystem within ServiceNow, and I- you mentioned, like, the hours spent in alignment meetings internally. It really is. It's hours. It's so many meetings on all those things that you, that you mentioned, the strategy, the messaging, the positioning, the findings, just to make sure that everybody agrees because you just to- you have so many stakeholders when you're operating within an enterprise.
[00:15:55] And it reminds me of what I used to tell my [00:16:00] team at Cisco. I had a very hard lesson earlier, early on in my experience working as an enterprise PMM, where I didn't know. I had, I, I to- fell into the temptation of telling my big story, and guess what? My product was not one of the prioritized products for the rest of the company.
[00:16:20] So I didn't get the resources, and I had to go back to my product team and explain what happened, and it was A lesson learned, but it's okay because I learned from the lesson. And then in the future, I got to help my team at Cisco then say, "Okay, this is what we're gonna do. We are not going to just go forth and tell our story like we're the only product in the world that matters.
[00:16:43] We are going to look at the broader initiative of the company, look at the story that the rest of the company is trying to tell, and how does our product fit into that?" that's how we're going to try to get resources, if any at all, from the rest of the company. And I guess what I'm trying to say is just validate what you're, what you're describing, and say that, you know, in lar- in a large enterprise, your product has to fit into that story.
[00:17:12] And if you do not define that, that very clearly, then even, even if you don't get the resources and you go out and you, you launch to the best of your ability without much resources at all, you ha- your, the field is going to try to fill in that blank for you, where they are gonna try to make up how this product fits into the broader story.
[00:17:35] And you don't want that to happen, because then that could totally derail and put a bunch of misconceptions out there about what your product does and why your company is investing in the re- engineering resources to build it. So, I just wanted to validate everything that you're saying and, you know, and I guess to, to bring it back to, to your story.
[00:17:56] So now, once you had that clarity, you mentioned [00:18:00] that you had to go forth, and in our prep call you talked about a message house. So, as you started to take some of that, like, messaging and positioning and put it all together, and I'm imagining this message house is what was part of all of those conversations that you had internally.
[00:18:15] So tell us what that is and why it mattered so much for this launch.
[00:18:20] Anna: Yes. So Messaging House is ServiceNow's way of kind of standardizing all of the launches and how we talk about our products and solutions. So there is currently over 70 Messaging Houses out there. and they're just, you know, I'm sure everyone has heard of messaging docs. You usually have one. It's just something in a, um, template that's standardized where you talk about what problem you're seeing on the market, who is your buyer, how are you solving the problem, what's unique from anyone else on the market, your elevator pitch, your one paragraph, um, your case studies, your
[00:19:00] Elle: Yeah. Proof points, yeah, market validation, all of that stuff. Yeah
[00:19:05] Anna: Exactly. It's all these things. And the goal there is really to come up with a very, very strong point of view, um, that everyone can agree on. Again, a-agreement, kind of an alignment is very important in the organization. And then we can build all kinds of assets, and we can scale in beautiful ways once we have that messaging house completed.
[00:19:28] so for us, it's, it's a document of about six to eight pages. All the 70-plus products and solutions have the same exact standard format. It is very important to get this document right. It gets reviewed at the highest level of VP or SVP, um, of your business unit. So it, it, it, you know, has a lot of eyes on it.
[00:19:49] Everyone wants to be in agreement that this is the right, uh, positioning. We're going out with the right messaging. Um, so it's, it's an, a very important document that takes a while to put together. [00:20:00] Um, but once it's there, it's, it doesn't just sit in a folder somewhere gathering dust. it is used for creation of all kinds of downstream assets for the launch.
[00:20:12] Um, it is used by our analyst relations team when they're getting ready for the analyst meetings. It is also very much used by the campaign team because now instead of coming directly to product marketing, they kind of have, um, the starting point that they need to go and get ready for their campaigns.
[00:20:29] It is also used by our sellers. So isn't it strange that sellers can now use messaging house? So
[00:20:37] Elle: was about to say I'm shocked.
[00:20:39] Anna: mean,
[00:20:40] Elle: I would
[00:20:41] Anna: They don't read this several times. yeah, the way we have it done is that, it is ingested into our internal AI, and then when they search for kind of like specific sales plays or things associated with this product or solution, the information then comes up and they have the latest and greatest.
[00:21:03] But not just kind of like just information on the messaging house, it's very specific for the account that they're trying to land or expand. So it's, it's, um, very topical within their own search. So we make it, we make it right for all of the different audiences. So this, this messaging house is very important, and it's used by all of our go-to-market teams.
[00:21:26] Elle: Yeah. Okay, and you're getting into the next question that I wanted to ask you, which was all about, basically how this work that you do to create the message house, how that is, it, it's the foundation of the entire launch, everything that comes after it. And you kind of, you mentioned this already that about, sellers using AI, 'cause one thing that I was going, that I was, that immediately came to my mind after you mentioned all of the stakeholders who use this document, I was very surprised by that because it's contrary to how I've always given guidance on our [00:22:00] messaging and positioning documents.
[00:22:01] I, I do have a messaging and positioning template that I personally like to use. sounds like the one that you're using is standard across all of product marketing within ServiceNow, which I think is really good, and Cisco had that too. I also had my own that I just like to do 'cause I felt like it was very, very thorough, and it's so funny, I have a message house, but it's like literally looks like a little house.
[00:22:22] It's like shapes on a slide, like, with like a little roof and like but I do have all of the other research behind it in a very thorough document. But I typically don't let non-PMMs look at that. I use that deep research to fill out all of the things that my stakeholders do see, and the reason why has beco- has been because they, A, don't really understand parts of it, or B, they will just copy and paste stuff without tweaking it for the right context for which it will be used.
[00:22:57] So it sounds like, though, probably for a couple of reasons, one, your standardized approach is probably helps to avoid that 'cause everybody is now familiar with the documents, that they know how to use it, and then two, you have this AI context layer. So tell us all about that. Like, how is that, how did that kind of become your, I'm guessing, vehicle for scale when you were as a solo PMM?
[00:23:21] Anna: Absolutely. so within ServiceNow last year, there was an effort started by, the PMM team, and it's called, Nucleus. Nucleus is kind of, it's not the brain of AI, but it's, it's, uh, it's a place where we layer in all the, um, grounding context for our AI. So it's things like our brand, how do we talk?
[00:23:44] Who are our kind of traditional buyer personas? Competitive is in there, and of course, these, these product, messaging houses are in there as well. Now, when AI works [00:24:00] and we have, you know, AI for all of our go-to-market teams, it's kind of apps that sit on top of this foundation. It is not just going straight to the, the internet and kind of getting answers because that is not differentiated.
[00:24:14] It is not our DNA, right? It is going and getting the depth of information, the color, how we talk, the phrases we use, our deep differentiation. It's getting all of that from that deep layer that we call Nucleus and, you know, our messaging docs are part of that. So the cool thing about it is that now everyone is able to speak with the same voice.
[00:24:38] All these documents are approved, um, everyone's aligned on them, and we're also able to scale so that someone in the team that's, that's doing campaigns, all they have to do is put in information, um, on the campaign they want, so the geography, who they're inviting, um, the types of assets that they want.
[00:24:58] And then with, uh, Nucleus fueling it and, you know, all the AI on top, they're able to get, you know, all of the campaign assets that they need that already have a lot of the intelligence, um, that we've collected in Nucleus. So it simplifies everyone's days. We love it because we don't have to approve every single document that our, all the go-to-market teams have.
[00:25:22] And obviously, the go-to-market teams love it too because it just streams li- streamlines their work and it also helps them run so much faster.
[00:25:31] Elle: I love that. I'm just, um, rem- I'm remembering the days when I had to review every single little webpage. And in an, an enterprise, there are a lot of webpages that you might need to update when you're doing a product launch or a product release. so I, I definitely don't miss those days. Everything can kind of be reviewed by AI now.
[00:25:55] So, um, that's great. That's very helpful. And [00:26:00] what the other thing that I, um, that I'm hearing from this is that while AI is helping you scale, you did so much of the true product marketing craft beforehand like, that was the human element of it. The human work that you did was still the deep, messaging and positioning and the research.
[00:26:21] And you talked about, and I know this is kind of one of your superpowers, is just being a good listener and knowing who to listen to and what you're listening for. So, and it's something too, it, it sounds like that you, you do the work first and then you use AI to, what I've always called 10X your value.
[00:26:40] And that's something, that's a principle that I've tried to hold myself to, and that I've tried to share with others. So I guess talk to us more about like that human element first, and when you were initially creating the message house and all of the insights that feed into that, how much of that did you do on your own versus using AI and what, if you used AI at all, like what, or any other tools, how did that kind of show up in the, in the final, deliverable of the message house?
[00:27:08] Anna: Wow, that's, that's a great question, and I kind of reflect on that a lot. Um, to preserve that point of view, I try to do as much work by myself, kind of manually, the old school ways. so I did the interviews, you know, with, with humans,
[00:27:25] Elle: I love doing the interviews. I think they're, like, fun to do.
[00:27:29] Yeah. I'm glad you didn't outsource that to AI
[00:27:32] Anna: Exactly. Then I recorded them, and I really listened for unique ways that my segment, my, my buyers, are naming their problem or some of the wording that they're using for the solutions, like what gets them very excited.
[00:27:48] So all the things that you would usually listen for to make for you great messaging, those stay intact. The AI hasn't replaced that for me because I really want [00:28:00] to connect with these buyers in, in human ways and make them excited about this product so they could, you know, when they look at the messaging, they can self-identify and say like, "This is for me.
[00:28:11] I am, I am that." and then kind of continue, with the conversation. The thing about AI that, is interesting is that obviously it can scale your work and, and give you all these fantastic outputs, but before it does that, you really need to feed it something authentic that's truly uniquely yours with a unique point of view.
[00:28:33] And only then will you get, a fantastic outcome and that... And will be able to 10X yourself. So in my case, the interviews, uh, with sellers, with, uh, customers were done manually. I also collected a lot of research from Gartner and other places about kind of like the state of, um, the segment that I was pursuing.
[00:28:52] How do they like to buy? Um, where do they like to go to find more information? What is their buying group looking like? So all that information is super important to me before I start building that messaging house. and then I also had some exciting resources that I've never had access to in smaller companies I've worked at before, and that is called Evidenza.
[00:29:13] I'm not sure if, um, a lot of folks are familiar with that. Evidenza is a research company that does synthetic persona market research. So you can get all of these synthetic personas interviewed, ask them very specific questions, just like you would any other buyer, and there could be, you know, more than 1,000 personas interviewed.
[00:29:39] So you're getting kind of a, a very point of view on
[00:29:42] things. Yeah love that. I have not heard of Evidenza. So, sorry, so it's Evidenza Synthetic AI or is it just Evidenza?
[00:29:50] Evidenza is the name of this research company, and what they do is synthetic persona research. Synthetic broad market research is, is overall Cool. We will [00:30:00] have to check them out. We'll link them in the show notes so people can
[00:30:02] I'm Yeah. I know, I'm like, "We should get a referral link for this." No, I'm just... kidding.
[00:30:08] kind of work with them, I'm so amazed about the detail, um, that, that comes out of, of their work, and I've, I've spoken with them and they said that it's kind of like 80% accurate.
[00:30:21] So 80, 80% alignment with my kind of target buyer and what I would
[00:30:25] get if I didn't use this method. It's really good, and it's
[00:30:29] Elle: the volume of work that, for the volume that you get, it's, I'm,
[00:30:32] Anna: Yeah. So, uh, I'm always very impressed by what we get from them. So that's kind of-- that's a piece that's obviously not manual, um, that just kind of came in because I work at ServiceNow and I was able to benefit from that, and, uh, it's just a really cool, um, way to do research these days.
[00:30:50] So yeah. I did most of the work on the messaging house by hand as much as possible, putting together all the information from kind of like, uh, how we wanna position the solution with our buyers so that they're not confused, but also so that we can explain the full value. I use the words, I actually usually even have kind of like a, a little set of vocabulary that I put inside of my, um, documentation that then fits, fits AI kind of like
[00:31:17] use
[00:31:18] Elle: that. That is such a good idea. I'm gonna steal that one.
[00:31:22] Anna: already gave it to us. Why not, why not use the terminology and make AI kind of, uh, do all this, all this work to make it authentic? yeah. So the goal there is really to capture customer voice as opposed to the PMM voice or the AI voice, right? I really want, that customer voice captured so that we can reflect it back and people can kind of self-identify and say like, "Yes, this is really me.
[00:31:46] This speaks to me."
[00:31:47] Elle: That is so cool. I love that. Um, and I love that you encourage the first draft being of everything being more as much human-driven as possible. [00:32:00] and truly, that is where your creativity's going to come out, your unique point of view. Um, so if anyone takes anything away from this conversation, I hope it's that.
[00:32:11] Um, so okay, so once the message house, you, you mentioned the message house itself, that it sees a lot of eyes, and you have... it's ve- sounds very iterative. But once it's all approved and all said and done, what did AI actually help you create or scale?
[00:32:27] Anna: Yeah, everything. So once we have our messaging house and we have our personas in, so I obviously had those synthetic personas, but I also built something even more bespoke for me because I had all that interview data as well. So I, I, my very specific personas as well. Then they form kind of my, um, the foundation of that, of my, my project and my AI, and then, then we go big.
[00:32:53] Then it's everything. First call decks, call script, website copy, sales plays, enablement materials, partner launch documents. Everything can be scaled from there using your foundation documentation. Obviously, there's best practices, like, have many years doing this, so I kinda, I kinda make sure it's, you know, the right content for the right audience and it fits within the parameters of what we're trying to do.
[00:33:19] But honestly, it was so easy to scale because I had that foundation. I'm sure I was able to run at least 50% faster, if not kind of closer to 70, because, I didn't have to second-guess myself about, "Hmm, would, would this audience really use these words?" Or, "Am I connecting to them on the right level?" Even, you know, if we present them with this demo, is this the right demo flow?
[00:33:41] I was just able to ask my persona what, what they wanted to see, and then got a script out of, you know, AI. So how cool is that?
[00:33:49] So, Obviously, you, you need to use judgment, right? It's not gonna be a, um, do all. Uh, but hey, going 50, 70% faster is amazing, and I, I will take that any [00:34:00] day.
[00:34:00] So the ability to scale with AI was, was truly fantastic.
[00:34:04] Elle: That is so, so interesting. And you, you mentioned a couple things here that, that I feel like I just have to call out. So one thing that really, really matters here, and I'm, not quite sure, like, what the solution is or what my guidance even is, but this is not the first time that this has come up on this podcast, where I have a guest like yourself, who's
[00:34:27] You're very seasoned, you're very experienced, so when you are using these AI systems, you have very strong discernment on what good looks like. You also did the product marketing craft yourself, for the most part. L- little bit of help from some tools, for everybody's got tools. But, um, you did the work on your own to create this message house.
[00:34:52] So when you then would, um, turn to AI to create some of these assets or s- or sales enablement material, you know exactly what you're looking for and what good is. So, uh, the reason why I bring that up is because I feel like, maybe this is a conversation for another day, I don't wanna make our po- this episode too long, but we should come back here and have this conversation.
[00:35:19] I feel like we're shoving AI down people's throats, and I worry for the more earlier in career folks who don't have the expertise that you have. They just frankly don't have the years of experience, they don't have the discernment, they don't have the judgment. Um, and that's not, it's not expected that they do.
[00:35:39] They'll earn it over time. But I, I don't know kind of what that new generation of marketers is going to look like with the push to use AI in the way that you have. So I don't wanna derail this totally, but do you have any quick thoughts on that?
[00:35:56] Anna: Um, I'm I'm kind of in the same boat, right? Like, how do [00:36:00] you learn, if there are no best practices or examples if you're in a small company and, you know, you kind of only have a few resources? Um, I think it's, it's tricky, and that's probably why you listen to folks like yourself, Elle, and kind of participate in some of the other, organizations to get some of those best practices.
[00:36:19] Because yeah, you don't, you don't learn product marketing in college. That's, that's not a thing. You kind of learn on the job. Um, yeah, that's, and that's why it's so important to still, within companies, maintain some balance of folks that are seasoned while you're still bringing in those, those new folks to, to do the work.
[00:36:35] Elle: Yeah
[00:36:35] right, 'cause you could risk the, this whole purpose of, like, using AI to actually give you some really bad results if you don't, if you're not feeding it, you know, with the right, with the right stuff. Okay. All right. So, um, bring us home. I wanna merge two different topics into one question be- just for the sake of time.
[00:36:55] So you talked about sales plays in our prep call, so I would love to hear about that. And as we're kind of talking about sales, sales plays, can you talk through how this, impacted the overall results of your launch?
[00:37:11] Anna: Absolutely. Sales plays, uh, an important and sometimes misunderstood technique, I would say. Um, ServiceNow goes to market with sales plays. Folks don't sell individual products or even solutions. They, they have kind of a whole motion attached to it. It's a step-by-step instruction of how to sell a bag of products, for lack of a better word.
[00:37:36] Um, and we create in product marketing the sales play, right? So then it has all the information they need about who is their specific buyer, um, what do they need to tell them, what problem are they solving for them, what maturity stage we're going after, um, and what do they need to show in order to v- win.
[00:37:55] And then a product marketing individual prepares all of that and puts it [00:38:00] together. So it's, it's kind of a, it's kind of like here are all the steps you need to take to have a win, right? Um, and that's how s- sales are trained. So they have these sales plays. They don't kind of go and get an individual deck here or there.
[00:38:16] They just go, um, to now their, to their account dashboard, and then they're able to see what are, what is the specific sales play that is associated with a specific account. And then they just simply press a button, and then they have all the information they need about kind of like latest intel from this account, what's going on with this com- company overall, and where we can come in and kind of, position new products, additional products.
[00:38:45] Um, and then a deck is generated, a, a kind of a, a contract can be generated. They have all of the success stories. Um, so everything they need they can get in one place. And it's, again, it's not just, "Oh, here's a pitch deck for a product." It's like all the assets you need in one place, as well as a step-by-step instruction of how to win.
[00:39:10] So yeah, we're just trying to make it as easy as possible for our sellers because we realize they're selling so many different things.
[00:39:17] Elle: Yeah. And it's important to note here that as I'm assuming there's some kind of AI component that enables these sellers to generate a pitch deck or a contract, et cetera. And again, that is built on your message house. So it's all so, this is, this is, we, we keep coming back to the message house. It's, it's an important document.
[00:39:38] Anna: Foundation The nucleus.
[00:39:40] Elle: Yes, yes. Okay. So you, you mentioned this earlier that one of your success metrics was that you yourself as a, an enterprise PMM, you got to move like 50 to 70% faster with this entire approach that you've taken. Is there anything more to the story here for how you were able to bring this to [00:40:00] life?
[00:40:00] Anna: Um, yeah. I think probably having all the information, um, that you would ever want on your, on your, um, product as well as your persona is extremely important. You're able to move fast. Um, the relationships that you build are extremely important. That's another human thing that we need to do ourselves. So in my case, whenever I had interviews with my, um, the buyers or with the customers, I would bring back all, all the intel to my broader team, including product, strategy people, sales ops, so that we were all working kind of from the same set of assets, and they understood that if I'm moving in a certain direction, it is for a reason, right?
[00:40:41] So, so we continued to stay aligned. I continued to bring them value, and I was kind of a, I felt like a valued person, um, launching the product because, uh, you know, I was, I was part of every single conversation because I, I had insights that they wanted.
[00:40:57] Elle: Yeah. You got that seat at the table that every PMM dreams to have. So I absolutely love this story. I love how you did the PMM craft yourself. I love the tools that you mentioned, and just how you knew which players to bring along for the ride internally. and everything is something that I think most PMMs, especially enterprise PMMs, aspire to.
[00:41:20] So let's turn this into a very quick coaching session and make a playbook for me. Say that I am an enterprise PMM at another company, different product, different market, so, you know, obviously no competition or anything. But how do I get started? How would you coach me through this? What would step one be?
[00:41:42] Anna: first place is getting that truth right. You really want to understand your buyer, what they feel, what, what they actually wanna buy, and you wanna have that documented and bring that to the rest of the team
[00:41:53] Elle: So that could be with like customer interviews. This is where maybe we could use, what is it,
[00:41:57] Anna: Yeah
[00:41:59] Elle: [00:42:00] I love that. Okay, perfect. And then once I get that truth, I do all my foundational research, um, build out personas and everything in between. What's Step two What's next?
[00:42:14] Anna: Step two is building that story. So in my case, it was creating a messaging house. Um, so any type of a document that you will continue to come to and use it as a foundation for everything else, all the assets that you-
[00:42:26] Elle: And keeping in mind that that messaging house is going to be seen by all of those stakeholders. And I would-- I, I really love how you're partly just lucky that ServiceNow is already aligned on what the messaging house looks like. But if you're-- work somewhere that maybe your stakeholders have never seen a messaging house before, definitely Make sure that everybody's familiar with the document and how to use it, otherwise chaos could arise.
[00:42:54] Um, so okay. So I get-- build out the, my differentiated story, and it's documented in the messaging house. So I, I did my research. I got the buyer truth. I did the messaging house. next?
[00:43:07] Anna: Make sure that story reaches the field in a useful way. In my case, it is, of course, the enablement of our sellers as well as the partners, but then it's also to make sure that I have my sales play that is linked in all of their tools so that they can easily use it, easily generate their sales play, follow the steps, have all the assets available.
[00:43:31] Um, if that's not there, if you were just thinking that launch is like building a story in a pretty deck, I'm, I'm afraid, um, there's, there's a little bit more to it, right? Um, and it-- you just need to make sure you have that route to market
[00:43:43] Elle: Perfect. Okay, so including the sales play, and this was actually one of your goals that you stated in the very beginning, was creating the clarity for not only obviously for your buyers, but like for your sellers so that they know how this fits into everything, and [00:44:00] obviously giving them the tools and resources for them to use this amazing story that you just put together in the messaging house.
[00:44:07] Okay, so makes sense. what's next after I get all of my materials out to sales?
[00:44:13] Anna: Yes. Um, while you, you drink a glass of champagne, you celebrate, and you quit your job. Ob-obviously. Oh, hello. No. No, you don't do those things. No,
[00:44:24] Elle: It's not done yet
[00:44:27] Anna: the job is never done. You treat launch as the first goalpost. This is not the finish line. Launch is just one moment in time. It is not the end. You keep doing the real wor- work of connecting with your, your sellers. You wanna understand what's working, what's not working, how is this, um, landing in the field, and you make changes to both your assets as well as potentially your messaging house.
[00:44:52] You work very closely with your campaigns teams, your BDRs, to make sure they have what they need, uh, to take your story to market. So you, you need, you need to continue the momentum. The one thing that I like to do for sellers, uh, um, it's, it's... for me, it's not a nice-to-have, I think it's a, it's a great tool, is whenever there's a win in the field, I like to document that win and then bring it back to sellers on the channels they already use, so Slack or Teams.
[00:45:18] Um, it's an easy way to show that, hey, we're doing something exciting and this is really landing and exactly how it is landing. So there's a write-up about, you know, who was this company that bought, why, who did we compete with, and what did the seller do to land. It's a perfect way to do kind of like just-in-time enablement because you never really get a chance to have another big enablement on, on the same launch, right?
[00:45:43] Um, but this way, um, your sellers still get these little bits of snack enablement over time, um, that you can leverage with them
[00:45:51] Elle: I love the win stories tip. That is so strong and such a good way to keep building momentum. And there's, um, also something to [00:46:00] be said about your earlier insight that you had around, um, not insight, I would say maybe it's more intuition is more what I meant to say, but around taking your product and attaching it to the broader company and making sure that it fit in with the narrative of the broader company.
[00:46:17] There's something to, continuing with that, um, intuition and as the company's narrative continues to change and new campaigns get developed, that you're keeping a pulse on that for opportunity to bring your narrative, your product narrative into that broader enterprise narrative as well.
[00:46:39] Anna: Yeah. It ex- it, it happened for, for me in a really cool way. As I was working through the launch, there was a kind of a nice-to-have, but because I was able to scale myself with AI and like run so fast, I, I really took that as an initiative, and that is getting a great customer story. Um, there was a shortlist of like 10 customers, and I went for the one with the biggest and best name, and their story aligned so well.
[00:47:04] I, I've honestly never had that experience, but like just hearing them tell me what they're experiencing and the solutions they're using and how they're going about and what success they're seeing, I'm like, "Oh my God, this is perfect. I need this story." Um, thankfully, the customer was super receptive, and at the end of the day, they did a ton of things with us, like an interview, a PR quote for our, um, quarterly release, as well as, you know...
[00:47:31] Yeah, like they were also part of our big, um, knowledge customer event in Las Vegas on stage. And we were able to do so much because, you know, they were willing, but also because I had the time to actually go and like interview them and build the relationship and do all the things. Um, so this, that story, we were able to tie that to kind of a, a bigger company narrative that was evolving, and we were able to tie it to this new AI native launch.
[00:47:59] [00:48:00] Um, and, you know, so it, it became a bigger moment than what it was sup- you know, supposed to be originally, just because we had all the pieces in place. Um, so very cool. Just sometimes it's good to do the extra work, um, because it might just land you in a better position and give you some spotlight.
[00:48:18] Elle: Yes. You brought up such a great point, and something that I think is u- is pretty unique to enterprise, and y- your example and your story is, like, a testament to this. So when you have, and you already know this, but when you have an enterprise customer, when they are selecting their vendor, they are not looking at a company for like, "Oh, you have the feature I want.
[00:48:42] I'm gonna buy your product because you have the feature. It checks a box, box, and we're done." No, no, no, no. When an enterprise customer chooses an enterprise solution, they are choosing a path, which means they are likely going to select multiple other products from your portfolio that is going to be very deeply entrenched into their tech stack somewhere.
[00:49:06] So all the more reason why it is to your benefit as a PMM to think about how your product is going to fit into that product narrative, and I love that you had the, like a bold, um, you know, strong brand customer to validate all of that for you makes it even better. So
[00:49:26] kudos to you. That's awesome.
[00:49:27] Anna: Good for you. Yeah, got lucky. Yeah
[00:49:29] Elle: Okay, last question for you on this topic, and then we're going to switch on to the next segment of the show.
[00:49:35] If you had one piece of advice for a PMM who is maybe a new enterprise PMM, they'd, they're going through their first launch ever, like what's, what's maybe one piece of guidance that you have for them?
[00:49:47] Anna: Just one piece of guidance, right? Um, yeah. Know-- understand the company and where you sit in the ecosystem because it will make things so much easier for you. Sometimes you need to [00:50:00] lean into certain areas that, you know, are not, um, are not natural, like having lots of conversations to get alignment. You know, it, it feels like why, why are we spending so many hours talking about the same thing?
[00:50:11] But it's actually very, very important to align with all your stakeholders before you go fast and kinda build out all of your more traditional launch assets. Um, yeah. So it's understanding what's important for your specific company and how you can, um, kind of provide the most value in that space
[00:50:28] Elle: I love that. You know, typically when I ask this question, I get some variation, I would say at least like 75% of the time, some variation of like, "Know your customers, talk to customers." But I love that your recommendation is to start with know where you sit in your org, and it's so true for enterprise. It just, it is what it is.
[00:50:47] I, I think that's a great piece of advice. So, um, thank you so much for that, and thank you for this story. Uh, it was just such a delight to walk through this with you. Um, okay. So now I wanna switch to the next segment of our show, which is the messaging critique. So this is where, as product marketing experts, we will analyze real world marketing.
[00:51:05] Um, and the fun part is, Anna, as my guest, you get to pick the company we'll look at today. Some quick ground rules. One, we're gonna pick a company that you're pretty familiar with or you're familiar with the market, 'cause it wouldn't be fair to critique a company that we don't really know their customer.
[00:51:20] And then you're gonna tell me what stood out to you, what they do really well, and what you wish the PMMs would've considered differently. without further ado, like reveal the company we'll be looking at today.
[00:51:31] Anna: Well, today we're talking about Microsoft Copilot. If you are one of the people within the 40% of the working adults in the world using Microsoft tools, you're probably very familiar with Copilot.
[00:51:45] Elle: Okay. But for those of us, admittedly me, I mean, I've heard of Copilot obviously, but briefly summarize for the, the 60% that does not use Copilot, what, what is it?
[00:51:57] Anna: Yes. Microsoft Copilot is [00:52:00] an AI productivity assistant that works with all of your Microsoft 365 tools. So things like Outlook, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint all have this Copilot AI that can, um, assist you
[00:52:13] Elle: I love it. It's giving like older, older brother next generation of like Clippy, remember from the old
[00:52:22] Microsoft.
[00:52:23] Anna: thanks.
[00:52:23] Elle: I'm kidding. I'm sure it's far more sophisticated than that. Okay. So, so it sounds like target audience or target customer is probably like the working professional, working professionals who are, who are working maybe traditional desk jobs, you know.
[00:52:39] Would you say that that's
[00:52:40] accurate? Okay. Yeah, yeah, you've ... Sure. Yeah, that makes more sense. Okay. What stood out to you about the messaging or like what's working really well with the messaging?
[00:52:50] Anna: Yeah. I'm, I'm looking at their, um, website as we speak. Um, I think overall there's, there's messaging here that, you know, works for the audience. So if, if I'm the audience and, and I'm using Microsoft tools, I do want to run faster, I do want assistance with my work, and I, I am very happy that this works across the applications.
[00:53:15] Like, so you can get things done across all of your Microsoft applications without kind of logging in and out. Um, that definitely helps. Um, so I think they hit on some very important points for, um, a knowledge worker like you or me
[00:53:31] Elle: Okay, so it sounds like they know their audience pretty well, or at least it seems like they know their audience pretty well. So what's one thing that you think they should consider to do differently?
[00:53:43] Anna: Uh, yeah. Looking at their page, I would say the tone of the copy sounds a little bit generic, like someone may have just gone in with AI and did, did some copy creation here. Um, so looking at the wording, empowering [00:54:00] organizations, supercharging, um,
[00:54:03] Elle: Oh, that should be on the do not use list.
[00:54:06] Anna: Those are some of the words that are becoming a little taboo in the, in the product marketing space, definitely have the place on this page, and it's like, oh my gosh.
[00:54:14] Um, so I feel, I feel like as individuals, if I was just, um, trying to look at Microsoft Copilot versus some of the other tools in the space and I saw this copy, I, I would be a little bit put off because it just sounds a little bit generic. So like n- now our antenna tune out, right, when we hear this copy.
[00:54:33] Elle: Totally. And as a non, Microsoft user, I would-- Like, it just kind of makes me feel like, is this kind of like their version of like, you know, Gemini that, uh, from Google that like is in everything? Is it something else? Is it... You know, it just, it-- Because they're using those words, it just feels like, oh, maybe this isn't for me.
[00:54:57] Maybe this is supposed to be for like an IT person, like who's purchasing the, the technology. So I don't know. It's, it's still, While they are an enterprise company, and they have all the r- all the resources as most people think, it's interesting that an enterprise company that you think would have all these resources to have like the perfect messaging, maybe could improve on the messaging.
[00:55:19] So what would your guidance be if you were the PMM coach for the PMM for Microsoft Copilot? How would you coach them to take this to the next level?
[00:55:30] Anna: Yes. A couple of things. I would definitely go in with a more human message to really connect with someone who is using your solutions. My, my biggest use case for Copilot is really finding information. You know, you, you go through so much every week, and then two weeks later you really need to find that document or what the person said word by
[00:55:50] Elle: Especially in enterprise, having the context is so... It's Huge. It's make it or break your job
[00:55:57] Anna: Absolutely. Um, and that's [00:56:00] where Copilot is so very useful. You can just ask it kind of to go and find, find the thing, and it does. So that's, that's been such a big time saver. Or if you've been out on vacation, summarizing what's happened, um, and kind of what you need to do next, extremely, extremely helpful and efficient.
[00:56:18] Um, so I would, I would connect with some of those more human elements and use the voice that, um, a, you know, a, a knowledge worker may have without supercharging or transforming. I, I don't feel my day is transformed, but but it is very helpful.
[00:56:33] Fewer headaches.
[00:56:35] Elle: a stretch
[00:56:36] Anna: Right? Yeah. and then also something that you highlighted, how is Copilot different from some of the other tools like Gemini or Claude, et cetera.
[00:56:45] So it would've been great to have a little bit of a description of what Copilot brings to the table, uh, when others don't. Finally, why I think Microsoft is still doing an amazing job, and n- none of what we said probably even matters, is because distribution matters so much for an enterprise company. We are not buying Copilot from this website ever.
[00:57:08] It's already built into our, you know, subscription, and we just get it in our apps. And I'm thinking that probably it's the distribution and it's the sellers out in the field who are upselling and, you know, providing all these packages directly to enterprise buyers. That's, that's where the magic really happens, not on the website.
[00:57:29] I imagine Microsoft is doing a really good job of selling in the field as opposed to selling through the website. So that's just a lesson in sales and the importance of distribution models.
[00:57:40] Elle: Absolutely. You're spot on here, and I was gonna say, I bet this page isn't even for humans anyway. It's for, like, AI to be able to help the procurement team make sure that, you know, their Microsoft Suite checks a box. Like
[00:57:54] Anna: It's a good point. I wasn't supposed to look at it. Oh, man.
[00:57:59] Elle: [00:58:00] I know, yeah. This wasn't for us. What were we thinking? Okay, so good. Well, Microsoft, obviously you're, you're clearly crushing it, so and maybe none of this even matters. But just some tips in case you do want to spruce up your Microsoft Copilot messaging. okay. So, um, on, Anna, thank you so much. This is, has been such a wonderful conversation.
[00:58:27] and of course, one thing I always like to make space for in this podcast is a moment of gratitude, because none of us get anywhere in our careers without having someone else to guide them and coach them. So, thank you so much again for you taking the time to prep for this and, um, share all your insights.
[00:58:43] And I'd love to turn it around for you to give some shout-outs to some PMMs who have made a real impact on your career. So, um, let us know who are those PMMs that we can, uh, give some kudos to?
[00:58:55] Anna: Yay. Thank you. Um, and yeah, it's been, it's been a pleasure to be here and have this conversation, so thank you for the time and the space, uh, to tell my story. Uh, as for PMMs, is it weird to give a shout-out to my boss?
[00:59:08] Elle: Not at all. Literally, like more than half my episodes are like,
[00:59:12] Anna: Um, Juliana Bouvet is pretty amazing and really great at strategic thinking, navigating big organization, change management, and just allowing space for her team to do their best work, which I so appreciate. Like, the launch was a lot of work. I'm not gonna, I'm gon- I'm not gonna lie. Um, but I was happy and excited because I felt like I have room and space to bring my best work forward, and it will be encouraged and kind of embraced.
[00:59:42] So, um, that was a really fantastic experience for me. And another person who's doing an incredible job in helping us transform the whole of ServiceNow actually is Abid Chaudry. He is the godfather of Nucleus at my company.
[00:59:59] [01:00:00] Um,
[01:00:00] Elle: pretty important person to have for this launch.
[01:00:04] Anna: right? He's a PMM who came up with an idea that we needed grounding and is figuring out the way to make all of this happen, on an enterprise level, which is not for the faint at heart because there's so many systems and security and teams, uh, that need to
[01:00:19] all come together to support these objectives.
[01:00:22] Um, so some really cool work that he's undertaking and leading PMMs to do, and helping us actually stand out in, in this huge organization and kind of have a voice
[01:00:32] Elle: That's wonderful. Sounds like people that should be on the podcast sometime.
[01:00:36] Anna: Hmm. Absolutely, yes
[01:00:38] Elle: Awesome. Okay. And this is my last question for you, I promise. Where else can we access your expertise? Is it best to just find you on LinkedIn?
[01:00:46] Anna: Yes, I am active on LinkedIn. I usually share tips on product marketing as well as job search, um, especially for some of the younger PMMs looking to learn the craft and land grand positions. My, um, my handle or what do you call it? My
[01:01:00] Elle: I know. Yeah, URL maybe? I don't know.
[01:01:03] Anna: Oh, sorry. If I like Twitter my handle.
[01:01:06] Elle: I know, right? Yeah
[01:01:08] Anna: AnnaStartsWithAPMM. Uh, you can easily find me. There are very few PMMs with my name. Uh, it's very unique in that, and would love to connect and keep the conversation going.
[01:01:17] Elle: Awesome. And I think I saw that you have been speaking with PMA as well, like with various public speaking engagements or, um, you know, sharing your expertise there. So just another place for folks to find you. all right. Thank you again, Anna. Um, and hey, PMM listeners, if you liked this episode, please share it with a PMM friend, and I would be so grateful if you would leave a review.
[01:01:39] It helps tremendously with our reach. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with us today. I hope this episode leaves you with inspiration to take in the next step of your own journey.
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