AMA: Nextdoor Head of Consumer Product Marketing, Rayleen Hsu on Consumer Product Marketing

From my experience, it's less about product marketing's placement in the org chart and more about product marketing's relationship with product and cross functional teams. I've been in orgs where PMM reports into product as well as others where PMM reports into marketing and have found that our ability to influence the roadmap is more dependent on the value that product marketing brings to the table and having a seat at the table rather than your reporting structure. A product marketer that has ...Read More

Whether you are an experienced or aspiring product marketer, these are the qualities I look for in product marketing hires:  Customer obsessed. Product marketing is the voice of the customer and a successful product marketer is one that is customer obsessed and keeps the consumer at the core of all that they do. Product marketing's role is to help inform the product roadmap and market new products and features to consumers. If we don't have a deep understanding of who our customers are and what ...Read More

Moving up the ladder from an IC or manager role into a director role is typically dependent on a few factors, some of which individual PMMs are very much in control of, some of which they are not unfortunately. At a high level, some of the requirements needed to progress include the following: Clearly defining your team's purpose and strategy and clearly articulating how your strategy aligns with the overarching company objectives. I will start by saying I am fully in the camp that the words 'st ...Read More

I've been in PMM roles at mostly large companies and PMM has typically focused on either the consumer or the business side of things. However, for smaller companies with smaller teams, it's not uncommon for PMM to lean into both, depending on the needs of the organization. Regardless of how the team is structured, close partnership across PMM whether your focus is B2B or B2C is critical. PMM is often positioned to oversee what's happening holistically across the org and can help provide visibili ...Read More

I think the same best practices hold true no matter what kind of proposal you're putting out there that you need to secure buy-in for - come to the table with a clear, structured ask and always bring data to the table to support your ask. Specifically: Clearly outline your objectives. Clearly communicate what you're hoping to accomplish by outlining your success metrics and/or learning agenda. No one expects you to have all the answers from the get go but it's essential that you clearly articula ...Read More

I love that product marketing sits at the intersection of Product and Marketing and that we're able to help inform the product roadmap in a meaningful way by bringing consumer insights to the table. Our ability to influence the product roadmap and to really understand the why behind product development enables us to develop customer-centric marketing plans that bring products to life and really resonate with consumers. It's also incredibly fulfilling to be part of the process from start to finis ...Read More

To embed PMM into product teams, PMM should strive to do the following: Build strong relationships with product partners by ensuring they know your objectives are aligned and demonstrating value add from the get-go. If you are not top of mind for your product partners, you won't get a seat at the table. So, set up those regular touchbases with your product partners, proactively bring data and customer insights to the table and raise your hand to support the team whenever you can.  Act like an eq ...Read More