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, c ...Read More

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 term ...Read More

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, l ...Read More

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) Wh ...Read More

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 h ...Read More

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 ...Read More

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 colla ...Read More

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 ...Read More

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: 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 ...Read More

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 ...Read More

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 ad ...Read More

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:  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 c ...Read More

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 thro ...Read More

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 ( ...Read More

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 & missionYour 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 ...Read More

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 priori ...Read More

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. ...Read More

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 te ...Read More

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: Align wit ...Read More