How do you get product management to bring you into initial design process?

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 great way to make sure all functions have a voice in shaping the product. Jake Knapp's book "Sprint" is a great resource for learning how to lead or participate effectively in a sprint. Companies like Googl ...Read More

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 design is to build trust with the individuals by asking questions about how design process decisions are currently made and following up with feedback from consumer testimonials on any proposed changes.  Showing ...Read More

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 pace of the business.  I've found that this usually leads to the invitation to more challenges upstream but if it's not happening naturally, don't forget to ask! PMs engage a lot of stakeholders and I've mo ...Read More

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 higher-level conversations from the onset. Besides developing interpersonal relationships I think it's really important to express that you WANT to be a part of the design process, and that doesn't mean you n ...Read More

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 forceful or prescriptive. Here are a few tactical ways to get in on that part of the process:  Volunteer to help with user testing of prototypes Propose quick user research to gather user perceptions, exp ...Read More

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 job by being part of the design process and see it come to life. At first you may be an observer in design reviews, and as you build context arout the product, customer, competitors.. you'll bring a more ...Read More

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 retrospect, limited the success of the effort. Highlight points of disconnection between PM and PMM that led to feature or design choices that didn't hit the nail of the hed because PM lacked the understan ...Read More

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 ...Read More