AMA: FiveStars Former Product Marketing Manager, Ross Overline on Product Marketing

While there are benefits to both, judging from my experience, I believe PMM reporting into Marketing is more effective. Reporting into makreting creates stronger ties between PMM and the revenue organziation (marketing, sales, operations, etc.) and can therefore lead to more buy-in from those stakeholders during launch. Reporting into marketing positions you as a core partner in the revenue org. You have greater flexibility to "lead" the revenue org through launches and strategy shifts, while th ...Read More

Asking for a raise is tricky. Ultimately, you need to be driving value, right? That can be broken down quantitatively, but also qualitatively.   Quant: What impact are you having on funnels? Run A/B tests to prove that your strategies are driving impact. How have NPS and sentiment changed?   Qual: Do you have strong relationships with stakeholders? Are you driving value through strategy, creative, and channel partnerships?   I would also recommend using your companies job ladder as a tool, or if ...Read More

Not trying to deflect this, but this depends on your role, organization size, team structure, budget, target customer, and goals. That list sounds solid to me if you're a midsize company with some startup bend still. Some other tools to consider: Leadpages or Unbounce are solid tools for building lead generating landing pages fast. Mixpanel for instrumentation. Marketo for scaled lifecycle communications (SFDC integration is helpful) Mailchimp for scrappy email work. Redash.io is a solid SQL int ...Read More

There are a few questions here: How do I influence the team, how do I influence the roadmap, and how do I get them to listen to the feedback I'm bringing from customers.   First, seek to understand. Approach your product team and roadmap decision makers with the intent to understand their values, motivations, goals, concerns, and needs. Once you've developed this level of understanding of your stakeholders, you can then truly understand what it is they want. After understanding my product team, ...Read More