How should PMMs work in collaboration with product managers and the customer success team on product launches?

PMs are like your close family. There are lots of heightened emotions throughout a launch—good and bad. It’s a partnership that must stay rigid because they truly are your partner in crime. Some of the best PMs I’ve worked with have challenged me and honestly, I value that. Making sure that you hear everyone’s perspectives is the only way to be sure that you’re covering all of your bases in a launch. I encourage PMMs and PMs to push each other in the right ways for this exact reason. You’ll ALWA ...Read More

Great question. I’d zoom out and look at this in the context of how PMM should collaborate across the broader cross-functional (XF) team involved in GTM—Product, Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing. Each stakeholder plays a critical role in shaping a product launch, contributing insights that inform messaging, positioning, and GTM strategy. While each team views the launch from a different angle, their inputs help refine the overall approach. For example: Sales understands how customers talk ...Read More

Wow, great question! Given these departments are measured on very different dimensions, it's important to keep their North Stars in mind and collaborate in a way that supports individual departmental goals. Let's start with collaborating with product. I often think about our orgs as a mouthpiece (PMM) and earpiece (Product). To be good amplifers of product's "market listening", we need to connect early and often throughout the product development lifecycle. To do this, I suggest establishing mil ...Read More

Be in the driver's seat. Product marketing managers are the CMO of the product. Launching a product is a campaign ("series of connected activities designed to bring about an accelerated result"). When you think about launch that way it changes your entire perspective. You define launch goals, put metrics in place, develop a campaign strategy, build campaign elements, identify/close readiness gaps, etc.  Be large and in charge. Take the reigns. Go big or go hom. [Other trite corporate-speak sayin ...Read More