How do product marketers lead a product launch when roadmaps and priorities are constantly changing?

There are 2 major questions here - one has to do with priorities changing (e.g. no strategy) and the other is indirectly about out of control roadmap timelines - I'll answer both below!  Priorities changing Major Roadmap and priority changes are often a symptom of a weak strategy. It’s common for roadmap dates to slip, especially if they’re more than 3 mos out, but if you’re seeing wild changes with dates and it seems like there is no North Star, there is probably a lack of strategy. Start with ...Read More

While the impact of shifts in company strategy and product roadmaps can materialize in similar ways day-to-day, the altitude at which they need to be addressed differs. In both cases, however, you’ll need to understand what’s at the root of the change. Most companies I’ve worked at set long-term goals (think 10+ year vision) and short term goals (think focus for the next 1-3 years). Things can shift more regularly on that shorter time horizon, as teams take a flexible approach to tactics used to ...Read More

My advice on this one is that there's no real overstepping of your role--as long as you're respectful of others (both people and functions) and act in the interest of the company. If you're doing both of those things, then act like an owner and do what you think is necessary to help the business move forward. PMMs tend to have a vantage point not always offorded to other teams, given the nature of our role is to be so higly cross functional. So if youre seeing silo'd work and its negatively impa ...Read More

This is a good question and I have seen this especially happen when the market analysis, customer problem identification and prioritization is not done correctly. Product launch won't be successful because how will you know if you have messaged and positioned the product correctly - aka solving the right problem with a unique differentiated offer / solution.  While it is really a "product management" problem, product marketing can be a big help here if you can step in and offer to help. Again th ...Read More

I think PMM is the perfect function to initiate this because you sit at the intersection of both teams. What my team usually does is work with Product to inform the product roadmap, then once that is settled (or in parallel) we develop a product marketing roadmap for the quarter which includes all of the product releases we will support, timing, and priority level.  As part of this we consider: - Priority level (not every release needs to get marketing support) - What level of marketing support ...Read More