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 results. Good owners do not operate alone - they are great at gather input and influence from their teams.


In terms of building better relationships with PMs - starting with role clarity and expectations are key. Then, it's about implementing that agreement across projects. Here is where fluid, open communication and feedback is a must. Establish regular check-in, identify key milestones each team is accountable to (roadmap planning, launch dates, release dates, customer events, etc.) For weekly team calls, be sure to set an agenda, work to have each team member understand their role and what is expected of him/her during those weekly calls. This too is the same for product launches or other big projects.

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, social, etc. I have product marketing managers lead both so they can own the process from end to end for continuity and efficiency.

I subscribe by these 4 rules of engagement with my product teams:

Alignment on priorities

Agree upon priorities with leadership, be strategic and deliberate with a roadmap and plan

Open and Regular Comms

Check in frequently, consistently and provide a feedback loop for product development

Trust and Respect

Always approach with best intentions, earn mutual respect, make their product land successfully

Delivering Value

Proactive and creative in driving adoption and measuring the right success metrics

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 managers guide their roadmap. 

Next, get to know your Product and Tech partners. Set up frequent chats and learn about their product roadmaps, how they prioritize projects, and how they like to communicate and collaborate. Embrace and befriend data, not just customer feedback. Learn about product usage, the features that most resonate and why. How many active customers there are vs downloads vs sessions. Become knowledgeable on product metrics, business metrics and customer engagement and behavior and you will have earned respect and credibility by your product peers. 

Finally, include key product and tech partners as part of your launch council, where they can contribute with ideas, feedback to the launch strategy, marketing plan and even assets. This will make them feel like they are co-creating with you and that you have the best interests of the product launch success. Remember to empathize with them, product partners are measured on the success of a particular product, measured by adoption, usage, revenue contribution and customer LTV and it’s easy to blame marketing for a lackluster product launch. Communicating that you understand and you will co-own product OKRs or success metrics, will help ensure both teams are aligned and supportive of one another.

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 that you can add something vs always taking.

I have a set of things I like to do to build meaningful relationships with key stakeholders and building the relationship with Product Management is no different. My 7 relationship building "secrets" are:

1. Understand strengths and weaknesses: Figure out who in your organization has the skills that can help you. And think about what you're able to give in return. You should know what you bring to the table and where you need support from others.

2. Listen first: I think we all know this in our hearts but it’s often hard in practice. Listening is one of the greatest relationship building skills you can have. I’m as guilty as the next person on jumping in but it truly is better to listen first.

3. Be proactive: Most other teams are focused on their own work and deliverables, you’ll likely need to offer your services first rather than waiting for people to ask you to participate.

4. Make yourself available: It’s easy to get stuck in your own little world. I’m a big fan of 1:1s both with your manager or other managers but even better with people you work closely with day to day. It doesn’t have to be long but offering to have a chat even on zoom can go a long way.

5. Follow through: Nothing is worse than someone who fails to deliver. It’s better to over-communicate on progress than to not reply at all. Same for if you are waiting for someone to deliver something to you, make any deadlines known ahead of time and follow up.

6. Know when to ask for help: This is the hardest relationship skill to learn and where managers can really help their team the most. You need to try to be aware of when you need help and don’t be afraid to ask for assistance. And as a manager, keep an eye out for when someone is struggling and offer to help knock down any boundaries in the way.

7. Start small: I know it’s a cliche but crawl walk run is truly the best mantra to absorb. It applies to work but it also applies to relationships. Try something small at first, whether it’s a short slack message or a small task and then add on from there.

Leveraging these ideas can help ensure healthy and aligned relationships with Product Management!

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 important relationship:

1. Product not understanding marketing's value and how they drive impact. For example, thinking marketing is solely updating websites and sending emails, without fully understanding the deeply research & data-driven aspects that go into a strong GTM strategy, messaging, and understanding of competitors and the market.

2. Product marketing not understanding the technical complexities, dependencies, and flood of internal & external feedback that a product team has to manage in order to simply keep the lights on, let alone innovate.

3. Both parties having an incomplete understanding of how each craft is trying to drive towards your goals. For example, Product may be focused on driving MAU and building features to keep users active, where PMM wants to attract new customers with competitive and differentiated features. Both goals are important, but one drives new growth and one drives expansion. Simply understanding this will help you craft a more balanced roadmap together.
   

I recommend re-setting or kicking off the relationship with a joint exercise where you review each others roadmaps and goals. Do this quarterly, if not weekly, discuss how you're tracking, blockers, wins and losses. This ritual can take place in a weekly squad meeting with the product triad and PMM. And if you don't have a weekly squad meeting... start one!

And PMMs -- be noisy about being included in product rituals. Don't give up until you have a strong seat at that table.

You can check out my blog for some more ideas on how to build and work on this relationship: https://medium.com/smells-like-team-spirit/why-my-team-is-killing-our-triad-86946b099b

I have daily meetings with the CTO and weekly meetings involving UX, Product Managers, and Sales about upcoming features. My belief is, as a Product Marketing Manager, you are the organizational "glue". The more often you communicate with product, the better you will understand the intended use of the product. When you communicate with Sales, you can understand who uses the product and how they use the product. Seeing the product from both sides is key.