You know those moments when you feel like you know a subject really well, then you speak with someone who REALLY knows it. Well, that’s how I felt during my conversation with Devon.
He’s been doing product marketing for 15+ years at places like Etsy, Amazon, and now running his own consulting firm, Fluvio.
In this episode, he shares why the push for ultra-simple messaging can actually hurt your credibility with technical buyers.
Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts 🎙️
During our conversation, we discuss:
Whether Gen AI is a strategic utility or a threat to product marketing
Why the trend of simplistic messaging is a danger zone for sophisticated tech products
Why it’s dangerous to solely rely on templates for messaging
Why LinkedIn influencers could be guiding you down the wrong path
What makes a great product marketer
Why go-to-market should be treated as a cyclical, always-on engine rather than a one-time launch event
Enjoy 💛
My key takeaways from our conversation:
1. Treat Go-To-Market as a continuous gear rather than a one-time launch event.
Devon argues that viewing GTM as a singular “event” misses the chance to build sustained momentum for your product. When you shift to a cyclical mindset, where research, positioning, and enablement constantly feed back into each other, you create a repeatable system that evolves based on market feedback. This turns GTM from a stressful deadline into a self-sustaining engine for growth.
2. Scale your expertise by building “AI Specialists” trained on your specific PMM frameworks.
Rather than just “playing around” with generic prompts, Devon’s team builds custom GPTs that act as specialized agents for things like pricing or competitive intelligence. By training these tools on your own internal logic and standards, you turn AI into a force multiplier that can handle heavy-lifting tasks like discovery research while you stay focused on high-level strategy.
3. Recognize the “danger zone” where templates strip the creativity out of your work.
Forcing unique product value into rigid, blank-box templates often results in messaging that lacks a real narrative or creative spark. Devon warns that when PMMs become “template fillers,” the discipline becomes too rigid and loses its strategic edge. Use templates as a guide, but give yourself the permission to break the box to find the story that actually resonates.
4. Make messaging simple for your ideal target audience, not for everyone.
There is a massive trend toward making messaging “simple enough for anyone to understand,” but Devon views this as a trap for technical products. If you’re marketing to a sophisticated audience like developers, your messaging should make them feel like you understand the nuances of their specific job, even if that means being “complicated” to an outside observer. Your goal isn’t to be simple for everyone; it’s to be effective for your ICP.
5. Look outside the marketing bubble to master the art of storytelling.
To build better product narratives, Devon recommends stepping away from standard business books and studying novelists or biographies of elite communicators like Steve Jobs. Seeing how great authors build tension and how historical figures communicate vision helps you bring a creative perspective to your work that you won’t find in a PMM playbook. Stepping “out of your lane” is often the best way to find a unique voice.
Where to find Devon:
Resources mentioned:
Books: Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, The Everything Store by Brad Stone, & The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubon.
Tools: ChatGPT (Custom GPTs), Windmill (AI Management Tool).
People: Liza Adams (Fractional CMO & AI Advisor).
If you’ve made it this far, thank you 💛
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