Technical marketing is a complex world. There are so many aspects of it and so much more involved than one might think. When I first started doing technical marketing I had a lot of prejudice myself. I had no idea how much I would learn and grow walking in this field. I had no idea how much technical knowledge and growth would be required of me in order to do well in this field. After being in this field for five years, this is what I have seen.
Aspects of Technical Marketing
Technical marketing was easily placed in a small bucket for me. After joining the team, my focus was on back-end project management and providing the data needed to back the claims the team was making. As it turned out, this data would be processed in so many different ways and displayed so many times it amazed me how much it involved. Little did I know I would be combining data, math, art, communications, and presentation skills to deliver my message in a way that was what the audience needed to do their job effectively. Here are some of the different verticals in marketing utilized in the technical space to deliver the message.
Marcom
Here is a marketing role that requires a lot of travel and energy. Setting up trade shows, having the vision to design booths at conferences, delivering, prioritizing, and of course, procuring the swag. Marcom does require the organizers to have a good understanding of the audience.
Gone are the days of stationary two-dimensional displays. It makes sense that with 3D printing, smart homes, smart manufacturing, and in the world of TedTalks that Trade-shows would express this sentiment as well.
Therefore it makes sense to include interactive booths, hands-on technology, and audience participation and input.
Design Win/Customer Win
Design win and customer win are clear examples that customer relationships and support are critical to maintaining a business. "Win" is more than just having the better product or beating the competition. It's about having an established relationship with the customer and earning their business for the present and future. Working with the customer and having the ability to be the subject matter expert requires, not only the knowledge of whatever piece is being sold, but a knowledge of the entire ecosystem, where this business fits, how it will scale, and how the customer will benefit long term.
In Design win, telling a story is very important. What does the industry look like now? What will it look like in the future? How will those changes impact the customer? How will your business grow with the industry and the customer and ensure everyone's success?
These are all questions the customer is asking themselves and if they are not, then it is up to us to address the story anyways and get the customer to think with us and ultimately look at us as a partner rather than a vendor.
Strategy and Architecture
Where does Marketing fall into strategy and architecture? How do some salesmen impact the technological direction of the company?
Lots. Marketing research of the industry creates an enormous advantage to the direction of the industry and therefore the demands in the space. This input is valuable and requires a lot of foresight.
By understanding the industry, the direction, the competition, and stated and actual claims, there is a lot of visibility to information that keeps a business relevant and provides a potential to disrupt the industry which is a real game-changer.
Bench-marking/Measurements/Workloads
Who doesn't like a good statistic? Statistics is the single most credible source of delivering a story. How many stories begin with "according to science." Is it "science?" Or is it statistics? Theoretically, statics are a way to credibly state the likely hood of a specific outcome.
The statistics are further supported by measured data. No matter how correlated the claim, the data and the statistics are, if a customer is offered a claim, and shown some comparable data to support the claim, there will likely be a boost in trust. Furthermore, as competition makes a claim, this is an opportunity to debunk or explain where that claim is coming from if the numbers are somehow skewed in a way to support a specific position.
FAEs
Failure analysis engineers are an excellent channel for marketing data, benchmarks, claims, and collateral. The FAE's have an excellent relationship with the customer and are a great way to provide more than just the failure analysis of what they are looking for.
Having a good relationship with the FAE and providing them with the collateral they need is really important. They represent a large customer who has this type of resource allocated to them. Keeping this person well-informed is what is best for the business.
Sales and Training
Sales and Marketing are often placed in the same bucket and for good reason. Marketing collateral is often utilized to support sale efforts whether it be for inside or outside sales. Sales also provide some important insights to Marketing and can often be the most important asset to the Marketing team. Paper/online research is not enough to get real-world exposure to what the industry looks like. Sales is often the eyes and ears of the Marketing team.
Originally I had placed training as a separate topic but often times since Marketing collateral can often times be utilized to advance sales efforts, its important to consider the relevance of training in this space as well.
With YouTube, TedTalks, STEAM activities training has become more interactive than the previous classroom type training structure. Participants are often encouraged to engage and provide their two cents and these sessions progress into dialogues. As this trend continues, communication will lead to collaboration and team effort will be rewarded for the best of the business and employees.
Attending Conferences
Attending conferences is one of my favorite parts of my job. I get to see the technology firsthand, find other avenues to hear customer feedback, listen to ideas, hear about what is available open-source and continue to increase my understanding of what is out in the market.
These are opportunities to talk to the competition, expand networks, find meet-ups, and get access to tech in my case.
I have colleagues who are such skilled conference attendees that they know exactly where to be at the right time in order to attain exactly the information they are looking for and information they didn't know they needed.
No matter the purpose, attending conferences is a combination of learning more about the technology, increasing one's place as a subject matter expert, networking and getting more exercise than usual.
The many facets of Marketing combine together to provide a number of creative opportunities. Research, Statics, Art, Technology, and Industry knowledge are a tremendous start and the possibilities are endless depending how deep down the rabbit hole one is willing to go.
With that said, defining scope and parameters are very important. As with project management, gaining an understanding of resources that will be required for each case along with the ROI are just as important to consider as which aspect of Marketing to consider.
Friday, February 21, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
Understanding the Different PM hats
Believe it or not, there is still some ambiguity around the role of a project or program manager, even in industries flooded with PMs!
What then, does one say when asked "What will the Program Manager do?" The short of it: Create and maintain project plan, report status and execute.
The length of it is much more fun in my opinion:
Determining Scope
What is the scope of the project? What does it entail and what will it include? a lot of this information can be based on available resources, relevant information, executive asks, and needs. Some questions could include what am I trying to influence with this project? Am I trying to execute something from prototype to production release? Am I passed the research phase? What kind of influence will my project have if it is in or prior to the research phase?
Asking these questions beforehand will be very important in determining the scope of my project and will be critical during the planning phase.
Creating Forecasts
How much do I anticipate my project will cost? What percentage of each team member's time? Will there be overhead costs? Additional cost for research?
Having and categorizing costs for my project will be crucial in proposing my project to the necessary executives and ensuring I have the financial backing I need for my project from start to finish without any surprises.
Not sure what the forecast will look like? Look at previous projects that have had similar outcomes or scopes and start with that.
Building and Maintaining a Schedule
There are some excellent tools that are both functional, easy to use, and easy to present at the drop of a hat in the case that executives want to know the status of the project.
There are also web-based scheduling tools available that are easy to share with teammates. These tools make it easy to maintain and adjust schedules based on dependencies.
Following up and Chasing Deliverables
This is the single most important day-to-day effort of a good PM. No duty is too small and no task is overlooked! The PM must be diligent about maintaining excellent relationships and helping team members to meet their deliverables. The key of a good leader is to ensure your teammates have everything they need to fill their tasks and it is up to the PM to ensure the resources are connected effectively.
Building and Maintaining Relationships
I briefly mentioned this in my previous section. This is crucial in leading efforts as a PM. In the standard managerial hierarchy, it is well received to manage up. As a PM, however, the devil is in the details and relationships must be maintained everywhere in order to ensure a successful project. The PM may have the backing of the executives at times but escalations hurt relationships. It is almost a catch-22. We lead the effort, but with no managerial power to do so.
Having a good, helpful attitude and approach will help to maintain relationships. Respect teammates and their expertise. Ask them for advice. Include them in the brainstorming phase. Continuously ask for feedback. Reach out and learn each person's relationship language so that you know how to approach that person. Acknowledge team efforts and ask for incentives from management whenever possible to recognize efforts.
Removing Obstacles
This goes along with chasing deliverables. Often times a team or member may be at a stuck point, not because they forget, but because there is some kind of obstacle stopping them from filling their task. What is it? What can you do? Who needs to be pulled in? Will this be a reoccurring event? If so perhaps a process improvement needs to be implemented to prevent obstacles like this from happening again in the future.
Intuitive process improvement methods can be used and for larger projects, Six Sigma methods such as DMAIC and SIPOC are good tools for systematic, statistical-based improvements.
Collaborating with Teams
Often times in a Program Management role, it will not just be one team, but a medley of cross-functional teams across the company that will need to be pulled in for a portion of the whole of a project. In this case, understanding the team is important. Being included in team meetings, getting to know different cultures, and speaking their language are essential. The PM can be a jack of all trades but is a subject matter expert in the project or program. Recognizing what each team is teaching you and bringing to the table is important while balancing the expertise in the program will be essential in successfully managing the project in an effective way.
By combining these efforts, a Program or Project manager has everything he or she needs to manage and attain the appropriate resources while managing both up and down and ensuring everyone has everything they need for the program. Being a good leader often is determined by how well one can serve the effort.
What then, does one say when asked "What will the Program Manager do?" The short of it: Create and maintain project plan, report status and execute.
The length of it is much more fun in my opinion:
Determining Scope
What is the scope of the project? What does it entail and what will it include? a lot of this information can be based on available resources, relevant information, executive asks, and needs. Some questions could include what am I trying to influence with this project? Am I trying to execute something from prototype to production release? Am I passed the research phase? What kind of influence will my project have if it is in or prior to the research phase?
Asking these questions beforehand will be very important in determining the scope of my project and will be critical during the planning phase.
Creating Forecasts
How much do I anticipate my project will cost? What percentage of each team member's time? Will there be overhead costs? Additional cost for research?
Having and categorizing costs for my project will be crucial in proposing my project to the necessary executives and ensuring I have the financial backing I need for my project from start to finish without any surprises.
Not sure what the forecast will look like? Look at previous projects that have had similar outcomes or scopes and start with that.
Building and Maintaining a Schedule
There are some excellent tools that are both functional, easy to use, and easy to present at the drop of a hat in the case that executives want to know the status of the project.
There are also web-based scheduling tools available that are easy to share with teammates. These tools make it easy to maintain and adjust schedules based on dependencies.
Following up and Chasing Deliverables
This is the single most important day-to-day effort of a good PM. No duty is too small and no task is overlooked! The PM must be diligent about maintaining excellent relationships and helping team members to meet their deliverables. The key of a good leader is to ensure your teammates have everything they need to fill their tasks and it is up to the PM to ensure the resources are connected effectively.
Building and Maintaining Relationships
I briefly mentioned this in my previous section. This is crucial in leading efforts as a PM. In the standard managerial hierarchy, it is well received to manage up. As a PM, however, the devil is in the details and relationships must be maintained everywhere in order to ensure a successful project. The PM may have the backing of the executives at times but escalations hurt relationships. It is almost a catch-22. We lead the effort, but with no managerial power to do so.
Having a good, helpful attitude and approach will help to maintain relationships. Respect teammates and their expertise. Ask them for advice. Include them in the brainstorming phase. Continuously ask for feedback. Reach out and learn each person's relationship language so that you know how to approach that person. Acknowledge team efforts and ask for incentives from management whenever possible to recognize efforts.
Removing Obstacles
This goes along with chasing deliverables. Often times a team or member may be at a stuck point, not because they forget, but because there is some kind of obstacle stopping them from filling their task. What is it? What can you do? Who needs to be pulled in? Will this be a reoccurring event? If so perhaps a process improvement needs to be implemented to prevent obstacles like this from happening again in the future.
Intuitive process improvement methods can be used and for larger projects, Six Sigma methods such as DMAIC and SIPOC are good tools for systematic, statistical-based improvements.
Collaborating with Teams
Often times in a Program Management role, it will not just be one team, but a medley of cross-functional teams across the company that will need to be pulled in for a portion of the whole of a project. In this case, understanding the team is important. Being included in team meetings, getting to know different cultures, and speaking their language are essential. The PM can be a jack of all trades but is a subject matter expert in the project or program. Recognizing what each team is teaching you and bringing to the table is important while balancing the expertise in the program will be essential in successfully managing the project in an effective way.
By combining these efforts, a Program or Project manager has everything he or she needs to manage and attain the appropriate resources while managing both up and down and ensuring everyone has everything they need for the program. Being a good leader often is determined by how well one can serve the effort.
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