Mariana Racasan, Director of PMM

 
 

Product marketing professional with over 12 years of experience in crafting impactful messaging and devising go-to-market strategies. I excel at helping companies identify their target audience, speak to them like actual humans, and drive growth through messaging strategy. I have extensive experience in the developer space and productivity tools, as well as a background in data analytics, local marketing and analytics, event management software, and the video game industry.

Years of experience • 12+ years

Location • Madrid (CET, GMT+1)

Follow Mariana• LinkedIn

Quick Facts

Past Companies

Industry Experience

  • Luxury Goods

  • Productivity Tools

  • DevTools

  • Data Analytics

  • Gaming

  • Workplace Tech

Areas of Expertise

  • Market Research/Competitive Intelligence

  • Sales Enablement

  • Product Launch

  • Customer Journey Map

  • GTM Strategy

  • Messaging/Positioning

How Mariana can help

  • What got you here won’t get you there. I can help you stand out from competitors with a clearly differentiated and defensible positioning and messaging which is audience-based and answers “why buy, why buy now”.

    Marketing and sales need to rally around a single story. I can craft a clear and simplified company narrative that everyone can relate to and share.

  • Devise an impactful GTM strategy based on insights into the problems you solve for your customers, your competition, and your unique strengths.

    Build an integrated customer acquisition, expansion, and retention plan aligned to your yearly and quarterly revenue goals.

  • As a fractional marketer, I can research and launch a new strategic or growth initiative allowing your team to stay focused on their existing priorities and set of deliverables.

    As a mentor for your marketing team members, I can help them grow in their current roles while assisting you and the organization to grow.

Project: Zenhub's repositioning and rebranding efforts pay off with $10M series A

Overview

Zenhub is the leading productivity management and collaboration platform for empowering agile teams and organizations to scale and get more done. Providing clarity, predictability, and efficiency, Zenhub helps teams from around the world ship better code.

In recent years, Zenhub has undergone significant positive changes. The primary goals of this repositioning and rebranding initiative were to reflect our evolved product offerings, showcase our expanded capabilities, and effectively communicate our value proposition to a wider audience.

The objective was to shift the perception of Zenhub from being solely a GitHub extension to a comprehensive project and productivity management solution for diverse software development teams.

Role

I played a crucial role in managing and coordinating this complex cross-functional project. My responsibilities spanned every phase of the repositioning process, from its inception to execution. I meticulously crafted a multi-step strategy that ensured a seamless and successful transition.

I began by forming a positioning team comprising key stakeholders and team leads. To gather insights and data, I initiated an internal survey to identify the unique features and attributes that resonated with our colleagues across the organization. Simultaneously, I conducted customer interviews to deeply understand the preferences and perspectives of our most dedicated users. By uncovering their pain points and expectations, I could tailor our repositioning strategy to address their needs better.

A significant challenge in this process was identifying the true competitive alternatives in the minds of our customers and differentiating our unique attributes. To tackle this, I facilitated iterative sessions with the positioning team, analyzing the insights gathered and aligning them with industry analysts' validation.

Main challenge

The primary challenge we faced was to redefine our brand identity while maintaining the trust and loyalty of our existing 8000+ global teams. The legacy perception of Zenhub as a GitHub extension had to be transformed into a dynamic, comprehensive platform that addressed the evolving needs of modern software teams.

To overcome this challenge, I approached it with a strategic combination of meticulous research, collaboration, and careful communication. The internal survey and customer interviews provided invaluable insights into what aspects of our product resonated most with our user base. By involving key stakeholders and team leads in the positioning team, we ensured that our decisions were well-informed and aligned with the company's vision. Engaging industry analysts further validated our new positioning, adding a layer of credibility. Our partnership with design agencies Titan ONE and Pivot & Pilot Creative ensured a visually compelling representation of our evolved identity. The gradual transition and open communication with our existing users played a pivotal role in maintaining their trust and confidence during this transformation.

Achievements

The repositioning and rebranding initiative not only effectively conveyed Zenhub's evolution but also drove substantial growth. The project was a key contributor to a successful $10M Series A funding round, proof of the resonance of our reimagined brand in the market. Our renewed identity aligned seamlessly with our expanded offerings, allowing us to capture an even larger share of the market beyond GitHub.
 

The revamped brand identity and messaging architecture established a strong and consistent presence across all marketing touchpoints. This not only engaged our existing customer base but also resonated with new users, driving user acquisition and retention. 
 

Ultimately, the project enabled Zenhub to fully embrace its evolution into a central project and productivity management platform, empowering software teams worldwide to deliver better software more efficiently and predictably.

What people say about Mariana

“Working with Zenhub was really easy, and a lot of that was due to the groundwork Mariana laid. I was impressed with the materials she created that helped us quickly understand the company's problems, who their competitors were, and what made them special, which ultimately allowed us to develop a successful branding strategy.”

Alejandro Quinteros
Co-Founder and Creative Director at Pivot & Pilot

“Mariana has brought a transformative change to how our sales team and event organizers engage with our product. Her content has not only elevated the level of understanding for our sales team regarding the intricacies of our product, its features, strengths, and nuances but has also facilitated our event organizers in using our product more comfortably and autonomously.”

Jessie Scelzi
Former Chief Revenue Officer at Let's Do This

“Mariana was an outstanding marketing partner for me as a CRO. She did an excellent job corralling our various stakeholders across the company to align on a messaging framework, and she used that to produce very effective sales collateral that enabled our team to win new business.”

Yotam Yemini
Former Chief Revenue Officer at Tinybird

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