Sign in or Join the community to continue
Event Replay: From Attendee to Advocate: How Product-Led Events Drive Feedback, Early Access, and Loyalty
Posted Oct 03, 2026 | Views 43
Share
Speakers
Hillarie Ralston
Strategic Events and Experiences Lead @ Sage
Hillarie Ralston began her events career in community at lululemon, one of the original architects of community-led brand building, and has spent over a decade since bringing that same human-first philosophy to events and experiences across both B2C and B2B.
Having led programs at Ironclad, Faire, Asana, and most recently Sage, she brings a rare fluency across both B2C and B2B, always anchored by a belief that the best events leave people feeling something no digital experience can replicate. At Ironclad, she pioneered a cross-functional model that brought product, PMM, and design directly into the Ironclad Local customer roadshow series, turning events into two-way feedback engines that deepened customer relationships and drove real product impact. Hillarie is more convinced than ever that in a world increasingly shaped by AI, in-person connection isn't a nice-to-have. It's the competitive edge.
+ Read More
Joshua Zerkel
Head of Marketing & Community @ Gradual
Josh Zerkel is Head of Marketing & Community-Led Growth at Gradual. A recognized leader in community strategy, he has built and scaled programs at Asana, Evernote, HeyGen, and CBS News that have driven millions in pipeline, global engagement, and cross-functional impact. He’s the author of The Community Code, and a trusted advisor to startups and enterprise teams building community-powered growth engines.
+ Read More
SUMMARY
See how Hillarie Ralston from Ironclad turned customer events into engines for product feedback, early access, and loyalty by bringing product teams into the experience.
+ Read More
CONTENT & TRANSCRIPT
00:00:01:04 - 00:00:28:08 Joshua Zerkel Hello friends. Happy to see you all today. Welcome to context first with gradual and today's topic from attendee to advocate how product lead customer events drive feedback, early access and loyalty a topic near and dear to my heart. I am Josh Zirkle, Head of Marketing and Community here at gradual. In case you are new to gradual, it's the all in one engagement and community platform to turn connection into lasting business impact and grow engagement beyond your product.
00:00:28:08 - 00:00:46:01 Joshua Zerkel Now, before I introduce our very special guest expert, a quick note please drop your questions in the chat and we'll get to as many as we can. And after our session ends, you'll still be able to ask questions and share your thoughts in the form AMA, which we will send to you in a follow up email after the event.
00:00:46:03 - 00:01:27:00 Joshua Zerkel Without further ado, I would like to introduce you to today's speaker, Hillary Ralston. Hillary Ralston began her career in community at Lululemon, one of the original architects of community led brand building, and has spent over a decade since then bringing that same human first philosophy to events and experiences across both B2C and B2B. Having led programs at ironclad Fair asana, where we work together and most recently at sage, Hillary brings a rare fluency across both B2C and B2B, something that is anchored in a belief that the best events lead people feeling something no digital experience can replicate.
00:01:27:02 - 00:01:49:15 Joshua Zerkel Music to my ears. At ironclad, Hillary pioneered a cross-functional model that brought product PM and design directly into the ironclad local customer roadshow series, turning events into two way feedback engine that deepened customer relationships and drove real product impact. Hillary is more convinced than ever that in a world increasingly shaped by AI, in-person connection isn't a nice to have.
00:01:49:16 - 00:01:53:06 Joshua Zerkel It's the competitive edge. Welcome, Hillary.
00:01:53:13 - 00:01:58:06 Hillarie Ralston Thanks, Josh. So excited to be here. I feel like we're back at a sauna together world tour.
00:01:58:08 - 00:02:21:22 Joshua Zerkel Yes, some folks who are joining us live might also feel the very same since they were on the team as well. But yes, this is a wonderful reunion and I'm so happy to learn from you today and hear all of your great learnings from your time at ironclad. Maybe you could just start. I know I read a little bit in your bio, but tell us a little bit about how you got into events and community and what keeps you in it.
00:02:21:27 - 00:03:04:18 Hillarie Ralston Yeah, totally. So I started in business development and at a small team and a small company. I was tasked with doing events and conferences, and I fell in love with the ability at events to use my creative side while also still engaging with customers. So I kind of fell into events and from there worked in more of the B2C space and experiential side of events at Lululemon, which is where I really saw the idea that you can leave people with a feeling, and that ties them back to the brand and the product more, and had the awesome opportunity to make the transition into SaaS and be to be with joining your team at asana.
00:03:04:18 - 00:03:26:18 Hillarie Ralston And that's really where I learned the ability to bring those experientially, the feeling side of events, the connection to brand into this world of SaaS and leave people with that more human connection to the product. And that's why I stay in events too, because I get to combine kind of my love of customers with the ability to create something from nothing.
00:03:26:20 - 00:03:49:03 Joshua Zerkel Yeah, absolutely. It's funny because I feel like in B2B events, especially, again, all of us have attended B2C and B2B events. I have found many events. They might have great information, but they leave you feeling cold. What's the difference in your estimation because you've done so many of these between like an event like that, that I would say is fairly typical run of the mill.
00:03:49:04 - 00:04:08:18 Joshua Zerkel You receive some information, maybe there's some networking, but it's it's an experience only in the sense that you go a place and do a thing, but it's not something that you feel or something that you might remember. What's what's the difference between something like that versus some of the experiences that that really you found leave people feeling an emotion that brings them back to the brand.
00:04:08:21 - 00:04:37:15 Hillarie Ralston Totally. I think it's twofold. I think one is on site providing useful information. Right. Like people are already excited about your product. So I'm tasked with the opportunity to really deepen their love of the product on site. Most of these people who attend events are already bought in at some capacity, and so I see my role as really getting to go that extra layer and deepen their relationship to the brand and the people who work behind the product.
00:04:37:15 - 00:05:00:00 Hillarie Ralston So that's one fold, and that's what I really love about events. And what I see is my job. And secondly, I think what's important about these events and what really drives me is to leave people closer to the feeling. Right? Like the feeling of, okay, I'm on site and at an event, and perhaps they're talking with a product person directly and sharing feedback.
00:05:00:01 - 00:05:20:19 Hillarie Ralston They leave that day feeling like their feedback is making a difference. They're not just coming for a sales pitch or learning the product differently, or being able to execute on their tasks and their work more effectively by learning about the product they're really leaving with, like, oh wow, I had this moment. And also I'm shaping where their products going.
00:05:20:20 - 00:05:23:22 Hillarie Ralston And they heard me and they listened.
00:05:23:25 - 00:05:53:02 Joshua Zerkel It's a very different more in my experience, more visceral experience. When you invite people to not just receive information but participate. And especially if I think back to when we would do this on a on tour together, we would often invite members of the product team to attend and just talk to people. And I know you're going to go into this a little bit more in your experience at ironclad, but I think that was a very eye opening experience for people who are on the product side and just getting to meet people.
00:05:53:03 - 00:06:21:15 Joshua Zerkel I've often found event organizers, companies in general underestimate, you know, the people inside of the company that make the SaaS product or whatever product it might be. We're kind of like magic makers to the people who use and love the product, and for them to even get the opportunity to meet people and learn about what they do and how they work and how the products get made, their genuinely interested in, like what's inside the sausage and how does it work?
00:06:21:18 - 00:06:26:27 Joshua Zerkel And we build that connection with them. It really deepens their connection to to everything that we're doing.
00:06:27:02 - 00:06:49:03 Hillarie Ralston Totally. And I also see it go the other way too, right. Like the product team members, if there are early access programs or those sorts of things already, it typically through surveys or things like that. It's not one on one direct connection seeing someone's wheels turning or them getting to ask a follow up question. When someone answers, you know, it's like both sides of the spectrum.
00:06:49:03 - 00:06:53:14 Hillarie Ralston Get this intimate look at how the sausage is made.
00:06:53:21 - 00:07:09:01 Joshua Zerkel For sure. Yeah, I, I don't want to demean the work of product teams. I think they do a lot of research, but my experience is their work with customers is very on the rails. Yes. It's we have a set of questions we're going to ask you. We're going to put you through the pages of going through this screen share.
00:07:09:01 - 00:07:35:24 Joshua Zerkel And we want to watch what you click. And that is super valuable. Also valuable is just come talk to people in the wild. Yes. What they say leave it open ended here where they complain what they love and all the things and both sets of information are really, really important. But because one feels less scientific than the other, I think it is just looked at somewhat askance, like maybe this isn't as valuable, but both are truly valuable.
00:07:35:25 - 00:07:37:19 Joshua Zerkel They're just really, really different.
00:07:37:21 - 00:07:39:26 Hillarie Ralston Agreed? Agreed. Completely.
00:07:39:28 - 00:07:47:13 Joshua Zerkel So let's talk about ironclad a little bit. So ironclad local. Maybe you could just tell us a little bit about what that is and how it worked.
00:07:47:14 - 00:08:13:25 Hillarie Ralston Yeah for sure. So I inherited this amazing series of programs of events through Diane Warren, who was the manager, the leader of our event team at ironclad. And essentially this program had morphed over time. It started as a sort of like AMA for lawyers to get together in procurement, to get together. And over time, by the time I joined, it had become a day of education.
00:08:13:25 - 00:08:37:18 Hillarie Ralston So there were two sessions where people got to go deeper into the product with the implementation team. And then there was a product keynote where we went over a roadmap, and that was the most exciting part of the day. Typically, people were taking pictures of all the features and things coming, and they had so many ideas and questions when we opened it up for questions.
00:08:37:18 - 00:09:01:15 Hillarie Ralston And so this program was in four different cities. It was about 50 to 100 people we would invite. And it was in major markets like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, and it was really geared towards customers. While we did have a panel at the end of the day for prospects, it was a customer focused event.
00:09:01:18 - 00:09:20:16 Joshua Zerkel Makes sense. So you already had this event series going. You inherited it. What made you decide to bring product and design into the mix? Typically, those folks aren't generally part of a customer facing event series. So what made you decide to do that? And was there any internal convincing that you had to do to make that happen? What did that.
00:09:20:18 - 00:09:44:10 Hillarie Ralston Yeah, yeah. So honestly, this idea didn't start at ironclad. It started for me back at fair. That's where I really saw what happens when product marketing managers and product managers get a front row seat with customers. It wasn't filtered through a survey that you were just referencing or a summary in a deck. It was actually sitting across from people using the product.
00:09:44:12 - 00:10:08:22 Hillarie Ralston Hearing them think out loud and ID eating together in real time. And once I saw that at fair, I couldn't unsee that. And so when I got to ironclad and was owning the ironclad local events. This was already a great customer event, right? We had very engaged customers attending, and I kept thinking, we have all of these customers in one room, and the people building the product are not here.
00:10:08:22 - 00:10:34:04 Hillarie Ralston So that felt like a huge missed opportunity. And the thing is, I didn't really have to do much convincing. Luckily, I have an amazing product marketing manager in Erica and an amazing product manager in Lucy. And really, they had attended an ironclad local before and they came to me with these ideas. They saw the impact firsthand. These events could have.
00:10:34:06 - 00:10:57:13 Hillarie Ralston And so really, it was changing the way I thought about this and reframing the event from hey, Lucy, Erica, can you come staff ironclad local to hey, I'll give you direct access to your users. And as soon as I framed it that way as, like, coworkers and co-creators, they were on board, as was the rest of product marketing and the product managers at ironclad.
00:10:57:19 - 00:11:20:20 Joshua Zerkel Well, I'm sure it helps that their leaders of these teams were the ones that saying like, yes, we ourselves are going to do this automatically. That builds easier buy in from the rest of the team. Once the first events started happening and these folks started attending, what was some of the reaction from the internal teams on the product side and the design side?
00:11:20:24 - 00:11:39:12 Hillarie Ralston Yes. Well, at first the product leaders to your point were like, why are we sending these people? We have deadlines we need to hit, and why are they attending an all day long event and spending the time they could be creating product and messaging and things like that, building a wall or building an activation or like, why are they doing this?
00:11:39:15 - 00:11:57:12 Hillarie Ralston And there was a lot of education there around like, hey, this is going to make our event better. This is going to drive results for you, because the feedback you've been needing for the things you need to launch, we're going to get you answers quicker in one day versus ten and 12 emails back and forth or waiting for surveys to come in.
00:11:57:12 - 00:12:18:14 Hillarie Ralston So there was some education there. There was also a lot of experimentation. It was like, let's try this. Let's see if it works. Let's see how much value the customers get out of this. And so yeah, I think it was a little bit of both of those things. In addition, it was the excitement from Erica and Lucy that really made a difference.
00:12:18:14 - 00:12:47:12 Hillarie Ralston They were going back to their leaders and their teams saying, I really think this is going to make a difference. That allowed not only their leaders to buy in, but also their teams to be bought in. And it became more of the after the first one we did, it became more of a competition amongst the product managers and the the PM team of like who can create the best pitch for me that syncs with what we're talking about on site and who gets to do their activation on site, which was really fun.
00:12:47:16 - 00:12:54:21 Joshua Zerkel That's great. So tell us a little bit about like the product. Well, activations and some of the other activations that were part of this event series.
00:12:54:25 - 00:13:14:14 Hillarie Ralston Yes. So first I want to call out that like and give credit where it's due. Lucy was the designer of this wall concept. It was not mine. I brought the let's get product in the room idea and I'll connect you to customers. But Lucy was really the one who turned something people could actually walk up to and touch.
00:13:14:15 - 00:13:35:25 Hillarie Ralston And it also helped that Lucy was a product designer before she was a product manager. So she created the wall herself. And honestly, that's the best part of this story, in my opinion, is that the idea got better because it wasn't just mine. The concept was let's stop, let's present the roadmap at people. It was, let's let them get their hands on it.
00:13:35:25 - 00:14:01:22 Hillarie Ralston So Lucy created features, concepts that we were thinking of shipping out physically on the wall, and then attendees could come up with a sticky note and stickers and upvote things that had already been suggested, as well as create new ideas. And the product folks. Erica and Lucy stood right by right by the board so that they could ask deeper questions, engage, ask people their name.
00:14:01:22 - 00:14:25:03 Hillarie Ralston It wasn't just a booth, it was really more of that conversation. And so what I loved is that on one day we made this event our center of gravity. It was not only experiential to the event itself, but people would go to a session, they would come back to the wall, they would grab Lucy or Erica and be like, hey, wait, can I tell you, like, about this idea I had?
00:14:25:04 - 00:14:44:09 Hillarie Ralston And that the feedback we heard over and over was, I've never felt like a software company is actually listening to me or want, in my opinion. And that to me was everything. And that created the opportunity for us to do more of these on site and, and change them up at various ironclad locals.
00:14:44:12 - 00:14:48:01 Joshua Zerkel That's amazing feedback to receive. Yes.
00:14:48:03 - 00:14:56:04 Hillarie Ralston Lucy was so excited. She put it in slack like the second we got in, she was just like, this is amazing, we need to do more of these.
00:14:56:07 - 00:15:14:28 Joshua Zerkel I, I'm so glad to hear that because in my experience, these types of things are really hard for non customer facing people to understand until they've done one. Yes. Once they see one in action they participate in one. Then it's like, oh why haven't we been doing this all along? How do we get the rest of the team involved?
00:15:14:28 - 00:15:39:27 Joshua Zerkel But it's that initial hump of getting them to understand why they should take a day away from their work and what the benefit would be, and it can be difficult to quantify it for them until they've done it. How have you helped bridge some of that, that gap, that conversation gap that needs to be closed in order for the team to say like, yes, I'm willing to send someone for a day or a couple of us are going to go, we think it's going to be worth it.
00:15:39:28 - 00:15:43:04 Joshua Zerkel How have you gotten people to that point?
00:15:43:07 - 00:16:12:26 Hillarie Ralston Yeah, I think first and foremost, you've taught me so much. When I was at a sauna about quantifying things and businesses. At the end of the day, they don't want anecdotal feedback or feelings. They want the actual measurements. And so creating measurements around these sort of experience experiences was helpful. Right? So like how many people signed up for an early access program after this, or in part because of the wall or whatever the product team was doing on site?
00:16:12:27 - 00:16:36:06 Hillarie Ralston Another piece is like, are people posting about this after the event? Are they sharing that they feel heard and seen? And then also how many people engaged with the wall? How much feedback did we get on site? And I think quantifying those things is really important, because that's what the business is going to see and allow to bring people on site and allow them to take time from their days to do this.
00:16:36:08 - 00:17:00:06 Joshua Zerkel I think the wall concept really helps quantify. We gathered X number of pieces of feedback because that's a language that the business understands. So to me, that is such an amazing idea and a super engaging way for people to feel like they're part of that process of getting those ideas. Because you're right, like businesses understand quantification, the vibes are great.
00:17:00:10 - 00:17:18:25 Joshua Zerkel Everyone loves seeing the pictures of happy people at events, but at the end of the day, whoever is holding the purse strings or making the decisions, they're going to say good things about the photos, but they want to know, okay, so what? What did we get? And being able to have these more quantifiable experiences, more quantifiable results is absolutely critical.
00:17:18:26 - 00:17:19:26 Joshua Zerkel You need both.
00:17:20:01 - 00:17:41:24 Hillarie Ralston Yes. And also I think what these events allow for as well is the head space, right? If you're a product person and you're sending a survey for, you know, to get questions answered on upcoming product ideas, people aren't going to be in the head space on a Tuesday when that email lands to give you, you know, all their objective feedback.
00:17:41:24 - 00:18:05:01 Hillarie Ralston So having these people in sessions all day, learning about the product, thinking about their pain points, thinking about how to work faster, their brains are already in problem solving mode and thinking about ideas and they're bubbling up. And so they just walk past this wall, and it's the perfect moment to catch people where they're primed when they're like, oh yes, I have all these ideas.
00:18:05:02 - 00:18:07:27 Hillarie Ralston Do you want to hear them? Amazing. Let's talk about them.
00:18:07:27 - 00:18:10:19 Joshua Zerkel So we're literally there to hear your ideas.
00:18:10:21 - 00:18:25:22 Hillarie Ralston Exactly. We're not just here to share our ideas. We're here to hear your ideas. So I think it's that's another important piece. That's a selling point outside of the, you know, quantifiable piece. It's like, hello. Yeah. Of course they want to share their ideas. They're here.
00:18:25:25 - 00:18:52:26 Joshua Zerkel Yeah. They've already volunteer their time to be there. They're already in the headspace of I'm learning or talking about or sharing ideas about this product. And so the additional level of what's your feedback on the product? It's a very natural add on. I'm thinking back to when we would do a sauna together, our events. You know, sometimes we would partner so deeply with product that at lunchtime we would offer the ability for them to host their own focus group in between sessions with customers.
00:18:53:00 - 00:19:11:25 Joshua Zerkel And the customer is already there. They're already primed. They are excited to give feedback. Tying these cross-functional pieces together is so much easier when you have people already attending. You can. You can work with them in different ways across functions to help make sure that everyone on the internal team gets something very useful out of it.
00:19:11:28 - 00:19:26:02 Hillarie Ralston 100%. And you're already spending the money, right? You're already spending the money on the event, the space, the people attending, whether it be food or beverage. So like this is the easiest way to incorporate multiple teams on site.
00:19:26:04 - 00:19:40:07 Joshua Zerkel Absolutely. So you mentioned that sharing like product feedback or product roadmap ideas generated some really great feedback. What did that look like in practice and why do you think that landed so well with folks?
00:19:40:09 - 00:20:02:22 Hillarie Ralston Yeah, I think two things. One is the the highlight of everyone's day, which I found so intriguing, was we typically had a leader from our product team in our keynote do a overview of like what's coming in the next quarters or whatever ideas are for shipping. People wanted to take photos. People would email after saying, can I have that slide?
00:20:02:22 - 00:20:25:11 Hillarie Ralston And we were like, why are people so excited about this? And I think part of that was the vulnerability. Like, I had never been at a company that was going to share their whole roadmap of what we're shipping, when and or what's on like the table for ideas, because most of the time, people are concerned that a competitor is in the room, are going to share that.
00:20:25:13 - 00:20:51:27 Hillarie Ralston And so to me, it was really this awesome experience of one. I'd never seen that before. And to me I was like, is this the vulnerability? Are we showing customers this unfinished work that is a little scary and they can feel that, and therefore they then match that with their honesty instead of people giving polite feedback in a survey, they're going to honest feedback to all of these works in progress.
00:20:51:27 - 00:21:19:21 Hillarie Ralston And being able to say like, hey, I see in Q4, like this is coming, but like, I could really use that in Q3, and if you did that, we would buy X number more seats or we would use the product exponentially more because of this. And I think that having Lucy and Erica and some of those leaders outside of like, leadership within product allowed them to not read a reaction later.
00:21:19:21 - 00:21:38:10 Hillarie Ralston But again, watch faces, see how things change as they ask more questions and give people that that vulnerable moment not only in sharing the roadmap for what's ahead, but then giving them the vulnerable moment of like asking more questions and digging into where their feedback comes from.
00:21:38:13 - 00:21:59:00 Joshua Zerkel Absolutely. And that depth, I think, really does come from the vulnerability. I don't know that most of us think of think of businesses as having the opportunity to be vulnerable. Yeah, but in truth, if a product manager comes to one of these events and shares the even the next month or two months or quarter's worth of roadmap, it's a pretty big deal.
00:21:59:00 - 00:22:19:08 Joshua Zerkel It's a risk for the business, and there has to be a worthwhile trade off for that to happen. And I think the trade off is that you get incredible loyalty from and curiosity from the customers who are in the room who experienced that, especially if you make it something that feels exclusive, like you're only showing this to you because you're here in the room, you don't take photos.
00:22:19:12 - 00:22:40:00 Joshua Zerkel This is not for you to share broadly. This is for us to discuss. We'd love to get your thoughts on this. Are you excited about this? What are you less excited about? Involving them in the conversation as a participant rather than here's the show. It's a very different experience, and that's where people really get that by in that that keeps them engaged.
00:22:40:07 - 00:23:02:14 Hillarie Ralston Agreed. And that makes them your best advocate no matter if they're at this company or at ironclad Local. I met so many people where they were like, this is my third company I've brought ironclad to. And I'm like, that's unreal. Like, where do you get that sort of advocacy and champion championing, if not from the moments of vulnerability and then feeling like they're part of the conversation?
00:23:02:20 - 00:23:04:10 Joshua Zerkel That's where they build real connection.
00:23:04:12 - 00:23:05:10 Hillarie Ralston Exactly.
00:23:05:12 - 00:23:07:28 Joshua Zerkel And without that, it's just another brand exercise.
00:23:08:00 - 00:23:11:20 Hillarie Ralston Yes. Or just another pitch. You know.
00:23:11:22 - 00:23:29:19 Joshua Zerkel Yeah, I have this philosophy, like if people are coming to an event that I am hosting or that our team is hosting, I want to make it worth their time to be there. They're volunteering their time. Everyone is already busy. They're raising their hand to saying, I want to take my time to go to this thing. What would make it worth it for them?
00:23:29:19 - 00:23:47:03 Joshua Zerkel And I can tell you what it's not worth. It is another sales pitch. No one is coming to a timeshare presentation because they want to be sold. And so nothing against timeshares or timeshare salespeople, but that that M.O. of like, I know I'm being sold here is not something I want people to walk away from one of our events with.
00:23:47:03 - 00:23:53:06 Joshua Zerkel I want them to think they got something really valuable out of it. And part of that is that connection that gets built.
00:23:53:08 - 00:23:55:08 Hillarie Ralston Agreed. And AI can't do that.
00:23:55:08 - 00:23:57:26 Joshua Zerkel So not yet.
00:23:57:28 - 00:23:59:12 Hillarie Ralston Yeah. And hopefully never.
00:23:59:19 - 00:24:16:09 Joshua Zerkel Yeah. I think even even with advancements in AI, I think people still want to have real connection. They want to feel real vulnerability from other people. And that can be enhanced mechanically with AI related things, but that human to human connection. I don't think that ever goes out of style.
00:24:16:16 - 00:24:18:26 Hillarie Ralston Agreed. That's why I'm in event.
00:24:18:28 - 00:24:29:06 Joshua Zerkel Exactly. So what would you tell in events team who wants to get started with something like this, but maybe doesn't know how to get product or other stakeholders to come to the table and engage?
00:24:29:08 - 00:24:54:26 Hillarie Ralston Yeah, I've thought about this a lot as I left ironclad about nine months ago and joined a startup called sage, which is a senior living nurse call management platform. And I think it's really two things. One is not pitching attendance of an event from cross-functional partners, but pitching outcomes. Nobody in product or CS or any person working at the company wants to staff an event.
00:24:54:27 - 00:25:21:18 Hillarie Ralston They don't want to just show up and be told what to do. Everybody in product wants two hours of direct access to 50 of their actual users. So it's the same event, it's the same experience. It's just totally different pitch in terms of how I'm pitching and sharing what these cross-functional partners are doing on site. And then second, the biggest unlock for me at ironclad and that I'm still working through at sage, is finding the right partners.
00:25:21:18 - 00:25:57:14 Hillarie Ralston I got so lucky and like, maybe I was intentional. I don't really know. In having my PM and PM partner Erica and Lucy, who genuinely saw that opportunity and didn't just treat this event like it was mine, but it was our event and that partnership was everything. If you don't have that from the start with one person I am working on this currently is like, who is one product marketing person or product manager who's curious and can attend an event and then go back to their team, see what they learned, come up with ideas, brainstorm.
00:25:57:14 - 00:26:21:19 Hillarie Ralston And that way you're not chasing product to show up anymore. But they're asking you, hey, Hillary wins that next event I actually want to attend. I had an idea I want to experiment with and that flip from convincing to being pulled in, that's when I feel I know, like, okay, this is a partnership and this is going to work and this is going to be fruitful at future events as well.
00:26:21:21 - 00:26:40:02 Joshua Zerkel As soon as they start asking, when's the next one? You know, you've done your job well because their body and completely and they're anticipating when they can participate. Again. I think your point of they're not staffing the event, they're there to do a specific thing is really important. I personally have made the mistake in the past, have just come and we'll see what happens.
00:26:40:04 - 00:26:56:03 Joshua Zerkel I have learned over the years, like everyone wants a trip somewhere, but that's not the point of this. The point of this is for them to get real insights that will help them do their jobs more effectively, and when you share that with them, you're going to get a full day directly with customers who are in the IC.
00:26:56:06 - 00:27:18:01 Joshua Zerkel That is language they understand. And so just be be thoughtful about how you present what their piece of it looks like. Of course, on the day, you know, if you need an extra pair of hands to like move a table like everyone is willing to help, but that is not why they are there. Your job is to facilitate the outcomes that they get out of being there.
00:27:18:07 - 00:27:44:22 Hillarie Ralston Agreed, and make sure that they are primed with what they need on site. You know it's not, hey, here's a calendar invite two weeks before the event for no, before you go, it's like, hey, in that no. Before you go, I need you to share about what you're going to do on site and how we've been working on this for eight weeks previously, and all the work like you need to tell that story to, to all those who are attending so that one they can see, oh, there's opportunity to do more at these events.
00:27:44:22 - 00:27:57:27 Hillarie Ralston And two, oh, wow, Erica and Lucy aren't just here not helping or schlepping the tables around. They're actually doing a job that they have identified is an opportunity to see outcomes.
00:27:58:00 - 00:28:07:27 Joshua Zerkel That's right. This is great, Hilary. Thank you so much. So where would you like folks to find you online, where they can learn more about you and maybe paying you to learn more about the programs you've built?
00:28:07:28 - 00:28:24:01 Hillarie Ralston Yes. Well, find me on LinkedIn, Hilary Ralston on LinkedIn. And then also Hilary Hilary at Sage Health is my email. So would love to continue to connect with people and continue this conversation.
00:28:24:03 - 00:28:49:19 Joshua Zerkel This is great, Hilary. I love talking about events and hearing all the ways that you've leveraged events to go beyond just the warm fuzzies and the vibes to create real business outcomes for multiple teams. This is really fantastic, and I feel like this is a model that should be replicated across many different companies, because if you're working with customers, you have the opportunity to do things like this that touch multiple internal teams so they can get more value out of the things you're doing already.
00:28:49:21 - 00:28:59:16 Hillarie Ralston Thank you, I appreciate it, and I learned so much from you. So I can credit a lot of my my learnings from the time and work that we did together at asana. So thank you for having me, Josh.
00:28:59:16 - 00:29:21:04 Joshua Zerkel I'm honored. It's my pleasure. Thank you for being here. All right, everyone, I invite you to connect with Hilary and join us in the gradual community where you can join the AMA with Hilary in the forum. Check out more playbooks and resources. I just published a whole bunch in the last couple of weeks, and all the rest of our upcoming events, which we have a lot of, although mostly our online, so we probably won't do some of the fun things that Hilary mentioned.
00:29:21:07 - 00:29:32:20 Joshua Zerkel You can find out more at community. Thanks again to Hilary and all of you for joining us or watching the recording, and we will see you in the gradual community. Thank you all so much.
00:29:32:22 - 00:29:33:25 Hillarie Ralston Thanks, Josh.
+ Read More
Like
Comments (0)
Popular
Watch More
Event Replay: From Reddit to Results - A Community Engagement Playbook for GEO
Posted Feb 12, 2026 | Views 99