Hannah Hughes

This is a great question! Depending on your product and the complexity of your funnel, PMM may have more or less impact on the metrics PM is responsible for. As you plan KPIs for your PMM team, ensure that they are far enough up-funnel that your team can impact them- or make sure that the PMM team has enough influence on the downfunnel experience (which is usually within the product itself) to impact that metric. For example, if you're working on a credit card sign-up journey: PMM could own the application rate while PM owns ultimate card sign-ups.

I think there are actually 2 questions here. Who collects the feedback, and how a team decides to respond to it. The maturity of the product matters here, so I'll break it down into 2 stages: 1. For very early-stage products, keep a much responsibility withing the core working group as possible- This means collecting feedback, troubleshooting, analysis, and sales enablement/internal comms and education. Shortening the feedback loop helps the team move faster. In this model, both PM and PMM collect feedback through the channels they have access to. PMM is critical in this stage because they are helping craft product direction before there's a lot of data to draw from. PMMs assist in the actual collection of the feedback, and help interpret the information into a roadmap, a messaging pivot, or a critical bug fix. 2. For scaled/mature products, leverage the strength of the organization- In my experience more mature product feedback has been collected by teams with particular focus on certain channels: Social care and support, Customer Service, and Product. They each own their respective channels for feedback and they are collated at specific moments (such as quarterly planning) to inform the product roadmap. This work has usually been owned by Product with input from PMM- where PMM can add the most value is contextualizing that feedback. Which of these pieces of feedback should we prioritize and why? Is there something in the competitive landscape that will escalate a certian set of features? A bug that is particularly harmful to the product's reputation or user experience?

1. Intial product definition - Owned by Product, PMM consults. Help the team to assess: Are we building something that meets the basic requirements of the market? Where do we fall alongside competitors? Are we creating a delightful experience that will keep users coming back? 2. Messaging/Value Prop development- Owned by PMM, Product consults. How can we talk about this product so that it drives comprehension and affinity? Throughout both product and marketing touchpoints, how might we create consistent language and a seamless user experience? 3. Go-To-Market Planning- Owned by PMM, Product consults. What is our GTM approach? How will we launch this in a memorable way that puts product in front of the right audience. 4. The launch itself- Owned by Product, PMM consults- Monitoring performance in the moment, navigating unexpected challenges and bugs, partnering on responses when needed.

A few ideas on how to respond to your product partners in these situations: * Propose bundled launches- Group similar features into one announcement to decrease cognitive load for users. * Create requirements for broader marketing support- Create a framework of how PMM supports different levels of features. How does your team support features that are seeking product<>market fit vs scaled mature features? Share explicit expectations around funnel performance with your product partner, dig in with them about how to improve feature engagement. * Highlight risks- If a feature doesn't seem valuable, be vocal in expressing your concerns! This, if handled with grace, could save the org a lot of time and effort. It's definitely sensitive and needs to be handled delicately. A few ways this has worked for me in previous roles: connecting PMs working on similar features and asking them to consider a consolidation, partnering with Product on usability feedback, suggesting a different launch time (different month or quarter) to avoid conflicts with other launches.

I love this question and have been learning so much from my new partners on Brand at Cash App! Messaging is a collaborative effort across so many- Brand, Insights, Content Strategy, and more. I would suggest forging deep relationships with all these stakeholders- all your work needs to reinforce each other and be harmonious. Most commonly, we share our messaging frameworks and get feedback from one another. The Brand positioning should be informed by product- what benefits our products provide on a daily basis. And our Product messaging should reference the brand promise, whenever possible strengthening the connection between the user benefit and our product offerings. Further- these things need to connect to our in-product content and help center experience. On PMM, we include materials on both the brand position and our content team's writing guides within the Product Marketing Guide. All these resources should be available to anyone writing about our products. And we co-write our value props with heavy input from Insights, Brand, and Content.

This depends on the phase of development. I typically break my messaging process into 3 KPIs, used throughout the process of creating product messaging: * During initial creation, partner with research to refine your territories and messaging. I like to assess both comprehension and compulsion to use- aka, does the user understand this feature AND find it compelling? * During launch and after, quantitative measurement leads. You can still test an optimize here through segmentation and other methods. But ultimately product adoption is the primary KPI. The most successful messaging projects are able to include both of these phases.

Having a clear understanding of your product architecture is critical to driving clear narratives for your audience. The question here only outlines products/features, but there are more categories as well. Typically your architecture will be structured something like this: * Verticals or Product Areas- high level groups of products. * Products- A piece of technology that can be adopted, used and interacted with. * Features- Smaller pieces of technology that support the use of the product. * Subfeatures- Potentially even smaller features that aren't deserving of the 'feature' treatment. You might apply different naming and messaging guidelines to each level. It's common to 'brand' names and have more branded messaging for higher level Verticals or Product Areas, while Products and Features will have more adoption-focused messaging and naming strategies applied. Here's an example of this in action. Let's take a look at the iPhone: 1. Vertical/Product Area: iPhone- Apple positions the iPhone as part of a broader ecosystem that includes iOS, iCloud, and other Apple devices. Messaging at this level is highly branded and focuses on the seamless experience across Apple products. This is the only level of naming/messaging that receives the 'iName' moniker. 2. Product: iPhone 15 Pro- When Apple launches a new iPhone model, the messaging is branded, emotional, and aspirational—“Titanium. So Strong. So Light. So Pro.” This messaging establishes the product as an innovative leap. 3. Feature: Dynamic Island (introduced in iPhone 14 Pro, now in iPhone 15 models)- Apple markets features like Dynamic Island with an adoption-focused approach, explaining how it enhances user experience, but it still gets branded messaging to create excitement. 4. Subfeature: Live Activities within Dynamic Island- Within the Dynamic Island, features like Live Activities (showing real-time updates for sports, Uber rides, etc.) are not separately branded but are explained in the context of how they improve usability.

AI is an incredible tool, but relying on it to generate creative outputs can be a trap. Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on vast datasets from the internet, which means their outputs inherently reflect existing content rather than breaking new ground. If differentiation is the goal, using a tool that replicates patterns from the past won’t get you there. Instead, AI shines in areas like competitive analysis, desk research, summarization, and refining internal communication for clarity—all of which help marketers write better briefs. When our strategy and inputs are sharper, our creative teams can craft messaging that stands out. Humans—and our users—are deeply creative. AI should support, not replace, that originality. Let’s use it to enhance our thinking, not replace it.

Great messaging drives strong growth. If you have conversion issues in your funnel, messaging is a great way to rapidly experiment and see if your users don't understand your offering, or the wrong expectations are being set by your messaging. Messaging can also pave the way for necessary product improvements. Keep your product partners close, and share what you learn! Troubleshoot the following scenarios to decide if your messaging needs a refresh: * Strong top of funnel, poor conversion- Your messaging may not map to the product experience. Your product may need to improve, or you may be bringing in the wrong type of user. Share this type of insight with your product team, as well as a plan to learn more about where the disconnect lies. * Poor top of funnel, but good conversion- You might need to revisit your audience targeting, positioning, or messaging. Or you may be pursuing a small customer cohort- can you expand to make your product more compelling to a wider range of customers? * Poor top of funnel, poor conversion- There is likely a signficant issue with messaging, targets, or your channels. Ensure that you are leveraging qualitative testing to get high quality feedback and revisit what is not working.

The answer has a lot to do with how you and your PM work together. Ultimately, much of the PM<>PMM relationship comes down to what you each agree to own- it's different for every group. It's a relationship that requires a lot of influence without control. The more trust and rapport you have built, the better your work will be. If you and your PM don't see eye-to-eye, or they feel a lot of ownership over the roadmap and aren't open to influence -> Focusing on message strategy and GTM (sometimes called 'outbound marketing') can be an easy way to show value as you build the relationship. As you develop these deliverables, use data to help communicate what is working to your PM. Can you run some message tests? Partner with user research to run some interviews discussing a few variations of the value props? When you demonstrate measurable value, your PM will be interested in applying your gains to the product experience. If you are able to show up as a contributor to the product experience from the beginning, it will feel much more natural for you to contribute to the roadmap directly. Find ways to add value- if your PM isn't valuing your input, go to user research, content strategy, design. Give people information that will help them make better decisions, and always be thinking of ways to build trust with your product collaborators.