What are some ways you can influence the roadmap as a product marketer when working with a strong-willed and difficult to work with product manager?

In the cases where a Product Manager has consistently challenged your work beyond regular constructive collaboration, I have found the following tactics useful: Realign on company/product goals and strategy. It's possible that there's a gap in understanding or alignment that explains the pushback. Share your work and point of view more widely (beyond the Product team). This can be tricky depending on the organization, but sometimes, getting having your work seen by others can inspire renewed con ...Read More

This question becomes more about how you can influence your PM vs. the roadmap yourself. Without knowing your history or the nature of your relationship I would advise for you to focus on building trust with this person. Start by understanding his or her definition of product marketing and expectations from you. They may not have one because they haven’t worked with Product Marketing before and you’ll need to start by educating them on what PMK actually is in the context of your company. Find ou ...Read More

First of all, most well-heeled product managers tend to be strongly opinionated but open to reasoning and change. The PM-PMM relationship is one of the most critical relationships for product people, and the success of the relationship has a direct impact on your success. Here are some methods i commonly use.  Effective questioning: My fav go-to strategy when dealing with a strong-willed or challenging to work with PM (or anyone for that matter) is the "Idea of Influence with good questions." I ...Read More

Decision-making frameworks and corporate values (that hopefully include something about teamwork :) ) are needed at the team level to minimize subjectivity at the individual level. For one, roadmap decisions should never be made by 1 person. Yes, the most senior person in PM makes the final call, or the CEO does at a smaller company, when decision can't be reached by committee. But typically roadmap decisions are made based on inputs from multiple stakeholders internal and external. If these che ...Read More

This can be tough - I feel you! But keep in mind all good relationships take time and if you can't figure out a good way to work together it's going to be really hard to succesfully do your job and vice versa. Here are my thoughts.  Establish an equal partnership  Sometimes PMs like to think that you work for them. It's important to make it clear you don't and that rather you both serve the product. Do this by making it clear that you have your own unique goals for the product based on sound res ...Read More