Most tech companies break out product management and product marketing into two separate roles: Product management defines the product and gets it built. Product marketing writes the messagingâthe facts you want to communicate to customersâand gets the product sold.
But from my experience thatâs a grievous mistake. Those are, and should always be, one job. There should be no separation between what the product will be and how it will be explainedâthe story has to be utterly cohesive from the beginning. Your messaging is your product. The story youâre telling shapes the thing youâre making. [See also: Chapter 3.2: Why Storytelling.]
I learned storytelling from Steve Jobs.
I learned product management from Greg Joswiak.
Joz, a fellow Wolverine, Michigander, and overall great person, has been at Apple since he left Ann Arbor in 1986 and has run product marketing for decades. And his superpowerâthe superpower of every truly great product managerâis empathy.
He doesnât just understand the customer. He becomes the customer. He can shake off his deep, geeky knowledge of the product and use it like a beginner, like a regular person. Youâd be surprised how many product managers skip that hugely necessary stepâlistening to their customers, gaining insights, empathizing with their needs, then actually using the product in the real world. But for Joz, itâs the only way.
So when Joz stepped into the world with his next-gen iPod to test it out, he fiddled with it like a beginner. He set aside all the tech specsâexcept one: battery life.
Nobody wanted their iPod to die in the middle of a flight or as they were DJing a party or going for a run. But as the product evolved from the classic iPod to the iPod Nano, we were in a constant tug-of-warâthe smaller and more elegant it became, the less room there was for a battery. But whatâs the point of a thousand songs in your pocket if you have to keep taking them out of your pocket to recharge?
One charge had to last days, not hours.
Battery life mattered to customers. And it mattered to Steve Jobs. You couldnât just come to Steve and say, âThe next version of the iPod is going to have a twelve-hour battery instead of fifteen like the last version.â Youâd get thrown out of the meeting.
So Joz and I didnât bring Steve numbersâwe brought him customers. Commuters like Sarah only use the iPod going to and from work, students like Tom use it throughout the day, but in short bursts between classes or basketball games.
We created typical customer personas, then walked through the moments in their life when they used their iPodsâwhile jogging, at parties, in the car. And we showed Steve that even if the number engineering gave us was twelve hours, those twelve hours actually lasted most people all week long.
The numbers were empty without customers, the facts meaningless without context.
Joz always, always understood the context and was able to turn it into an effective narrative. Itâs how we were able to convince Steve. And reporters. And customers. Itâs how we could sell iPods.