At what point do you pull in the product marketing team while working on a new feature enhancement?

From the very beginning and throughout the development process. This is very much related to the previous question. I will try to bring to life how the process works on the Square teams. For any new feature development, we hold a kickoff/ problem alignment with PM, PMM, Design, Eng and Data Science. The goal is to align on the customer problem, generate hypotheses, identify open questions that need further investigation. From there, PM, PMM, and Design may divide and conquer customer research ta ...Read More

Short answer: as early as possible: ideally at problem definition, well before you've locked in a solution. PMM's job isn't to slap messaging on a finished feature; it's to help you sharpen positioning, validate the customer benefit, and pressure-test how the enhancement lands against competitive alternatives. For meaningful enhancements (Tier 1 or Tier 2), I pull PMM in at the Problem Definition stage so they can hear customer pain points firsthand and start drafting the messaging brief in para ...Read More

In my experience, Product Marketing should be engaged as early as possible when working on a new feature or enhancement. Early involvement ensures alignment not only on the problem being solved and the value of the solution, but also on how it will be positioned, messaged, and brought to market. Product Marketing is a strategic partner, not just a downstream communicator. They bring a critical Go-To-Market perspective to the table—helping shape the narrative, validate customer and market fit, an ...Read More

As early as possible! I pull in product marketing as soon I have a good understanding of the problem statement and its benefits to customers. Typically the artifact we'll share at this point is a draft of a PR/FAQ. If you're not familiar with this term, it's a practice taken from Amazon, where they start feature or product development by authoring a strawman press release (PR) that a customer could conceivably read and understand the value proposition of the product. Having PMM's eyes on this ea ...Read More