Heather Liu | AI & Developer Platform Product Marketing

What I Do

I turn frontier capability into developer adoption.

I work where research, product, and sales meet. I name a capability before it has a category, write the developer-facing story, and make sure the people selling it know exactly why it wins. My favorite problems are the ones where the product is powerful but the story isn't obvious yet.

Technical Storytelling

I turn model capabilities, APIs, and SDKs into stories that developers trust and enterprise buyers act on.

Developer Ecosystems

Getting-started paths, reference docs, open-source toolkits, and community programs that take a developer from first look to working integration.

Launch to Adoption

I own launches end to end: positioning, pricing, sales enablement, and the campaigns that carry a capability from announcement to steady usage.

Selected Work

Highlights from my career.

Google Maps Platform

Grounding AI in the Real World

Launched Maps Imagery Grounding, a new multimodal grounding API, from naming through Cloud Next. Also led the developer ecosystem strategy behind the open-source Maps Agentic UI Toolkit (A2UI).

Google

Bringing AI Home

Led product marketing for 20+ feature launches including generative AI capabilities, and grew third-party developer API monthly actives 28% on the Google Home platform.

Google × Walmart

Smart Home for Walmart Shoppers

Turned Google Gemini AI features into plain-language benefits for Walmart customers, from packaging to product pages.

Coursera

COVID-19 Response Initiative

Led marketing for the pandemic response that helped 1.7 million learners continue studying across 10,000+ newly activated programs.

View Full Portfolio

How I Work

Principles that guide my approach.

Clarity First

If I can't explain a product in two sentences, the story isn't ready yet. I keep cutting until a developer and a CFO would both get it.

Lead with Empathy

Launches get stressful. I try to be the person who makes the room calmer, in a tough cross-team review or a one-on-one with a teammate who's stuck.

Speed with Precision

I've worked at startups and at big tech. Both taught me to move fast without losing sight of the customer or the numbers that matter.

Connect the Teams

My best work happens where teams overlap: engineering and marketing, partners and product, a city and its local businesses.

Beyond the Office

Building opportunity in my community.

As former Chair of the San Carlos Economic Development Advisory Commission, I focused on community growth and long-term economic vitality. I think the same strategy work that grows a tech product can help a downtown grow, and I like testing that idea close to home.

Economic Empowerment Education Children Science & Technology

Learn More

"I care deeply about building opportunity for people and businesses."

Heather Liu

Quick Answers

About Heather Liu, in brief.

Who is Heather Liu?

Heather Liu is a product marketing leader in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a senior product marketing manager at Google Maps Platform, where she leads go-to-market for AI and developer APIs. She has 15+ years of experience across Google, Meta, Coursera, dataxu, OpenX, Weber Shandwick, and Nielsen, and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Yale.

What does Heather Liu do at Google Maps Platform?

She owns positioning, launch go-to-market, API pricing, and sales enablement for the Google Maps Platform AI portfolio. Recent work includes launching Maps Imagery Grounding, a multimodal grounding API, and leading developer ecosystem strategy for agent interfaces, the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and the open-source A2UI toolkit.

What did Heather Liu work on before Google Maps Platform?

From 2021 to 2026 she led global product marketing for Google Home, including 20+ AI feature launches and national partner launches with Walmart and AT&T. Before Google she led product marketing for new university and government verticals at Coursera, advised global marketplaces at Meta, and launched connected TV products at dataxu, which Roku later acquired.

Is Heather Liu available for speaking or advising?

Yes. She speaks on AI product marketing, developer go-to-market, technical storytelling, and civic economic development, and takes on select advisory work. The best way to reach her is the contact form or hi@heatherliu.com.

What is Heather Liu's civic work?

She is former Chair of the San Carlos Economic Development Advisory Commission and curates a Bay Area Economic Development Hub on this site, which tracks city initiatives, meetings, and ways for residents to get involved.