Sonia Moaiery

I’ll outline where I see PM and PMM overlap and diverge, and what signals to look out for to assess the better fit for you. I had a chance to test out a PM role in the past and was a CPG Brand Manager which is similar to a PM.  PM/PMM Overlap. They both: Have the end goal of solving a customer/end user problem. This requires a deep understanding of who the customer is, their needs and the value they seek. Work cross-functionally to get x-func teams bought into a vision, solutions to a customers' ...Read More

It really depends on a few factors: time, resources and who the competitive research helps. I would answer these questions to help you gauge how deep you go. There are entire PMMs dedicated to competitive research and you may not have that type of time/resource so you need to determine the level of effort you put into this. Time - is this an extremely urgent question that needs to be answered in the next week, three weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks? Resource- do you have a budget, if so, how much is it? ...Read More

I'd first seek to understand why there may be an innovation stall that you may not be aware of. Below is what I commonly see. If you know the 'why' it'll better help inform how you might proceed. Product leadership is changing - it may be happening in the background of someone on the way out, or someone new being brought in. Usually in these times, CEOs can be hesitant to invest heavily in new products and features (vs. just maintaining current) before a new leader joins. Product strategy / goal ...Read More

Like any good working relationship, you have to take the time to build trust. Here’s a few things I do to build trust and position myself as a strategic partner to PM.  Meet regularly and come with a prepared agenda. It doesn’t necessarily have to be weekly but know how you want to use the time and deliver value to them as well. This might include asking them to walk through the latest roadmap rationale and asking them questions around what challenges they’re running into with testing, adoption ...Read More

It depends on the company and if you have a formal research function or not! I've done everything from recruit participants, write discussion guides, field surveys, moderate research, synthesize insights. Or, I've given a researcher objectives and key questions and then sat in on a few interviews here and there. I think every PMM should have the experience of running their own research at some point - it keeps you close to the customer, helps you empathize with them and develop relationships wit ...Read More

I always start with positioning ideas as hypotheses (a fancy term for your hunches). This approach is helpful to show stakeholders that you’re open to their input/feedback, and potentially being wrong. When you have hypotheses, you come to the conversation saying “here’s something I have a hunch about, but I don’t have enough data yet to tell me this is a good idea or the right thing, I’d love to hear your thoughts or help me poke holes in this” I think about building consensus in three stages t ...Read More

I think it’s helpful to have a customer advisory board - this is a select group of 5-10 customers who you meet with every 3-6 months to talk about big strategy topics like - company strategy, product roadmap and problems you can solve for them. This high-touch tactic generally requires a lot of prep / work but the relationships you build will pay off as these are likely the customers that will participate in future betas and other studies. A few other tactics outside of leveraging your CAB: Ince ...Read More

It really depends on the stage/GTM motion your company is in. You might want to focus on the user if you are really focused on product-led-growth (PLG) and reaching that point of 'activation' - aka the aha moment when a new user gets the value of your product and why they need it. If you have no idea what I'm talking about I'd suggest exploring this article/site from the product-led collective- https://www.productled.org/foundations/product-led-growth-metrics. Other scenarios where you may want ...Read More

Understanding the market landscape and how it breaks down is a good first step. For example, within the broader category of "customer engagement" there are sub categories like marketing and advertising tech, support/enagement channels, call analytics and contact centers and CRM. And then there are even more categories or sub jobs under each (read about the jobs to be done framework if you havent). To help create this 'market map' you can look to industry analysts or the Forrester / Gartner Magic ...Read More

I think there’s a high degree of overlap. The two functions may cut metrics differently or over different time horizons but for the most part many metrics are shared. A few examples that are top of mind:  Acquisition / Conversion / Activation - if you’re at a self serve or PLG company, Growth PMs might be really focused on activation and getting customers to the ‘a-ha’ value moment. Whereas PMMs, may be focused on acquisition specifically tied to campaigns or a specific buyer persona (i.e. are w ...Read More