How do you establish credibility with product management when you are new to the product marketing team?

Answer

11 Answers

Influencing the Product Roadmap Stakeholder Management Establishing Product Marketing

Laura Jones

Instacart Chief Marketing Officer • 8y

To establish credibility with a new team, the first step is understanding the team's need, laying out a vision for how you can best add value, and aligning around expectations. It is important to know the user, the market, and the product so that you can engage with the cross-functional team in a meaningful way from day one. With a clear set of objectives and foundational understanding of the space, you can quickly begin to make an impact on the team.

3,716 Views
Gregg Miller

PandaDoc VP of Product Marketing & Brand • 6y

It's all about doing great work that matters to the business, matters to your partner, and fits into the context of the relationship! The playbook below can help get the ball rolling. Sorry for the long answer, but it's a complex question with big implications for your ability to add value as a PMM. 1) It's essential to understand your business — the market you play in, the strengths/weaknesses of the competition, how customers feel about you, etc. — better than just about anyone else in the com ...Read More

1,624 Views
Shabih Syed

Honeycomb.io VP Product Marketing | Formerly Mparticle • 6y

The best way to establish credibility is to demonstrate to them what is your process for launching products and where do you need their help and how you will help them. Think of product marketing as delivering a set of services to the product managers. These services can include market research, competitor analysis, value proposition messaging for a feature etc. Be clear about documenting these services and the SLAs behind them..Ideally, product marketing can be a function within the product tea ...Read More

1,054 Views
Grace Kuo

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Product Marketing | Formerly Udemy • 6y

Be thoughtful and get to know them (processes, workflows, areas of focus, etc.) Often it can be jarring as a new PMM to go straight to providing (sometimes unwarranted) feedback to your PMs, Designers, Engs. Get to know them first and understand the background of the project/product so that you show you care about context and their way of work. Build credibility by providing thoughtful approaches to how you operate as their partner. When you do provide them with feedback, help them understand th ...Read More

880 Views
Jason Oakley

Klue Senior Director of Product Marketing • 4y

Know the product and their role (product management) well. In my experience, I've been able to build credibility with PMs by being able to speak their language, communicate in tools like Jira, Confluence, Miro, Figma, that they use every day to do their job. While product knowledge is important, market and competitive knowledge is a huge asset for PMs and something they often don't have. If you can bring that to the table, you'll be seen as a valued partner. I've also experienced a tension bet ...Read More

489 Views
Roopal Shah

Guidewire Software Vice President Product Marketing • 8y

Roll up your sleeves and learn the ins & out of the product...sit down with them and actually learn it - maybe even demo it.

1,067 Views
Marcus Andrews

Conveyor Head of Marketing • 8y

Outside of knowing their product, I think the biggest thing you can do is know the market and the user inside and out. If you know the big trends, best practices, and ideas in any given space you should bring a lot of value immediately to any product conversation.

884 Views
Savita Kini

Cisco Director of Product Management, Speech and Video AI • 8y

Get to know the product, learn to do the demos, get to know the engineers and sales as well. Understand the space, ecosystem, sales process, competitive landscape etc. The more value you bring to the table to help them, the more credibility you will gain. It's a 2-way street. You will be lucky to have both a very good sales leader and product management leader. Sometimes, you have to broker the engagements as well. Been in all of the scenarios.

693 Views
Dave Daniels

BrainKraft Founder • 8y

Execution. You build trust quickly with PMs when you help them achieve the goals they've defined for their product. I'm assuming the PM in question has a business plan for their product (OK, you can laugh now). Think of your role as the CMO for the product. Understand the competitive landscape, develop a GTM strategy, define a position and compelling value proposition, understand the market need, and ensure the rest of the organization is prepared. Learning the product is secondary. You already ...Read More

667 Views
Chris Henz

Sabre Director - Global Product Marketing • 8y

I think there are two critical components associated with establishing credibility with product management if you are new to the product marketing team. First, the product managers need to see that you are willing to learn all about their product. Product managers are like proud parents - they want to talk about (and brag about) their new baby. You have to demonstrate curiosity and some degree of technical aptitude. Ask questions, be a good listener, and don't be afraid to get technical. Seco ...Read More

707 Views
Sherri Schwartz

OvationCXM Head of Marketing | Formerly First Orion, Zafin, nCino • 7y

I think it 100% comes down to dedicating extra time to learn about the product quickly and then efficiently executing on the expectations/material that you need to create around it. Also, set up a clear communication channel with them (Slack, Chatter, etc.) where you can continually share industry insights and research that you've found. Extra communication always goes a long way.

662 Views