What cadence would you suggest speaking with the Product team about roadmap?

I’d meet your immediate PM counterparts at least once every week and talk about the roadmap at least once every month. If you support multiple PMs, having a monthly sync with leadership helps everyone stay aligned. Try to join any quarterly or yearly product initiatives/roadmap planning and QBR meetings.

Regular check-ins with your product partners is a critical part of being an effective product marketer. If you don't know what big new initiatives are top of mind, when new products are launching, what optimizations the Product team is working on, you'll have a really hard time partnering with them to help inform the product roadmap, properly preparing for GTM and knowing what marketing campaigns and messages to prioritize.

When thinking about cadence and types of check-ins with Product, I would recommend the following (some of these are likely already built into ways of working at your company so hopefully most of these touchpoints are already in place):

• Regularly scheduled strategic planning sessions (e.g. annual, half-yearly and quarterly planning) to help paint a picture of what's on the horizon and what are the company's big bets and what are the key initiatives Product Marketing should align themselves closely with product on.

• Product initiative specific check-ins (weekly or bi-weekly or possibly even daily stand ups) Once planning has been completed and work is underway, you'll likely have initiative specific check-ins based on product roadmaps and development stage. These might present themselves as "Tiger Team" meetings that meet regularly for a period of time or are topics discussed at recurring team check-ins. Either way, for bigger product launches, as GTM approaches, the cross-functional teams should be meeting regularly for larger tier product launches while and smaller scaled launched may require less frequent check-ins.

• Recurring 1:1s with Product partners As a best practice, I also schedule recurring check-ins with my product counterparts. This could be a bi-weekly or weekly check in but it's super helpful to have that 1:1 time with them to build a strong relationship and to fold in important recurring topics like product roadmap to make sure you're always aligned and communicating any updates to plan and timelines.

• Monthly business updates are also an important way to stay up to speed on product roadmap updates and help executives stay apprised of the business.

I suggest always having a customer-facing roadmap ready, so you can always use that for conversation when needed (I have templates if you're looking for one!). This roadmap is presented exclusively in 1:1 meetings with customers or prospects by our sales or customer success teams. It undergoes a significant refresh annually, with smaller updates occurring 1-3 times per quarter based on new developments.

That's for the roadmap itself.

But for conversations with the Product Team, I like to have a recurring monthly touch base always on the calendar. That can get ramped up to weekly or bi-weekly if there is a seasonal product launch or important release coming up! And for your immediate PM colleagues, I'd try and meet weekly.

For the monthly touch bases, I have a doc I link in the calendar invite that includes notes from what we spoke about, any action items, etc. from the month prior so you always know where you left off. I also like sending an agenda with "discussion topics" ahead of time (1-2 days prior) to the monthly meeting so product knows where my head is at, what my priorities are, and what I want to talk about. It makes that monthly meeting way more productive for me!

And finally, be proactive about joining quarterly or yearly product initiatives/roadmap planning and QBR meetings.

What works here in my experience is having regular touchpoints for alignment + strategic reviews to influence direction. Here's a framework:

• Weekly or bi-weekly syncs - for ongoing collaboration and alignment. This is where you discuss progress on current roadmap items, any changes to product launch timeframes, updates on GTM plans, customer feedback and market trends. Why it's important: Maintains a constant feedback loop and prevents surprises as features move through development

• Quarterly roadmap planning - PMM's present a 'GTM recommendations report' summarizing top customer problems, market opportunities. Bring snippet Gong calls, rep calls here to help frame the customer first mindset. PM's share upcoming plans and trade-offs for the next quarter. Why it's important: Provides a formal opp for PMM's to influence the roadmap and for PM's to be aligned with the GTM strategy

• Ad hoc as needed - This is to address any urgent issues or opportunities (could be a critical customer or sales feedback, competitive threats, market shifts requiring immediate adjustment

As a Product Marketer, Product and Sales are my key partners. I ensure we continually strengthen our partnership with:

• Weekly check-ins

• Adding them in the feedback loop for key new marketing materials

• Getting their insights on key customer conversations

• Sharing and discussing key competitor moves and industry developments

Doing this regularly makes roadmap conversations organic and ongoing, over becoming a formal cadence. This also ensures strong cross-functional relationships and offers more opportunities to ensure the roadmap continually reflects evolving customer needs.