Rough for Marketing Teams

What problem does Rough solve?

The problem that Rough focuses on is alignment. Our goal is that you can create compelling, customer-driven marketing without constantly chasing down product teams or guessing what customers actually care about.

As a marketer, you've probably found yourself asking questions like:

• What are customers actually saying about our product?

• Why are we positioning this feature when no one asked for it?

• How do I know if our messaging resonates with real user problems?

• What's actually shipping next quarter so I can plan campaigns?

• Are we solving problems that matter to customers, or just problems we think matter?

• Why does sales keep promising features that we aren't advertising?

Rough is designed to help you get answers to those questions. We're made specifically for companies where marketing needs to stay connected to customer reality, not just internal assumptions about what customers want.

How does Rough solve alignment?

To be honest, we don't. Rough solves the technology side of the alignment problem. The rest of that problem is people, process, and culture. We help with that too, but we're not going to claim that our software is going to fix all these issues overnight.

At its core, Rough is simple. We connect insights to work. We want marketers to understand the customer problems that drove a feature before it gets built, and the real user feedback once it ships. Sometimes features are built off the back of hundreds of customer calls; sometimes it's demands from investors; sometimes it's just the latest shower thought from the CEO. We're not here to judge how decisions get made, we're just here to show everyone what was involved in them.

As marketers, the workflow that Rough offers will feel like finally having a direct line to customer truth. That's because Rough is built with a default-open philosophy. Everything is public by default. You can see the actual customer conversations that drove product decisions, not just the sanitized summary that makes it to the marketing brief.

What features does Rough have specifically?

The central hub of Rough is the insights feed. This is where all customer conversations, support tickets, and user research get shared openly. Instead of playing telephone between product, sales, and support to understand what customers are actually saying, you can see it directly. Every insight includes context about who said it, when, and how it connects to product decisions.

The decision-making process lives inside what we call a Pitch. A pitch is a structured document with a problem statement and a wireframe of what's being proposed. For marketers, this means you can see not just what's being built, but why it's being built and what customer problem it solves. No more surprise features that you have to reverse-engineer messaging for.

Lists are how we handle prioritization. Everyone starts with their own wishlist, showing what work they think is most important. As a marketer, you can see exactly where your feature requests stand in the product backlog, and understand the reasoning behind priority changes. You can also create lists for campaign planning, feature launches, or organizing insights by customer segment.

The most important list in Rough is The Top Ten. This is your company's actual priorities, not the aspirational roadmap that gets presented in all-hands meetings. When you're planning campaigns or creating content, you can focus on the features that are actually going to ship.

What integrations does Rough have?

We currently integrate with Github and Slack. With Slack, you can capture customer insights directly from sales calls, support conversations, or social media mentions without switching tools.

We're open to adding more integrations, so if you use specific tools for customer research, campaign management, or analytics, please get in touch.

How does Rough help with messaging and positioning?

Rough doesn't write your messaging for you, but it gives you the raw materials to create messaging that actually resonates. Every feature in development is connected to the customer conversations that drove it. You can see the actual language customers use to describe problems, not just how engineers or product managers interpret those problems.

When you're creating launch materials, you can trace features back to specific customer insights. Instead of generic benefit statements, you can ground your messaging in real customer language and real customer problems. This makes your marketing more authentic and more likely to resonate with prospects who have similar challenges.

The insights feed also helps you spot emerging themes across customer conversations. Maybe multiple customers are talking about the same workflow problem, but using different language. Rough's AI can help you identify these patterns, giving you insights into how to position solutions or what content to create.

How do I stay connected to customers without overwhelming product teams?

This is one of the biggest challenges for marketing teams. You want customer insights to create relevant messaging, but you don't want to constantly interrupt product managers with requests for customer feedback.

Rough solves this by making customer insights visible by default. Instead of asking product teams to summarize customer calls for you, you can see the insights directly. You can understand which customers are asking for which features, how they describe their problems, and what language they use.

The insights feed acts like a real-time customer pulse. You can see patterns in feedback, spot emerging opportunities for content or campaigns, and understand which messages are resonating with different customer segments. This helps you create more targeted, relevant marketing without adding overhead to other teams.

How does this help with campaign planning and launches?

One of the biggest benefits of Rough's transparency is that it makes campaign planning much more strategic. When you're planning a feature launch, you can see exactly which customers asked for this feature, what problems it solves, and what outcomes they expect. This gives you concrete value propositions instead of generic feature descriptions.

The pitch system creates a natural bridge between product development and marketing. Every feature has a clear problem statement, visual mockups, and connected customer insights. You can start developing messaging and positioning while features are still being built, instead of scrambling to understand what got shipped after the fact.

You can also use lists to coordinate campaign timelines with product development. Create lists for quarterly launches, campaign themes, or customer segment focuses. When priorities change (and they always do), you can see exactly what shifted and adjust your plans accordingly.

What sort of support do I get?

We love doing discovery with marketing teams, especially around how customer insights can inform messaging and positioning. We're happy to support custom onboarding that includes your sales, support, and product teams if needed.

Send us an email at hello@rough.app and we'll get you sorted.

We're also happy to connect you with our network of professionals who can help you get the most value out of customer insights.