How do you fit in within the product launch cycle? Do the stakeholders come to you or do you insert yourself? And once you are in the mix, do you have a checklist or framework you use to align your stakeholders to ensure the process is consistent?

Having worked as a Product Marketer in 5 different tech companies (varying in sizes), I find that this is different everywhere I go! It has ranged from being more reactive (PM saying they have features ready for launch) to proactive (inserting myself). I have found that it can be a transition to moving to proactive, which can be tricky, especially when explaining why a "launch" might need to have a later date to formally announce it than the date it is tech ready. Clearly communicating the impac ...Read More

This comes down to strong relationships and a history of adding value. So if you take away nothing else, please remember to invest time upfront in building a great relationship with Product and in demonstrating the value that PMM brings to the table early on. In terms of a framework, I break it down into two types of milestones: calendar milestones for higher level planning and project milestones for work-level alignment. Calendar milestones: Product planning: Usually this happens two or four ti ...Read More

The product launch cycle and how PMM collaborates with others throughout this process can look different at every organization. In my experience, PMM is involved early when the roadmap is being created to provide insight on market opportunity, build business cases to inform prioritization, and represent the customer's voice in roadmap decisions. Once a product has been prioritized to the roadmap, PMM is involved on a regular basis to help test early prototypes with customers, build out the GTM s ...Read More

Great question. Especially if product marketing in new to your organization - the product may not know what to do with you! Start by looking at the roadmap and having open discussions on the product launch cycle. Identify where and how to bring in product marketing (hint: early!) and to what outcome. Get product's input on a product brief to help you outline the marketing for the release. If you need more information, sit down with the product lead with what I call a "discovery document" where y ...Read More

When I joined my current company, I had a meeting with the PMs to discuss the existing product launch cycle. Once they gave me an overview, I pointed out the phases where I wanted to be included and elaborated why, and what kind of value I would provide to the process. Then, I prepared a detailed presentation of our launch processes. One of the slides includes a very detailed process of collaboration that looks somewhat like this: PM and PMM look at customer feedback and prioritize next launches ...Read More