8 answers
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
Lead with insights. The best way to get involved as a PMM is show that you have both the breadth and depth of insights that articulate the customer problem, and can help shape the designs. Positioning yourself as this expert makes it a much more natural solution for you to be involved. Some ways to do this are:
- Bringing in competitive insights for how others have solved similar problems - better yet, show differences in competitors' solutions and think about where your company should lie along the solution spectrum and why
- Showcasing customer stories - deeply showcase the pain point and job to be done, other solutions the customer considered, why they need X product. Customer interviews are a great way to do this. Use media (video, photos, quotes), or better yet, have your product/design team sit in on the interview.
- Do the pre-work: What can you demonstrate to your PM counterpart that suggests that your POV would be valuable in the design process? Rather than keeping 1:1s casual, use the time for thought-provoking questions/ideas, or walking through some of this work you've done thinking through the problem space. This could be as simple as putting together a 1-pager framing your thoughts, but that structure and foresight will have you regarded as an expert on the problem.
Sr. Director, Head of Product Marketing at DoorDash
Like all things, I think this comes down to trust building. When you're new,
focus on building trust with PMs by showing that you can handle the highest
priority, high impact problems they bring your way. Use this to show them that
you know your stuff and can handle operating at the speed and pac...more
Director of Product Marketing at Quizlet | Formerly Udemy
Every team has a different dynamic with this. In my experience, the PMMs who are
highly empathetic and clued into team dynamics do best in this scenario. One of
the fears many designers and PMs share is “design by committee”. It’s important
to ask for a seat at the table but in a way that’s not f...more
Head of Marketing at Instacart
One way I have approached this is to bring the cross-functional team together
for a Design Sprint. Sprints are one of the most effective ways to quickly align
a team around key insights and develop a customer-centric product solution.
Having PMMs participate in or even lead these sprints is a gre...more
Director of Product Marketing at Wealthsimple
As product marketers, we need customers to believe in the why (value, benefits),
the how and what become proof points. This is also a critical input for the
design team to create the right solution to the problem. I have never struck out
by telling the PM and UX lead that I will be better at my j...more
VP Product Marketing at OnPlan
This can definitely be a challenge, depending on the relationship between PM and
PMM. There are a number of approaches that can help.
1. If you have had a prior launch that didn't go as perfectly as everyone hoped,
have a conversation with them about some of the challenges that, easy to see in...more
Head Of Marketing at Immutable
Establish trust.
Throughout my career in gaming, I have seen silos of functions where product
doesn't communicate with marketing or design doesn't communicate with
engineering- leading to fragmented consumer experiences.
The way to break past territorial boundaries between marketing and des...more
Head Of Marketing at Tailscale | Formerly Atlassian (Trello), HubSpot, Lyft
Over the years we've worked really hard to get PMMs a seat at the table when it
comes to working with the predetermined product triad - Engineering Manager,
Product Manager, Designer. I've found that building individual relationships
with each of these people is key to getting brought in to highe...more
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