Whenever product marketers create materials for others—whether for external or internal audiences—they need a feedback loop to ensure the audiences can, and will, use the materials.
Those who know me know that I am drawn to complexity like a moth to a candle, and constantly have to resist the urge to detail.
- My draft 0.5s that go through severe cutting before anyone sees draft 1.0.
- My Incode team’s 80+ “battlecards” that were four pages long.
Regarding the latter, I should have learned the lesson from my MorphoTrak days. I was creating sales playbooks for one of our products that were much more than four pages long. Detailed playbooks that went into detail about the product, the market, the competitors, and everything else.
Sales did NOT like them. I was told the truth about HOW salespeople would use these playbooks.
“I will glance at your playbook five minutes before meeting with a prospect.”
I could wish upon a star that the salespeople would spend four hours in intense study, but just because I wish for it doesn’t mean it is going to happen.
Now I wish…that my Incode battlecards had been shorter.
Bredemarket 