Create internal momentum with transparency
Hi, I’m James. Thanks for checking out Building Momentum: a newsletter to help startup founders and marketers accelerate SaaS growth through product marketing.
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Maybe we don’t feel confident about it. Or maybe we’re perfectionists. Or scared of the reaction.
But regardless, often as product marketers we’re much more comfortable sharing updates after something has happened.
The feature launched! The campaign is now live! The battlecard is now ready! The whitepaper is finished!
Which is a shame, really.
All of our good, hard work that goes into everything that our wider teams don’t see – the planning, strategizing, creating, editing, reviewing, testing, iterating, reporting – becomes invisible. And we’re judged only by the outputs (and hopefully results) that we’ve released.
Momentum is that feeling where things are happening. You’re winning deals, closing faster, results come easier. Momentum is not a lagging indicator; it’s a leading indicator. Momentum is excitement.
In this post:
Share early
Nothing is as exciting as new. New projects, new experiments, new ideas. New fires people up, lights a fire in their belly, and sparks the brain into action.
When you’ve got the go-ahead on a new project, let people know. Announce it. It doesn’t have to be a big proclamation, but it does need to give people enough insight into:
- What you’re doing
- Who’s involved
- What happens next
- Where they can go for more information
It’s important to set expectations. Too high and everyone will be disappointed when it might not happen. Set expectations too low, and you miss an opportunity to get people bought in.
Share the wins (and the fails)
Momentum breeds momentum. If you’ve had a win, whatever the size, shout about it!
We usually reserve announcements for the big wins – the huge customer deal, the massive product feature.
But every small win should be celebrated. Had feedback that helped adjust direction for a campaign? Celebrate it! Completed a small task that gets your competitor intelligence hub up to scratch? Sing it loud!
Even if things aren’t going well, talk about it publicly.
Sharing failures doesn’t induce a lack of confidence – it creates trust. You never know what you might learn from the wider team, or who might be able to provide that crucial nugget to unblock everything else.
Share the learnings
Want to supercharge the momentum you’re building with your internal stakeholders? Actually monitor your results, and communicate how well your project performed against the goals set against it.
Hopefully they’re great, and you win accolades for setting and achieving results. Even if they’re not great, you’ll build confidence. People will know that you’re monitoring results, measuring success, and are actually honest about what’s happening.
New insights are wins. Getting to an outcome, one way or another, is a win.
Final tip: be consistent
Maybe it’s a weekly, or bi-weekly, or monthly update. But make it, every time. No update is an update that people will love to hear.
Building trust and momentum starts with transparency and consistency – good luck!
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