Case study · Modus Create · 2024–25 · Founding product marketing

The product wasn't the problem. Belief was. I stopped competing on the feature list.

Modus Create hired me as its first product marketing manager. In roughly eleven months I built the function from zero and repositioned Just Add+, a portfolio of Atlassian Marketplace apps for Confluence, from a checklist to one claim a skeptical engineer would repeat.

RoleFirst product marketing manager at Modus Create. No PMM function before; one at the end.

ProductJust Add+: live, always-current diagrams and Git-synced content inside Confluence.

Owned channelsJustAdd.com and the Marketplace listing. Everything else routed back to them.

This run · 2024–25An earlier production version of the system I run now: the same loop, before it had a name, on one portfolio.

Jerry OS · nowWhat this run taught is written into the rooms. The last station says exactly what carried forward.

Situation · listen

The Marketplace had become a spec-sheet shouting match, and technical buyers had learned to tune it out.

Just Add+ already did the thing. It rendered live diagrams and Git-synced content inside Confluence, exactly where technical teams live. But every competitor led with the same checklist: more diagram types, more formats, more integrations. The buyers I listened to never said "I want more diagram types." What they described was "my docs lie, and I can't tell which pages to trust."

What I was listening to, and what the product was called

The flagship's original name was literally its feature list: Diagram Git Markdown LaTeX HTML PlantUML Mermaid Swagger UML. It performed well in Marketplace search and was difficult to remember, difficult to discuss, and almost impossible to build a recognizable product brand around. It became Just Add+ Embed, inside a new Just Add+ family. That change was more than a rename; it was the first move of the reposition.

A developer ships a change; the architecture diagram in the wiki still shows last month's system; a new hire learns the wrong model. Once that happens twice, every page becomes suspect. That is a trust problem, not a capability gap, and it was invisible in every listing in the category, including ours.

The call · judgment

Lead with the one capability that already existed and was buried as item three on a list: Git sync.

The page updates itself when the source changes. That reframed the pitch from "embed 15+ diagram types" to "documentation that writes itself, always current because it's wired to the source." The work wasn't adding to the product. It was recognizing which thing it already did was the one that mattered, and building the go-to-market around it.

Before · feature-first"Embed 15+ diagram types, Markdown, LaTeX, and more inside Confluence."

Accurate, and every competitor said a version of it. It answered "what does it do," not "why should I trust it."

After · trust-first"Documentation that writes itself — always current because it's wired to the source."

Freshness and trust lead; the fifteen formats become supporting proof. One line a skeptical engineer would repeat.

Evidence · verify

The claim had to survive an honest comparison, so I built one and shipped it.

Live Git sync was the only row where Just Add+ was alone. Everything else was table stakes or partial for someone. Publishing that table, including the rows we didn't win outright, is what made the headline believable to an engineer.

The comparison, as built for the launch

Live Git sync
Just Add+ · yesNative Confluence: no. draw.io / Gliffy: no.
15+ diagram types
Just Add+ · yesNative Confluence: no. draw.io / Gliffy: partial.
Markdown rendering
Just Add+ · yesNative Confluence: no. draw.io / Gliffy: no.
LaTeX / math
Just Add+ · yesNative Confluence: no. draw.io / Gliffy: no.
OpenAPI / Swagger
Just Add+ · yesNative Confluence: no. draw.io / Gliffy: no.

Competitor capabilities as assessed at the time of the launch, from their public documentation.

The work · act

One narrative, four buyers, every channel routing back to the owned ones.

JustAdd.com and the repositioned Marketplace listing carried the "documentation that writes itself" story, with messaging written for four buyer types and the comparison above. Marketplace search and category placement had to win a skeptical technical audience on their own. Cloud Fortified status, earned during the tenure, gave the enterprise buyer third-party trust the marketing didn't have to manufacture.

Owned, rented, borrowed

OwnedJustAdd.com and the Marketplace listing: the narrative, audience-specific messaging for four buyer types, the honest comparison table. The anchor every other channel pointed at.
RentedMarketplace search and category placement, where a problem-first listing had to earn trial and install without a salesperson in the loop.
BorrowedAtlassian's Cloud Fortified program: a higher enterprise-trust bar, translated into a customer-facing security and reliability story.

What moved · measure

A portfolio that used to describe itself by its feature list had a story an engineer could repeat in one line.

0 → 1Built the go-to-market function from zero.Modus Create's first product marketing manager. No function before this role; one at the end.Confirmed
35%+Portfolio engagement over the roughly eleven-month tenure.The metric the reposition targeted: listing views and trials converting to active installs.Confirmed · internally tracked
HeldThe Bestseller badge through a full rebrand; held during the tenure, since lapsed.The badge pre-dated the role; carrying a bestseller-ranked listing through a rebrand without losing standing was the harder move.Confirmed
EarnedCloud Fortified status during the tenure.Atlassian's higher enterprise-trust bar.Confirmed
8.4k · 4.3Active installs and Marketplace rating.The product's own numbers on the listing as of July 2026, not a personal-attribution claim; the install base pre-dates my tenure. The launch sheet, written earlier, recorded 8,600.Marketplace listing

What I'd change · learn

The reposition was right. The measurement rigor around it is what I'd tighten.

"I would instrument the baseline before touching the positioning. The 35%+ engagement lift is real and recorded, but I can't point to the exact pre-launch number it grew from — and a senior launch should be able to. That's the discipline I carry forward: name the metric and its baseline before any asset gets built."Jerry Nettles, from the launch case study

Why that matters

A result that can't be anchored to a starting number reads as marketing about marketing, not proof. Capturing a hard baseline on day zero, before any messaging or launch asset ships, is now a non-negotiable step in how I run a launch.

Carried forward · lineage

Four things this run taught are now written into the system.

PositioningA claim every competitor makes describes the category, not the company. The durability check that killed "cut your AI bill 40%" in the Ramp run is the same check that killed "15+ diagram types" here.
Sales EnablementShip the honest comparison, including the rows you don't win. It is what makes the headline believable.
AdoptionDefine the behavior before you measure it, and name the baseline first. Learned the hard way here; a rule now.
Go-to-MarketOne narrative, every channel routing back to the owned ones, with borrowed trust where the marketing shouldn't have to manufacture it.

The sheet

The launch case study, as a document.

Just Add+ · Launch case studyThree pages: metrics at a glance with per-row evidence labels, the strategic call, the before/after pitch, the comparison, the result, the learning.

Open the PDF →

A note on evidence: every figure above is sourced from the Marketplace listing, from confirmed portfolio outcomes, or from me directly; nothing is estimated or invented. One item is open and left open rather than smoothed over with a number: the absolute pre-launch baseline behind the 35%+. (The security milestone reached during the tenure is Cloud Fortified.) Credit to the Product and Engineering team that built and shipped the product alongside this work; this documents the product marketing function's contribution, not a solo effort. No employer-owned artifacts are shown.