How do you build better relationships with product? I feel like this is the most complicated relationship out of all cross-functional partners. How do you constantly stay aligned?

Yes, great question. This relationship can be so valuable to both the PM and PMM, but also to the rest of the organization. For this relationship, I encourage each team to spend time understanding each others roles and responsibilities as well as having a discussion to align on what responsibilities will be owned by PMs vs. owned by PMMs. Ownership too can often be a word that is scrutinized, so for clarity owners are who leadership or other stakeholder are pointed to for questions, updates, and ...Read More

First, invest time into learning the product. Great PMMs understand that the best marketing comes from true product knowledge. They understand the competitive landscape, the product's advantages, and weaknesses. This information is essential to establish credibility with your product team. Then, lean in to being the Voice-of-Customer. Product managers love being customer-centric products and they value customer insights above everything. Lean into research and/or sales feedback to help Product m ...Read More

I am a big believer that mismatched expectations are most often the root cause of complicated relationships. Some companies delineate Product Marketing as Inbound and Outbound product marketing. What are the expectations from leadership and from Product has for which type of product marketing you focus on? Inbound focuses on providing feedback on product roadmap, developing product enablement, and landing a successful product launch. Outbound focuses more on the GTM strategy, communications, soc ...Read More

Building a strong relationship with product requires level-setting on your goals first and foremost. Just like any relationship, you need to take the time to really understand each others strengths and look for ways to compliment each other. In my best relationships with Product, our mantra is One team, One dream. And we say this often to remind ourselves that friction is good, and we're all here for the same reasons. I've seen the following anti-patterns often in my career with this very import ...Read More

The relationship between Product Marketing and Product Management is often the most important relationship you can have as a product marketer. The best thing to do here is build up a buddy system and make sure you are bringing value to the relationship. I like to have my PMMs partner up with PMs 1:1 as much as possible. And I like to do the same myself with the head of Product. Having regular check ins helps but even better is having regular check ins where you are delivering value and proving t ...Read More