Shirin Shahin

CLIENT LIST: Axios HQ, Folloze, Lusha, Wevo, RevenueBase, Bitly, Envoy, Terrain Analytics, Teamwork, Catalant, PatientPop, WordpressVIP, AceUp, Meya.ai, Jahia, SmartVault, Goldcast, Macro.io, WeGift

I am bringing my 10+ years of product marketing expertise to organizations who are either starting to build their product marketing foundation or grow it. I work with a range of companies from early stage technology startups to larger organizations. 

CORE COMPETENCIES: Product/Market fit programs (persona work, beta programs, etc), Positioning & Messaging, Sales Enablement, Customer Stories, Product Launch frameworks & planning.

Product Marketing: Founder, Leader & Consultant

Techstars

Mentoring companies in the Techstars Boston program. Have served as a lead mentor for: Ediphi, K'ept Health (DC), Speakbox, Pluto, AmorSui.

Mentor

Venture Lane | Startup Hub

Venture Lane Studio helps B2B software startups find real traction and repeatable success. They transform early stage B2B software companies with outstanding potential into growth stage ventures through a bespoke 3.5 month program, a proven methodology from experienced entrepreneurs, and a world class support network of peer founders and mentors.
https://theventurelane.com/studio/

Product Marketing Alliance

Product Marketing Alliance was founded in March 2019 and has since evolved into the world’s biggest product marketing community. Their Slack channel and meetups unite 1,000s of PMMs all over the world and their mission is very simple: to promote and elevate the role of product marketing.

I am honored to be one of their Ambassadors and help drive forward and increase the impact of product marketing.

Boston Ambassador 

Brightcove

As a Director of Product Marketing, I own the core product marketing activities for the Digital Marketing Business Unit. These include, but not limited to, market research, product launches, pricing and packaging, positioning & messaging, and sales enablement, always taking into consideration a global footprint.

This while leading a team of five who own the day to day product marketing deliverables for five of our core products. Covering technologies like Live Streaming, Internal Video Solutions, Social Syndication, Video & MAP integrations, and Online Video Portals.

I report to the VP of Product Marketing and Tech Partnerships, and have direct relationships with all Senior Executives within the company, to ensure smooth product roll outs.

Director of Product Marketing

- Product Launches: 
Led the Product Marketing responsibilities for two new global product launches for the Digital Marketing business unit. Specifically, for the Brightcove Social launch and Enterprise Video Suite launch.  

Led the cross-functional teams to drive the go-to-market plan for these launches. Teams include content, demand generation, corporate marketing, creative, sales and product teams. 

- Pricing & Packaging: 
Drove the analysis and execution of new Pricing & Packaging for the launch of our new Live Streaming solution, Brightcove Live. A highly cross-functional initiative between product marketing, finance, legal, sales, product, billing and customer support. Received executive level buy-in for the pricing proposal.

- On-going: conducting market & competitive analysis, monitoring our customers needs & pain points, a key contact between Product Management and the Marketing organization, driving sales certification programs, optimizing on sales enablement tools, creating key positioning and messaging docs, and tracking product adoption.

Senior Product Marketing Manager

The Start Up Institute

Instructor in the Digital Marketing Track. Received "Student Choice Award" for the entire Digital Marketing track. 
Developed and taught a new course for the track: "6 Keys to a Successful Product Launch." 
Sections included: 
Market Sizing & Opportunity 
Positioning & Messaging 
Product Goals 
Go to Market Planning 
Campaign execution 
Launch day

Instructor

Aquent

- Developed a consistent positioning and messaging strategy for the Aquent business and ensured we spoke in a similar voice across our various marketing channels. 
- Built a comprehensive and systematic marketing plan for Aquent that aligned with both research, sales team insights, as well as product plans/enhancements.
- An advocate and go-to expert for the sales team/account directors around content, marketing materials, and engagement tools for them to share with their clients to increase business.
- Helped design and drive more strategic and organized research into the field, buyers, and their needs to get ahead of the market and then collaborate with the product teams for future service enhancements.

Constant Contact

- Developed and maintained consistent product positioning and messaging in-product and across all marketing channels to align across sales, support, marketing, and product.
- Led the GTM strategy, targeting, and positioning for our Social Media product suite including hitting and communicating high level KPI’s enabling marketing and sales functions to hit their specific goals
- Instrumental in the launch of our Social Campaigns product across the entire organization which resulted in over 150,000 sign ups within 18 months of the launch. 
- Drove a price change that resulted in a 70% lift in conversion, a 4% increase in Customer Lifetime Revenue, 35% decline in attrition. 
- Managed the GTM launch of our social media marketing services and in charge of scaling the product across the organization 	
- Conducted market research to improve the customer experience and ensured alignment between customer needs, the market opportunity and the short and long term product roadmap

Product Marketing Manager

Constant Contact's leading email marketing, online survey and event marketing tools—supported by its expert personal coaching and support—help all types of small businesses and organizations create professional-looking email newsletters and insightful online surveys and begin a dialogue with their customers. Today, more than 450,000 customers worldwide trust Constant Contact to help them connect with their audience.

As a member of Product Planning, I am conducting market, customer and competitive research around the Social Media market and the needs of small businesses. 

Also, assisting in the overall definition of product and concept requirements needed for implementing and launching new products/features at the company. 

Main Responsibilities include:
- Managing customer research projects working with external vendors and internal stakeholders - utilizing primary and secondary research methods 
- Managing customer programs, i.e. semi-annual Customer Forums bringing in customers to gather input on future product and feature ideas 
- Conducting research around Social Media; current and future market analysis
- On-going analysis of the competitive landscape delivered throughout the company via various presentations

Product Planning Analyst

Market Specialist, Product Planning

SBR-Small Business Results

Advising for a small business consulting firm focused on growing small businesses through individual consulting, programs and presentations.

Business Advisor

One Hen, Inc

Working on the 16 Week Summer Curriculum program development for 4th &amp; 5th graders. Also working on establishing greater partnerships with After-School programs both locally and nationally.

Program Manager - Volunteer

Product Marketing Leader, Consultant and Coach | Working with organizations to: set up their product marketing foundation, provide interim leadership and/or provide project support with an existing team.

I have over 10 years of experience in product marketing at larger enterprise companies like Constant Contact and Brightcove. 

Now, I am bringing this expertise to organizations who are either starting to build their product marketing foundation or grow it. I work with a range of companies from early stage technology startups to larger organizations. 

• I enjoy being creative in developing and executing on programs.
• I strive to keep the customer top of mind in all that I do.
• I am focused on ensuring a consistent product/brand voice across all channels. 
• I enjoy working with sales teams who want to have even more effective conversations.
• I love collaborating with a mission driven, passionate team to reach goals.
and...of course, I LOVE Product Marketing.

Main areas of focus: product/market fit, positioning & messaging, sales enablement, driving product launches, creating frameworks/systems around product launches. 
 
Why me? What have my clients said:
🤝🏻 Ongoing collaboration 
😇 Integrity & honesty
👩🏻‍💻 Vision for product marketing
🙌🏼 Extension of our team
💡 Instant impact
🗣️ Strong communication skills

Why me vs. an agency?
🤙🏼 I am your one main POC throughout the entire journey (intro --> scope --> project --> feedback)
🙋🏻‍♀️ I do the work (sometimes I get support, but all the work goes through me)
🚀 Fast & efficient onboarding. I hit the ground running - less back end work! 
🥇 Quality is consistent b/c.... of #2;)

It’s my one year anniversary! 

At WeWork!

About a year ago, I signed up to get out of the house.

As a business owner who is mostly solo, it can get isolating to work at home. And even then, I did it for three years. 

Then I started to feel less productive and more distracted.  I thought about making a change and went back and forth a lot - like for weeks: Do I want to incur this cost? Will I really go and make use of it? Etc etc. 

But I knew that: 
🌟 I craved a routine again
🌟 I craved the small talk (I know... right?!)
🌟 I even craved not ONLY wearing leggings every day and actually putting myself together;) 

Now the above pain points have all been met. 🥳  And there have also been other surprising benefits.

✔️ Community: You end up seeing familiar faces from the staff to other regulars.
✔️ Networking opportunities: I have reconnected with past clients and prospective ones (by chance) because they are nearby or even in this specific location
✔️ Health: I have built a more healthy routine. I walk to the gym, walk to WeWork, walk home. (Not every day. I am not a machine. But often!)

⭐ It doesn't have to be WeWork, of course. But if you are feeling you need new energy, a new routine, and just anything NEW, listen to that feeling and change things up. ⭐

Thanks Remy Luce for the photo ;) You and the whole staff are great.
#makechanges #businessowner #solopreneurs

I feel like I have been on a “tour de events.”

I don’t know why I needed to make that french. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It can seem exhausting to go to events, make small talk with people you may not know, and wonder if you will see real value. 

I feel this too and I am a pretty social person! 
-------
Well, it's almost always feels worth it. (Yes, almost. It can be a miss sometimes but that's rare.)

Below is my tour in the last month or so. What made these events more refreshing were that they were (mostly) outside of my day-to-day topics. 

Creativity: 
1️⃣ Shiella Dowlatshahi Radel, MSc, BCPA and I went to a flower workshop - we imprinted dried flowers onto candles. Very different from business events. 
2️⃣ Went to my second CreativeMornings/Boston event at the Venture Cafe. Creative mornings is a free monthly breakfast lecture series designed for creative communities. This month’s theme was about Perspective.

Business: 
1️⃣ Shruti Sharma and I went to the Digital Marketing Symposium hosted by the Digital Business Institute- many topics revolved around AI, unsurprisingly;)
2️⃣ Boston Founders Forum hosted a great fireside chat with Liz Elting, author of “Dream Big and Win.”
3️⃣ Eleni Vorvis and I went back in time (not really) to a Babson College alumni event. The topic was commercial real estate → because why not learn something new. 

⭐ So don't question it so much when you wonder if you should go to an event. Find the right balance for you for both frequency and topics. ⭐ 


Sometimes you gotta do the real talk about running a business. The 😊 and the 😟. 

Will Stevens and I talked about it all on Solopreneur Stories. 

We discussed: 
✔️ How it actually felt to go from a corporate setting to becoming a solopreneur
✔️ How to actually feel some autonomy when you run your own business
✔️ The difference between working in cafes vs. WeWork (👋🏼 WeWork, commission? Maybe?) 
✔️ The routines I have in place to manage my workload and not get burned out 

So if you are curious about my journey, and you wanted to ask me about it, now you can just listen to this episode. 😆

(And yes, of course you can still reach out to me!)

Listen --> 👂🏼 https://rb.gy/w8ei85 👂🏼

#businessrealtalk 
#productmarketing 
#solopreneurstories

open.spotify.com

Products, planning, productivity, and purpose

Is your sales team at the edge of their seats for…

❇️ Pitch decks
❇️ One pagers (yes, they are still used 🙂) 
❇️ Competitive battlecards 
❇️ Case studies 

All great stuff - and all doable. 

But not without the positioning and messaging work first. 

Why not? Check it out. 📹 Will Stevens and I discussed this on Solopreneur Stories. 
#productmarketing #dopositioningfirst 

🚨 Simply because we are the ones being paid, doesn’t mean we are order takers. 🚨

👾 Alex Virden and I collaborate on product marketing projects so coming together to talk about consulting is a no brainer. 

The above was our filtered thought and what kickstarted our conversation.

We sense at times that since we are the ones hired, the ones being paid, and the ones tasked with a project, that we can also (even subconsciously) seem like order takers. 

This mindset benefits no one.

🤝🏼 We want to be your strategic partner 🤝🏼

So, what are some things we do to be just that? 

1️⃣ When we share a framework → we also provide the context, the why and the philosophy. 

2️⃣ Before signing a contract → we ask the right discovery questions around what exists today, what doesn't, and if we all agree to do a specific exercise activity first that may be necessary.

3️⃣ Upon kicking off → we meet with a few key cross functional stakeholders with the goal of gaining different perspectives, even if the specific team member/function isn’t related to the project. We need various perspectives to be strategic. 

4️⃣ During a project → we need to stay informed around what is happening outside of the project (New sales motion? We need to know. Recent product roadmap updates? Can we see?) 

⭐ Help us, help you :) We are brought in because you may not have the expertise in-house so let us lead more while we also remain flexible. ⭐ 

#strategicpartners #productmarketing #helpushelpyou 

I struggle when someone asks me this question.  I'm talking like brain freeze.

They ask: “What’s new with you?” Me inside my head: 😩

I do think I am an interesting person but the question is so generic I don’t know what to say! 

Usually it’s something like: “Yea things are good…” then awkward topic transition —> “Have you been to this event before!?” (let's say we are at an event)

Oh my 😂 Is this a me problem? :) 

What can we ask instead?! 
#smalltalkwoes #changethedialogue

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