Renat
Balandin

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Positioning complex products for clearer markets, stronger launches, and growth.

Product marketing leader with 10+ years of commercial strategy and product marketing experience, scaling AI and SaaS products across VC-backed startups and $350M+ ARR environments. I specialize in GTM strategy and revenue-driving launches. I help brands find their story in the AI era.

Portrait of Renat Balandin

About

About Me

Hi there! I’m Renat. My journey into tech started in an unlikely place, economics and policy, on the consulting side, helping solve big questions in the public and private sectors. I’ve been in product marketing for more than seven years now, across CPG, fintech, and even some fascinating work with drones. It clicked right away.

PMM is the perfect balance for me. It is the technical side of product and the creative strategy that drives engagement. I love diving into go-to-market strategy, making onboarding seamless, boosting feature adoption, and listening to users, directly and through our GTM teams, to help guide the roadmap. I sit at the intersection of these teams, connecting insights from all sides so the product stays aligned with what users actually need.

The path here

2015

Strategy Management Consulting

Consulting on big questions for public and private sector clients.

2019

Into Product Marketing

CPG and fintech, where the work clicked right away.

2023

Drone SaaS Startup

Airspace Link, where I built PMM from scratch in an emerging market.

2025

AI & SaaS at scale

Siteimprove, now Acquia, running GTM in $350M+ ARR environments.

Approach

How I Think About Product Marketing

Four moves, in order, from understanding the market to proving the work changed something.

1

Understand the market

Know what buyers are trying to accomplish, what they use today, where the friction is, and how competitors frame the problem. That foundation drives positioning, segmentation, packaging, and the story we take to market.

2

Make it usable

Strategy only works if the company can use it. Product shapes what we build and prioritize. Sales gets talk tracks and a pitch that works live. CS makes sure what we promise matches the experience after the sale.

3

Connect to the bigger strategy

Link individual products to the broader commercial strategy. That means knowing when to lead with a use case, when to tell a platform story, how products fit together, and where adoption and expansion opportunities sit.

4

Measure what changed

Depending on the motion, that might be pipeline, deal velocity, product adoption, expansion, or field behavior. Did the work actually change anything?

A launch is not successful because the assets shipped. It is successful when the market understands the value, the field can sell it, and customers act on it.

Experience

What I've shipped, and where

I turn customer insight into positioning, pricing, and launches that sell.

Testimonials

What do they say?

Renat played a vital role in supporting our Go-to-Market strategy, conducting customer and competitive research to ensure our product was well-positioned in the market. His cross-functional collaboration skills were outstanding. He worked seamlessly with engineering, design, sales, and business development to drive alignment and advance key initiatives, and developed high-impact sales enablement materials that significantly boosted our business development efforts.

Photo of Colby Free
Colby FreeVP of Product

Renat was really good at getting past the technical depth, working out why a customer should care and putting it in words that made sense to buyers and to our sales team. He led the strategic work behind our launches, pricing and packaging, and always tied his work back to commercial outcomes. He was a great person to work with.

Photo of Andrei Popa
Andrei PopaSenior Product Manager

Renat's ability to bridge the gap between product marketing and sales was instrumental in helping our team communicate the value of our product. He developed impactful sales enablement tools that contributed to our ability to close deals and grow our pipeline. Renat's collaborative approach and commitment to supporting the sales team made him an invaluable partner in driving business success.

Photo of Katie Pawlowski
Katie PawlowskiBD Manager

He is an excellent Product Marketing Manager with attention to detail that stands out. He helped to create our product documentation and processes and was instrumental in moving our products from idea to development to production release. Renat is a great communicator and has the insight and ideas to champion products, ideas, and full lifecycle projects. I highly recommend Renat.

Photo of Nik Zisk
Nik ZiskProduct Support Team Lead

Let's connect

Interested in product marketing, GTM strategy, or AI-era visibility? Take a look at the work, read the blog, or reach out directly.