Change messes with our brains. Psychologists call it a threat state where our amygdalas light up and we resist anything unfamiliar. That's the reality Anand Patel faced at Goldcast when shifting from "just a webinar tool" to owning the full video platform story. Anand joins us as Senior Director of Product Marketing at Goldcast, having built PMM functions from scratch at four different companies and launched over 10 tier-one products. His approach to navigating stakeholder resistance during massive repositioning is what separates attempts that fizzle from ones that fundamentally transform market perception.
The challenge isn't just managing different opinions. It's managing different threat responses across sales, customer success, leadership, and customers, each with legitimate concerns rooted in human resistance to uncertainty. Anand reveals his strategy for treating stakeholders as individuals with distinct needs, fears, and motivations rather than a monolithic group that needs to "get on board." His approach combines transparency with continuous communication, genuine flexibility to alter plans based on feedback, and something most PMMs overlook: openly acknowledging discomfort whilst painting a compelling picture of what's possible.
We also dive into our messaging critique of Remarkable's digital notebook, evaluating how their innovation-focused storytelling could better align with diverse user needs and specific stakeholder pain points. Anand's playbook proves that effective change leadership is both art and science: strategic in approach, empathetic in execution, and relentlessly focused on understanding that resistance isn't the enemy, it's just stakeholders' brains doing exactly what they're designed to do.
LINKS
Remarkable (messaging critique): https://remarkable.com/
Connect with Anand:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandmpatel/
Connect with Elle:
Website: www.productmarketingadventures.com