As a product marketer, how do you know if you're a better fit to be a product manager?

I’ll outline where I see PM and PMM overlap and diverge, and what signals to look out for to assess the better fit for you. I had a chance to test out a PM role in the past and was a CPG Brand Manager which is similar to a PM.  PM/PMM Overlap. They both: Have the end goal of solving a customer/end user problem. This requires a deep understanding of who the customer is, their needs and the value they seek. Work cross-functionally to get x-func teams bought into a vision, solutions to a customers' ...Read More

It comes down to which aspects of the role excite you the most. Depending on the company you are working at, Product Marketing and Product Management can have a lot of overlap. I’ll first discuss some of the similarities and differences in the roles before summarizing how you should think about making the choice. Early in my career I found this Medium article instructive in deciding which path to pursue. Product Marketing really has two sets of functions, “outbound” activities and “inbound” acti ...Read More

I recently had a member of my team leave Product Marketing to become a Product Manager. We spent a few months talking through and planning this transition. During this process, what I learned is that the decision to be a PM or PMM comes down to where you enjoy spending your time. PM and PMM are both focused on solving customer problems. They just go about it in different ways. The PM works to build a product that solves the problem whereas the PMM focuses on building the go-to-market strategy re ...Read More

Starting in CPG brand management I had the good fortune to wear both of these hats (and many more!) early in my career. This ignited a love for both disciplines and started me down a path where I'd jump back and forth between them for about a decade (thanks to all my incredible managers who never forced me to choose a lane!). There are similarities in the roles - which sometimes creates confusion and tension - in the ways they focus on the end user, influence through storytelling, sweat position ...Read More

This question hits home for me. In a previous role, I explored the opportunity to move to the PM org, so I did a bunch of research. First, at a high level, I love the book "Designing Your Life." If you're into self-reflection and personal growth books, this one's for you. It'll help you zero in on the type of work that gives you energy vs drains your energy. Then, I would do some candid interviews with PMs to understand what a day in the life is like, because sometimes from the PMM perspective w ...Read More

Here's the real talk: You're probably better suited for PM if you find yourself more energized by solving hard problems instead of inspiring users with great storytelling. Like, if you're in positioning meetings thinking "but WHY did we build it this way?" or you light up during technical discussions while GTM planning feels like a chore. The signs you might like being a PM? You read API docs for fun and you think in user flows and edge cases. You'd rather own one product deeply than market five ...Read More

A few questions to ask yourself: Do you want to be the mini-CEO of the product? Do you have enough experience to appreciate how engineering operates to build a product?  Are you comfortable making major tradeoffs between direct customer requests and company strategic priorities? Are you savvy enough to navigate tough decisions when requirements or quality are cut to meet deadlines? Are you excited about documenting product strategy, epics, users stories and low level requirements? If you answere ...Read More

Interests: What kind of questions do you want to answer? This is just my personal take, and probably oversimplified, but if you're driven by optimization questions like "Who is getting the most value out of this?" "How do we better articulate what this thing does?" "How do we increase close rates at the enterprise?" then you're more likely to want to stay in PMM. If you're driven by value creation questions like, "What would make this product really exciting and engaging?" "How do we stay ahead ...Read More

Short answer. When you are more deep than broad. When you like things more than people.  Long answer.  There are no rules to this. Skills evolve and change over time. You may want to pursue an option longer term even if the fit is weak today. That being said, PMs tend to be more detail-oriented than PMMs. They have to be, writing a 6 page PRD that accounts for all edge cases is something that takes a lot of depth and intellectual rigor. PMMs have a different challenge, they need to look at the f ...Read More

For me, the question of whether a PMM might be a better fit as a PM comes down to which problems energise you and which teams you enjoy working with day-to-day. As a product marketer, I spend most of my time translating what the product does into value for the customer, building GTM strategies, and connecting cross-functional teams around adoption and engagement. I love understanding the market, the buyers, and how to make solutions meaningful and easy to use. A PM’s focus, by contrast, is much ...Read More