Building Bridges. Helping Product Managers Recognize the Value of Product Marketing
Product marketing and product management are close allies. However, there are frequent misunderstandings about their respective roles and boundaries and that can create friction. In this article, we will address these valuable relationships, how PMMs can recognize their value, and how they can begin to demonstrate it.
1. Tell Your Story. Make It Real
PMMs often tag along a bit, so their work can sometimes feel invisible, especially to product managers. To demonstrate your value, it’s important to tell your own story. In other words, develop and share specific, vivid stories about your work and its impact. Without the PMM, the features we ship are about improvements to the product, but with PMM, the product becomes a story, where each feature has a purpose, a positioning, and a go-to-market angle. And while you focus on showcasing the work that goes into these stories, don't forget to package it as well. In your next PM conversation, be prepared with concrete examples of your wins, being specific about the metrics and the interactions that drove them.
2. Measure and Present Your Wins
As PMMs, the data is our friend. If you want to demonstrate your value, you have to show it, not just claim it. Metrics like product adoption, pipeline growth, revenue impact, customer retention, and satisfaction are the way to illustrate the business value product marketing delivers. More importantly, you need to present these wins in a way that’s accessible. That means you’re building an effective story around the numbers. Don’t make them too convoluted, pitch it as a story you tell your peers and the people you work with, not just stakeholder management. Or, even better, why not create a small case study about the transformation that this has had for the customer?
3. Prove Your Impact Beyond the Product
As a PMM, it’s not just about the product; it’s about what happens around the product. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that your impact begins and ends with the product. But your skills transcend that, you can show your impact on sales enablement, messaging, positioning, and messaging patterns, and more. Make your impact visible to external stakeholders, like sales enablement, messaging, and positioning, articulate the results, use appealing language, and make sure your impact is recognizable. Framing it as “I helped a team launch a product” won’t cut it. Instead, say “I helped the team launch the product at a critical moment, and as a result, we saw [specific result]”. It’s a process that can take time, but the payoff is huge.
4. A Brief Detour
In my view, product marketing as a field tends to see itself as a marketing expertise. But, in my experience, the future of product marketing lies in immersive experiences, data-driven insights, and tools that matter for revenue and product success. Naturally, the majority of product managers see the field differently, and that is where things can get complicated. PMMs don't have much experience implementing their own technologies, which is why they remain in the marketing function. This is valuable because PMMs can position a first-mover advantage on technology and position themselves as the first-movers in their field. In this way, PMMs are the connecting point between the two teams.
Wrapping Up
PMMs can easily fall into the trap of believing that their work speaks for itself. In reality, though, the impact of the work matters only if it's recognized. That's why it's so valuable to proactively showcase the impact of product marketing and demonstrate its value to key stakeholders. By taking concrete steps to illustrate our contributions, we can build bridges and ensure that our work truly resonates.