Gettin' to Market

Most product people know they're not supposed to get attached. But they do it anyway (and it rarely stops at the feature level).Nate sits down with Kelly Card, SVP of Product at ABC Fitness, to talk about what it actually looks like when a team treats their product like a pet instead of livestock. Not the obvious version (the PM who won't kill a feature), but the one that's harder to see: the acquired company's employees who have been living with a product for a decade, and now they're terrified to tell anyone what's actually wrong with it.They get into how pet thinking spreads from the roadmap to CS coverage, support models, outage ownership, and budget — basically everything with a RACI. And Kelly's self-diagnosis question for whether you're doing it is worth the whole conversation.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

Nate sits down with Chad Cosper, Principal Product Marketing Manager at insightsoftware and self-described Deadhead, to explore what the Grateful Dead accidentally got right about building a product people can't leave behind.They didn't set out to pioneer freemium distribution. They didn't design a community — they just created conditions and got out of the way. The taping section was born from values, not strategy. The mailing list came from loyalty to specific fans. The touring revenue that kept them in the top five grossing acts of the '80s — competing with Thriller-era Michael Jackson — came from a band that genuinely didn't think they owned the music once they played it.It's a conversation about power users, brand elasticity, what it means to serve your core audience even when the casual ones show up, and whether any of it could be replicated today.Also: lessons learned includes a defense of Gen Z's "six seven" habit that is, arguably, airtight.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

In this episode of Gettin’ to Market, Nate sits down with Steve Thompson (Senior Director, Product Marketing at insightsoftware) to talk about what really happens when your company gets acquired — and how to navigate the uncertainty without spiraling.Steve has been through three acquisitions and a bankruptcy. Nate has been through two acquisitions. They discuss:How to read the tea leaves (and when you can’t)What to do the moment you hear the newsWhen to update your resume and when not to panicHow to handle new managers and shifting org structuresThe biggest mistakes people make during changeNew Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

John's out this week, but Nate is joined by Michelle Slade, SVP of Brand and Communications at ABC Fitness, for a candid conversation about what brand actually is and where people get it wrong.Michelle brings a rare perspective: she started as a business analyst writing requirements before crossing over into marketing, and has built brand strategy for companies like Expedia, GameStop, and Sally Beauty. The result is someone who can talk brand philosophy and ship.In this episode, they cover:Why brand is a system, not a logo (and what happens when organizations don't have that system defined)The "brand police" problem and why policing without infrastructure is a losing gameHow brand elasticity explains why Apple can force U2 onto your phone and still charge you $200 for more RAMWhere brand has the most cross-functional friction (hint: it's not where you'd expect)Using AI as a brand standards checker, and getting called out by your own promptWhy thought leadership without tension is just noisePlus: tipping culture and the importance of a POV.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

You can't vent to your boss. Probably. But the real question is who can you vent to — and who else do you need in your corner to actually "survive and advance"? Nate and John get into the relationships that don't show up on any org chart but quietly determine everything from your next promotion to whether you're still standing after a reorg. Plus: AI's slow threat to the SaaS seat model, and John tries to fill out a visa application.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

John's out this week, so Kyrie Slater joins as co-host for a conversation about Sales Kickoffs and Marketing. Marketing and SKO share a sometimes uneasy relationship--so where does that leave folks on the team?Kyrie and Nate compare notes on their recent SKOs—who gets invited and why, whether these expensive events deliver ROI, and what marketers should actually bring back from them.Plus: lessons learned, the hunt for fiber in conference food, and Magic 8 Balls as swag items.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

How much can one angry customer shape your view of the product? How much should it? Nate and John discuss the outsized influence of vocal detractors, why being an internal product evangelist matters, and John's story of passive-aggressively loving a forum critic into becoming a fan. Plus: at-home health trends, software review consolidation, and the millennial phone-vs-laptop buying threshold.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

When's the last time you updated your LinkedIn? If you're scrambling to answer that, this episode is for you.John and Nate sit down with Mary-Scott Van Arsdale—a marketing and content strategist who's helped build both corporate brands and personal ones—to talk about why your personal brand matters more than you think. Mary Scott breaks down the difference between corporate copy-paste approaches (still happening in 2026, unfortunately) and authentic personal branding that actually gives you leverage in your career.The conversation covers why LinkedIn is your insurance policy against layoffs, how to build a presence without selling out, and what happens when companies try to control employee narratives. Plus: why posting for the first time after you've been laid off is the worst possible strategy, how to stay authentic while building visibility, and where AI-generated content fits into the equation.Also discussed: non-alcoholic mocktail pricing, candle tunneling prevention, and Salesforce's 4,000-person AI experiment that lasted exactly four months.Learn more about Mary Scott and our other guests at https://productischange.com/guestsNew Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

Let's talk about the thing everyone thinks about but nobody wants to say out loud: compensation. Nate and John are joined by Rachel Stanley, Portfolio Product Marketing Manager at Red Hat, for an honest conversation about salary bands, equity, bonuses, and what actually matters when evaluating your comp package.Rachel shares her journey from PR to product marketing—and yes, the significant pay bump was part of the decision. The team unpacks pay transparency laws, regional salary bands that make no sense, how to negotiate when you're already in-role, and why the "hot labor summer" of 2021 feels like a distant memory. They also tackle the components of comp most people forget to consider, from RSUs to the real cost of benefits, and why understanding your band matters more than you think.Whether you're considering a move, trying to get promoted, or just wondering if you're being paid fairly, this episode cuts through the LinkedIn noise to give you frameworks you can actually use. Plus: why you should absolutely not try to get dates on LinkedIn, and yes, SeaWorld is still a thing.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod

Your company's investment level in a product fundamentally changes what your job looks like as a PM or PMM. John and Nate break down how your priorities shift across the spectrum: high-growth products chasing new customer acquisition, retention-focused products where stability is king, and that tricky middle ground where the product has value but go-to-market isn't working yet.Plus, where should you put your most experienced people? On retention products or growth products? What skills do you actually build in low-growth roles? Side topic: the reality of VP-level context switching—bouncing between three-year vision and this week's execution, across products with completely different business models, while staying sharp for C-suite conversations.New episodes every Tuesday. Find us wherever you get your podcasts, or visit productischange.com for all episodes and YouTube shorts.New Episodes (some) Tuesdays. Visit productischange.com for more.Videos and clips available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettintoMarketPod