Editor’s note: I was invited by PWC Bergen to speak last Friday at an annual gathering of their national design and innovation team. I ran out of time way too quickly. So here’s what I wish I had also been able to say.
Kelly. Great post and some interesting thoughts, but let me challenge you on a comment you made " Now you can merge your marketing and product teams into one new Growth Team. They all sit together. They all brainstorm together. And they’re all focused on" .... Where are the group of people ( B2B or C ) who will ultimately sell this product. where is sales? Indeed this leads to a wider conversation why are marketing and sales historically seen as 2 different departments when they are both engaged in exactly the same thing? Maybe you could give your insight into this in another article?
Alex, forgive the delay. Guess who managed to finally land Corona with all 3 kids this week? I love sales and I love salespeople. I started my early career as a big believer of old school brute force sales. In writing this particular piece I was thinking more as a CMO who is trying to shape products that are capable of signups without any human intervention. Having said this, in early stage companies, salespeople can drive meaningful early adoption 1:1 processes plus focus on key partnerships that can increase early credibility and volume promising deals. 100% - sales and marketing should work closely together. Sometimes I see tension around the following though - sales thinks marketing should be essentially an agency that responds to sales requests and demands because "sales knows best" and on the other hand marketing wanting to focus more on brand building which sales (and the rest of the company) always labels as "yes a good idea but we really need to focus on short term sales) so the important brand building keeps getting pushed. These are just generalizations mind you and I am still writing under the influence of Covid!
Great post. The silly B2B and B2C was dead even when it was alive. I worked as an early employee of a company that eventually was bought out by 3M. All of the acryonyms about what we did, who are customers were, what "verticals" we served was nonsense. They happened to be a customer, used the product and had a vision how they could use our ideas. They largely abandoned many of the other focus areas of the "product" all focused on meeting things like your B2B or B2C needs. That was 2001 so the relevance was dead even then, we just didn't know it or acknowledge it. I like the post and it made me remember the same post-purchase blues the employees who got absorbed felt in the first place. Some of us moved to the next adventure.
I loved reading this, Kelly! It's so "on point" and very relevant.
With video games we're always thinking of the consumer but it doesn't mean that we're always selling directly to the consumer. We have other markets to cater to first, investors, distribution channels and publishers among them. All of them have their business criteria and shopping list of what they're looking for. But initially they're all looking for the same thing. Often the word that we end up working with is "fun". What makes our game "fun" and enjoyable? And that's an individual experience. So the business is often focused on the product and prototypes. The last year I've been thinking a lot about what a game prototype has to contain to express that feeling of an experience that's going to stick with the player. The gate keepers of the industry have lists and requirements that they need to be guided by - but at the end of the day, I think it's their heart that ultimately decides.
Anyways! This was a great read and thanks for writing it!
Thanks so much Linn. By the way, your Instagram and FB posts about going for a run are the highlights of my week - inspiring, honest, funny. Beautiful.
Kelly. Great post and some interesting thoughts, but let me challenge you on a comment you made " Now you can merge your marketing and product teams into one new Growth Team. They all sit together. They all brainstorm together. And they’re all focused on" .... Where are the group of people ( B2B or C ) who will ultimately sell this product. where is sales? Indeed this leads to a wider conversation why are marketing and sales historically seen as 2 different departments when they are both engaged in exactly the same thing? Maybe you could give your insight into this in another article?
Alex, forgive the delay. Guess who managed to finally land Corona with all 3 kids this week? I love sales and I love salespeople. I started my early career as a big believer of old school brute force sales. In writing this particular piece I was thinking more as a CMO who is trying to shape products that are capable of signups without any human intervention. Having said this, in early stage companies, salespeople can drive meaningful early adoption 1:1 processes plus focus on key partnerships that can increase early credibility and volume promising deals. 100% - sales and marketing should work closely together. Sometimes I see tension around the following though - sales thinks marketing should be essentially an agency that responds to sales requests and demands because "sales knows best" and on the other hand marketing wanting to focus more on brand building which sales (and the rest of the company) always labels as "yes a good idea but we really need to focus on short term sales) so the important brand building keeps getting pushed. These are just generalizations mind you and I am still writing under the influence of Covid!
Great post. The silly B2B and B2C was dead even when it was alive. I worked as an early employee of a company that eventually was bought out by 3M. All of the acryonyms about what we did, who are customers were, what "verticals" we served was nonsense. They happened to be a customer, used the product and had a vision how they could use our ideas. They largely abandoned many of the other focus areas of the "product" all focused on meeting things like your B2B or B2C needs. That was 2001 so the relevance was dead even then, we just didn't know it or acknowledge it. I like the post and it made me remember the same post-purchase blues the employees who got absorbed felt in the first place. Some of us moved to the next adventure.
I loved reading this, Kelly! It's so "on point" and very relevant.
With video games we're always thinking of the consumer but it doesn't mean that we're always selling directly to the consumer. We have other markets to cater to first, investors, distribution channels and publishers among them. All of them have their business criteria and shopping list of what they're looking for. But initially they're all looking for the same thing. Often the word that we end up working with is "fun". What makes our game "fun" and enjoyable? And that's an individual experience. So the business is often focused on the product and prototypes. The last year I've been thinking a lot about what a game prototype has to contain to express that feeling of an experience that's going to stick with the player. The gate keepers of the industry have lists and requirements that they need to be guided by - but at the end of the day, I think it's their heart that ultimately decides.
Anyways! This was a great read and thanks for writing it!
Thanks so much Linn. By the way, your Instagram and FB posts about going for a run are the highlights of my week - inspiring, honest, funny. Beautiful.