Why AI governance in product marketing is failing, with Tom Crist

A product marketing title can mean full-stack generalist, sales support, product-led growth, or partner marketing depending on where you land. Sharon Markowitz, whose career spans Del Monte, Intuit, LinkedIn, Zoom, and a stint in Australia, talks through how scope, reporting structure, and decision-making influence vary so dramatically across organizations, and what questions to ask in an interview to find out which one you're actually walking into.

When every company generates copy from the same handful of models, brand identity starts to collapse. Josh Porter, founder of Thunderwolf Consulting and former Google Cloud AI marketer, talks through the four layers of the AI tech stack, why the shift from generative to agentic AI changes what product marketers need to know, and the distinction between companies genuinely operating in AI versus those wrapping existing tools. His core argument: marketers need to act as editors, not passengers, and customer interviews are the one input AI still can't replicate.

Product marketing in banking operates under constraints most PMMs never encounter. Pallavi Shrivastava, VP of Product Marketing at US Bank, came from scaling startups and has spent her time since learning what changes when regulatory compliance, transparency, and long-term customer trust sit at the centre of every campaign and positioning decision. She talks through how her team uses AI for product positioning, why technical fluency matters more than people expect, and what it means to invite customers into the product journey rather than just market to them.

Only 15% of organisations have effective AI governance, and product marketing is feeling that gap. Tom Crist, Principal at Fluvio, has spent his career building product marketing functions across industries, and he thinks most teams are using AI in ways that quietly erode the quality of their output. He talks about where human synthesis still matters, how to build trust through content, and what it actually means to differentiate when everyone has access to the same tools.

What happens when you’re hired as the first product marketer in a 30‑year‑old, engineering-led company?In this episode, Wendy Werblin, Director of Product Management, Product Marketing, and Strategy at ScriptPro, breaks down how she:Turned “we need more features” into “we need product–market fit”Ran cross-functional persona and journey workshops instead of going soloBuilt an 18‑month delivery roadmap that finally gave engineers the whyIf you’re a founding PMM, or sit between product, sales, and marketing, this one’s basically your field guide.

Most product marketers learn their craft in SaaS, where data is everywhere. Maitri Gandhi, product marketing specialist at Hoshizaki America, works without it. She talks about building ICP messaging across sectors like food service, hospitals, and education using qualitative signals and trial and error, and why she thinks sales enablement is less about assets and more about giving a sales team something to talk about.

Mike McGee, Director of Product Marketing at Vantaca, joins the show to share his journey from retail sales to leading marketing teams – including a pivotal stop in customer success at Buildium, where he developed deep expertise managing large clients in the community association management space.Mike unpacks what product marketing really means: a uniquely cross-functional role that sits at the intersection of product, customer, and partner marketing. He opens up about the shift from individual contributor to team leader, what he looks for when building a team, and why so many organizations still misunderstand what product marketers actually do.

In this episode, we're joined by Doug Kimball, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Digital Science, who shares his unconventional journey from counseling to product marketing – and the through-line that connects both: clear, human communication.Doug unpacks his go-to framework – "So What? Why? Who Cares?" – and how it keeps messaging sharp and impactful. He reflects on his time at Nielsen, where a rare pivot through sales gave him a 360° view of how products are built and sold, and at Blue Yonder, where he developed competitive strategy from scratch.Now at Digital Science, he's focused on building a cohesive product marketing team and the frameworks to help it thrive. He's also authored a book on messaging and is active on LinkedIn as a mentor and connector.

What does it really take to make a product launch land? Amruta Hunnurkar, Go-to-Market Lead at Amazon EMEA, brings 14 years of product marketing experience to unpack why the discipline is far more than a support function but a core revenue driver.Drawing on her time at Samsung and in the startup world, Amruta explores how the rules of the game shift depending on where you work: structured process versus scrappy agility, big-brand playbooks versus getting in the room early. She also draws a sharp distinction between a product launch and a product marketing launch, and explains why confusing the two can cost you.

What does it take to build genuine trust with your customers – especially when the stakes couldn't be higher? In this episode, we sit down with Angeline Giammona, a product marketing leader whose career is a masterclass in meeting people where they are.Angeline takes us through her time at Bobbie, an infant formula company, where she built lifecycle marketing and customer engagement strategies from the ground up – including a fundraising campaign that sold out in under three hours. She opens up about what it really means to market in high-emotion, high-trust categories, and why understanding your customer's world matters far more than promoting your product's features.