"The best messaging is the one that gets used." - Bianca Stanescu | SiriusXM
Micro Prose are stories, lessons, and advice about messaging and product marketing (and life) from the On Messaging Community. Enjoy!
Please give a warm welcome to Bianca Stanescu, Senior Director, Product Marketing at SiriusXM.
Thank you, Bianca.
Let’s get started:
When you’re feeling stuck or uninspired, what’s your favorite way to get back in the zone?
I don’t really believe in waiting for inspiration. Before switching to product marketing a decade ago, I was a journalist, so I learned early (in school and noisy newsrooms) that there’s no time to fear a blank page. You just start. There’s always an ugly first draft, and you need to accept it—and maybe even love it.
When I need to reset before editing, I change the scenery. Sometimes it’s a different room, sometimes it’s a full-on relocation to a forest trail where I can poke at ideas and trees. Forest bathing is legit! I grab my phone and write whatever comes to mind. No formatting, just hundreds of raw notes and rants. Eventually, something clicks.
What’s a piece of messaging advice you wish someone had told you earlier in your career?
Your job is to connect, not impress. Early on, I wrote like I was auditioning for “Best Metaphor in a Product Launch.” These days, I prioritize clarity. You can still be clever, but only after you’ve made it make sense.
Plus, the best messaging is the one that actually gets used. So reiterate it, retrain people, and advocate for it until it becomes second nature.
What did your biggest messaging failure teach you?
At one point, execs decided to center our entire product portfolio around as-a-service. It sounded modern then, but we hadn’t actually embedded the kind of consultative experience customers expected... So while the messaging was sleek, the reality didn’t match.
Internally, we were also shifting our messaging too frequently. Every quarter brought a new theme, a new story, and a new product name. Customers felt the disconnect. I learned early that messaging must be grounded in product truth and operational readiness.
What’s one messaging lesson that still shapes your approach today?
Bring your product marketing team as close to the “why” as possible. Messaging isn’t a last-mile delivery job. It starts upstream with strategy, intention, and context.
I’ve mentored and managed enough PMMs to know that when they understand the business, they write with conviction, which resonates with the audience.
What book do you recommend all product marketers read?
"On Writing" by Stephen King. It’s part memoir, part masterclass on clarity, rhythm, and cutting fluff before it kills your message. Every product marketer should learn to “kill their darlings”, especially the B2B jargon that sneaks into our messaging like it owns the place.
If you could put it into a single sentence, what is living all about?
Laugh loudly, build bravely, and pass the mic so others can rise too.