Back to Your Feed

Question for the ladies: have you had difficulties navigating a predominantly male-led company? Do you struggle with getting respect and being taken seriously by your male colleagues?

I'm very passionate about product marketing and its key role at our company to enable our sales teams, but I really struggle collaborating with leaders of customer success, sales, and product. It's challenging to get my voice heard at the table and often I don't think people take me seriously. I am not sure if it's because product marketing isn't respected or if it's deeper than that--and I'm curious if either of you have had similar challenges and thoughts.
3 Answers
Kimberly Blight
Kimberly Blight
ActiveCampaign Director, Product OperationsAugust 14

I have definitely struggled with this. Often times, I can't seem to shake the thought that I'm the only woman in the room. I have found the best thing for me has been to find my allies in the room. Open up to one or two people on your team and explain to them you want them to help advocate for your opinions. Having support and knowing people in the room were looking out for me has given me the confidence I needed to speak up. I've also found being very open about those struggles helps people have empathy for them. In my case, most of the men didn't even realize it was happening until I called it out. Hope this helps!

650 Views
Elizabeth Brigham
Elizabeth Brigham
Davidson College Director, The Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and EntrepreneurshipAugust 16

I’ve always found that telling people what you’re signing up for then overachieving those goals with clear data will cut through any gender biases. I’ve been the only woman in the room many times, but I’ve also not been afraid to pull in closer to the table and speak up. I’ve also learned that in product marketing, starting by cultivating relationships with sales (often one sales group or leader at a time) can get you a lot more support with other groups since they’re the closest to where revenue is getting generated. Similarly, I found often the biggest detractors or those you have to win over aren’t skeptical because of gender, but rather it’s because they don’t understand what marketing does and the value we bring to an org. Often showing (again to my first point), rather than telling will break down those barriers as well. 

736 Views
Jennifer Chen
Jennifer Chen
Previously @ AI chip startup Head of Product MarketingOctober 2

Sorry to hear that you're struggling when all you're trying to do is also to help drive business for the company! But unless you truly work in a male chauvinist company and or directly received sexist comments, I believe some of the struggles that you are feeling most likely stem from other teams not understanding what product marketing does or specifically what your role would be in relation to theirs. Many might just have preconceived notions of what marketing does and don't make a connection to what you actually do as a product marketer. 

If you're new to your team or company, ideally, your manager would help make introductions to the heads of or to different people on the other teams, and give a quick summary of what you'll be working on to help them and what your team will need help with. Doing this helps to set up the initial expectations between you and the other team, but more importantly gets you connected so that you can now follow up on these introductions for a deeper conversation. 

If there's no one to help set up those initial introductions, then I would suggest setting up 1:1s directly and starting the conversation from there yourself. Express your interest in learning what they do, so that you can understand how best you can help them. Also, like what @Elizabeth Brigham mentioned, show them what you're working on and that you'd love to get their inputs. Or casually bring up to someone what you're working on, that you think you could use their help, and offer to buy them lunch to talk about it. I had a colleague who was always generous and frequently bought lunches for sales and other folks in different organizations. I think it greatly helped form his relationships. Ultimately, the key is to form a relationship with members of the other teams. It should get easier thereafter. 

I also second @Kimberly Blight 's suggestion on finding allies. They can be women or men. If I were there in the room with you, girl, I got your back! :)

431 Views
Developing Better Messaging
Thursday, April 18 • 12PM PT
Developing Better Messaging
Virtual Event
Alex Lopes
Arpana (Arpita) Neelmegh
Jeff Rezabek
+2
attendees
Top Product Marketing Mentors
Christy Roach
Christy Roach
AssemblyAI VP of Marketing
Tanya Khakbaz
Tanya Khakbaz
Stripe Head of Product Marketing
Sarah Din
Sarah Din
Quickbase VP of Product Marketing
Sherry Wu
Sherry Wu
Gong Director of Product Marketing
Jeffrey Vocell
Jeffrey Vocell
Panorama Education Head of Product Marketing
Mary Sheehan
Mary Sheehan
Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing
Amanda Groves
Amanda Groves
Crossbeam Senior Director Product Marketing
Abdul Rastagar
Abdul Rastagar
GTM Leader | Marketing Author | Career Coach
Amanda Groves
Amanda Groves
Crossbeam Senior Director Product Marketing
Indy Sen
Indy Sen
Canva Ecosystem Marketing Leader