Stakeholder Management

Ensure you are part of the product roadmap discussions - weekly / bi-weekly meetings. If there is a "gate" process for each stage of development, have a seat at the table for each gate with a "vote".  Invite product management to marketing meetings.  Open/monthly catchups  Have them review messaging and walk them through content strategy, time it takes to create content and marketing budgets etc for launches, campaigns  Create awareness that Marketing is also aligned with sales by creating open /regular cadence with sales leaders.  Newsletters / email updates on new mark...

Here are a couple of the ways we ensure that PDE and Product Marketing are always aligned: 1. Product marketing is included in all of the long term roadmap discussion meetings with each PDE team. 2. Each product marketer has a product/solution area they focus on and set up either monthly or quarterly meetings to go over marketing material alignment and GTM work. 3. The Product Marketing team sits in every stakeholder review each month to see and hear about the status of what is being developed during the release, expectations and potential hiccups. 4. We are the voice of the PDE team fo...

At HackerOne we have open lines of communications across teams, everyone has visibility into each department's OKRs and we have a weekly company-wide AMAs where anyone can ask anything about the business to any employee. The AMAs are also structured with a weekly agenda outlining 2-4 topics that will be presented. We implement bi-weekly meetings with functional teams so everyone is clear on priorities. We've also implemented "squad meetings" where in a given time there are key stakeholders reponsible for a given project (i.e. product launch, webinar porgram, Fed GTM, etc.). Then if there ar...

Time and resource allocation helps me think about this. If I know I have 40 hours of work already lined up and a new project pops up, it helps me to talk to product about when we'll be able to support a new workstream if I can detail whats currently open. That helps us jointly prioritize so that we can spend time on P0s, hopefully get to P1s, and keep P2s alive until there is time. Having a running document (deck with project plans or spreadsheet/gantt chart) helps to visualize this. Though the conversation here is probably appropriate at an equal level. So PMM team lead can chat about reso...

Build strong relationships with your product team. The product plan presents strategic goals and initiatives spanning a long timeframe. The release plan tracks specific phases of work that lead to the deployment of functionality or a major launch. This is usually much shorter than the product plan, depending on the company’s release cycle. It is often 30, 60, or 90 days. So, having regular meetings with your Product lead will give you visibility on how the team is tracking and then sharing the action items and next steps for visibility across the teams helps keep everyone accountable. Raise...

A few thoughts on delivering roadmap commitments: 1. Get the product leaders involved in direct customer feedback sessions and events. Hearing customer problems and requests directly from the horses mouth requires response head on. 2. Publish your high level roadmap for customers and sales. Once you commit to a feature publically it is harder to back out of it. 3. Hold regular product review sessions with exectuive staff to ensure commitments are being met.  

We focus on specfic moments where we make product annoucements to maximize our PR/AR/customer awareness reach. We share the timelines with the product teams typically 6 months in advance and then work closely with them to both ensure we are staying on track as well as know how to effectively market the value that we are delivering. Since we don't typically do off cycle announcements this allows us to ensure that the items committed to on the product roadmap are delivered in time for our moments. 

Tracking impact of launches and defining the costs associated with roadmap slipping. Sales deals lost because a feature was promised but didnt ship. Customer trust lost because they dont have confidence in what you say is coming. The opportunity cost of internal teams working on items that didnt ship and what they couldnt do because of it. I tend to view a lot of things as a cost/benefit equation, so really get sharp at defining the costs to the organization that product is creating by not delivering on roadmap timing. 

The first time this happens at your company (assuming the MVP is already built), you have to let the product launch and (likely) fail in the market. There's likely too much internal momentum around this MVP and you won't be able to stop the runaway train, no matter how loudly you yell. Now, you should absolutely share the customer research and your perspective on the MVP's dim prospects in a clearly worded email to the Product leadership team (and perhaps the CEO, depending your company size). But it won't really matter - you're likely too late. And one miss is OK - no company is perfect wh...

Great question and tough but interesting situation. Ideally this research is not coming in right before launch and you have time to adjust. I would want to understand if as a result of the research we know what a compelling MVP would look like - ideally a few versions - and work with the PM team to scope out what it would take to implement different variants. Hopefully you can find a solution that is not materially different than the original scope and timelines for the project. The key way to position your conversation with the PM team is that you are advocating for the most meaningful e...

This happens a lot more than you might think. The Product team looks at the market and decides to build a feature. The feature is rolled out as an early alpha and customers are disappointed. What do you do? This is actually one of the easier scenarios in which to influence the roadmap. A few years ago we rolled out an integration with a 3rd party instant messaging service. The integration worked without a problem, but we noticed that not many customers were signing upto the Alpha (even though they had committed to using it). I was tasked to gather feedback on what was going on. After condu...

For your sake, I'd hope that if your research shows that MVP doesnt equate to a value add for your customers, that causes your product team to make a full stop and push. That said, at this point I think you need to put your PM hat on and think about what features might make users see value in your product and opportunity size those features for what could be the easiest to deliver in a meaningful way. Have that conversation with your PM team and also reiterate the cost to launching a non valuable product: no adoption, no usage, no revenue, but time spent building marketing and shipping that...

As you establish a relationship with your Product Manager, it is important to align on expectations. You should understand their needs and pain points and share with them your vision for how PMM can add value to the team. From there, it is often helpful to draft a set of goals that reflect the output of that conversation and get your PM's buy-in. Once you have established those goals, they can help in your day-to-day prioritization of work, and enable you to prove impact against those benchmarks over time.

Since Prodduct Marketing is in charge of messaging (internal / and guidance for external) has a really good value with Product Management for translating the usability, functionality and benefits of any product. Product Manager should be more focus on release products, and Product Marketing focus on translate that products into the correct message (how it works? or how that product should be used?).    Btw Product Marketing should understand users/consumers needs for transmitting them to Product Managers and the products can be improved or develop new ones.

In a word - results. Your product managers should have a goal defined for the product you're supporting. It may not be the most realistic goal, but there should be a goal you can anchor to. Take that goal and break it down into bite size pieces. Think about what it's going to take to get a buyer from Attention to Acquisition (assuming a new customer goal). Break a purchase into individual buying steps. Identify the buyers (on average) that influence a purchase and find out what they need. Then measure like crazy. Use my favorite - Win/Loss - to track as many deals as you can. Find out wh...

I say: "You don't have to deal with the sales people anymore. Just send them to me." Tears in their eyes... [There is a 300 character minimum, but my answer was already complete so I'll fill this out with haiku. Sales guy got too drunk Who can save our key meeting? Product marketing Six cups of coffee A CIO sips daily Persona research ]

Product Marketing Manager is kind of the role project management for marketing & internal communications.   the PM & PMM are the two core role of product-market/customer bi-directionel communication.  As PM, the direction is more of external(market/customer) to internal - to study the market needs & trends, to learn about what caters for the clients; whereas the PMM on the contrary - to translate the product info in marketer's way while keeping aligned with the market or customer needs.  Personally, these 2 roles in binominal collaboration can be combined in some not-too-granulared struc...

Analytics, Attribution and Awareness (of the consumer) Analytics Product Managers are constantly looking at key metrics and data to inform roadmap and resource allocation decisions. To speak the quantitative language, I recommend creating and referencing a marketing dashboard to track not only core marketing KPIs but also products’s core metrics on a campaign level. Then, use those numbers and data to show effectiveness or learnings of your marketing strategy. Attribution I recently integrated Branch, a third party vendor, to help with deep linking and attribution for Words With Friends...

I think a good PMM should take the stance that "I'm going to know everything about the product, competitive landscape and our customers." If you do that well there are several ways to prove value to PMs, for example:  1. Provide competitive insights/positioning they may be missing.  2. Share a perspective or understanding of customers they may be lacking or not have exposure to.  3. And of course being skilled at bringing products to market and messaging in a way that's differentiated, clear and compelling.  Let's not sell ourselves short, these are touchpoints/inights that are critic...

One of the best ways Product Marketers can provide value is through market and consumer insights. Often times Product Management teams are laser-focused on understanding existing customers and developing features to meet their specific needs. Product Marketers can provide perspective on the broader market and the needs/use cases for segments that a company hasn’t yet targeted. Product Marketers are testing different messages and value-props in-market every day and those learnings can help guide a Product Teams' future roadmap. 

Become an expert in a data set that's close to revenue. Knowing as much as you can about how market interest turns into revenue (i.e. your entire marketing & sales funnel) is the easiest way to make yourself indispensible to both product and company strategy.  When you know more than anyone else in the company about how leads turn into pipeline turn into closed business for your product line or area of ownership, product will start to seek you out for your insights.  Also, be a good editor. They will inevitably write a blog post or PRD or some kind of document that requires some criti...

It’s a good question, but also a loaded one! Product management needs to prove their value to the company too, right? The dynamic you’re describing is common though, unfortunately. I’ve lived it many times. The best working relationship comes when both sides have shared goals. If that’s not reality, one thing I’ve advised PMMs on my team to do is figure out what the PMs they work with care about and are goaled on. What are their OKRs or objectives? Assuming it’s not something crazy and counterproductive for the business, get a quick win and help them improve the thing they’re measured on ...

Remind them that in your title 'product' is first, you are a Product Marketer. You see yourself as part of their org and are an active participant in all their meetings. You are team members who always need to be aligned. Initially you rely on them for KT (knowledge transfer) of the product roadmap so you can help with GTM activities and launch the product. But over time, you are talking to customers and you need to collect feedback and bring it back to PM’s to help influence the roadmap. A circular relationship is the goal.  You also help improve the roadmap by always asking why they are ...

Prove that the Product Strategy delivers what it promises. Some multinational companies build the Product Strategy on three elements: - Product technical performance, what the product does at work. When the performance is weak against competitors there is room for improvement (eg, like removing spots for heavy-duty detergents). - Product design, how the product looks and works. When the design is weak against competitors there is room for improvement (eg, like for the boxes of Baby Diapers to be used with a single hand). - Customer acceptance, hence the appreciation of consumers for t...

I'd reframe the question a bit from proving value to adding value. Proving value is a little defensive, vs adding value puts the onus on PMM to show up every day with a task to be done. I think about adding value to PMs in two parts: 1.  Trust: If I had to simplify it to a few key things, its a strong understanding of the customer and their problems and then a strong understanding of the competitive space and market. I think its also important to have a point of view. If you bring those insights to your day-to-day meetings, you can establish your line of thinking with your...

The ability to really engage with our end users - whether through 1:1 conversations or broader campaigns - is critical to the success of any PMM team. If we aren’t able to continuously keep a pulse on our users and what they care about, we won’t really be able to do our jobs effectively. I’m not surprised that this is the problem you are facing though. Some Enterprise organizations tend to be very protective of their end users and allow only certain teams to “own” the conversation with customers. I’ve been in an org myself where I’ve had to deal with this issue. Unfortunately, I don’t thi...

I think this one is a bit tricky, because I wouldnt recommend creating a user list without appropriate PII governance. Rather than creating a user list, I'd suggest building an outreach stratgey that can deliver content to customers in a scaled manner. Some suggestions are in-app notifications that can serve easy consumption content at the right moment, or building a webinar series where your customers can sign up via your O&O channels. This way you can still enable users to get the information that will help them do their jobs better, but without introducting excess risk.  In my opinion...

Build a RAPID (or choose your decision making framework of preference). Ideally, this isn’t such a problem in your organization that you need a RAPID for everything. But don’t waste time trying to backchannel this and figure out whose opinion really matters - be transparent and ask your manager or stakeholders to partner with you in clarifying this. It is absolutely best practice at any company to be very clear about who the decision maker is (as well as the other roles in the framework) - you will be doing your company a huge service to insist on transparency in identifying these roles. T...

I've seen a few different forums and templates work. Here are a few ideas: Field input: I've seen some team use a JIRA ticketing system for this. It's a great way for CS or AEs to capture customer and prospect feedback and write it down. The teams are able to see a board where other ideas have been submitted and if they like the idea or have heard of the same idea in the field they essentially can "up vote" it. Product and Field teams come to an understanding that ideas are reviewed before every release and some are added to the roadmap. If a JIRA ticketing system isn't for you, this same...

Throughout the project, you'll be getting feedback from multiple stakeholders (both internal and external). Everyone wants to be heard and having an open door policy is helpful. However, not all feedback is created equal so you want to identify which feedback sources are the primary and which are secondary. And it does vary as you proceed in the various stages of the product development and GTM. For example, in the early product development phase, I rely heavily on the customer feedback through our customer interviews / focus groups / surveys to ensure our team clearly understands the custo...

The best way to manage stakeholder input is to start with a project plan or institutite a cadence that has specific points for stakeholders to provide input. Otherwise, as I am sure most PMMs have experienced, it comes in all over the place and in moments where it's not helpful.  For example, when I am running a launch, I'll articulate specific times when feedback is requested and by which teams. Usually it starts with leadership and then as we progress it cascades down to a select group of ICs who are assigned to collaborate on the launch. Through the process we continue to have check poi...

Firstly, try to prioritize and manage expectations from stakeholders. This can include setting clear next steps and feedback loops on the people's feedback. No one likes it when their feedback is ignored and forgotten. Secondly, when considering feedback from stakeholders check if this feedback is aligned with the project goals. Inputs that support goals are more likely to be valuable and should be given greater consideration. Thirdly, learn how to say "no". Not all the inputs should be applied and you have the right to not incorporate feedback if you think it's the right move.

We work with our Product Team in three key ways: 1. Competitive intel. PMM's own all competitive research and documentation, and we make sure the rest of the Product Team - dev's and especially PM's - are in the know whenever a competitor has changed their messaging or released a new feature. 2. Help with planning the roadmap, ensuring alignment with the needs of our customers and the market. Just because Product thinks it's cool tech and wants to build it, doesn't always mean its best for our users. We handle all feature request from the customer-facing teams, fi...

Very closely! We sit together, work together, debate together and ultimately take shared ownership and accountability over each strategy. As Director, I am a stakeholder in the roadmap meeting to discuss prioritization of key feature development based on my perspective of the consumer needs. Each PMM on my team is paired with a PM to own and deliver on a key feature that the teams have aligned on. The Words with Friends team has a thorough spec process which involves Marketing’s input from the outset of the process, allowing for appropriate resourcing from the dev team across design, engi...

We have a product pod structure at Quizlet. Each product pod has 1-2 very clear business goals and usually owns certain product lines or domain areas. Every pod has a PM, a PMM, a designer, a product analyst, a product support specialist, an engineering manager, and an engineering team.  This structure allows teams to determine the best working cadences and divisions of labor that work for them. I've found it to be a very liberating structure because it gives the teams a lot of autonomy over decision making and it promotes true cross-functional collaboration.  Each PM I've worked with...

At Forethought, product marketing works very closely with the product teams to bring products to market. I hold regular check-ins with product marketing and the Head of Product, as well as separate check-ins with individual product managers. These check-ins enable us to: - Align on product strategy and product messaging. This is especially important if new products are in development.  - Provide feedback from customers (either through Sales or Customer Success) that will be helpful for the development of new features. - Develop our product launch strategy and roadmap. - Get feedback on ...

I believe most organizations product marketers are leverage as either Inbound PMMs or Outbound PMMs.  Inbound PMMs are focused on insights that feed the product roadmap; pricing and packaging, and product positioning that feeds into the marketing strategy.  Outbound PMMs are focused on go-to-market planning and execution of launches and adoption KPIs (The PMs are responsible for building the product/feature and their PMM counterpart is responsible for strategy and execution to drive the KPIs) It's more of a spectrum, not one or the other, but there is a dominant expectation on what succe...

We break down product marketing’s work into four buckets and work with product as follows during each of the phases: 1. Market Strategy, Customer Insights & Product Roadmap. PMM leads market, competitive, and customer/prospect research to uncover key customer problems. We analyze market data, hone competitive intelligence, and draw on prospect and customer insights to illuminate product/market fit. We collaborate with the product team throughout this whole process to identify and prioritize big questions to answer and then share all the intel with them to influence...

My PMM teams usually work very closely with the product teams, as we need to ensure that the product is positioned and marketed effectively. These are shared goals of PMs + PMMs. We usually  * Run user research to gather insights and feedback from users. * Collaborate on product development by providing input and feedback on the product roadmap and new features (PMMs know what customer wants). * Align on the go-to-market strategies to be sure releases are happening on time and launches will happen smoothly. * Align on the PMM strategies and programs to get timely support from ...

I find the root cause of this problem is a lack of trust. Everyone wants to get involved because either they don't feel like their voice will be heard otherwise or because they don't trust what has been delivered in the past. This is a tricky problem, but here's how I'd break it down: 1. Product Marketing has a responsibility to clearly articulate and hold themselves accountable to delivering on their promise to the organization, full stop.  2. Spending time with, listening to (really listening to), and developing relationships with all key stakeholders first will lead to f...

Trust is definitely the most important factor here. Everyone thinks they know how you should do your product marketing job: what assets you should deliver, how to create the sales pitch, what should go on the website, etc. If you've shown that you have been successful doing this in the past, in the way that helps your colleague meet their own goals that relate to you, then you will earn the trust that you need (even if only to say "no" and make it stick). I find there's a strong element of marketing in it. If you can effectively market what you're doing, then you'll convince your colleag...

This is a similar answer to a prior question. There are two parts to your question that I’ll address separately.  1. Get stakeholders aligned on a decision making framework: treat each stakeholders like one of your “personas”. Understand their role, what their pain points are and what their goals are. Do a 1:1 with them, interview them and find out how you can help them and work with them. Once you have a clear idea on how to deliver value to them, incorporate that into how you work with them, message them and position your work to them. You already do this as a...

Getting everyone aligned on a decision making framework can definitely be tough, especially in fast-paced environments. I've had my share of projects where we kick-off with a thoughtful RAPID, only to have that fly out the window as we get into crunch time.  That said, when decision frameworks have persisted through projects, it's usually because we've 1) had full buy-in from the named Decider (in the RAPID framework I tend to use) and 2) have been consistent in reinforcing the framework with each update and milestone. Item 1 gives you the support you need to hold boundaries around Input...

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 imposs...

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 h...

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.

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 ...

Here are 4 ways this can be mitigated:  * There’s always a reason why you don’t agree -- when you can get to the data and root cause driving the disagreement -- then you start to build bridges to get back on the same page. Instead of disagreeing, a good response is to keep asking “why”?... “Why don’t you agree?”...”Why will that be an issue?”...”Why do you think this won’t work”...”Why, what does that mean?”. Keep asking “why” and digging until you unlock the root cause. People often have access to different information and facts, or they are using words differently. I ...

Excellent. Let's respond to this from the channel owners perspective (I promise it's to build empathy, not to be annoying). If I'm the channel owner, there are a few reasons why I might not want to do what you're asking me to do. Let's break them down: 1. I don't think it will work 2. I don't think this is a priority/ I'm really busy 3. I don't think you understand your audience 4. I don't think you understand the channel 5. I don't think you have reasonable expectations (of me or the goal) What you'll notice as a theme across all these things: I don't have the same amount of convict...

I've been fortunate to work with extremeley talented teammates who have far more expertise than I do against their specialized channels, but as is inevitable, I have experienced conflict when these channel owners must juggle several launch or content priorities.  In an ideal world, as a PMM you've provided ample lead time for planning, clear positioning and message strategy, launch goals (including co-created channel goals). In a scenario where channel owners aren't able to invest as much as you are hoping, I'd start with a conversation to create shared understanding of both the launch p...