Marketing

Halo Makes an Unreal Shift: A Game-Changing Decision by Wade Burrell

If you’ll allow me, I need to write about something that is near and dear to my heart.

I'm a big gamer. I always have been, and I suspect I always will be. More recently, I've found myself incredibly interested in the gaming industry, looking at it from a business and marketing perspective. It fascinates me. One of my all-time favorites is Halo, and there was some interesting news from them this week.

In a surprising move, Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) has announced a major shift in their development strategy: all future Halo games will be developed using Unreal Engine 5. This decision marks a departure from their proprietary Slipspace Engine and signals a new era for one of gaming's most iconic franchises.

The announcement

Halo Studios revealed that this move will allow them to focus on creating multiple new Halo experiences simultaneously. Their goal? To accelerate content delivery and improve responsiveness to player feedback. But, in my opinion, the implications of this decision extend far beyond just faster Halo games.

Why this matters

  1. Validation at the Highest Level : By choosing Unreal Engine 5, Halo Studios is sending a clear message: UE5 is capable of handling the most demanding, high-profile projects in the industry. This may feel like a “duh” moment, but I personally feel it’s a major win for UE5.

  2. Ecosystem Benefits : There are already a ton of developers working with UE5 means a larger talent pool, more resources, and potentially faster engine improvements. Fortnite is built on UE5 and the amazing work creators already do in Fortnite Creative shows what’s capable. Imagine what this will do for Halo Forge.

  3. Tech Showcase : Halo: Combat Evolved was at the forefront of gaming technology. This move has the potential to bring Halo back as a shining example of what can be done and demonstrate the engine’s capabilities in great detail.

Benefits of Moving Away from Slipspace

While Slipspace Engine was capable of producing stunning visuals (yes, even Craig), the switch to UE5 offers several key advantages:

  1. Faster Development : By using a well-established engine, Halo Studios can speed up their development process and focus on game creation rather than engine maintenance.

  2. Larger Talent Pool : I mentioned this above but it bears repeating: The move to UE5 opens up more jobs to more Unreal devs that are looking for work right now.

  3. Focus on Core Strengths : This shift allows the team to concentrate on what makes Halo great – its gameplay, storytelling, and iconic universe.

  4. Improved Cross-Platform Development : We’ve already seen Microsoft dip their toes in cross-platform IP (Sea of Thieves anyone?). UE5's robust cross-platform capabilities could lead to more consistent experiences across different systems.

Looking Ahead

For Epic Games, landing Halo is like securing a major enterprise client in the SaaS world. It's not just about one customer – it's about the message it sends to the entire market. This move represents a potential turning point in AAA game development. As we watch this story unfold, key questions emerge:

  • Will we see more AAA franchises make the switch to Unreal?

  • How will this affect the development and release cadence of future Halo games?

  • What impact will this have on the broader gaming market and development practices?

One thing's for certain: the game development landscape is shifting. Whether you're a gamer, a developer, or just someone interested in the tech industry, this is a story worth following closely.

What are your thoughts on this move? Do you think it will lead to better Halo games? How might it impact the broader gaming market? Let me know!

What I Wish I Knew Before Entering Product Marketing: Insight after 15+ Years by Wade Burrell

As I reflect on my career and journey over the past 15 years, from my early days at Square to my current role at Mailchimp, one question consistently emerges from aspiring product marketers:

"What do you wish you knew before entering the product marketing world?"

This question always takes me back to the beginning of my career. I vividly remember fumbling through launch plans, struggling to keep pace with the rapid-fire developments, and questioning whether I was truly cut out for this demanding field.

Now, 15 years into my career, I believe I've gained some valuable insights. Here are three key lessons I wish I had known when I first stepped into the world of product marketing:

1. Cross-functional Collaboration is Your Superpower

Whenever I start a new position, I always struggle internally with making the choice to actively engage with my counterparts. Do I want to take my time and ease in? Do I feel like I don't have a reason to get involved? It takes time to get in there and start building those relationships. After a few times at bat I quickly realized that the true essence of product marketing lies in its role as the connective tissue between various teams within an organization.

Product marketing isn't just about promotion – it's about being the glue that binds product, sales, customer success, engineering, and numerous other teams together. Your ability to translate complex technical concepts into customer benefits, to convey market needs to the product team, and to arm the sales team with the right tools and messaging is invaluable.

Key Takeaway: Cultivate relationships across teams early and often. Learn to speak the language of each department. Your effectiveness as a product marketer will be directly proportional to your ability to facilitate communication and collaboration across these diverse groups.

2. Data Fluency is Non-Negotiable

I still, to this day, lean heavily on my creative instincts and communication skills. While these are crucial aspects of product marketing, I’ve since learned that the most impactful product marketers are those who can dive deep into data and emerge with actionable insights.

The ability to analyze product usage metrics, conduct and interpret market research, and leverage A/B testing to optimize your strategies is what separates good product marketers from great ones. At Mailchimp, this skill became so critical as we scaled our products and user base.

Key Takeaway: Embrace data analysis as a core part of your role. Learn to love product analytics, market research methods, and testing frameworks. While your creative instincts and industry knowledge are important, backing your decisions with solid data will make your strategies more compelling and your results more impactful.

3. The Product Launch is Just the Beginning

One of the biggest misconceptions I had early in my career was that the bulk of a product marketer's work culminated in the product launch. I would pour my heart and soul into crafting the perfect launch plan, only to feel like I had forgotten something or wasn’t doing enough post launch.

In reality, a successful product launch is just the beginning of your work. The post-launch phase is where the real challenges – and opportunities – lie. This is when you need to be prepared to iterate quickly, gather and analyze user feedback, and continuously refine your strategy to drive adoption and retention.

At Mailchimp, I learned the importance of having a robust post-launch plan. Our most successful products were those where we remained agile, responding quickly to user feedback and market changes.

Key Takeaway: While launch day is exciting and something to work towards, remember that your work accelerates post-launch. Develop strategies for gathering user feedback, monitoring adoption metrics, and iterating on your product positioning and marketing tactics. The ability to adapt and evolve your approach based on real-world performance is what will drive long-term success.

Just remember...

Product marketing is a challenging, dynamic, and incredibly rewarding field. As you embark on or continue your journey in this exciting domain, remember that your success will be built on your ability to collaborate across teams, your skill in leveraging data to drive decisions, and your commitment to continuous improvement and iteration.

To all the aspiring product marketers out there: embrace these lessons, but don't be afraid to forge your own path. Every product, company, and market is unique, and part of the thrill of product marketing is discovering new ways to connect innovative solutions with the people who need them most.

Achieving Product-Market Fit: An Enduring Quest at Any Stage by Wade Burrell

As a product marketing leader with over 15 years of experience, I've witnessed firsthand that achieving product-market fit (PMF) is a perpetual pursuit. It's not just an initial quest for early-stage startups, but an ongoing adventure that even the most tenured product teams have to deal with.

The need to properly align each new product offering with an accurate understanding of the customer problem and perception is crucial. Getting PMF right can mean the difference between a successful launch and a costly dud.

That's why the Arc Product-Market Fit Framework from Sequoia Capital resonated so strongly with me. This mental model provides crucial orientation by outlining three distinct archetypes that products can fall into based on how customers relate to the problem being solved:

  • Hair on Fire: You're tackling an urgent, in-your-face pain point that customers are actively trying to solve themselves. Think cybersecurity, sales tools, etc. Competition is fierce.

  • Hard Fact: Customers have resigned themselves to just accepting the "hard fact" status quo pain point that your product solves. You must disrupt their mindset.

  • Future Vision: You're introducing an entirely new paradigm - something customers cannot yet comprehend or believe is possible with existing solutions.

For product teams, identifying which archetype your offering falls into is mission-critical. The strategic priorities and execution requirements for navigating each path to PMF are starkly different:

  • Hair on Fire? You must pair furious product velocity with aggressive go-to-market muscle to outpace competitors.

  • Hard Fact? Educational marketing to upend the current mindset and create demand is step one before any adoption can occur.

  • Future Vision? You're in it for the long haul - elite talent, perseverance, and making smart pivots to find interim milestones are paramount.

The paths are fluid too - companies evolve between archetypes as products mature or new ones are introduced. But authentic, fundamental insights into the customer's core problem perception is the pivotal first step.

At Square and Mailchimp, I saw firsthand how mental models spotlighting these fundamental truths were powerful strategic anchors - even for established product lines. As product marketers, orienting ourselves with frameworks like this is immensely clarifying. We should endlessly seek those root customer insights to properly steer positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategy.

For any new product still searching for fit, I cannot recommend enough studying the Arc framework. It provides a usable model for precisely framing where you stand, so you can sharpen priorities and determine the right strategic roadmap as you navigate that all-important PMF journey.

Achieving PMF is never a final destination. It's an ongoing quest that transcends company stage or size. Having the right guiding frameworks for calibrating your unique path is game-changing for steering product strategy and increasing your chances of nailing fit.

Amplify Your Impact: A Starter AI Toolkit for Product Marketers by Wade Burrell

The rise of artificial intelligence is ushering in a new era for marketing and, most importantly, product marketers. 

You’ve seen the news. You’ve seen the hype. While we haven’t necessarily made it to what we’ve seen in science fiction (shutters thinking about SkyNet), we have AI capabilities available to us that can streamline workflows, enhance creativity, supercharge research, and ultimately amplify our impact. We’re pretty lucky when you think about it. . 

I truly believe that in this AI-driven age, those who adopt and leverage these cutting-edge technologies will gain a significant competitive advantage.

Thinking about it from a product marketing perspective, we have an obligation to stay ahead of the curve and harness AI's potential to its fullest. We can use it to craft more compelling messaging to accelerate content creation to unearthing richer customer insights, AI offers an array of tools to enhance our performance and the quality of our output. Embracing AI is no longer an option, but an imperative for modern product marketing leaders.

To help get you started, I’ve put together this (hopefully) useful checklist on how to utilize AI in your day-to-day. This is just the beginning, but it’s a good place to start.

Crafting Messaging and Positioning:

  • Use AI writing assistants like Copy.ai, Jasper, CopySmith to generate initial drafts of positioning statements, value propositions, elevator pitches based on inputs about your product/market.

  • Utilize AI tools like copy.ai's "Product Description" tool to quickly create benefit-oriented product descriptions and differentiated messaging by providing product details.

  • Experiment with more creative messaging variants using AI brainstorming tool.

  • Tools: Copy.ai, Jasper, CopySmith, Copy.Shark

Creating and Optimizing Content:

  • Use AI writing assistants like Jasper to draft blog posts, ebooks, video scripts and other content based on outlined topics/briefs.

  • Leverage GPT-3 tools like Copy.ai's "Gmail Wizard" to generate personalized email templates and sequences.

  • Utilize AI text optimization tools like Rytr to analyze and improve content quality, clarity, and message match.

  • Tools: Jasper, Copy.ai, Rytr, ChatGPT

Synthesizing Research and Data:

  • Feed customer review data, survey responses, and other voice-of-customer inputs into AI summarization tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT to surface key insights.

  • Use AI research assistants like Anthropic's Claude to quickly gather data, synthesize reports, and analyze competitive landscapes based on queries.

  • Leverage AI question-answering tools like ChatGPT to get concise responses synthesizing information across multiple data sources.

  • Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Quillbot

Streamlining Workflows:

  • Utilize AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to draft outlines, plans, templates and frameworks to streamline go-to-market planning processes.

  • Integrate AI writing tools into existing content workflow tools to auto-generate first drafts, reducing manual creation time.

  • Use AI task automation tools like Taskmate.io to streamline administrative busywork across workflows.

  • Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Copy.ai, Jasper, Taskmate.io

In today's rapidly evolving landscape, AI is a force-multiplier that can catapult product marketing performance. Don't get left behind - start experimenting with these AI capabilities today to gain a competitive edge. Continuously assess how AI can optimize every facet of your workflow, from research to messaging to execution. Those who fully capitalize on AI's potential will be the Product Marketing leaders propelling their organizations forward.

Interested in exploring how to strategically integrate and scale AI capabilities into your workflows - accelerating research, elevating messaging, optimizing execution and amplifying impact - along with learning many other key strategies to take your product marketing team to the next level?

Let’s get in touch