There’s a hashtag I’ve seen a few times that looks like this: #whatsysadminsdo or #whatdbasdo.  If you’re not fluent in twitter, it’s basically “what <<job title>> do”. (Like #whatlawyersdo or #whatdoctorsdo.)

I think that many of you who read this blog have no idea #whatdoessheryldo.

Some of you in my industry are familiar with technical marketing; also I have gotten some notes on Facebook from people who work in different industries and appreciate this blog. But for every one of those is someone who sees me socially and says “Your blog makes me feel dumb.  I have no idea what you are talking about.”

My sister, drDiva, doesn’t get it either.  When I was a sales engineer, she could understand that I was the technical person who worked with the salesperson to explain the technology during a sale.  (Quite a distillation of SE-ing, but useful for the Thanksgiving table.)  But as a product marketer, I befuddle her. I explain what I do, and she understands the “launch” function (that is, creating documents and noise when we have a new product), but wonders how there enough work to do to keep me employed after launch.

(For the record, I have no idea what drDiva does.  I mean, she’s an anaesthesiologist so I know she administers drugs to put people under, but other than that, no idea.)

Last week was a great week – the kind of week you hope is what your job always feels like.  So, here’s a crack at #whatProductMarketersDo or at least #whatDoesSherylDo

1. Presented a webcast with one of our founders, sharing the results from a recent lab test of our product.  Our product showed significant performance benefits with typical enterprise environments.  70 people attended.
2. Met with the sales team to introduce a new framework for how we talk about performance and results.  This involves setting expectations with a customer before they evaluate what the entire spectrum of performance results looks like and where they might fall.
3. Took the performance/results framework and began to update our evaluation guide to reflect this new model.
4. Met with our VP of Sales to present the newest version of our “pitch” deck and competitive sales resources.
5. Wrote a draft of a paper that discusses our product’s architectural advantages.
6. Wrote my blog post for this week.  (I blog here and on Infinite I/O.)
7. Participated in a call with an analyst firm who is working on a paper about us. Provided the basic pitch and joined in discussion on structuring the paper.

Whew – what a week!  Good thing it ended in a 3-day weekend.  I love my job these days but that is a lot of brain power.  And now you know #whatdoessheryldo.