How do you increase the Product Marketing function's ability to be a more strategic player in the company and not just the launch arm of the feature factory?

I’m assuming this question is about moving from a focus on the “last mile” of the go-to-market process entailing sales enablement and product launches to more “upstream” go-to-market strategy activities like identifying market opportunities, defining target segments in the market, partnering with product earlier in the development process, etc. There are many ways to navigate this transition, but a fairly common thread I’ve seen enabling those various paths is insights — insights on customers, competitors, or the market. Your task as a PMM leader is to “earn the right” to participate in those “upstream” activities by demonstrating your team can add value and be a thought leader in those conversations.

Start small with things like win/loss analysis, customers interviews, or mystery shopper exercises with your competitors. You can take things a step further by launching a customer advisory board, especially if you’re in enterprise SaaS where it’s challenging to generate quant insights given the small audience of buyers you’re targeting so qual insights from a council of customers can be game-changing for getting feedback on your company’s product roadmap, messaging, or other forward-looking plans. And if you want to be really ambitious, you can formally establish an insights function within your team so that you have the resources to constantly produce a steady stream of insights that give your team a really strong seat at the table as the voice of market/voice of the customer. This last route of an insights function could take numerous forms with two potential examples being dedicating 50% of one PMM's time toward insights exploration or hiring a dedicated Market Researcher.

Become the driver of GTM strategy. Going back to the corporate trinity: Sales, Marketing and Engineering, a sound GTM strategy informs Engineering on what to build (roadmap), suggests to Marketing what messaging resonates and where and how to reach our targets (campaigns), and helps Sales focus their efforts and find repeatable success (sales plays).

This all begins with a strong foundation in persona-based marketing. The key is to drive consensus at all levels and across all functions on:

1) Who the personas are, organized by Champions, Economic Buyers, and Influencers. To see what I mean by personas, see my persona archetype template.

2) Organizing those personas into the Buying Committee for a given product or solution, and mapping out their journey through the stages of the sales funnel (e.g. awareness, learn, evaluate, buy, adopt, advocate). For a visual, this is what I mean by a journey map.

The journey maps help institutionalize all the learnings and assumptions into one simple yet powerful visualization, while helping every function understand their role in servicing customers through their journey. As owners of this view, PMM will soon be looked to for guidance on roadmap, documentation and training requirements, partner/ecosystem strategies, community development programs, event strategies, campaigns and thought leadership topics, etc.

This is a great question. The key here is to get involved early - in roadmap planning and product strategy - so that your role extends beyond reactively launching features. If you're at a B2B company, this means you'll want to get to know the market and your target audience really well so you can deliver insights to the rest of the organization, especially sales and product. You'll want to have a perspective on key product gaps, where the market is moving and customer needs/expectations.

In terms of specific actions you can take, if you're not involved in your company's quarterly roadmap planning process - get involved. Come prepared to those meetings armed with insights (from customer surveys, Salesforce, qualitative data from the field) to support your POV on the roadmap. If you become a thought partner to your PM counterpart, he or she will include you in the strategic planning process.

I hear this pain quite a bit. Many people would likely propose working hard to have a "seat at the table". To me this isn't quite enough. A seat at the table will give you insight into launches, but not necessarily any real sway towards changing decisions.

I believe product marketers need to expand beyond the "typical" skillset to provide enough value to be taken seriously at early stages. Be comfortable pulling your own data directly from the databse using SQL, be competent at Figma / Sketch, learn how to code a little to understand the relative difficulty of engineering tasks, spend time prioritizing features yourself and learn a few prioritization frameworks. These skills (and others) will help you be a true value-add during times where roles are less clearly defined, aka product idealization. 

Ultimately, it takes time to build relationships and prove your ability to add real value to be seen as a strategic player vs a launch arm. This can be done by leading a successful product launch, shipping a new pitch deck for sales, being the best resource for competitive intelligence, etc. For the purposes of this AMA, I'll focus on short-term strategies that'll help you establish yourself. 

Educate: When you're establishing the product marketing function, it's possible that the current team has never worked with product marketing before and may not be aware of what product marketing is capable of. Take the time to understand the challenges other teams are facing and think through how product marketing can add value. At Sourcegraph, I created a document that explicitly outlines what product marketing does and how we collaborate with/add value to other teams. Putting a stake in the ground doesn't immediately get you a seat at the table - but it lets your cross-functional partners know how they can work with you. 

Be proactive: PMM is most impactful when we're brought in early. If there's an initiative that you think PMM should be involved in, don't be afraid to ask if you or someone on your team can be involved. More often than not, the people working on it will be happy to have the support. 

Find ways to add value: Whether it's reviewing in-app copy for a product designer, sharing an interesting takeaway you learned from an analyst call, or synthesizing feedback you've heard from customers, try to find little ways to add value in the beginning. 

This is a classic challenge for PMM teams and the unhelpful answer is it will somewhat depend on how your company is set up. However, ultimately it comes down to demonstrating the value you can bring and building credibility with stakeholders so that PMM get a 'seat at the table'. 

Some tips that I've found effective:

• Show how you can add value, outside of launches (and be proactive - don't wait to be asked to do so!). This could be packaging up competitive and market insights for the product team, proactively providing feedback and input into product roadmaps, or proposing a new strategy for enablement. At Intercom, for example, a couple of years ago PMM started creating new 'GTM Strategies' which included info about our target audience, competitors, messaging etc. These are now used as an input into our product and marketing strategies.
• Build relationships with and educate stakeholders on what product marketing is/does so they understand your role and where they should be involving you. PMM differs in every company so setting expectations, understanding others' goals and helping them understand where you can help builds credibility
• Raise visibility of the work you/your team are doing and the results you drive, in whatever way makes sense at your company (Posting in Slack/email, presenting at company show & tell etc)
• Protect PMM's time for non-launch work - in many product-led companies it can be really easy to have all your time taken up doing launches. It's really important to not let them take over and end up with no time to actually do more strategic work. Some ways to do this include things like tiering frameworks and bundling launches, so you're prioritising efforts on the most impactful things
• Push for inclusion - it's going to feel a little uncomfortable, but you might have to push to be involved and insert yourself into meetings/processes where you think PMM should be included. Proactively ask to be added to meetings or to be able to review docs, for example, and call it out when you've not been involved when you should've been. Don't sit back and wait to be asked to input, and also don't assume you've not been included for malicious reasons - sometimes people might just not know it's something PMM should be involved in (which is why point 2 above about building relationships and setting expectations is so important!). 

Know that it will take time for things to change, but if people are seeing that you're adding value, they will over time involve you in more and more. Over time, this will lead to PMM being considered a key contributor to strategy and will then give you more freedom to work on more strategic things.

It takes time at any company to increase the visibility of a new department and or function. Building trust takes time and I believe you need to be adaptable and cognizant of the company culture you are in.
I am a firm believer in building relationships cross-functionally and making deep investments in both the people and the problems that those people are solving for. To this end, a genuine and insatiable curiousity and empathy for your user and product is a product marketer's super power. Begin by building momentum with consistent delivery for your partners (on launches, comm's, etc). Develop a practice around sharing insights and outcomes (both the good and the bad). Be the constant advocate and voice of your customer (with data). Know thy business case and how your company makes money. Frame and adapt your business cases and conversations to the audiences in the room. Shift your conversation from tactical outcomes to make larger connections to anchored on insights and impacts. Your ability to think bigger and through a broader lens than strictly "product marketing" should net you a more strategic seat at the table.
 

One of the big bets we made in PMM at Chime this year was to commission and activate a deep segmentation study. This has been a bit of a Rosetta Stone for our entire organization and has been picked up by many stakeholders cross functionally. Many of us are using this work to think deeply about product market fit with various sub segments of the market. We are looking at how might it inform future TAM expansions. This has brought our Growth, Strategy, PM , UX and PMM teams together in deep collaboration. The study has become an anchor to future strategies and has helped us validate / discredit earlier hypotheses around consumers and needs in the market. 

PMM and Strategy are really closely linked. I work daily with Corp Strat partners who are often focused on the 3+ year plan within an organization. Chime is no different in this regard. I have found -- both at Capital One and at Chime that there is a tremendous allyship with your Strat partners. Get to know them. Have coffee with them. Talk about the industry with them. Raise your hand to collaborate / have your team collaborate on special assignments. Ask questions and really set aside time to deepen your relationships with a couple of folks within the Strat team. It will be well worth it. 

This is tough, but it really starts with earning the trust and respect of your key stakeholders. Demonstrate your team's value and be a thought leader in those conversations to earn a seat at the table. Here are some tactical things you can do to show you’re strategic and future-looking: 

1. Deep market insights: Invest in comprehensive market research to understand industry trends, competitive landscape, and customer needs. Use these insights to inform not just product launches, but also broader company strategies and product roadmaps. My team and I have consolidated market and customer insights into annual/bi-annual “state of the union” reports to inform product and GTM strategies. 

2. Thought leadership: Position the Product Marketing team as thought leaders both internally and externally. Contribute to industry conversations through webinars, whitepapers, and speaking engagements. Internally, lead strategic planning sessions and provide insights that shape company direction.

3. Customer-centric Focus: Advocate for the customer's voice within the organization. Conduct ongoing customer interviews, surveys, and feedback loops to ensure product development aligns with customer needs and market demand.

4. Strategic positioning: Position yourself (and your team) as a central voice in shaping the company's overall value proposition and messaging. Ensure that your team is involved in early-stage product development discussions to influence product direction based on market and customer insights. This will require work to help Product leaders understand the value you and your team can bring, and why it's important to bring you in early.

5. Cross-functional relationships: Relationships are so critical. Foster strong partnerships with other departments such as Product Management, Sales, Customer Success, and Executive Leadership. 1:1 time is so important to build relationships, especially in this digital-first world. And I get it - we all hate back-to-back meeting days. But relationships are worth the time investment. Just make sure you show up with an agenda and conversation topics, so you’re not wasting their time. 

1. Get involved early in the product lifecycle through strategic inbound: Broadly, PMM work comprises of inbound strategic inputs, launches, and outbound marketing. Organizations that don't understand that tend to oversimplify and end up putting PMM in the position of the "launch arm of the feature factory". The best way to overcome this is by demonstrating value far earlier in the product lifecycle by informing what the product team should be building, and why it is important. You can do this through customer insights, market research, competitive landscaping etc. - namely, anything that brings the voice of the customer into the product development process and cements your position as someone who can shape product strategy. Put together concrete deliverables, do so consistently, and provide strong rationale (i.e. we should build feature X rather than feature Y because of this industry trend, or this gap in the market).

2. Bundle and put together product narratives: Launching features rather than products is one symptom of "shipping the org chart". Demonstrate your value as a PMM by having a strong POV on how to bundle together features and put together product narratives based on the solution or customer you're focused on (e.g. these 3 features rolling out over the next 2 months all address the same customer pain point and should be bundled together as a suite). Think about how to get the highest impact from your launches (e.g. a big event announcement, press, coverage, strong customer case study) by connecting the dots and ensuring that you aren't just launching each feature the product team is shipping, but instead aligning to a narrative your target customer will get value from.

3. Build strong relationships and influence other functions where there may be gaps: It takes many teams and functions to work through a product launch, and part of PMM's superpower is that you can identify and fill in the gaps. Does design need a partner to work with on mapping out use cases? Is the in-product messaging coming through clearly or do you need to work with a content designer? Does product need help prioritizing customer feedback? Does Sales Enablement need help identifying target customer profiles? Does demand gen need help with campaign assets? And so on. Map out what your ideal launch looks like, build strong relationships with your cross-functional stakeholders, and help out where they may need an additional perspective or set of hands.

Boosting the Product Marketing (PMM) function to be a strategic powerhouse, not just a product launch pad, is JOB #1 for any leader worth their salt. Ever feel like your Product Marketing team is the high-energy friend who’s always planning the parties but never invited to strategy meetings? Let’s change that narrative and elevate Product Marketing to the strategic rockstars they’re meant to be! 🎸

Here are some ideas from my toolkit (7-step power play) to elevate PMM to the next level:

1. Align with Business Goals: Tie P0 PMM activities directly to the company's vision and strategy - when PMM syncs with the broader business mission, it becomes a vital strategic partner. This involves understanding the company's vision, mission, and strategic priorities and ensuring that PMM activities directly support these elements. For example, PMM can present quarterly insights and strategic recommendations to the executive team, demonstrating their role in driving business growth and market success. 
   

2. Master Market Insights: Equip the PMM team to lead with deep market, customer, and competitive insights - achieved through market research, customer interviews, competitive analysis, and trend monitoring. By unleashing this knowledge across the org, PMMs can provide the insights that influence product direction, positioning and overall GTM strategy. For example, during my time at Uber, our research with riders & drivers during COVID reflected a growing focus on sustainability & responsibility of business to drive a green mandate. This led to the launch of “Uber Green” rides on the platform and Uber’s sustainability mandate positioning Uber as a market leader in sustainable transportation - a significant business & reputational unlock for the rides business.

3. Early Involvement in Product Development to champion Value proposition: Don’t just call PMM when it’s time to hit the launch button - Product Marketing must earn a seat at the product development table from day one. This ensures that we understand the product’s vision, target market, and strategic goals right from the start. Shift focus from feature launches to powerful value propositions. Clearly articulate how your product uniquely solves customer problems and adds value.

4. Forge Cross-Functional Alliances: Imagine Product Marketing as the glue in your company's band—keeping Sales, Product, and R&D harmonizing in perfect pitch - promote tight-knit collaboration between PMM, Product Management, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success and Exec Leadership. Strategic partnerships amplify, influence and drive holistic growth. 

5. Leverage Data for Decisions + Tie outcomes to metrics:  KPIs aren’t just alphabet soup—they’re our secret recipe for showing just how much impact we’re making beyond the launch party. Use data and analytics to inform PMM strategies. Data-driven insights ensure that PMM recommendations are grounded in reality and impact. Establish clear metrics to measure the strategic impact of PMM activities. These could include market penetration rates, customer acquisition and retention metrics, win/loss analysis, and brand perception scores. Regularly review these metrics to assess and communicate the strategic value of PMM. 

6. Thought Leadership: Position the PMM team as thought leaders both internally and externally. This can be done by publishing white papers, speaking at industry events, and sharing insights through blogs and webinars. Thought leadership helps establish credibility and influence within the organization and the market.
   

7. Executive Sponsorship: Ensure executive sponsorship and support for the PMM function. This includes having a seat at the leadership table and regular interactions with C-suite executives to align on strategic priorities and showcase PMM contributions.

By implementing a combination of these strategies deftly in your org's context, the Product Marketing function can evolve from being seen as merely the "launch arm" to a critical strategic player that drives business growth and market success. Let's keep the conversation going - what have you seen in your organizations that has helped unlock your and your team's strategic PMM muscle?

This is always a tough one, depending on how PMM has been historically viewed within the organization, and how experienced the Product team is at working with PMMs. Many times they just don't have experience working with strategic PMMs, and we need to show them what that looks like. Here are some ideas on how to tackle this:

• Get involved EARLY in the product development process and bring insights to help shape the roadmap strategy. When PMs are just starting to think about new features/how to add value to the product, PMM should be right there with them. PMM should bring competitive insights, market insights, and customer feedback to the table, to inform what should/shouldn't be added to the product. PMM can also be the best function to help Product plan their launches at the right time in the market, or package them so they will provide enough value to make a big splash.

• Typically PMM owns some core functions beyond product/feature launches, like Pricing & Packaging, Research, Competitive Intelligence, and Sales Enablement. Adding a lot of value in these other categories will ensure the respect of the company.

• PMM should shape the GTM strategy beyond feature launches. Meaning, each year/half/or quarter, you are providing go-to-market teams with the insights and foundations they need to create their campaigns, creative, sales motions, and experiments. This includes defining what new audiences the company should go after, introducing new messaging and value propositions, new target industries, pricing plans, experimentation opportunities, and topics for content.

• PMM should always be looking forward in the market, beyond what's planned on the roadmap. Develop a 1, 3, or even 5 year positioning plan for your product, leveraging the same insights I mentioned above. What problems should your Product solve in the future? How will this be different than competitor offerings? How will the value proposition evolve over time? What is the longer term vision, and how will this match market need? Circulate this positioning plan with Product and other cross-functional teams, so you're all aligned to the same market mission.

• Educate exec and XFN: is there an internal understanding of what PMM does? Are the expectations just to launch the product? Most likely not. Getting a 360 understanding of what PMM means at the company and gaps/desires will help you and the team understand where you can have immediate impact outside of launches. These conversations are also opportunities for you to explain the role of a ‘full stack’ PMM and how that extends beyond being the ‘launch arm’. 

• Provide a POV: I often tell my team we (PMMs) should know the customer and product better than anyone at the company. In practice this means: 

  • Conduct Thorough Market Research: Regularly perform market analysis to understand industry trends, competitive landscape, and customer needs. Use these insights to influence product strategy and development.

  • Develop Voice of the Customer Programs: Establish programs to continuously gather customer feedback through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Use this information to guide product roadmaps and positioning. Have your engineers talked with or heard from a customer lately? If not, send them a video recording of a customer interview. Invite a customer to join you for lunch. Or better yet, get out of the office and have the team visit customers.  

  • Become an Expert on the Product Landscape: use your competitor’s products. Document your learnings, screenshot the experience. Record looms. Synthesize your learnings. I’ve seen PMMs distill 40 hours of research into 10 compelling slides that shifted the roadmap quite dramatically. 

  • Become Data Informed: Again, similar to going deep into the customer and product, go DEEP into the data of the current experience. Develop a holistic understanding and POV on the opportunity for where customers are having trouble, where the product experience or marketing funnel can be improved.  

• Prove your value: start executing and delivering value outside of just product launches. 

• Build relationships with folks earlier in the product development lifecycle and across the company. Build the relationships from day 1. 

• And most importantly, be an owner. As you demonstrate care for the company and the customer, not just your product, more responsibility will accrue to you. It’s a lagging indicator.

This is a really good question as PMM can sometimes be seen as the "last mile" release arm when really that is such a small fraction of the role.

Establish and socialize the PMM charter & mission
Your stakeholders might all have differing opinions on what PMM is, and it is up to you to establish the function as a strategic one. You'll want to showcase the value of PMM by highlighting the core pillars of the team and how your PMM's work supports KPIs across the business.

Build credibility with quick wins

You'll need to earn credibility to be thought of as strategic, it doesn't just happen overnight especially if the team has been operating as the release/launch arm of the company for awhile. Not only do you have to showcase the vision for your team you actually have to act on it. The more you can start to show that your team is strategic, the more you'll be thought of as a strategic player and your team will get more opportunities. This could be creating a new sales pitch deck based on prospect and customer research, launching a targeted new campaign based on customer insights that align with a new industry or vertical you're pursuing, or even creating compelling competitive positioning that helps sales land a big logo. It really helps to measure your team's impact so the more you can show actual, tangible impact to KPIs like pipeline, expansion, usage/adoption, win rates, the better.

Change the relationship dynamics

If PMM has typically been seen as a launch arm that's a signal you need to change your relationship with Product and other GTM stakeholders. Start by working with your Product Manager by bringing them insights into customer pain points, problems, competitor deep dives, etc which will help them craft a stronger product roadmap. With sales, evolve from being seen as the team that just creates 1 pagers and decks and start to work with sales leadership to identify key win/loss themes that will help them scale best practices across their team.

PMMs have two key superpowers that I'd lean on here. Demonstrating excellence in each has been a major driver in my experience for building credibility and shifting out of execution and into a more strategic role:

1. Customer/market insights: Data talks, and I've found the core of many PMMs' individual successes to be grounded in deeply understanding their customer, market and product. By proactively and regularly bringing forward insights from direct customer conversations, insights you hear from sales calls, research from analyst and industry reports, and more, you'll demonstrate a depth of subject matter expertise that makes your input invaluable.

2. Amazing storytelling meets business strategy: Once you've shown that you know your customer and product space inside and out, then bringing forward recommendations about which needles need to move and how you can best do so will be the key to getting out of just launch mode. For example, say you are asked to launch a new feature for a product that's been in market for a few years. How is this product performing overall in terms of new business/upsell? What is the customer sentiment? What does adoption look like? Which of these presents a major opportunity? (e.g. might be a product that is frequently sold but has low utilization.) Launches are just moments for broader visibility -- it's understanding the product lifecycle, what's needed to drive growth, and the most impactful narrative to drive customers toward that action that will be the meaningful formula.

This has to start from the top. Make sure your product marketing leader is connecting with the leaders of other departments like sales/revenue, product management, other marketing teams, etc. You can't expect it to happen overnight and you can't expect to hold up or delay a launch just because you want things to take a more strategic approach if you are just starting out at a company. Make sure you are doing your prep for building those relationships and then for the next launch, you can aim to be more strategic. It's hard to change from a feature factory to a strategic partner overnight. My advice would be to work towards it over time and make sure that you are bringing strategic things to all your conversations with your key partners in product management, sales/revenue, and marketing. This could be competitive intelligence, trends and insights from influencers and industry analysts, customer requests, prospect needs, etc. The more value you bring, the more strategic conversations you will be invited to. But it should start away from a launch.

Be the expert in what the market and customer want. Do your homework and get the data to back it up. If you can show up to your product team with valuable insights from your customer, you will have strategic influence over the roadmap and development process. 

Be your own advocate - show the value of product marketing. Bring impactful results to the table from PMM initiatives. Show that this has an impact through other areas such as customer success, sales, retention, etc.

Several times in my career, I have joined organizations where I had to shift the perception of Product Marketing from being just a launch arm to a strategic player within the company. During this transition, I’ve found that three foundational areas help product marketing teams develop the credibility needed to get a seat at the table: developing deep market, competitive, and customer insights; aligning product marketing strategies with broader business goals; and knowing the business inside and out.

First, Product Marketers must become experts on industry trends, competitive landscapes, customer needs, and the product itself. This is a non-negotiable part of being a strategic product marketer. This knowledge allows you to provide valuable strategic insights that can shape the product roadmap and ensure products meet market demands. It also helps influence the creation of more impactful marketing campaigns, boosts the effectiveness of enablement, and shapes sales programs—initiatives that contribute to top-line business goals.

Second, aligning product marketing strategies with the company's broader business goals is crucial for demonstrating the team's strategic value. Often, product marketing teams are measured by soft metrics like the number of launches or enablement sessions. Elevating Product Marketing to a strategic role requires setting clear goals that support objectives like market expansion, customer retention, revenue growth, and adoption, and prioritizing activities that align with these objectives. Product marketers are often the team that gets things done, and it can be easy to assume others recognize the impact. Don’t assume this. Report your impact back to the business through weekly or monthly updates, and don’t just tell the news (what you did); highlight metrics that the business cares about. These are also great times to bring data about the business, what’s working and what’s not, to earn credibility and influence the company's direction.

Lastly, developing a deep understanding of the business itself is essential. For example, know your competitive win rate, why you win or lose, which markets are growing, and your top industries. This comprehensive understanding allows you to participate in conversations as a business owner, ensuring that Product Marketing is seen as a strategic partner driving the company's growth and success.

Gradually increase trust toward your function's strategical capabilities from the different function leaders.
It's never easy to gain the trust of other people. Take any opportunities you have and slowly build upon them.

It's not an overnight success and it will take a lot of effort, but you might have a good feature idea from a market insight. That might give you some leverage over the product team, and if you play your cards well they'll see the value you can provide them as voice of the market.

Same with sales teams: start (politely and subtly) suggesting ways they could get better results. "Prospect X has a usecase B. Why don't we try doing Z?".

In short: work your way up and put in the strategical work. Before you realize it, other teams will rely more and more on your function.

The Product Marketing function is strategic by nature. If you're not positioned strategically in the organization, you're at a major disadvantage. PMM work isn't just about releasing new features, it's about defining strategy and influencing the roadmap through the Voice of the Customer. If you're currently not positioned to collaborate with leadership on these initiatives, start building up processes that frame you and the PMM team as strategic leaders within the org. 

You can do this by prioritizing strategically, asking to be invited to conversations, adding value to the entire organization by highlighting the Voice of the Customer in strategic ways, and more.