What kind of PMM organizational structure is ideal for ensuring that PMMs are set up for success (in this case, to influence the Product roadmap)?

For eg: Should PMMs be aligned with PMs (we have a 3:1 mapping), or should PMMs be aligned with the market/buyer persona or something else?

Answer

5 Answers

Influencing the Product Roadmap

Mary Jane Han

Roofstock Former Product Marketing Director • 5y

I've seen product marketing fall either under Marketing or Product with dotted lines to specific businesses they support. There are pros and cons to either structures but generally, aligning under the product org will allow you to be more tightly aligned and have greater influence on the product roadmap.

1,358 Views
Harish Peri

Okta SVP Product Marketing • 3y

If your main goal is to stay tightly aligned with PM, then its best to mirror their structure as much as possible. E.g. in my world we have alignment at both the product VP/GM level down to the individual PM level. Its not necessary to have a 1:1 between PM and PMM because that can be inefficient. Said another way: 1. Product VP/GM <--> PMM VP. Alignment of portfolio/solution level messaging, big pricing or GTM decisions, influencing longer term product strategy 2. Product leader <--&gt ...Read More

607 Views
Vishal Naik

Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y

As it relates to influencing roadmap, breadth is important. If youre spread too thin (I don't mean PM:PMM ratio, I mean commonality in what you cover--more on this later) then you wont be able to go upstream and influence roadmap because you'll be playing defense all day. I personally think being tagged to a vertical or a persona will make it harder to influence roadmap because you'll be seen as a person that executes a launch to a segment; rather than being a person that understands both the p ...Read More

585 Views
Mandy Schafer

Mastercard Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Miro, Dropbox, Demandbase, Autodesk, Oracle, • 3y

Recently, the way my PMM teams have been structured has been Inbound (or Core, Stream, etc) and Outbound (GTM). This type of team structure divides up PMM teams with those that 1) Work closely with GTM - sales plays, customer advisory boards, ABM camapign and 2) Those that work closely with Product, Engineering and UX design - Product roadmap, launch preperation, sales enablement, demos, etc. I find this to be the most ideal when being asked to influence product roadmap is a core part of your ...Read More

526 Views
Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

Some organizations don’t have PMM influencing the product roadmap at all. I believe that is shortsighted. It is valuable to have PMMs weigh in on the product roadmap, especially if their role includes market and competitive intelligence, analyzing industry trends and speaking to influential experts in their space, and having direct customer interaction or sales enablement as part of their responsibilities. Thus, I have seen success in influencing the product roadmap when PMM reports to the CEO o ...Read More

1,213 Views