Molly Chapman is the Head of Product Marketing at Moorepay, the UK’s biggest payroll company.
A product marketer who champions the voice of the customer, Molly is passionate about bringing new products to market, giving customers a seat at the table, and drawing on communication to align sales and marketing teams. She ensures brand consistency, whilst leading with customer-centric data and user experience to impact product design and launch.
Before pursuing a role with Moorepay, Molly worked as a B2B Product and Marketing Manager at STA Travel, where she worked across local and global projects, supporting multiple areas of the business. Molly managed B2B teams and developed product portfolios for three brands.
As is often the case with product marketers, the time arrived when Molly wanted to enhance her credentials - this led to her getting certified with Product Marketing Core.
She gave her insights into what her experience studying with Product Marketing Alliance was like, focusing specifically on:
- Why she signed up for Product Marketing Core.
- What she enjoyed most about the certification.
- What the course has helped her to accomplish.
- The next step in her product marketing journey.
- Who she’d recommend Product Marketing Core to.
Why did you initially sign up for Product Marketing Core?
I’ve always worked in product marketing in relatively small teams. To be honest I fell into the role, which means a lot of the learning I’ve done has been on the job, and from my reading and research.
Working in a small team means heaps of autonomy, but in terms of backing up decisions with cold hard facts, not so much. I wanted to solidify my learnings and have the confidence to back up my thinking and strategy when presenting to key stakeholders within the business.
Coming into a new role I wanted to make sure I was following best practices, doing the right thing by a relatively young function in the business, and of course, getting some learning under my belt.
What was the best thing about Product Marketing Core?
It’s all in one place! The last thing you want to do after a long hard day at work is to scan the web for extra reading, listening, and learning. Product Marketing Core takes the complexity out of learning and breaks it down into bitesize courses that are easy to weave into the everyday.
The templates are really handy and downloadable. That means even if you forget areas of the course (inevitable) you’ve got visual aids, reminders, and templates that can be put to use.
What has taking Product Marketing Core enabled you to accomplish?
After I finished the Product Marketing Core course I had a long list of things I wanted to change. First and foremost, we took a long hard look at customer feedback, how we gathered it when we gathered it, and at what points of our product journey we were putting this to use. We went from ad hoc, vague, customer forums with low uptake, to five different stages of customer feedback and uptake going through the roof. This has touched all areas of the product marketing function and the course of our product development.
We ripped up the rule book of our ‘traditional’ GTM and started again. Challenging the thinking and process behind sales enablement and got the whole business thinking differently about how PM aided the sale cycle.
We went right back to the beginning in terms of positioning and messaging for our core software. Instead of going on a gut feeling we put thought, persona research, and market research and spent a very long time batting words back and forth.
We elevated the product marketing function within the business and drove understanding of what we do, why we do it and the how – which has been instrumental in getting buy-in from relevant stakeholders. The team has successfully grown and we’re pushing the development of the function within the business which is exciting!
What's the next step for you in your professional development journey?
Managing people effectively is really important to me. I’d like to cover more EI and people management, as well as go deeper into Product Marketing learning.
Who would you recommend Product Marketing Core to?
I’d recommend it to those who are new to the product marketing world, or potentially in businesses where product marketing hasn’t been a core focus for the marketing team or the wider business. Small PM teams will benefit from this course.
