Jim Ericson

✍️ This week’s #PortersProductMarketingPosts is a PSA for every PMM who’s ever been “just looped in real quick” on a Friday at 4:57pm. We need to talk about the Catch-All Trap™—you know, that magical space where Product Marketing owns everything… and nothing… all at once. One day you’re crafting strategic positioning. The next, you’re resizing logos in Google Slides while someone says, “You’re so good at this.” (The horror.) This week’s post breaks down how to escape the chaos without ghosting your Slack login. Here’s the five-step survival guide: 1️⃣ Define the core, not the chaos. PMM ≠ “whatever didn’t get assigned.” 2️⃣ Ruthlessly prioritize. Every “yes” to a random fire drill is a “no” to real impact. 3️⃣ Set intake processes. If there’s no form, there’s no deliverable. We said what we said. 4️⃣ Evangelize your strategic role. You’re not a slide decorator—you’re the GTM brain trust. 5️⃣ Protect your energy. Notifications off. Boundaries on. Lunch breaks are legal. 📍 The full article is live now on Medium (link in comments) and Substack (see “View my newsletter” at the top of this post). ❓PMMs—how are you drawing the line between being collaborative and being everyone’s backup plan? Drop your tactics, auto-responses, or Slack rants (respectfully) below. #ProductMarketing #PMM #GTM #B2BSaaS #PrioritiesNotPanic

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Now, you can instantly create disappointing customer experiences at scale!" said no martech vendor ever. Yet I see so many brands doing exactly that. I think about this as the jockey and the horse. AI is your thoroughbred racehorse: powerful, fast, and tireless. But without an expert jockey (that's you and your team), that horse won't win races. The jockey sets the strategy and guides the horse to victory. If the input is weak, AI just scales the noise. Your technology can trigger messages with precision, but only humans add the empathy that makes customers feel valued. The numbers don't lie: 71% of customers will walk away after just two bad experiences. Here's what works: 1. Start with emotion, not just action. When building automation, focus on how you want customers to feel. 2. Create strategic human checkpoints. This isn't about approving every message; it's about guiding your AI thoroughbred through the critical turns. 3. Invest in training your "jockeys." Help your team lead systems that move faster while maintaining your brand's humanity. About 84% of customers say being treated like a person, not a number, is what wins their business. Winning companies aren't just deploying faster technology; they're developing better jockeys. Ever had an automated message miss the mark? Or a win where adding human touch really paid off? Tell me about it! #CustomerExperience #Personalization #MarketingAutomation

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I wrote this for myself. Then I thought maybe it was for you all, too. When my local Montana community started asking me about AI, I couldn't hand them a framework. I had to find the story they were already living — the fear, the curiosity, the potential, maybe the specific moment they felt left behind — and work from there. That's what cut through to them. Not a deck. Not a strategy doc. A story. The more I work marketing in AI, the more convinced I am that the most important skill isn't technical. It's knowing how to meet people where they are, and give them language for what they're already feeling. https://lnkd.in/gH5V_tTK

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After walking the expo hall at B2B Marketing Exchange in Carlsbad this week, I had a strange realization. Many of the vendors sounded surprisingly similar. Intent signals Buyer journey intelligence Journey orchestration Targeting the entire buying committee Different booths. Very similar language. After a while, it all started to blur together. Similar promises. Similar buzzwords. It made me think about how different B2B marketing conferences felt 5-10 years ago. Back then the categories were clearer. Marketing automation platforms CRMs Social listening tools Brand reputation tools Data enrichment providers Event platforms You could walk the floor and quickly understand who did what and how it worked. This week the lines felt much blurrier. That made me wonder… Is martech itself converging? Or is the messaging starting to converge? Maybe it’s a bit of both. As AI becomes embedded across the B2B technology stack, capabilities naturally start to overlap. But AI may also be shaping how companies talk about themselves. If marketing teams are using similar prompts and positioning templates, it’s easy to see how messaging can start to sound similar. And that creates an interesting shift. If technologies start to look similar and the messaging starts to sound similar then differentiation will come from somewhere else. Not just product features. But the people behind the company. Leadership perspectives Employees sharing real experiences Behind-the-scenes stories Authentic videos Actual humans showing up In a world where more and more content will be AI-generated, the companies that show a real human touch will likely thrive. Curious if others who attend B2B marketing conferences are noticing the same thing. #B2BMarketing #MarTech #BrandBuilding

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A product organization without a conductor sounds a lot like… noise. Your CEO is the composer. They set the vision. The direction. The piece you’re trying to play. Your teams? They’re the instrument sections. Engineering. Design. Marketing. Sales. All incredibly capable on their own. But if you hand the music directly to each section and say “go”… You don’t get a performance. You get people playing in different keys. At different tempos. Starting at different points. It’s not a talent problem. It’s alignment. That’s the role of a product leader. Not to play every instrument. Not to rewrite the music. But to conduct. To keep the tempo. To bring sections in at the right time. To make sure everything is working toward the same outcome. Because when it works… It doesn’t feel like coordination. It feels like momentum. #ProductLeadership #Leadership #ProductManagement #Alignment #Teamwork

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Kind words from a new client... "Of everyone I met with, you are the most experienced with the exact type of work that I think [COMPANY] needs right now. I also appreciated being on the receiving end of your sales techniques put to play -- from adding value for free out of the gate, demonstrating that you understand [COMPANY]'s opportunity areas and how you'd execute on them, down to this follow-up message. You practice what you preach. " 🙏 🙇‍♂️ 💪

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