Head of Product Marketing · Athens · 2022–2024

MarineTraffic: turning one vessel-tracking product into four commercial products.

SECTOR

Maritime data and API

STAGE

Scaleup, acquired

MARKET

Global

ROLE

Head of Product Marketing

PERIOD

2022–2024

TEAM

0 → 4

COMPANY

marinetraffic.com

Data & API Maritime

The situation

High usage, low monetisation clarity.

MarineTraffic had one core product, vessel tracking, and an enormous, wildly varied user base. Ports, terminals and agents. Vessel owners, managers and brokers. Global traders and analysts. Photographers and enthusiasts. Everyone used the same product, and everyone used it differently.

Commercially that meant no defined ICPs, no differentiated value propositions, and no packaging logic. The company was not short of users. It was short of a reason for any particular user to pay more than any other.

01 · What this engagement produced

33 of 34 outputs

33 of the 34 outputs, across all six stages.

The four products came out of stage 03, segment, position and price.

016 of 6

Research

01Voice of customer 02Win / loss 03Market report 04Why now 05Assumption log 06Pre-mortem

023 of 4

Competition

07The Fifty 08Table-stakes read09AI visibility10Competitor monitor

036 of 6

Segment, position and price

11ICP and segments 12Use cases 13Buying committee 14Positioning 15Packaging and pricing 16Deck spine

044 of 4

Message

17Messaging framework 18Claim check 19Landing page review 20Message drift

058 of 8

Launch and enable

21Launch tiers 22Launch brief 23Channel and funnel 24Product Oracle 25Sales enablement 26FAQ 27Onboarding journey 28Release notes

066 of 6

Measure and maintain

29Product funnel metrics 30Launch post-mortem 31Trust metrics 32Customer case studies 33Half-Life Map 34Six-stage readout

01Research6 of 6

01Voice of customer 02Win / loss 03Market report 04Why now 05Assumption log 06Pre-mortem

02Competition3 of 4

07The Fifty 08Table-stakes read 10Competitor monitor

1 not produced

AI visibility

03Segment, position and price6 of 6

11ICP and segments 12Use cases 13Buying committee 14Positioning 15Packaging and pricing 16Deck spine

04Message4 of 4

17Messaging framework 18Claim check 19Landing page review 20Message drift

05Launch and enable8 of 8

21Launch tiers 22Launch brief 23Channel and funnel 24Product Oracle 25Sales enablement 26FAQ 27Onboarding journey 28Release notes

06Measure and maintain6 of 6

29Product funnel metrics 30Launch post-mortem 31Trust metrics 32Customer case studies 33Half-Life Map 34Six-stage readout

Solid is what this engagement produced. Dashed is the one it did not: AI visibility was not yet part of the job in 2022 to 2024.

02 · The diagnosis

The product wasn't the problem.

The instinct with a single product and flat monetisation is to build more features. The usage data said something else: different users were solving completely different problems with the same feed. A port needed to know when a ship would arrive. A fleet operator needed to know where its own vessels were. A trader needed to know what the whole market was moving. Same data, three jobs, one undifferentiated product.

03 · The mandate

Build product marketing from zero, and turn usage into products.

I joined to build the function. There was no product marketing team. The remit ran from research through positioning to launch and enablement, across a portfolio that did not yet exist as a portfolio.

0 → 4

Team built

product marketing managers, one per product line

1 → 4

Products created

+30%

Enterprise pipeline

04 · When I arrived, when I left

When I arrived

When I left

One product

Four commercial products

No segmentation

Defined ICPs per product

Generic usage

A named buyer per product

No packaging logic

Pricing structured by coverage and fleet size

No product marketing function

Four PMMs, one per line

4 million monthly active users

6 million monthly active users

05 · What I built

6 workstreams

Four products, found inside one.

01Usage research and segmentationWho the customers actually are, from behaviour rather than assumption.

01 Research

Worked with the data team to analyse usage patterns across the base
Mapped behaviours to workflows, then workflows to buying triggers
Defined ICPs across ports and terminals, vessel owners and managers, traders and analysts
Separated the professional base from the enthusiast base, which had been counted as one

02Competitive intelligenceA structured view of a category nobody had mapped.

02 Competition

A fifty-question competitive grid across five direct competitors, every cell sourced
A twenty-company market monitor tracking traffic, keywords and social reach quarterly
Battlecards built from that grid rather than from opinion

03Productisation, the turning pointFour commercial products, defined by workflow.

03 Segment, position & price

Port Call Optimisation, for ports, terminals and agents
Fleet Operations, for vessel owners and managers
In-Transit, for cargo owners and supply chain
MT Central, for traders, analysts and enterprise users
Each with its own scope, buyer and pricing logic

One product, four buyers

Vessel tracking

One feed

Port Call Optimisation

Ports · Terminals · Agents

Fleet Operations

Vessel owners · Managers

In-Transit

Cargo owners · Supply chain

MT Central

Traders · Analysts · Enterprise

Same data. Four jobs. Four products.

04Positioning and messaging per productA different story for each, from the same underlying data.

04 Message

A messaging framework per product, split by user, influencer and buyer
MT Central's elevator pitch: "a single source of truth for a complete global picture of vessel tracking"
Personas defined down to the decision-maker: operations managers as users and influencers, ship owners as buyers, cargo owners in supply chain, construction, oil and gas and manufacturing

05Launch & enablementFour products are only four products if sales can sell four products.

05 Launch & enable · 06 Measure & maintain

Sales narratives and decks per segment
Demo flows per product
Pricing and packaging structure across the range, from a free tier to fleet and global coverage plans
A launch process the team reused rather than renegotiated

06Mobile app relaunch and lifecycle marketingThe new version of the app, and lifecycle marketing to the registered base.

05 Launch & enable · 06 Measure & maintain

Helped launch the new version of the MarineTraffic mobile app
Ran lifecycle marketing for a registered base of around 20 million users
Monthly active users went from 4 million to 6 million

06 · The outcome

What changed commercially.

+30%

Enterprise pipeline

4M → 6M

Monthly active users

1 → 4

Commercial products

0 → 4

Team

Monthly active users, out of around 20 million registered.

07 · The judgment call

Creating products without building anything new.

The obvious route was to ask engineering for more. What the segmentation showed was that four products already existed inside the one, they just had no names, no boundaries and no prices. Drawing those lines was a marketing decision with a commercial consequence, and it did not require a single new feature to ship.

You do not always need new technology to create new products. Sometimes you need to decide who each one is for.

08 · What this proves

Six things, if you're deciding whether to hire me.

I find products inside usage data.

One feed, four commercial products, no new engineering.

I build the function.

Zero to four product marketers, one per product line.

I do the competitive work properly.

Fifty questions, five competitors, sourced and refreshed.

I price and package.

A structured range from free to enterprise.

I move the commercial number.

Enterprise pipeline up 30%.

I grow the active base.

Monthly active users from 4 million to 6 million, on around 20 million registered.

Frameworks installed

Product OracleThe Half-Life MapLaunch TiersThe FiftyTrust MetricsThe Messaging Matrix