Product Enablement: An Expert-Led Introduction 

Introduction

In my quest to make The Enablement Insight the most comprehensive source of enablement knowledge, I’ve collaborated with seasoned experts in various areas to share their insights – especially on topics where my own expertise may not be as deep.

This approach brought us invaluable contributions like Elizabeth Italiano’s inside look at customer success enablement and Will Taylor’s deep dive into partner enablement. 

Today’s article continues that tradition, this time focusing on product enablement – a concept often misunderstood and mistakenly equated with product marketing or product training.

Fortunately, we have just the expert to clarify these misconceptions and provide a wealth of insights: Devon McDermott. 

Some of Devon’s career highlights include being the Senior Global Product Instructor for Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud line of products and building enablement functions for companies such as SocialCode, CM Group, and Persado.

She is currently the Head of Enablement at Dandy, the world leader in digitalising dental labs through their platform.

By the way, this article is part of a mini-series on product enablement. Be sure to check out the one dedicated to the product enablement vs product marketing “debate”, as well as the article about product training for sales. 

As I mentioned, my conversation with Devon was incredibly insightful.

Let’s now delve deeper into it.

The definition – what is product enablement?

I’ll be honest, clearly defining product enablement was a harder task that I thought.

After reflecting on Devon’s input and my own thoughts, I’ve come to see this function as less of a rigid process and more of a strategic approach designed to empower teams.

Here’s the definition I’ve distilled:

I aimed for a straightforward definition, cutting through the ambiguity that often surrounds product enablement. What truly stood out in Devon’s contributions was her emphasis on role-specific focus – something crucial for effectiveness.

As Devon explained:

“Product enablement involves delivering tailored, in-depth programmes that enhance role-specific product knowledge and job performance. Each team needs contextual learning, resources, training, and support that fit their unique responsibilities.”

She also pointed out how the function has parallels to sales enablement in key areas:

“Much like sales enablement, product enablement plays a vital role in developing tools, processes, and learning initiatives that streamline workflows and promote success.”

In short, while product enablement supports multiple functions, its effectiveness comes from adapting to each team’s role and ensuring they have everything they need to succeed; not just at launch but throughout the product lifecycle.

This adaptability, coupled with strategic alignment across teams, is what transforms product enablement from a set of tasks into a business-critical advantage.

The many flavours of product enablement 

One of the most interesting parts of my conversation with Devon was when we started unwrapping the eternal enablement question:

“Where should product enablement sit and how to best embed it in the overall organisation so that it is most effective?” 

I found it fascinating because product enablement has an even less standardised place within organisations than sales enablement, which can typically find a home in sales teams, sales operations, the broader revenue organisation, or even learning and development.

At first glance, you might assume the function’s focus on the product would give it a more natural, defined place. But paradoxically, this product focus complicates things further.

Why?

Because the product touches many different parts of the organisation in ways that aren’t always neatly aligned.

Depending on the company, product enablement may have to balance multiple roles:

• Supporting sales teams with product knowledge

• Driving product adoption across customer-facing teams

• Relaying feedback to product development.

• Working alongside product marketing

This means its positioning within an organisation depends heavily on several intersecting factors.

Beyond general considerations like company size, complexity, enablement maturity, and go-to-market strategies, product enablement’s role is influenced by questions such as:

• How formalised is the roadmap, and how susceptible is it to sudden pivots?

• What is the product release cadence?

• How collaborative or siloed is the product development team?

• How well-connected is the product team to the customer experience?

• Are there structured product communication processes in place, and which teams do they reach?

• What is the planned scope for the function – sales, customer support team, or all customer-facing departments?

• What are its responsibilities – creating/modifying resources, onboarding and training, or serving as a feedback loop between customers and product development?

• Is there a product marketing team, and what responsibilities do they handle?

These questions might seem overwhelming when listed like this, but we’ll break them down as we examine how the function evolves based on these organisational factors.

The image below provides you with a simplified illustration of what’s to come. 

Product enablement as an independent function

When product enablement is positioned as a dedicated, independent function, it typically arises from a clear need for specialisation and focus.

In larger, more mature organisations or those with complex product offerings, product enablement operates as its own distinct team, separate from but working closely with other departments, most notably from the wider product organisation – product development, product management, and product marketing.

This team takes full ownership of product knowledge – developing and delivering tailored programmes for various customer-facing teams.

However, this independence does not mean isolation.

Instead, the function acts as a strategic partner to teams like sales, customer success, account management, and product marketing, aligning closely with their goals while maintaining control over key enablement initiatives.

As Devon explained, one of the main reasons for establishing an independent product enablement function is the need for deep, role-specific product expertise.

This expertise enables the creation of tailored training and resources that help each team understand not just the product, but, most importantly, how to effectively position and apply it in different customer contexts.

In this setup, the team ensures that each customer-facing function receives the appropriate support – ranging from in-depth product education to guidance on positioning and messaging tailored to different customer segments and personas.

An independent product enablement team is appropriate in the following situations:

1. The product roadmap is complex and frequently evolving

If product releases are unpredictable or rapid, product enablement must have the autonomy to act quickly, adapt training content, and keep internal teams and customers informed. 

In such cases, product enablement must often work closely with the product team, attending meetings, reviewing JIRA boards (or equivalents), and staying abreast of changes in real time. 

As Devon pointed out, in her experience, this can even involve embedding a dedicated product enablement person within the product team itself, keeping the enablement function in sync with the pace of product updates and releases.

2. The scope of responsibilities is broad

When product enablement is tasked with not just developing content, but also creating product certification programmes, tailoring role-specific training, and ensuring alignment between product marketing and customer-facing teams, it often requires its own team to manage the scope effectively. 

Devon emphasised that in these cases, product enablement managers must deeply understand both the product’s technical aspects and its strategic positioning.

This knowledge allows them to better equip customer-facing teams to articulate the product’s value in a way that aligns with customer needs and market conditions.

3. High expectations for cross-functional alignment

In this independent model, product enablement plays a pivotal role in facilitating communication between product development, product management, marketing and sales teams, and the customer support unit.

Devon mentioned that product enablement should serve as the “connective tissue,” channelling feedback from the field back to the product management and product marketing teams, making sure that training initiatives are relevant and that product teams gain a first-hand understanding of customer needs. 

This is why a dedicated function works so well; it prevents product knowledge from being passed down in siloed, feature-based training sessions, and, instead, contextualises it in real-world, customer-facing scenarios that drive behaviour change and business outcomes.

In an independent setup, the function can shape and refine enablement strategies, processes and workflows, including everything from how product content is communicated to teams to how feedback loops are created. 

That being said, in these setups, product enablement needs to keep a few things in mind at all times. 

First and foremost, the dedicated product enablement team must define exactly where their responsibility starts and ends.

They should work closely with product management and product marketing teams, while ensuring their role is distinct in its focus on driving product adoption and translating product knowledge into applicable, role-dependent information.

The independent function also needs to be smart and tactful when collaborating with different teams.

As Devon noted, alignment with product marketing is paramount.

Product marketing creates foundational materials, such as product positioning, messaging, and educational resources. Product enablement then tailors these materials for customer-facing teams.

In Devon’s words:

“Product enablement contextualises this knowledge and feeds it to different GTM teams while considering specific personas, use cases, target customers, and customer challenges.”

This setup can be handled in various ways.

While product enablement remains a dedicated unit, it can collaborate through different models:

• Embedding product enablement specialists within sales or customer experience (CX) teams to maintain close alignment.

• Having the product enablement team provide input to broader enablement teams, who then deliver programmes to frontline personnel.

To sum up, an independent product enablement function is ideal when:

• There is a responsibility to track and drive product adoption metrics and business outcomes.

• Product complexity and the scale of product launches demand specialised attention.

• The expected scope of product enablement includes strategic involvement with multiple departments.

Product enablement embedded in other functions

Smaller organisations or those with simpler product offerings often choose to integrate product enablement within broader teams.

In this model, product enablement doesn’t operate as an independent function.

Instead, its responsibilities are managed within the existing structure of another department, such as sales enablement, product marketing, or the larger product team.

This often means that someone within these teams runs product enablement activities as part of their broader responsibilities rather than it being their sole focus.

Product knowledge is adapted and modified to meet that department’s specific needs, then delivered through initiatives like training, coaching, or content.

This approach works well when:

1. The product roadmap is more stable and predictable

If product releases are well-coordinated and follow a consistent schedule, the need for a dedicated product enablement team may be reduced.

In such cases, product enablement can be integrated into an existing enablement function, where product knowledge is incorporated into broader training initiatives for sales, customer support, or other teams.

Devon explained that when the product roadmap is both collaborative and stable, product enablement becomes less resource-intensive.

Teams can more easily handle product updates as part of their existing responsibilities because they have a clearer understanding of when and how those updates will impact them.

2. The scope of product enablement responsibilities is more focused

In this case, product enablement typically focuses on providing foundational training on the product – covering features, functions, and basic value propositions. It may also include targeted training to help teams communicate these aspects to customers clearly and effectively.

In this type of setup, the level of specialisation is not as high as in an independent function, nor does it require extensive custom training or certification programmes.

As Devon noted, when product enablement is integrated into a broader function, it tends to prioritise training delivery and ensuring teams have sufficient product knowledge to meet basic business outcomes, rather than the more strategic, behaviour-changing initiatives needed in complex environments.

3. Cross-functional collaboration is well-established

If product teams are already aligned with sales, customer support, and marketing departments, and there are already clear processes in place for information flow, it becomes easier to embed product enablement into existing roles. 

Devon pointed out that when the product team collaborates well with enablement functions, it’s easier for the enablement team to integrate product enablement tasks (like onboarding and product training) into their broader enablement initiatives.

In this environment, the function acts as an extension of existing enablement activities.

However, Devon also cautioned that teams considering embedding product enablement within their unit must recognise how time- and resource-intensive it can be.

Without proper planning and dedicated resources, product enablement may become difficult to manage.

Teams should carefully assess their bandwidth and ability to deliver product enablement effectively.

Key components of product enablement

As we mentioned, product enablement is designed to provide all customer-facing teams with the knowledge, skills, resources, and tools to effectively understand, position, and communicate the product in a way that drives sales and customer success.

However, enabling these teams to achieve this isn’t a simple process; it’s built on several interdependent components, all parts of a product enablement strategy each one strengthening the others.

Market understanding

One thing that often gets ignored or covered only tangentially by product enablement teams is the understanding of the market. 

A common practice, as Devon shares, is to dedicate a day or several sessions to introducing new salespeople to the industry and market, and then to spend the following weeks familiarising them with product knowledge, positioning, and value messaging.

Knowledge of the broader industry, the competitive landscape, and the needs of customers are essential for contextualising this product knowledge and the messaging. 

The product’s value isn’t defined solely by its features but by how it compares to competitors and addresses the specific needs of the target market.

This insight helps teams understand not just what the product does, but why it matters in the context of market trends, customer pain points, and competing solutions.

Product enablement, therefore, extends beyond the product itself to include the external factors that make it relevant and valuable.

Product expertise

Building on market knowledge, product expertise comes next. 

For product enablement to be effective, teams need a comprehensive understanding of the product’s technical features, functions, integrations, and the specific customer challenges it addresses.

This expertise involves more than knowing how to use the product. It requires understanding how the product works, the problems it solves, and how it integrates into customers’ ecosystems.

With this level of knowledge, enablement teams can deliver precise and relevant information to customer-facing teams, enabling them to:

• Anticipate questions

• Address objections

• Offer tailored solutions

When go-to-market (GTM) teams can confidently discuss a product’s technical capabilities and limitations, they build trust with customers by demonstrating both competence and credibility in their conversations.

Product positioning and messaging

Once market understanding and foundational product knowledge are in place, the next step is product positioning and messaging. 

• Product positioning defines how the product fits within the market landscape. It establishes what makes the product unique, which customer problems it solves, and how it stands out compared to competitors.

• Product messaging takes this positioning and transforms it into practical, tailored communication. It focuses on how to present the product’s value in ways that resonate with different stakeholders at various points in the buyer or customer journey. Messaging answers the critical question: “How do we communicate the product’s value to this specific person, at this specific stage?”

Whether it’s a salesperson explaining how the product will solve a potential customer’s pain point, or a support department manager showing a current user how to get more value from the product, clear and compelling messaging is key. 

Product enablement, in collaboration with product marketing, plays a crucial role in translating product expertise into tangible value messaging that, in turn, customer-facing teams should be able to convey effectively for different use cases and at different stages of prospect or customer interactions. 

Learning and development

Once employees have a solid grasp of the product and its positioning, the next step is applying that knowledge in real-world customer-facing scenarios.

Product enablement goes beyond simply imparting product knowledge; at the end of the day, it all comes down to translating that into a product enablement strategy that will guide meaningful actions that drive results.

While learning and development is already intertwined with the initial knowledge transfer, it becomes even more critical at this stage to support the practical application of that knowledge. 

To achieve this, product enablement managers must design role-specific training programmes that contextualise product knowledge, aligning it with each team’s ongoing responsibilities and the practical scenarios they will encounter.

For example, a salesperson’s product demo will be more focused on how the product solves customer pain points and delivers business value, while a customer success manager might need a deeper understanding of features that assist with onboarding or troubleshooting.

To enhance the effectiveness of this training, product enablement managers should apply adult learning principles and instructional design best practices.

These include using scenario-based learning and roleplays , where employees are immersed in realistic situations that they will encounter in their roles. Such an approach makes learning practical, engaging, and immediately applicable. 

Furthermore, incorporating learning reinforcement techniques, such as follow-up sessions, peer discussions, personalised 1:1 or group coaching, or real-time feedback, helps solidify product knowledge and improve its retention over time. 

As part of these efforts, product enablement programmes can culminate in formal certification, which set clear standards of knowledge and product mastery for customer-facing teams.

Certifications can also serve as powerful motivators, providing employees with a sense of accomplishment while ensuring they can confidently articulate the product’s capabilities in any prospect or customer interaction.

Cross-functional feedback loops 

Product enablement should never operate as a one-way street.

Effective two-way communication between the enablement team, customer-facing teams, and other relevant departments is crucial, with the enablement part serving as the ideal conduit.

A key responsibility of product enablement is to ensure that feedback from customer-facing teams – and ultimately from customers – is continuously relayed back to the product team.

This “voice of the customer” should consistently inform product decisions, offering ongoing updates on both existing and emerging customer needs, as well as marketplace realities. In doing so, it helps prevent unnecessary feature development and functionality bloat.

Top product enablement challenges

In my experience leading the enablement function, I’ve encountered numerous challenges related to enabling commercial teams on product-related aspects.

Naturally, during my conversation with Devon, I chose to tackle this topic head-on, asking very specific questions to validate my perspective, uncover potential challenges I might have overlooked, and suggest some high-level solutions. 

Rapid product releases

One of the most frequently cited challenges in product enablement is dealing with fast-paced or unpredictable product release schedules. 

In tech companies, where product development is often iterative and agile, product teams may introduce updates, new features, or fixes without a predictable timeline.

This can leave enablement teams scrambling to keep up with the latest product changes, impacting both internal training and customer communications. 

When product updates aren’t clearly communicated to customer-facing teams or customers themselves, it can result in confusion, misaligned messaging, and poor sales and customer experience.

Potential high-level solution:

• Establish a clear, centralised communication channel that alerts customer-facing teams to product updates as soon as they occur and aligns enablement efforts accordingly. 

• Develop and deliver employee training using materials that can be quickly revised to match the latest product changes. 

• Schedule short, regular briefings to ensure all teams stay aligned on new features and fixes. 

This way, enablement remains in step with product releases, reducing confusion and ensuring consistent messaging.

Lack of collaboration between teams

If the product team is not fully aligned with the enablement team, critical product information might not be passed on in time or with enough detail.

This misalignment can lead to delays in internal training and negatively impact the ability of customer-facing teams to sell or support the product adoption effectively. 

For instance, if the product team releases a new feature but doesn’t collaborate with enablement teams on training and supporting documentation, customer-facing teams may struggle to educate customers or explain the feature’s value clearly.

Cross-functional collaboration between product, product marketing, and enablement teams is therefore crucial for keeping everyone on the same page.

Potential high-level solution: 

• Establishing regular cross-functional meetings and assigning a dedicated liaison to bridge the gap between teams. 

• Using shared documentation tools to ensure all product updates are communicated clearly and promptly. 

• Encouraging collaboration early in the product development cycle. 

This helps keep product, marketing, and enablement teams aligned, ensuring that customer-facing teams have the training and information they need to effectively support product adoption.

Balancing speed with quality

While speed is crucial in product enablement – particularly in the context of launching new products or major features – ensuring the quality of training and materials shouldn’t be overlooked.

The push to roll out quick training materials or resources for newly launched products can sometimes lead to insufficiently thorough training, leaving gaps in knowledge or understanding.

Striking a balance between delivering quickly and maintaining high-quality, in-depth content can be a challenge for product enablement managers.

Potential high-level solution: 

• Set up a structured process that values both speed and quality. 

• Begin with a rapid draft created by experts, then iterate quickly with peer reviews and feedback from customer-facing teams. 

• Use agile principles to continuously update training materials. 

This approach ensures you deliver timely content without sacrificing thoroughness.

Handling product complexity

The more complex the product, the harder it is to provide all customer-facing teams with the right level of understanding.

For highly technical products or those with numerous integrations and features, training can become a significant undertaking. 

As Devon mentioned, deep technical knowledge is essential, but product enablement must also ensure that knowledge is relevant and contextually tailored for different teams.

This challenge is particularly significant when teams need to internalise product information that goes beyond just functionality, but into how customers will use the product and how it will solve their problems.

Potential high-level solution:

• Start with foundational content that covers the product’s core functions, then build on it with specialised modules tailored to different teams. 

• Use real-world scenarios and case studies to show how the product solves customer problems. 

• Regularly update training materials to reflect any changes or improvements. 

In this way, even complex product information can be made digestible and relevant to each team.

Measuring product enablement success

We all know that in enablement, whether it’s sales enablement, CS enablement, partner enablement or any other type, measuring success and demonstrating value to the organisation is exquisitely important. 

The same is true for product enablement and Devon and I made sure to discuss how product enablement success is measured. 

Business impact metrics

The ultimate goal of product enablement is to drive business success, and there are several key metrics that can help demonstrate this. As Devon explains, “Linking learning metrics to business outcomes helps demonstrate the impact of product enablement on the bottom line.”

Key metrics include:

• Product adoption rates: Are both customers and internal teams using new products or features as expected?

• Win rates on deals involving new features: Are new features helping close more deals? Are sales teams leveraging these features effectively?

• Feature attach rates: Are customer-facing teams successfully introducing and selling additional product features to customers?

• Customer retention and net revenue growth: Are customers staying loyal, and is the product’s use expanding within existing accounts?

• Sales cycle length: Has the average sales cycle shortened due to improved product positioning and enablement support?

• Deal size uplift: Are deals involving new features generating higher revenue per opportunity?

• Churn reduction: Is product enablement helping reduce churn by improving customer engagement with the product?

• Revenue per product line: Are new products or features driving increased revenue for their respective lines?

These metrics reflect the effectiveness of product enablement in influencing key business outcomes, such as revenue growth and customer retention.

Learning and behaviour change metrics

While business metrics are critical, learning metrics are just as important in assessing how well product enablement is performing internally. This is where the focus shifts to knowledge acquisition and application:

• Certification completion: Are employees completing product certifications, which demonstrate they have attained a solid understanding of the product?

• Knowledge assessments: In cases where full certification programmes aren’t in place, are employees passing knowledge assessments that confirm their grasp of key product features and value propositions?

• Scenario-based performance score: How effectively do customer-facing teams apply their product knowledge in simulated scenarios (e.g., roleplays or mock customer meetings)?

However, learning metrics alone don’t tell the full story. To gauge the true success of enablement, it’s essential to track behavioural change in the field. Devon emphasised that this requires coaching, feedback, and observing performance in customer interactions. 

Additional behavioural change indicators might include:

• Time to proficiency: How long does it take new hires or existing employees to become effective in their roles after product training? How quickly is the sales department closing deals after a product launch?

• Call quality scores: Are teams demonstrating product expertise and effectively handling objections in customer calls or meetings?

• Customer satisfaction scores: Are customers reporting higher satisfaction and confidence in the team’s ability to solve their problems?

• Usage of enablement materials: How frequently are teams accessing and utilising enablement resources (e.g., playbooks, demo guides)?

• Field coaching feedback: Are field managers and coaches observing improvements in how teams use product knowledge during customer interactions?

As she puts it, “…the real test is how well the team can engage with customers and solve their problems using the product.”

Continuous feedback loops

As mentioned in the product enablement components section, to keep product enablement effective, introducing feedback loops is a must.

This means gathering data on learning and application and using insights from customer-facing teams to iterate and refine enablement efforts. 

Devon shared that product enablement should function as a two-way conduit between the teams on the front lines and the product team:

“It’s not just about rolling out a training programme and calling it done. You need to continually gather feedback from the teams using the product and adapt your approach accordingly.”

The end result should always be product enablement which is done in ever-improving iterations that will provide better results for everyone involved.

If the team is big enough, it can also include product enablement training for the members of the team, sharpening their skills.

Conclusion

The more insights Devon shared with me, the more convinced I became that product enablement is essential for any company whose product(s) evolves frequently, especially at a rapid pace.

I had always recognised that product enablement existed as a layer within sales enablement, but it wasn’t until speaking with someone like Devon – who has been immersed in product enablement for so many years – that I truly understood the depth and potential of this discipline. It’s remarkable what can be achieved when you dig into the nooks and crannies of product enablement.

And if your organisation has a dedicated product enablement manager or function, the impact on your programmes can be even more significant.

Hopefully, this guide has sparked some ideas and encouraged you to rethink and refine how you approach the product side of enablement in your organisation.

I know I’ve been inspired.

Thank you, Devon, for sharing your valuable insights with the readers of The Enablement Insight!