1.
How HubSpot Launches Products

2.
Partner Day
Event 2015
Narrative 1
Hi.
Jeffrey Vocell
Principal Product Marketing Manager
@jvocell

3.
We’re going to talk about
1. How Product Marketing is Structured
2. Launch Process
3. HubSpot’s Three Seasons
4. Q&A?
@jvocell

4.
Product Marketing at HubSpot
Structure
@jvocell

5.
Kipp Bodnar
CMO
VP, Content &
Product Marketing
VP, Demand Gen VP, Brand & Buzz VP, Sales Marketing
@jvocell

6.
Team Manager
PMM PMM PMM PMM
@jvocell
VP, Content &
Product Marketing

7.
Product Manager Product Marketing Manager
Work as a part of a small autonomous team to define, and understand a problem
then deliver a solution.
@jvocell

8.
We have no roadmap

9.
Or sprints

10.
Instead, we focus on big themes that
Solve For The Customer (SFTC)
@jvocell

11.
Product Marketing at HubSpot
Launch Process
@jvocell

12.
Product launches are a lot like overnight success. Many
think they just happen.
In reality, a lot of planning and hard work goes into a
successful launch.

13.
1. How differentiating is this change?
2. How intuitive is this change?
There are two questions we ask for every release:

14.
A quick example of non marketable, and intuitive
1. Settings layout change
2. Navigation change

15.
Phase 1: Understanding
@jvocell

16.
We’re directly embedded with our teams
@jvocell

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Deeply understand who you are selling to

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Analyze the Market (TAM, GTM, oh my!)
@jvocell

19.
Look at competition. How are they
positioning their product?
Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Landscape

20.
Phase II: Positioning
@jvocell

21.
Step 1: Write a draft press release

22.
What should you do with the Press Release?
• Share it with your Product Manager
• If you have a copywriter on staff, get any suggestions from them
• Reduce, and revise

23.
Step 2: Create a Creative Brief & Positioning Doc

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Phase III: Launch Plan
@jvocell

25.
Create a Launch Plan

26.
Step 1: Launch Overview

27.
Step 2: Goals, Positioning, Screenshots

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Step 3: Launch Channels

29.
What are Product Notifications?

30.
Launch Channels

31.
Launch Channels
•Website
• Blog(s)
• Customer Blog
• Marketing Blog
• Sales Blog
• Product Updates Blog
•Targeted Email
• Dedicated Partner Email
• Customer Forums on inbound.org
• HubSpot Social Channels
• Login Screen CTA
• Internal Wiki
•Video
• Press Outreach
• HubSpot Academy
• HUG Groups
• Help Documentation
•Webinar
• Partner Dropbox
• External Tool (i.e. websitegrader.com)
• Influencer Outreach
• Smart Content
• In-App Messaging
• Paid Advertising

32.
Step 4: Internal Audiences

33.
What is Product Nation?
• Once-a-month meeting with stakeholders from each department to discuss
latest product updates, feedback, and plans. Led by Product Marketing, but
some of the folks involved are:
• Product Manager
• Support Product Expert
• Services Product Expert
• Sales Product Expert
• Implementation Specialist
• Inbound Professor (HubSpot Academy)
• Sales Engineering

34.
Product Marketing at HubSpot
3 Seasons
@jvocell

35.
HubSpot Launch Seasons
Seed Season INBOUND
INBOUND
2016
Tuna Season

36.
Season 1: INBOUND
@jvocell

37.
For a Large INBOUND Release:
• Run the Launch Process we went through, but we’ll add:
• Message Testing - Generally 25+ weeks ahead of release
• Video - Write script and work with in-house video team to produce
• Case Study - We will always have a case study, or multiple, for a
large scale release.
• Nurturing - Nurturing campaigns are launched while the keynote is
being delivered
• New Web Content/Tools - New pages/microsites/or tools are
launched while the keynote is being delivered

38.
Questions?
@jvocell

39.
Season 2: Tuna Season

40.
What is Tuna Season?
• Tuna season is when we look across the market at industry trends,
look at a lot of our own internal data and deeply think about what’s
coming next.
• From a launch standpoint we are generally releasing smaller releases
in this stage, so while we may not actively be working on new
launches we work on helping sales.

41.
Season 3: Seed Season

42.
What is Seed Season?
• This is when new product development starts.
• For Product Marketing, this is also when we immediately start to
develop a Total Addressable Market

43.
Questions?
@jvocell