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You have a product you genuinely believe in. And it’s actually differentiated.
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Shannon Kearns posted thisZero marketing budget for your launch? Honestly, that might be the best thing for it. The founders who launch well aren't the ones who spend the most. They're the ones who do less...on purpose. When you can't buy attention, you're forced into the discipline everyone else skips. Here's the scrappy pre-launch playbook I walk founders through 👇 #1 LEAD WITH THE PROBLEM, NOT THE PRODUCT. Nobody cares about your features yet. They care that you understand the thing keeping them stuck. Talk about the problem so well that people assume you've already solved it. #2 PICK ONE OR TWO CHANNELS. Not five. Two. I mean it. Go deep enough to learn whether your message actually lands before you try to be everywhere. #3 BE THE FACE OF IT. You posting as a founder will beat a polished brand account every time. People follow people, especially the one who built the thing. #4 BUILD IN PUBLIC, BUT MAKE IT REAL. Not "we're on a journey" fluff. Show the actual feedback loop: here's what we heard from users, here's what we changed. That's the content that makes people trust you. #5 BOOK 15 TO 20 FEEDBACK CALLS. Ask for 20 minutes each. But be ready for 60 minutes. Your early users are usually happy to hop on. Record the conversations (if you can) and capture feedback in their own words. (That's your messaging later). #6 SEED THE MARKET BEFORE YOU SHIP. Spin up a coming-soon page, capture emails, post a teaser, put category content out there. Give people a reason to care before day one. None of this costs money. All of it costs the thing most founders won't spend: focus.
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Shannon Kearns posted thisThe big launch day might be the riskiest way to ship a product. Yep. I said it. And most teams still build their entire launch around one. You spend months prepping for a single date. Then everyone stands by holding their breath and finds out in public whether the messaging even works. I ran launches like this for years. It felt soooo important. It gave everyone a deadline to rally around. (We love deadlines and countdowns!!) But that one day sure hides a lot of risk. You're betting everything on messaging potentially no real customer has seen… a product that's the least tested it'll ever be… and promises you can't back up yet because nobody's actually used the product yet (YIKES). So here's what's replacing it. Teams are shipping in layers now, building toward one high-confidence moment instead of gambling on a cold open. 1) Quiet release first. Get it into real hands and learn how people actually describe the value. 2) Then widen access. Now you've got early customers, real results, and messaging that came from them instead of a positioning doc. 3) Thennnn you go loud. Except now you're showing proof of value instead of making promises. (One of my clients called this a “crescendo launch.” LOVE that name.) In one of the more recent launches I ran, we gated every feature release behind a go/no-go and only turned the volume up once the proof was there. We still had a big moment. But we were roughly 10X more credible when it came. And less stressed, if I'm being honest 😂 And the reason this is becoming the default? AI made shipping so fast that holding everything for one quarterly moment just creates a bottleneck you chose. The launch stops being the day you find out if you're right. 💫 It becomes the day you prove to the market you already are, and that people should listen. 💫 I broke down a “crescendo launch” in one of my recent newsletters. Check it out below.
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Shannon Kearns shared this"A product that was trying to do everything." That's how Schuyler V. described where they started. But... By the time we wrapped, their D2C product solved one problem. Really well. Here's the short version of how we got there. (And what I love to do with clients!) The goal was never fuzzy. Hit the user acquisition numbers, of course. The path to get there was the messy part. So we started with the motion. 1) We put a couple of go-to-market options on the table and pressure-tested each one against what it would actually take to hit those numbers. 2) Then we picked the one that actually fit how they sell. AND how they want to show up in the world. (That second piece is important. I always support a Founder preserving their original vision.) 3) Next, we narrowed the focus. Who's the ideal customer? Who's the early customer worth chasing first? 4) From there the rest fell into place >> sharper positioning >> messaging that matched it >> a real read on what it takes to bring something new to market So when they're ready to move, they move. The best part? Watching a product that tried to be everything turn into one that's genuinely good at a single thing. That, my friends, is where the growth starts. And when I asked if I was different from other consultants? Schuyler gave me some feedback that warmed my heart 💜 “You're a real person, who talks to your clients like a real person. Most consultants I've spoken to feel terse or overly formal, which truly makes a scary/overwhelming prospect 10x worse.” (No LLM can give us that!!) So if you have a product that's trying to be everything but don't know how to focus it? You know what to do. My DMs are permanently open 😁
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Shannon Kearns shared thisWords can be challenging. 😔 You intend to give a nudge, but it lands as an attack. That happened with this post I wrote a few weeks ago, and it genuinely bummed me out that I didn’t anticipate how it’d come off. Some context 👇 The organization I referenced is one I recommend constantly. Anytime I'm mentoring someone trying to break into PMM or level up, they are THE FIRST place I send them. I believe in what they're building. I have for a very long time. The idea that this post read as an attack on them? Whelp, that’s completely on me. And I can own that. Sure, I didn’t intend it as an attack. I thought I was expressing disagreement in the way things were handled. BUT on LinkedIn, it came off as me being upset. And that's what matters: how it came off. Absolutely not the vibe I was trying to give off. 💞 I have no ill will against anyone. I care waaaay too much about the PMM community to involve negativity. Of course, every cloud has a silver lining. I ended up with new friends and new opportunities. And most importantly, a great lesson learned: With Community, as in business, it’s best to go straight to the source if you disagree with how something's been handled. There’s a right and a wrong way to give feedback. Airing disagreement on LinkedIn? The wrong way (for me, anyway!) Lesson learned. Now, back to the regularly scheduled programming 🤩 !
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Shannon Kearns posted thisAI has made content almost free to produce. Which is exactly why MEANING is now the most expensive part. Elliott Rayner recently published a research report, The State of Storytelling 2026, and there are some nuggets in there that all PMMs (and marketers) should take note of. He studied 25 storytelling leadership roles across 23 companies and 21 industries. Dental tech, fusion energy, robotics, consumer products. A few stats that surprised me: ** Salaries run from $139K to $400K. What a range. ** The role reports into SIX different places, with no standard home…Ya'll....six. Wow. ** The skill that showed up in every job description wasn't writing. It wasn't creativity. It was strategic thinking. More specifically, being really good at alignment. These companies aren't paying to make more content. They're paying someone to get the entire company telling the same story. Sales, product, the founder, the board, all of it. 💫 If you're a product marketer, there’s some good news. The report names PMM as the closest existing discipline to this role. Positioning, messaging, launches, research, cross-functional work. PMMs already do most of it. The catch is that a lot of us still box ourselves into messaging for products. But the companies in this report are paying $$$$ for COMPANY narratives. So if you've been waiting for a reason to think bigger than the next launch deck, here it is. >> Get closer to the brand. >> Get closer to the company story. >> Work on your executive communication. >> Flex your strategy muscle. I firmly believe this is a very real, very high-impact path for PMMs. Download his full report in the comments for more nuggies. And big thanks to Elliott for this research!
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Shannon Kearns posted thisThe person responsible for your product launch is probably already underwater. And that's somehow ok...? Here's what I see more and more within companies launching several new products a year. Nobody is really assigned to it. It gets handed to whoever is closest. Usually a single PMM who already has a full-time job doing 25 other things. (Hands if you've been there 🙋♀️ I sure have) So the launch becomes thing #6 on a list that's already waaaaay too long. Then it underperforms, and everyone assumes the person dropped the ball. They didn't. They just were never given the space to run it right in the first place. Too many companies think "oh she can handle it, it's basically just project managing some things." NO. A launch deserves a strategy. It deserves thoughtful conversations, a well prepared plan, exceptional project management, and thorough feedback loops. It's not just a deck, a kick-off call, and a spreadsheet of tasks. Here's happens when you treat it like "just another thing" #1 You end up overwhelming your PMM (this should be reason enough to not do this, ya'll) #2 You cause chaos. Project management is NOT easy. Don't expect someone already under water to do it flawlessly. They can't. #3 Your product goes out and nothing moves. Because the time wasn't spent to build the strategy. #4 You end up not learning and iterating, b/c your PMM has already moved on to task #26 and doesn't have time to run feedback loops or check data. The smartest companies give the launch an owner, even a temporary one, and the space to create a great strategy. Someone whose entire job is getting it out the door, so the rest of your team can keep doing theirs. If your next launch is riding on one already-stretched person, reach out. I've saved quite a few companies from potential launch flops (and probably saved them from a few people walking! 😉)
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Shannon Kearns shared thisA community is never really about the person leading it. It's about everyone who keeps showing up. I've followed PMM Supper Club since its early chapters, and I've watched it bring something rare to every city it reaches. (With Amit Alagh MBA MSc LLB PMC-VI PMMC at the helm, are we surprised?!) It's hard to find the words to demonstrate how deeply honored I am to be helping bring PMM Supper Club to Austin. But this isn't about me. It's about what Supper Club stands for is: THIS is what I'm so excited for. For our little Austin to get >> An independent community for PMMs, built on belonging, mentorship, and trust. >> A place where people show up for one another, where generosity matters more than status, and where belonging gets built one conversation at a time. >> A table where people talk about the things that rarely come up at work. Good, bad, ugly. Austin is full of sharp product marketers, some successful, some struggling, some both. Now, we have a table to gather around for "creating meaningful conversations, trusted relationships and opportunities for product marketers to support one another." The first Austin dinner is happening this September. If you're a product marketer in Austin and want a seat at the first table, register your interest below.
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Shannon Kearns shared thisVery few things get me at my desk @7:00am on a Friday. Talking about the difference between GTM and PMM is absolutely one of them. 🥳 In last week's PMA Fix, Suraj Srikumar walked us through his POV on this topic. His big point 👇 "Accountability can be shared. But it's about having clear ownership." He laid it out as a "three-legged stool" that I obvi had to immediately screenshot (see below, I lovvve): 1) Product Marketing makes the market clear (ICP, positioning, messaging, launch story) 2) GTM / Commercialisation makes the motion clear (segments, pricing, launch motion, post-launch iteration) 3) Sales / Revenue Enablement makes the field confident (buyer conversations, objection handling, feedback loops) Three clear jobs. From my experience, the problem companies have isn't that one leg is weak. (Quite the opposite, everyone is hustling) It's that nobody agreed on roles & ownership before a product launch started. I've seen "you own GTM now" happen to many PMMs, but nobody asked what that actually meant. (Including me. But I quickly learned my lesson.) One month later, the launch is struggling and everyone is confused. Pure chaos and not at all fun. "The problem is not a lack of effort. It's a lack of operational clarity." Another excellent point by Suraj. So whether your "legs" look like what Suraj shared below or not, make sure do the work to clearly define owners and responsibilities. Because the lines of PMM & GTM will always be blurred, but quick conversations and alignment can ensure that blurriness doesn't confuse the crap out of your team. Cheers to Suraj for a great session and to Amit Alagh MBA MSc LLB PMC-VI PMMC for an always-awesome job emceeing!
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Shannon Kearns posted thisI was gonna post about products and stuff but ya'll... 🏳️🌈 Happy Pride Day. 11 years ago. Legalizing gay marriage was one step. A small one in the scope of everything still left to do. But it was a step toward something that matters more than the policy itself: the idea that people should get to just... be themselves. That is not a small thing to celebrate. And it's something I deeply believe in and advocate for. The older I get, the more I think authenticity is not a personality trait. It is a prerequisite. For happiness. For the kind of work that actually means something. For relationships that hold. But you CANNOT fully show up anywhere you're not fully yourself. Which means you CANNOT have the full opportunity to be happy if you're oppressed. I make it my mission to (try to) be someone who let's people be themselves. Authenticity is my favorite human trait. So today I'm celebrating the people who fought for our right to marry people of the same sex, the people still fighting, and every person who gets to live a little more openly because of it. 🌈
Shannon Kearns commented on a post
12h
Yea you did!!!! Love this.
Shannon Kearns commented on a post
12h
Love this POV. PMM needs to double-click into the top-tier metrics, usually. A few that I've owned for clients:
- Improving ad performance by rolling out message testing or language to enter new markets
- Improving time to onboard by rolling out or fixing funnel messaging
- Driving "product x" adoption by introducing customer journey messaging
Etc. etc.
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Shannon Kearns reacted on thisShannon Kearns reacted on thisI am more than <Insert LinkedIn headline here>! I invented a baking dish that makes edible puzzles. Due to various circumstances, this baking dish still hasn't gone into production. I did this because I love product design and development (yeah, and Product Marketing), and I wanted to go through the process myself. Inspired by Stefan Gladbach's sad panda post today; so many of our projects never make it to the finish line. And even more doesn't make it to our highly curated LinkedIn profile. Success is how you define it; and even with $0 sales, this has been one of my most successful ventures. What project are you proud of that never made it to the finish line?
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