Moving upmarket to Fortune 1000 accounts isn't just about great products—it's about building trust with complex buying committees. Kevin Gough joins us as one of the most creative problem solvers in product marketing, from launching Google Cloud products to leading category-defining efforts at Okta, Asana, and Grammarly. Today he's sharing how he built trust strategies that opened enterprise doors and helped Okta beat Microsoft at their own game.
Kevin reveals his approach to mapping each stakeholder's unique trust requirements—treating trust like a product with features and proof points. We explore Okta's "trust ecosystem," including their genius microsite showcasing uptime data and compliance documentation usually buried in legal folders. This wasn't transparency theater; it was demonstrating trust with actual receipts that transformed market perceptions.
The magic happened when Kevin mobilized the entire go-to-market team around trust, transforming it from marketing message to company-wide mission. His approach proves platform storytelling isn't about louder claims—it's about earning trust one stakeholder at a time, proving even Microsoft-sized giants become beatable when you get trust right.
LINKS
Rippling (messaging critique): https://www.rippling.com/
Connect with Kevin:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevingough/
Connect with Elle:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle3izabeth/