Product School

The Product Manager's job is more than that, but you are right. We have to focus on consumer problems and solve them. However, we have a massive list of problems and bugs to fix and prioritize based on business growth, data results, and features that directly impact the goals. You can try to ask your Product Manager about the changes and bugs that he is prioritizing to understand how long it will take to fix the problems the users and marketing identified. Some Product Managers can make mistakes like dive into new features instead of fix problems, but if these problems significantly impact ...

I will answer this based on my experience as a Product Manager. All of them define goals for launches. The Product Manager will set the product vision and define the goals to achieve that vision. With the vision goal in hand, the Product Marketer will use the product strategy to develop the go-to-market plan. Both need to be integrated and have consistent communication. The ideal is always to align early on strategy, goals, and responsibilities and clearly define each. Here you can understand better the difference of both. 

Hey! At Product School. we don't have a concrete template (yet) but we do follow a checklist to ensure that everything s iaccomplished prior to launch: Marketing Department * Ensure that user analysis is up-to-date and complete. * Know content strategy and channel distribution (including social media and email scheduling). * Familiarize yourself with press distribution and media coverage. Sales Department * Clarify sales strategies for B2C and B2B (if applicable). * Cover all FAQs and responses. * Know all partnerships that will be centered around launch. Custome...

A Product Marketing Manager’s position varies depending on the company. However, you will find yourself from time to time working very closely together with the PM and count yourselves as part of the team. So depending on the situation, company organization, and phase you are at it will be advisable to report to the PM, the CMO, or Head of Marketing.

As the CEO of Product School, I’ve seen how Product Marketers are responsible for more than they used to be in the past . Especially in terms of being aware of development timelines, constraints, and roadmapping.  I’d say that a good PM should reach out to its product marketing team to answer specific questions about the customers in the roadmap. Answers to questions like “Who will use our product? Who will pay for our product? What do they care about? Why will they choose our solution?” are of vital importance to narrow down the potential market to a realistic cohort of potential buyers....

As the founder of Product School, I know that Product Marketing is difficult to define because it varies from company to company, and it can even vary between different products. However, it should be common knowledge that Product Marketing does much more than just “helping PMs launch things”.  Try to show how your work is essential and how, without marketing, you might have a different favorite brand of coffee, or be working for a completely different company than you are right now. But the most important thing you will want to highlight is that part of your job is gathering and processi...

This is a tricky question! I’d argue that there is more to the collaboration between Product Management and Product Marketing than the effectiveness of the Project Brief. However, you can read more about the relationship between PMMs and PMs here . As for what to include in the project (or Product) brief, it should outline (at least) the following: 1. Product name and release date 2. Who the product is targeted to 3. Product description 4. Summary of the customer needs the product will meet 5. Customer value proposition 6. The impact the product will have on the customer 7. ...

Great question! Nifty actually did a guest post on the Product School’s blog about that.   In a nutshell, they concluded that the interaction with the product and sales groups requires some collaboration, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be constant. An example of this would be to envision two vertical lines that go toward the same goal, but do not necessarily interact with each other all the time.  A great suggestion they made was to include an innovative cloud-based project management software to centralize all workloads under a single platform. This way, the sales team will know at w...

I would say that most successful growth managers are adept with Data Analytics and Digital Marketing. Of course there is generally more to it than just two skills, but the combination of these skills has generally been the spearhead of creating sound decisions that are based on numbers and hard evidence. 

Phenomenal questions and subsequent responses.  To add to this, I would say that there are several major factors that prevent product launches from being successful: 1. Lack of communication across departments : this is often one of the most challenging problems you can face due to conflicting personalities, and individuals being head strong or too proud to come to a common understanding. If departments aren't aligned, serious complications can arise during launch, and the outcome can be disasterous.  2. Not having a clearly defined checklist. I have seen too many times PMs or othe...