AMA: Automattic Director, Product Marketing, Clara Lee on Influencing the Product Roadmap

Two approaches here, that may be used at the same time: 1. Direct communication. If you have a strong framework for how you've seen PMM function strategically in other organizations, don't be afraid to share it widely. Be prepared to talk about how this structure can help teams drive greater, faster, better results. 2. Consider launches as a starting point. Use the time and collaboration with Product, Dev, Design, and Business teams to develop relationships. Ask questions, share ideas, and take the opportunity to suggest/flex your broader PMM skills. Over time, your cross-functional colleagues will hopefully see the value you can add to upstream decision-making, so that when you do or join other activities, it's obvious why.

In the cases where a Product Manager has consistently challenged your work beyond regular constructive collaboration, I have found the following tactics useful: * Realign on company/product goals and strategy. It's possible that there's a gap in understanding or alignment that explains the pushback. * Share your work and point of view more widely (beyond the Product team). This can be tricky depending on the organization, but sometimes, getting having your work seen by others can inspire renewed consideration. * Ask for direct, 1:1 feedback. Because sometimes, it's may not be related to you at all...

Design and Marketing should ideally go hand-in-hand. If the Design team is very mature, experts in the area, and functioning on a world-class level, then Product Marketing's input/review can be focused on later stage designs, possibly as key stakeholder sign-off. In younger organizations where Design is still a developing area, Product Marketing can and should add value to every stage of Design. In my experience, it can be helpful to frame input in terms of PMM competencies (e.g., research, interviews, surveys, competitive analysis, market data) to avoid being perceived as over-steppping bounds.

In most companies I've worked in, Product Marketing is often vastly outnumbered by Sales teams. The challenge is not usually in personalities or conflicting interests - but in sheer numbers. For me, managing PMM-Sales relationships comes down to understanding their goals (keeping large customers happy, hitting sales quotas, etc.), while also taking care not to become an unnecessary bottleneck for their work. In the past, I've used the following tactics to avoid/work through issues: * Take time to walk Sales team members through the product strategy and marketing plan. Treat them as strategic partners, not just executional colleagues. * Provide guidance to their sales strategy, and align on the right customers/prospects, so everyone's time and efforts are invested efficiently. * Create sales enablement content that allows some flexibility - to a limit. Reduce back-and-forth discussion by empowering them to work within specific boundaries. * If needed, introduce an exception process that has clear requirements around inputs requirements and expected lead times for your response.

Great question, especially for Product Marketing organizations that are still scaling to meet the footprint of much larger Product and/or Sales teams. Although you may find your bandwidth consumed by executional activities, it's important to ensure you continue to bring market intelligence and customer understanding to product roadmap planning. A few tactics for doing this could include: * Going direct. Find out where/how roadmap decisions are made, and request to be included those meetings and forums. If that doesn't work... * Conducting customer outreach. Being the bearer of customer voices - speaking their needs, using their own words - can be incredibly powerful. Hopefully your Product team will see value in this. * Creating a research roadmap. PMMs may have more research exposure than some other functions; offering up these special skills may inspire reciprocal openness. * Engaging smartly. Even if you're seeing the roadmap after-the-fact, sharing actionable, meaningful feedback can help others see value in including PMMs in earlier-stage discussions.

Ideally, your product roadmap reflects long-term strategy, narrative, and investment. If you are confident in your roadmap, you shouldn't need a rule that automatically places more weight on negative reviews than positive or neutral reviews. Feedback is very important - but it's equally important to avoid knee-jerk reactions and keep Product, Dev, and Marketing teams focused on the plan. Generally, I try to balance negative reviews with understanding that (a) we're not necessarily marketing to everyone and (b) product is a journey - some will follow and others will not. Negative reviews that come from particularly prominent people, or reviews that have the potential to go viral should be addressed directly, if possible. This response doesn't necessarily have to be public - but there could be value in a conversation that unpacks strong feelings or corrects a misunderstanding. In context of roadmap decisions, I would consider these types of prominent reviews individually (versus on an aggregate basis), just to make sure I understand the real issue at hand and whether it's something for us to solve.