AMA: Ironclad Director of PMM, Stacey Wang on Influencing the Product Roadmap

(Hot take?) I, too, am wary when product marketers' stated/primary motive is to "influence the roadmap" b/c influencing the roadmap is just a means to an end; it's not the end itself. (This is perhaps a slim bone to pick, but in my experience, genuine collaborative intent makes all the difference b/w a trusting/productive partnership vs. a guarded/challenging one.) Once there is right intent, you can influence the roadmap by becoming the absolute authority in the world (yes, I said world) in you ...Read More

- Anchor on the highest priority for the company, versus any one team. One of the hardest but also most liberating things about product marketing is that we are an inherently flexible function. Our skillsets are diverse, so we can quickly get into formation behind whatever is most important and strategic to the company at any given point in time. This is our greatest strength (and, if handled poorly, our greatest weakness; see below response), so don't let it go to waste! If the most important i ...Read More

It's hard to answer this in the abstract (w/o knowing more about your current culture), but these two cultural components have been critical to the influence creds PMM has earned at Ironclad: (1) empathy and (2) (a derivative thereof) "win as one" mindset.  Empathy means the ability to see things from your counterparty's point of view. "Win as one" culture is something we really care about at Ironclad, and it basically means committing to driving the best results for the company. It means always ...Read More