Product Marketing Lead · Post-acquisition · 2023–2024
Kpler AIS: three vessel-tracking networks, one product.
SECTOR
Maritime data and API
STAGE
Post-acquisition integration
MARKET
Global
ROLE
Product Marketing Lead
PERIOD
2023–2024
COMPANY
kpler.comThe situation
The coverage was the best available, and there was no product a customer could buy.
Kpler's acquisition of MarineTraffic brought two terrestrial AIS networks together, alongside satellite and shipborne feeds from partners. On paper that was the most complete positional picture of the global fleet available anywhere.
In the market it was several datasets with several names, several stories and no single thing a customer could buy.
01 · What this engagement produced
22 of 34 outputs
22 of the 34 outputs, across all six stages.
Kpler AIS, the single feed, came out of stage 03, segment, position and price.
3 not produced
Win / loss, Assumption log, Pre-mortem
1 not produced
Launch tiers
5 not produced
Product funnel metrics, Launch post-mortem, Trust metrics, Half-Life Map, Six-stage readout
Solid is what this engagement produced. Dashed is what it did not reach.
02 · The diagnosis
The advantage already existed. Nobody could explain it.
Terrestrial AIS is dense near coasts and blind mid-ocean. Satellite fills the gap but at lower frequency. Sold separately, each has an obvious weakness and a customer has to assemble continuous coverage themselves, from more than one contract. Combined and normalised, the weakness disappears. The work was to make that advantage a product with a name, a boundary and a price.