Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Hello, I am Carlota and I am the host of this podcast. Product Marketing Stories is the first French podcast dedicated to product marketing. Every week, listen to an episode where product marketers, but not only, share methodologies, tips, and concrete learnings so you can apply them in your daily job. The aim of this podcast is to make product marketing understandable and accessible to the French tech ecosystem. We go to market as speaking channels or running a launch campaign. But as Maya, go-to-market expert and author of the bestselling book Go-to-market Strategist explains, it's a much more holistic journey, one that requires prioritisation and strategic focus. In this episode, we dive into the six key elements of a strong go-to-market strategy, how to reach product-market fit and what comes next, the biggest challenges companies face when scaling, the difference between a go-to-market strategy and a marketing plan. and her favorite product launch and what made it successful. She also explained to us what is the go-to-market myth that she wants to debunk and how to become an excellent go-to-market strategist. If you want to stop seeing go-to-market as just a launch and start treating it as a long-term strategy, this episode is for you.

• Speaker #1

  I would like to talk a little bit about your book and how did you end up writing this book?

• Speaker #2

  So the book journey was very interesting. As we mentioned from the early beginning, that was like I'm celebrating one year of go-to-market strategies next week on November 15th. I don't know when we will be published, but I'm totally hyped that I have been like a year for the game now. But nevertheless, the book writing journey was more of a personal discipline exercise. I didn't want to wake up just like suddenly one day and say, wow, now I want to invest one life. of a year of my life to write this awesome book so that I can have a bestseller I never thought about this this way but I was like I've been repeating the same thing so many times that I'm getting like a little bit sick and tired of repeating them again why don't we systemize everything together and just like give it to people to self-onboard so I now need to be their entertainer at the events so that was kind of a purpose plus to literally help more people because You know how it is when it comes to like global arena. I don't know how the knowledge dispersion in product marketing is, but I always feel that in Europe, we have like a little bit worse communities than in the US. And there are like people from emerging markets, other geographies that have like even harder access to this type of knowledge. So I really wanted to just like give it out there for a very affordable price and to to help people who would like to make something out of their businesses.

• Speaker #1

  And what were your biggest challenges of writing it? Was it easy or was it more complicated than what you thought? How was the journey?

• Speaker #2

  It was terrible. I literally did it like three times. um three drafts of the book so the first book was a little bit like anecdotes like what i did in my career and i was like nobody gonna read this i mean it's very boring given to me to read this now so this is probably not a good idea then like the second version was a bunch of like mental models so there is like double diamond and you can like make these decisions with market problem map as well and there are like three different methods that you can be using but that was useless Because people need progression. They need a blueprint towards end result. And this is like the third, the final iteration of this book, where I just like embrace everything into this model that is proven to work very well in practice. And more so, what is important is that it gives you concrete tasks, action items to actually get the work done, so that it is just like not one book that you kind of read and then forget about this. but it can work as a blueprint to guide your work. So that was a vision. And I'm so happy that I finished it because the writing was tough. I mean, I'm a very sociable person and for me, it's very non-natural to sit at home and be there like in a maker mode. I am bored often when I'm doing like this type of deep work, but it was a very good training for my discipline that I can make it work. So I just... book this slot in the morning from 6am to like 11am to work on the product. Like no cell phone, no distraction, just getting shit done for the book. And this was like the only thing that got me through.

• Speaker #1

  And do you have some lessons, some things that you would do differently today from your experience so far?

• Speaker #2

  Okay, I really have to reflect about this weekend, but from top of my mind, I'm not sorry that it took me a year. I think that good things just take time, so I definitely don't think that Chad GPT can write a good book at this day and age. And I very much believe in well-researched and empirically proven process. Then for the promotion, I would start way sooner. So I started the promotion, the waitlist of 3,000 people. So 600 bought on the first day. So I was doing the man generation for the book for maybe like two or three months. I think that it would be like even better if I did this for a six-month period. But then again, I didn't want to spend too much time on social media because it was interfering with my maker mode, with my book writing. So that's kind of a trade-off that I have gotten myself into and had to do this. But yeah, I think that it would be even better if I started the promotion sooner. And for the book launch, I am proud about it. There is nothing that I would change drastically. Maybe I would just like plan a book tour sooner. So because for the launch, I was very tired. I needed like a little bit of time to just like recover and make sense of everything what is going on. But I see like a lot of more experienced authors, they go and hit the road immediately.

• Speaker #3

  Quick break to present you Appunite. The two biggest challenges I hear from product leaders are one, how to pursue growth without losing focus and two, how to make the product vision a reality the fastest way possible. But as you know, resources are increasingly limited in the tech industry. Hiring the right talents to build a product takes forever and working with agencies expensive for the value they deliver. That's why I am very happy to partner with AppUnite. They are not just another dev shop. They are a product development powerhouse. From user research to coding, their team embeds with yours, deeply analyses your strategy to define how to positively impact your business metrics, and builds high-performing apps that scale. Whether it's fintech, health tech, or SaaS, they co-create products that grow businesses. So if you're tired of delays, bad code or agencies that just don't get it, check out apponite.com slash grow. Let's build something great. Let's go back to the discussion now.

• Speaker #1

  It's an experience for you, for the book, but it is for many things. We prepare too much, like a new launch, a new product launch or whatever. And then the D-Day, you just want to make it done and pass to another thing while it's the most important. My last question is... Now you have your company from 10 years, more or less. What made you decide creating your own business and being more a consultant more than working for one specific company?

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, I do think that working for companies is amazing and you learn so much about the processes. I don't think that you can, okay, you can be a consultant for TikTok or something like that, that doesn't like, is very new and doesn't require a lot of heavy lifting work experience. but I do think that this is like a healthy decision to make after at least like seven years on a job. I don't know a lot of like people who have been working in real companies for three years and they would make like kick-ass consultants usually they get out of touch really soon so it's very important that you know these environments these decision-making processes and as a As a consultant, of course, you're still in touch. But the problem is that you are not like hands on into this, right? You only like grasp the surface of how this work is being done. So I still go like at least twice a year and work with a company as like interim something or just like a nearly full time person to just like never lose this grind because it's so important. It makes you good, in my opinion. And so, yeah, working for companies is important. It gives you an edge. But why I decided to just like go solo was I had a vision, right? And if you have a vision and if you want like a lot of freedom in your life, you are not really a great employee. I mean, you can try and you can like do great things in the organizations. But if there is something itching and scratching inside you that maybe it would be nice to work remotely from Mallorca in February when the weather is shit. then I don't think that you have much other choice than to go solo. I mean, some companies are amazing and they have very, very generous remote working packages. But I think it was more or less a lifestyle choice because when we were, I still, I was just like met this guy. We went to a college together and we were like very close friends. He works as like a regional head at LinkedIn in Dublin. And I work like in my crazy solo operation. And we just like did this. weird experiment who is happier and I mean we are both happy we are both very satisfied with our choices so my main message is always like if it is for you you know it you know it and you have to at least like do it part-time to see if it will add beauty to your life if it will make you feel happier and more fulfilled if you don't have it don't force it it might come later but you're not worth any more or any less if you have a company. It's just like how you optimize your career and lifestyle.

• Speaker #1

  And today there is so many more information about going solo, creating your own company, that it's also difficult to say, OK, what do I want? Do I really want to do it from my own or do I want to keep my job? Can I do both? And it's not only one decision and for the end of the life, it's also testing and trying new things and define then what you like the most.

• Speaker #2

  And I think the easiest way, like this is probably my fairest advice that I can offer. do something freaking amazing ask on linkedin if there is anybody else who would like to have this work done do it as a part-time project first to see if you even like it if you feel good interacting with the clients and go from there i mean for me action is so much important and more important than thinking because i can overthink the shit out of everything but what counts in life are results And literally the easiest way how to get somewhere is to do something really well. Ask yourself who else could benefit from this? Where are the next five ideal customers for this type of work? Do a little bit of outreach. Ask your network if somebody needs this type of work done and just like do it. What's the worst thing that can happen? Seriously. You will say, I'm sorry. I thought that this is going to be much different. Of course, I will not charge you. Love you forever. Bye.

• Speaker #1

  Did you have a last advice or message for the product marketing community in France about go-to-market, about career, anything that you would like to share?

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, I think that we kind of had a very strong anchoring before you share, because you do all the bloody work and you have like so many amazing frameworks that you think are normal. But I swear people on LinkedIn have never heard about this before. So if you can. If you are in a position when your company allows you, definitely share examples. Otherwise, just document your journey, document your learnings, post memes if you are into this. I'm not very good at this. But nevertheless, we need your voices. We need to hear your voices. You are important. You definitely have a very crucial role in the go-to-market process. Oftentimes, companies ask me, this went from the VC side, Do you have a very good product marketer to suggest, like to recommend to us? And my go-to answer would be whoever is the loudest on LinkedIn, because this is how I operate. This is what I remember. So please.

• Speaker #1

  Thanks so much, Maja, for your time. It was great having you on the podcast.

• Speaker #2

  You as well. You as well. Now I'm off. We go to see a little bit of a ballet, a little bit cultural today. But I thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with your audience. Hope you enjoyed it. And just like thanks for doing all this amazing work. And hopefully your English episode will be a huge, huge sensation.

• Speaker #1

  I'm sure of that. Thank you so much.

• Speaker #2

  Take care.

• Speaker #1

  Ciao. Ciao.