What are the top 3 potholes to AVOID when establishing or building out the Product Marketing function at a company?

I can't think of three good ones right now, so I'll give you two of my favourite:

1. Saying yes to everything
   When you come in as the first PMM, people are going to be throwing projects at you left and right. It's easy to say yes to everything, after all, who wants to say "no" in their first month on the job. But it's important to set the precedent that everything can't be your top priority right away. At Klue, I'm hopping on calls with as many people as I can and asking them for their top priorities/asks for PMM. At the same time, I'm very transparent that I'm building a project board of every priority that I'm going to be sharing internally. Then, with my boss and some other leaders across the org, I'll work to prioritize the list so everyone can see what's going to be worked on, when, and why. 
2. Dissapearing into a hole
   A solo PMM is naturally a very autonomous role, so it can be easy to slink away into a dark hole while you work on a big project. Don't. Everything we do as PMMs should be collaborative, especially when you're new to an org. You should be getting feedback and iterating often. If you keep projects to yourself for too long, you run the risk of wasting huge amounts of time on something that doesn't work. And people will notice.

• Do not hire more people until you have a clear charter for the team
• Make sure you align with other cross-functional teams as you build your org design so that your team has clear partners across different functional - otherwise, this almost always fails
• For smaller, newer PMM teams, avoid hiring people that have a very niche focus. You will benefit more from building and growing a full-stack PMM team

Top three things to avoid when establishing or scaling PMM:

1. Working in a silo. PMM is a highly cross functional role, so make sure you are in continual communication with xfn partners and that you are in lock step on priorities and plans. Err on the side of overcommunicating and providing as much transparency and visibility as possible to establish trust. 

2. Too much ambiguity for roles and responsibilities. A bit of gray area is totally fine – and it is also good to be nimble and evolve the PMM role as you go along. That said, because PMM is done differently at every organization, it is important to take time to do an intake with xfn partners, understand their needs, and craft the PMM role to deliver against top company priorities and pain points that PMM can help solve. Once you’ve defined this, take this on a 1:1 roadshow to gather feedback, get buy in, and get to work!

3. Saying yes to everything. Align with your boss on a prioritization framework and resulting prios. Then, as new requests come in, provide a way to let xfn partners know where their request falls in terms of prios and what is above and below the cutline – and why! I’ve found that transparency is key, as is the rationalization around the prioritization framework. While you don't want to say yes to everything, many times it is more about “not quite yet” vs no entirely. 

The biggest mistakes I see product marketers make are:

1. Not talking to customers enough - If you're not talking to a few customers every week (or month if you're at a bigger company) you're missing out. From message testing to hidden opportunities for workflow improvement to whatever else you're looking into after ~5 conversations you will likely start to see a pattern.

2. Not using the product and its competitors - It's hard to develop empathy for your customer if you don't use the product or if this isn't possible watch your user use it. Pick a project and test out your product against the competitive landscape. I guarantee you will learn a lot and might be inspired for other ways to differentiate or hidden opportunities to message.

3. Not speaking up to try to influence the product roadmap - By far the most painful part of product marketing is launching a product or feature(s) and having them fail and then being asked by executives why KPIs aren't being met. It's far more helpful to get involved earlier to influence the roadmap to ensure that what is being built will be successful. Tip - Talking to customers and using your products and the competition go a long way to help here.

1) Don't get edged out of product roadmap planning. Product marketing and the product team have to be in lock-step to align on goals and timelines.

2) Don't ignore your design team. Working closely on how to deliver messaging and educate throughout the user experience.

3) Don't get discouraged! I've never heard of an org that did not benefit from a product marketing function, so stick with it.

Great question, here are 3 potholes to AVOID when building

1. Not becoming the undisputed expert on your product, market, and audience: 

• Great PMM teams form strong opinions through rigorous research across market, product, and competition

• Focus on three areas: market/persona understanding, competitive intelligence, and deep product knowledge

• My favorite research methods: win/loss analysis, paid expert interviews, Gong calls, customer interviews, using competitor’s products, and podcasts

2. Not embedding with Product Management early enough

• PMM should join product management discussions early in the product development lifecycle. This ensures PMM can: 

  • Effectively scope and plan launches with full context

  • Develop and review differentiated positioning before go-to-market

  • Have time to conduct market and competitor research and course-correct if differentiation isn't strong enough

  • And in many cases, influence the product direction based on market insights

3. Not getting radical alignment on your messaging house

• In the early days of building PMM, it's easy for PMM to think the foundational messaging is complete and understood by the company. More often than not, this is not the case.

• It takes more discussions, collateral, and enablement sessions than you'd think making sure everyone, from exec leadership to ICs are fully enabled and aligned on your brand and product messaging.

• It's easy to move quickly and skip this step, but it is crucial you spend enough time evangelizing the messaging before calling it done.

• Certification programs go a long way to ensuring this is done well.

Three things to avoid when establishing Product marketing would be:

• Assuming what worked before will work here: Every company, industry, market, etc. functions differently. What you found successful in your last organization may not be successful in your new one, even if in the same industry. Bring your templates and check your ego. Be willing to adapt and admit something doesn’t work. Test and refine.

• Don’t be a Yes person: this is hard, but if you’re standing up a new function, you’re likely the only PMM. Since PMM sit at the cross section of different departments, each one will likely have a laundry lists of tasks they “need” from PMM. Understand they why, push back if you needed, offer alternatives, and keep a list of what your working on and what’s being requested. Review these regularly with your manager to help set priorities.

• Promote your work: I find this to be one of my weaknesses, but it’s so important to stay visible and show your accomplishments. Not only to show your worth, but also to help the org see you as a trusted resource for XYZ. A good goal to aim for is to try to share one new item with your teams each week.