Product Marketing for High Growth Tech Products
Develop the skills and mindset to help you build, grow, and accelerate your tech PMM career!
This course is no longer available.
Explore other coursesCourse overview
Grow your product, grow your career!
In my 20 years' experience in the industry, I have seen many disruptive technologies. I'm also fortunate to have been part of a few high growth success stories. The most successful tech companies are always looking to build new innovative products that will deliver the next wave of growth.
Product marketing for such high growth disruptive technology products and services requires out of the box thinking and growth hacking techniques. Whether you work in a big company or small, you will always have limited budget and limited headcount and delivering success will depend on crafting an effective strategy, skillful execution, and loads of persistence. So why then, take up such a challenge? Because you love challenges, the rewarding experience of overcoming them, and the opportunities they present to grow your career!
In this course, we will walk through the strategies, tactics, and skills required to succeed at each step of the product adoption curve, from beach head customers to the early majority and beyond. Build an intrapreneurial mindset, ask the right questions, and learn to define success. Finally, learn how to effectively lead cross-functional teams, get leadership buy-in, and grow your career as you help your organization succeed.
The course includes:
1. Insights and learnings from my own experience in building and marketing high growth technology products in AI/ML, cloud computing, security analytics, and networking.
2. Playbooks and blueprints from highly effective b2b technology marketing teams at big tech companies.
3. A project that will provide hands on experience with the concepts learned in class and from your own current experience.
4. Thought experiments to build a strong intrapreneurial mindset that's required to succeed in a high-growth PMM role.
5. Tips to help you grow your career, whether it's at the company you work for, or at the company you want to be.
Who is this course for
01
You are an ambitious PMM looking to grow your responsibilities and career with hands-on insights to succeed
02
You have a business-owner mindset but limited resources (budget, headcount) and are looking for innovative ways to succeed and grow.
03
You are either looking for a new PMM job or are looking to move to a PMM role and need the skills and guidance to make the transition.
04
You are at a smaller b2b tech company and looking to apply learnings in your current role and potentially move to a larger tech company
What you’ll get out of this course
Building the rocket
Devise a comprehensive marketing strategy at each stage of your product’s adoption curve – from beach head customers to early majority and beyond.
Learn about the components of a strong marketing strategy and how they come together to deliver success.
Launching the rocket and attaining critical velocity
Create effective marketing plans to launch the product, build momentum, and drive adoption.
Learn how launching high growth products is different, and how to identify and pivot based on where your product is on the adoption curve.
Managing the launch room
Lead cross-functional teams comprising engineering, product management, digital marketing, analyst/press relations, finance/business planning, GTM, and sales.
Learn how to influence without authority, motivate stakeholders, and hold them accountable.
Flying with the rocket
Get leadership mindshare to grow your product as well as your career.
Learn how to get executive buy in for more funding, headcount, and top-down collaboration. Understand how to show case your results and communicate effectively to grow your career.
Chart your own course
Learn how to build your PMM career, navigate uncertainties, find new opportunities, and accelerate your career growth
What’s included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Neelay Thaker in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Course syllabus
3 live sessions • 48 lessons
Week 1
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Untitled lesson
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The technology adoption lifecycle
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Analyze the competitive landscape
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Outline of a marketing plan
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Always start with the why
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Identify the right target customer
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Set SMART goals and work backwards
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The price is right: Get the right pricing and packaging strategy
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Thought Leadership
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AR/PR and Influencer engagement
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Events
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Content
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Sales Engagement
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Partner engagement
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Customer advocacy
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Untitled lesson
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MPF structure, considerations, examples
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Competitive analysis
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Place in product portfolio
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Pivoting strategy based on the product adoption curve
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Adding marketing moments to maintain momentum.
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Identify goals for the launch
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Set and measure success
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The anatomy of a launch plan
Aug
2
Product Marketing for High Growth Tech Products - Session 1
Welcome and student introductions
Before you start building your product marketing plan
Building your marketing plan
Session 1 Review, Q&A, Next steps
Formulate a strong messaging and positioning framework
Considerations for effective marketing strategy
Create impact by building a strong launch plan
Session 2 Review, Q&A, Next steps
No module content yet
Week 2
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Authority vs collaboration
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Adaptive leadership
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Managing downward, sideward, and upward
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Building and managing v-teams
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Defining clear roles & responsibilities
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Getting buy-in from cross-functional teams
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Dealing with difficult circumstances
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The growth mindset
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Working backwards
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Customer Obsession
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Invest in you
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The different dimensions of job satisfaction
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Building a network of supportive personas
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Getting internal opportunities
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Finding external opportunities
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Interview tips
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AI-related Product Marketing roles
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Untitled lesson
- ✍️
Class Project - Marketing & launch plan
Submit by Aug 3
Aug
7
Product Marketing for High Growth Tech Products - Session 2
The different leadership styles
Managing without authority
Building the case for more budget and resources
No module content yet
Leveraging results for personal and professional growth
No module content yet
Session 3 Review, Q&A, Next Steps
No module content yet
Mindset for success
Finding and converting career opportunities
Project review and discussions
Wrap up and Q&A
No module content yet
Week 3
Aug
13
Product Marketing for High Growth Tech Products - Session 3
Bonus
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Watch video
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Watch video
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Product Management vs Product Marketing
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The many paths to Product Marketing
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Cloud fundamentals
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AI fundamentals
Connecting the dots: My career journey
How to explain Product Marketing to a 5 year old
Making a transition to Product Marketing
Tech fundamentals
What students are saying
Meet your instructor
Neelay Thaker
Neelay Thaker
Technology Product Marketing and GTM Leader (Currently Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft)
My 20 years in the tech industry have spanned many companies, roles, and technologies, but the one constant throughout my experience has been that I’ve had the opportunity to work on high growth products and initiatives.
Companies rise as they build a great product that customers want. In time, the very product that built the company becomes a cash cow, with engineering delivering incremental features and sellers rolling in their compensation and quota through generational upgrades. Marketing for such products becomes a routine task of touting new features to an already established customer base.
So why were the companies I worked at building products that were disruptive to their own cash cow? Because great companies are always looking to serve customers in better ways. They know that if they don’t drive disruption from within, they will be disrupted out of the market. These innovative products require an equally innovative approach to product marketing to build a new customer base, energize the sellers, and steer the massive ship in a bold new direction, all the while trying to leverage the company’s strengths and sustain the cash cow for as long as possible.
This course is the culmination of my learnings from leading product marketing for disruptive products – what works, what doesn’t, and most importantly, what matters. I became a Product Marketing Manager because I truly believe that the Product Marketing function is the fulcrum that creates a force multiplier for the business. There’s no greater job satisfaction than building your own little rocket, and watching it fly high into the sky!
Course schedule
4-6 hours per week
Live Sessions
Tuesdays & Thursdays 4:30pm - 6:00pm PST
Two 90 min sessions each week including content, discussion, group exercises, and Q&A.
Class project
1-2 hours / week
Single group project that will start building after session one with a presentation in the final session.
Optional reading and videos
1 hour per week
Read related articles and watch interesting videos on marketing gone wrong!
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you