What pointed recommendations do you have on gaining influence as a new member of an organization or as a junior product marketing team member?

Your best play is to show up with an insight backed by data. I think many product marketers over-index on the product and not the market and you have an opportunity to bring market insight into the organization. Being new is actually an advantage because you won't be skewed by the history of the company.

You'll know what insights will be most impactful to your organization but a few ideas:

1. Market trends - what is happening in the market overall? How is your company proactively making sure they'll be competitive in the future?
2. Market players - who is your top competitor? What have they been up to and why does that matter to your company?
3. Audience trends - who are the people you are selling to, or the people who use your products? Are they doing things differently now? What does that mean for your company?

All of these will differentiate you to your new team members and be really useful to the organization.

My top recommendation is to immerse yourself in the prospect/customer experience, document your learnings, and surface insights that are helpful to those around you in discussion. The credibility of a relevant customer quote or anecdote stands on its own and demonstrates your ability (and commitment) to customer centricity.

Another is to seek to understand, not to prove—what I mean is it's good to ask genuine questions to speed up your onboarding or ramping; while it may be uncomfortable to "expose" that you don't know something, it shows you're engaged and have a growth mindset. If you ever feel like you're asking a question to prove you know something, pause and find the kernel of the question that's truly anchored to understanding. 

As I've answered on a few other questions, I have a set of things I like to do to build meaningful relationships with key stakeholders. These are key whether you are just getting started in product marketing or if you're the most senior team member. My 7 relationship building "secrets" are:

1. Understand strengths and weaknesses: Figure out who in your organization has the skills that can help you. And think about what you're able to give in return. You should know what you bring to the table and where you need support from others.

2. Listen first: I think we all know this in our hearts but it’s often hard in practice. Listening is one of the greatest relationship building skills you can have. I’m as guilty as the next person on jumping in but it truly is better to listen first.

3. Be proactive: Most other teams are focused on their own work and deliverables, you’ll likely need to offer your services first rather than waiting for people to ask you to participate.

4. Make yourself available: It’s easy to get stuck in your own little world. I’m a big fan of 1:1s both with your manager or other managers but even better with people you work closely with day to day. It doesn’t have to be long but offering to have a chat even on zoom can go a long way.

5. Follow through: Nothing is worse than someone who fails to deliver. It’s better to over-communicate on progress than to not reply at all. Same for if you are waiting for someone to deliver something to you, make any deadlines known ahead of time and follow up.

6. Know when to ask for help: This is the hardest relationship skill to learn and where managers can really help their team the most. You need to try to be aware of when you need help and don’t be afraid to ask for assistance. And as a manager, keep an eye out for when someone is struggling and offer to help knock down any boundaries in the way.

7. Start small: I know it’s a cliche but crawl walk run is truly the best mantra to absorb. It applies to work but it also applies to relationships. Try something small at first, whether it’s a short slack message or a small task and then add on from there.

As a junior member of the team, you might be scared to speak up and bring up your ideas but by following some of these key relationship building ideas first, you'll build up a rapport and make things easier for yourself when you do want to try to gain influence. Good luck!!

Become the go to expert on something - quickly. Generally, as a PMM, you want to be the expert on the buyer. Shadow as many sales calls as you possibly can. Develop relationships with customers. Call them, show up at their office, take them out for drinks. Compile a library of stories, personas, facts and figures. 

Then, when you speak, don't give opinions - give facts and stories. "Connie from AT&T had that same problem, she told me that she..." "Yeah, that's definitely true with our SMB customers, but I know when I speak with enterprise customers they tell me..." You will become impossible to argue with. 

There's some great advice here. To add on, here are a few things I've seen new PMM hires do to onboard successfully:

• Drive a project with clear definition: Oftentimes, there's an unglamorous piece of work that new hires/junior PMM are asked to take on that the organization desperately needs. Prioritizing this work will help you earn a seat at the table and ultimately move into more stretch projects that align with your interests. If there is no clearly defined project you're being asked to own, work with your manager to find one -- perhaps it means clearing something off of their plate.

• Don't hesitate to execute: As a new hire, it can be tempting to spend a lot of time scoping your first project to ensure you're taking on the right work. But, often, until you start executing, you don't know where the true challenges lie. Getting to execution as quickly as possible will help move you up the learning curve in the organization and onto more meaningful work and cultivating influence.

• Get in front of users asap: As a new hire/junior PMM, it can be hard for your perspective to hold weight in a group of more tenured stakeholders. Starting to talk to customers as soon as possible will help provide you with ammunition to develop a thoughtful perspective and substantiate it.

With every new job, you have a period during which you need to prove yourself. As PMMs, we gain influence and prove ourselves by knowing the customer, market, business, and product better than others in the company. Figure out which one of those matters most to your company and your leadership, become an expert, and drop it anecdotally in your conversations.

Also, align yourself with the people who have influence and power and make sure your contributions are valuable to them.