How can a product marketer in an organization where the product team and developers decide the product direction without much input from brand teams, sales, or product marketing get a seat at the table?

The product team ultimately wants to be successful and launch products that will help the company achieve better outcomes. Most teams are happy to give you a seat at the table if you can bring valuable insights that they didn't previously have. Great Product Marketers often dive deep into the market, competitors, buyer personas, buying process, analyst community, voice of the customer, etc. The product team generally won't have the capacity or direct exposure to all of these areas to have a very informed perspective on all of these audiences. If you can pull together valuable insights and present them clearly to show where the product roadmap should be adjusted and how this can help achieve better outcomes, most teams would welcome the input. I would start by picking one area where you can provide an easily actionable recommendation that will help the product team achieve a quick win. I would make it easy for the team to incorporate your suggestion into the roadmap and measure how this helped improve the outcome of a launch. Try to get a few quick wins that you can point to and then build momentum with the product team over time. As you show over time how you've helped everyone drive better outcomes, the product team should become more willing and eager to involve you early and often in the planning process.

First off, I feel your pain and I understand your frustration. While not articulated, it sounds like you feel the product direction is a little bit off course and could be improved with brand/sales/product marketing in the room. I'm biased, but I agree! There is so much value in bringing the outside world's perspective - market dynamics, competitive insights, sales objections - into a product direction discussion.

The very first thing I would do is understand why the product direction omits the teams you mentioned. Is there a particular leader within the product organization that is actively opposed to input from brand/sales/PMM? Is there just a culture where it hasn't been considered but there might be receptivity? Have attempts been made in the past to try and change the dynamics and, if so, what happened?

A little bit of digging will help you figure out your course and the level of resistance you might face in trying to get a seat at the table.

Once you know what you are facing, I would approach with the following framework:

• Understand your value: What insights and recommendations do you have, and how do they ladder in to support the product organization's goals? Be thoughtful and choose your best data and story to have your first foray into being a part of the product roadmap direction. Don't underestimate the value of a good customer story!

• Find an advocate and stress test: Who is your most receptive PM? Work with them to help them understand your value and see if they would be an advocate in bringing you into the conversation, and backing up your perspective while in the discussions. Like so many organizations, a PM may be able to sell your value to their peers better than you could.

• Figure out an insertion point: How often does product direction in your organization change? For instance, we do annual planning but also have forums for product direction changes. See if there's a space for you to insert your insights into the flow so that it feels natural and reduces friction for inclusion. This might manifest in having your insights show up in a Product Requirements Document or a section in a review meeting.

• Show success: If you can sway the product direction, even in a small way, document it and then follow through on how the launch goes! This is the hardest but most crucial point because it will help solidify why you/your team deserves to be at the table and will create a pull from the PMs to include you instead of you having to push your way in.

You are doing the right thing by bringing in customer insights and perspective and I encourage you to have grit and patience as you drive this change in your organization!

Although the level of involvement a PMM should have on the product roadmap can vary widely (sales led or product led, is the a growth pm, how is PMM function structured at the company etc.), if there’s a PMM working there they should get a seat at the table at least.

If the product team has never worked with PMM before (or did and had a negative experience), you will need to do some education and help them understand your value.

• Start by proactively demonstrating that value to them. Have you learned something new from customers or prospects? Have you noticed product related trends in win/loss? Share your learnings and create conversations about the next steps to use them.

• Do you own competitive intel? PMMs often know a lot more about competitors than PMs. Get them engaged in include them in sales enablement activities. Are you throwing a fun competition? Invite them and other marketing teams to participate. Sometimes seeing how much you don’t know about something is the best wake-up call.

• Create value in everything you touch. If you own launches, make things easier for them. But more importantly, don’t skip the cross functional post launch retro where you also look at product KPIs (usage, stickiness) and possibly get them to participate.

• Don’t be afraid to have uncomfortable conversations, but don’t attack either. I like to signal I’m about to have one by saying “can I ask a provocative question?”. It shows I’m not here to poke holes for the sake of it, but truly trying to understand something better.

Either suggest to guest product team meeting and present your learnings or create avenues to do so regularly — but make sure you create value and conversation rather than email or slack things no one would open and hope for things to change.

Good luck!