What's the biggest challenge you've ever faced as a product marketing leader and how did you overcome it?

Let me answer a slightly different question, the one that does not get asked often - what are the biggest mistakes you have made and what did you learn from them?

I have seen many successes in my career, but they were made stronger from the lessons I learnt (from my mistakes). Here are 3 mistakes that come to my mind right now.

Idealistic PMM - When I was younger, I used to think that for a product to be truly successful you need great positioning. Not true at all. One of my competitor’s CEO was a celebrity and their product became successful because of the sheer volume of media coverage they received. While I tirelessly worked on crafting a positioning that resonated with the customers, it was pointless in the end. 

Lesson - Don't overestimate the impact of positioning and messaging, there is a lot more to a product’s success (market timing, pricing, PR, a killer feature). Focus on those, even if your positioning is not perfect.

Not being the CEO - We had just entered a new country with a big partner and I was doing everything in my power to make the product successful from a marketing point of view. But our sales orgs were not aligned and we did not have executive sponsorship from the partner’s sales leadership. Clearly, we had a sales leader, who was not doing his job right. By the time I realized what was happening and escalated the situation, we had lost several months of market lead time (and in-year revenue). Whose fault was it? Mine! 

Lesson - PMMs need to act as the CEO’s of their product, everything is your business and everybody’s business is your business.

Not hiring fast enough - In the past, I have made the mistake of asking for a headcount after I felt the need for an additional PMM. Because PMM tends to be a lean function, the hiring timing can really impact your business success. It takes at least a quarter to find the right talent, a quarter to onboard and another quarter to get them performing at their high efficiency level. So if you want results in say month X, you should have hired 9 months earlier. 

Lesson - Anticipate ahead and ask for resources 3-4 quarters before you need it. Not always possible to do this, but no harm in trying.

People not understanding the function.

I would overcome that by overcommunicating about our function, vision, ownership areas, scope, impact (not activity!) and plan.

And then

• Seek 3rd party validation (analyst mentions, etc.)

• Seek shoutouts from other orgs

• Raise your public profile

• Show that you’re BFF with Sales or Product or CS