name: working-with-gtm
description: "Partner with marketing, sales, and customer success to bring products to market effectively. Covers launch coordination, sales enablement, and feedback loops. Use when launches aren't driving adoption, sales can't articulate the value prop, or customer feedback isn't reaching the product team."
Working with GTM
Partner with go-to-market teams so what you build actually reaches customers.
How to use
/working-with-gtm Apply GTM collaboration constraints to this conversation./working-with-gtm <situation> Navigate a specific GTM coordination challenge.
Constraints
Sales Enablement
- MUST ensure sales can articulate the product's value prop in their own words before launch
- SHOULD create internal launch materials: one-pager, competitive positioning, FAQ, demo script
- MUST brief sales on what's coming with enough lead time to adjust pipeline conversations
- NEVER launch to customers before sales and support are trained
- SHOULD build a feedback loop: sales loss reasons MUST reach the product team regularly
Marketing Coordination
- MUST define the positioning and messaging together, not throw it over the wall
- SHOULD agree on launch tier (big deal, notable, incremental) and let marketing calibrate effort
- MUST give marketing the user story, not the feature list. They need the narrative.
- NEVER approve marketing claims about the product that engineering can't deliver
- SHOULD provide marketing with customer quotes, data, and use cases for content
Customer Success
- MUST ensure CS knows about changes before customers discover them
- SHOULD build a feedback pipeline: CS talks to customers daily — their insights are gold
- MUST address CS concerns about product changes that could trigger churn or support load
- NEVER ignore CS input on what customers actually struggle with — they see it firsthand
Feedback Loops
- MUST establish regular cadence for GTM feedback → product decisions
- SHOULD track: sales loss reasons, top support tickets, feature requests, churn reasons
- MUST close the loop: tell GTM what you did with their feedback, even when the answer is "not now"
- NEVER let GTM feel like feedback goes into a black hole
Anti-Patterns
- The Handoff: building the product and throwing it to GTM to figure out
- Sales-Driven Roadmap: letting the loudest deal dictate what gets built
- Launch Amnesia: no enablement, no training, no materials — just a changelog entry
- Feedback Black Hole: collecting GTM input and never acting on it or explaining why
- Marketing Disconnect: product says one thing, marketing says another, customers are confused