The Ins and Outs of Product Marketing with Scott Shapiro

For this week’s episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, we bring you Scott Shapiro, former Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft and the current Director and Global Head of Product Marketing at Secure Code Warrior. Scott takes us on his journey from working at a large corporation and smaller businesses to now plunging into the cybersecurity marketing space. Today, Scott also explains product marketing and how it merges with the cybersecurity field while emphasizing the value of creating a culture of learning at a company.

 

Timecoded Guide:

[2:38] Scott’s story and getting into cybersecurity marketing

[8:03] Role of Secure Code Warrior and business model

[11:31] What is product marketing? 

[20:49] Dividing up projects in a team

[33:53] Scott’s product marketing strategy

 

What is product marketing and what does it look like? 

Product marketing seems straightforward at the face of it—Gianna and Maria pick Scott’s brain on what ‘products’ are in the cybersecurity marketing space. Scott explains that at Secure Code Warrior, they split up into a growth and performance marketing team, an events team, and a comms team. Scott says that, while everyone may answer the question differently, his take on product marketing is that they seek to tell the story of value drivers and problem-solving through different perspectives. 

“My take on product marketing is all about, we have to create value, and opportunity as we bring products to market that meet our customer's and prospects’ needs.”

 

How are you accelerating your learning in cyber to feel more comfortable as a product marketer? 

Scott explains that often in the cybersecurity space, people need to work together in order to nail down concepts and jargon in cybersecurity. Scott says that this starts with character traits. Humility, curiosity, and hunger around learning are key, Scott says. Collaboratively, teams can work on learning different aspects of cyber to then come together and show each other the ropes. Instead of Googling, he says, ask a team member to guide you in the right direction or teach you what something is. This creates a culture of learning and growth, which Scott says he tries to implement in a business culture. 

“Each pyre is all about saying you don't want to be a know-it-all, you just want to be a learn-it-all. And that's that mindset of curiosity in just about every setting.”

 

How are you dividing up projects amongst your team? 

Scott says that, in product marketing, dividing in conquering is all in the name: some lean more towards the project side while others turn to marketing. Either way, at an early-stage company, you have to be comfortable on both sides of the house. With product, people work within inbound marketing, seeking to form deep partnerships with product management while those in marketing focus more on outbound campaigns, partnering with email marketers or your social media. Scott also mentions a third area which is sales and customer success organization. Scott says that you have to balance between these three areas as a product marketer.

“At the end of the day, happy employees are happy customers and a happy business.”

 

The product marketing Venn diagram

In the episode, Scott holds up two circles with his hands, illustrating two sides of a business: personal goals and interests and business needs. The thread between the two is communication, Scott says, and the better that can be, the better you can strategize in overlapping the two circles to bounce around special projects. Scott says that this is how he builds a team of product marketers and does right by them while empowering them to grow their careers, making the business successful. 

“We all have things we want to grow into, and things that excite us that you might find boring that I love, or vice versa.”

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Links:

Spend some time with our guest Scott Shapiro on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Visit Secure Code Warrior on LinkedIn.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.