How do we influence the roadmap if there is a separate team doing customer research?

This is often the case at larger companies, and your expected outcome requires a lot of relationship building, regular communication, and tight alignment on OKRs and ongoing research projects. Here are some tactics you can try to drive this successfully:

• Set up monthly syncs with the customer research team to share top-of-mind goals, identify new research opportunities or gaps, and discuss insights.

• Ask to get included in ongoing research projects. You can review the methodology, participate in the response analysis process, bring your unique perspectives about the market and what you hear from sales and customer success, and align the insights with business goals to effectively influence the roadmap.

• Showcase any past experiences where a research project or experiment you did positively impacted business goals.

• Educate the research team on the competitive landscape and collaborate with them on the outreach/channel strategy for the target audience using your budget and PMM expertise.

I like to think about a dedicated customer research team or a hired 3rd party researcher as a huge boost to your research superpowers! In my experience, even when working at large companies with significant resources, there is always enough work to go around and having more resources and more support is always a win. The main things to consider when dividing and conquering with other research partners are the following:

• Coordination across the different research teams on what key research needs you're solving for

• Prioritization and timing of those key research needs

• Identification of which teams and people are best equipped to answer which problems

• Coordination of research findings and recommendations where applicable

While PMM is often experienced and well-trained to do a variety of different types of research, the reality is that Product Marketers often don't have the technical training to do more robust and analytical research that a dedicated user research team has and in those cases, having a formally trained research team to fall back on is a great win. I've also found that formal research teams often own relationships with research partners and PMM can be most effective through conducting the more scrappy research (surveys, desk research, competitive intelligence, user interviews, etc.)

Lastly, in addition to dividing and conquering where it makes sense, partnering closely to present a united front and cohesive research plan is critical. By making sure you have regular touchpoints with other research partners to coordinate, align and aggregate findings and recommendations, you'll all be able to be much more effective and impactful partners for the product team.

This is best case scenario! It's always a collaborative process, but if you have someone owning customer research (and you have Gong to listen to those calls), that is awesome. Use that research and incorporate that into your POV on roadmap prioritization and/or suggestions on new things to add.

Other inputs from PMM might include: competitive analysis/gap analysis, product adoption metrics and usage data, sales insights and customer requests, NPS/CSAT scores, win/loss analysis, etc.

Some tips for working together:

• Establish Regular Collaboration
  Schedule monthly syncs with the customer research team to align on shared goals, identify research gaps, and uncover new opportunities. These meetings provide a forum to ensure that insights and priorities are communicated effectively.

• Be Part of the Process
  Request involvement in ongoing research projects. Review the methodologies to ensure alignment with strategic objectives, participate in response analysis, and contribute market insights you’ve gathered from sales and customer success teams. By connecting research findings to broader business goals, you can amplify their relevance to the roadmap. Nothing is better than a shared OKR/company wide goal!

• Showcase Your Impact
  Demonstrate your expertise by sharing examples of past research initiatives or experiments that directly drove business outcomes. Highlighting your track record can build trust and underscore the value of PMM perspectives in research initiatives. Happy to talk through how to do this!

• Bring Competitive and Strategic Value
  Educate the research team on the competitive landscape and collaborate on audience outreach strategies. Leverage your expertise in positioning, messaging, and budget allocation to enhance the effectiveness of research initiatives, ensuring they yield actionable insights that inform the roadmap.