What are the most important product marketing skills or perspectives that others inside an organization could benefit from that would improve their day to day? Running a "Think Like a Product Marketer" course next month and would love to hear others' thoughts!

Question

Marcus Andrews · Accepted Answer

So many different parts of a business can bennefit from better writing, clearer communication, simplicity, and storytelling. Those skills are really core to a product marketers skill set and and make for a really interesting session for non-marketers.

It's also fun to make up a product and develop mock positioning for it. A name, tagline, value prop, etc. People enjoy that and it's a real application of the skills I mentioned above.

Madelyn Newman · Answer

Public speaking. Similar to Marcus' point above, storytelling is crucial to getting buy-in from other stakeholders. Being able to tell those stories in a meaningful way to a room full of influence is a powerful skill anyone in your organization should want to master.

You need to be able to tell what you're trying to achieve, why it matters to your customers and stakeholders, and how you plan to achieve it with measurable insights - as succintly as possible.

Loren Elia · Answer

1. User research. Know what questions need to be answered and either work with a research partner or do the research yourself.

2. Leadership. PMM is the glue that brings multiple functions together and you need to be able to motivate and inspire everyone. You also need to be able to keep people on track with projects

3. Strategic thinking. Best way to influence cross-functional partners

Liz Tassey (she/her) · Answer

Wow I love this idea! A couple of thoughts:

1. Customer-obsession: This is probably the #1 skill/perspective that we can help other teams embrace. Is this driving value for the customer, is this something they can easily understand, are we solving the pain point in a unique and differentiated way, etc.
 2. Value orientation: This is captured a bit in the customer-obsession point, but if the entire company can have a great focus on value (building value, communicating value, helping the customer realize the value), that can be a powerful turning point for a business.
 3. Establishing Framework / Driving Clarity: I dont think this is a unique skill to PMM, but we cannot operate without the ability to establish a framework for how to approach a problem or opportunity...and with that comes the skill of driving clarity. I sometimes coach my team on "be the person at the whiteboard" - when there is churn on what to go do, how to approach, etc. how do you help drive clarity and create a framework for getting everyone aligned and moving forward. This is critical as companies grow bigger and become more complex.
 4. Storytelling: I don't mean "on the stage delivering a keynote" story telling...but more - how do you craft a story that engages your audience (internal or external) and gets them to the outcome you want. E.g. when you are in front of the company getting them excited / motivated about the latest capability or a new initiative. Or storytelling around data to drive prioritization and alignment for your roadmap or product vision. Storytelling is core to our human nature, and having some perspective on "what story do I want to tell" can really help accelerate what you are doing as your "day job."

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