Collaboration
August 22, 2023
How product marketing managers and product managers can collaborate
Drawing from four decades of experience in the B2B product world, experts Poornima and Rahul share insights on how product managers and product marketing managers can work together effectively.
—
Poornima Mohandas is a business-journalist-turned-product-marketer with over 17 years of professional experience. She runs a product marketing consultancy called productmarketingfortech.in based in Bangalore. She’s handled multi-million dollar enterprise SaaS products in the San Francisco Bay Area and emerging products in the Indian startup scene.
Rahul Mohandas is a product advisor with 25 years in product management and technology. He advises several startups and teaches online product management programs at top B-schools like ISB and IIMK.
—
On her first day at a new startup in Bangalore, Mia, a product marketer, was shocked to find there wasn’t a product manager on the team. This was something she didn’t consider asking about during the interview process. The absence of a product manager left her with no product vision, strategy, or roadmap to work with, resulting in her primarily handling crisis communication.
Mia’s situation got us thinking about the critical nature of collaboration between these two roles, inspiring us to write this article. Without a product manager, product marketing lacks direction. Conversely, a product without marketing support might as well be hidden under a rock. Let’s first differentiate the two roles clearly:
– Product Management: Listens to the market, builds products meeting market needs and providing business value.
– Product Marketing: Delivers the product to the market with the right positioning.
With these definitions in place, let’s explore how product managers (PMs) and product marketing managers (PMMs) can best collaborate, drawing from our extensive experience in the B2B world.
Do Discovery and Customer Interviews Together
Whether you’re exploring new product ideas or assessing why a product isn’t performing as expected, PMs and PMMs should collaborate on customer interviews. Conducting discovery interviews together helps both teams understand the target audience and customer problems more effectively. Joint customer calls should be a routine practice throughout the product lifecycle. If one team member misses a customer call, they should review the recording or notes to gain insights.
Plan Launches and Releases
For every product launch or release, PMs and PMMs should team up and categorize the launch based on customer impact. Key questions include: Will customers care about this launch? And, to what extent? Tiered launches ensure that everyone’s efforts are aligned with the importance of the release. The larger and more significant the launch, the more collaboration it demands. Daily catch-ups are recommended during these periods.
Get a Product Marketing Budget
If your organization lacks a product marketing budget for launches and releases, having the product manager’s support can strengthen your case. With a budget, you’ll be able to run ads, host events, create videos, and much more to attract and retain customers.
Help Sales Win More
Both PMs and PMMs play crucial roles in supporting sales, both at a strategic level and on individual deals. At the aggregate level, joint training sessions can be beneficial. PMMs can help with storytelling, prospect differentiation, discovery questions, and sales objections, while PMs can cover demo training, FAQs, and product roadmaps. On a deal-specific level, PMMs can guide sales on the right collateral and positioning, while PMs can provide deep technical answers.
Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) and Conferences
A Customer Advisory Board (CAB) is invaluable for receiving customer insights and influencing product strategy. Both roles benefit from CABs as they offer a structured way to prioritize customer needs, co-create strategy, and gather marketing ideas. Additionally, co-presenting at user conferences and trade shows helps spread your message and understand market sentiment.
Use Product Strategy for Campaign Planning
Insights from CAB meetings can also shape marketing campaigns. If a new product feature excites the CAB, it could be the next big theme for your marketing efforts. Running such campaigns ahead of the product launch generates excitement and improves SEO.
Make Migrations Attractive
Customer migrations are challenging. Aligning on the benefits of the new platform and crafting a well-thought-out communication strategy can ease the transition. Offering beta environments for risk-averse customers can also help smooth the migration process.
Engage Analysts
In the enterprise B2B space, maintaining analyst engagement is vital. PMMs usually manage the engagement but collaborating with PMs ensures you provide accurate and compelling demonstrations and roadmaps.
Draw Inspiration from Each Other
PMs and PMMs can mutually inspire each other by leveraging their unique strengths. PMs bring a deep understanding of product limitations, while PMMs excel in articulating customer problems succinctly. Both roles are essential for each other’s success.
Conclusion
If you are a product manager or product marketing manager, foster a strong relationship with your counterpart. Regular syncs, lunches, and collaborative efforts ensure that both roles function in unison. This alignment is critical as both sit at the intersection of customers, sales, customer success, marketing, and engineering.
Building a cohesive team is essential for achieving business goals and delivering high-value products to the market.