Building Productive PMM - I share practical advice, templates, and inspiration for founding product marketers.
PMMs and PMs both have a process for bringing products to market. Unfortunately both usually happen separately. And the handoff looks more like a baton pass, not a collaboration. The trick is figuring out where both systems can overlap. And if possible, how you can blend them together. In the image below 👇 I’ve attempted mapping out two processes. The left is the release process, owned by a PM. The right is a launch process, owned by a PMM. (The release process is based on my understanding of a typical product development and release process. It’s likely imperfect, so I’m open to feedback from my PM friends out there. Go easy on me 🙏) Today, many PMMs come into the picture at the release phase, completely missing the earlier parts of the process. Getting looped in early enough to have time for research, strategy, and proper enablement is hugely important, especially for higher priority launches. It’s a big shift that can help make your launches more impactful. But even better than that is getting to a point where both PM and PMM are working together during both processes. Collaborating, sharing insights, and improving each other’s work. It should look like one process vs two that meet at a handoff point. That’s one big difference between tactical and strategic launches. #productmarketing #launches
How does it differ from a waterfall?
We should aim to stop this "Can you just launch it please" approach. PMMs being the voice of a customer should be the driving force behind the innovation and regularly catch up with PMs on "Ideation" sessions where newly emerged trends and themes are discussed and prioritised. Very often PMM as tasked by PM to launch a feature that is designed by PMs, based on PMs insights and assumptions. PMMs is a strategic role inside any org.
Kudos on this. I could not agree more that we, PMMs, need to be involved earlier in the product development process. I also agree with the comments about being involved in the idea phase. However, and here are my two cents, if we have the idea, sure we should bring it to the table but in case the product team develops an idea, we should support them with exploring as we are client advocates and are talking with customers (or at least should be :-)). From my experience, and please correct me if I am wrong, product teams are pretty much established within a company and they've set their processes and ways of working. PMMs tend to join companies in later stages, and then introducing processes or trying to get people to "do things differently" is a process within its self.
How do you think about PMM influencing the process from the very top? Why come in at Discovery, not Idea? IMO PMMs should be surfacing insights that drive that initial idea generation too.
I always enjoy looking at others' processes. I have found this addition successful: The process does not start with an idea but a discovery > > idea > research loop. Out of that comes an executable idea. This does two things: it saves waste and fosters innovation. Saves Waste: Allows for multiple ideas to be quickly considered and the correct one for the situation to progress, lowering the chances for false starts and frustration. Especially if you work in an environment that is not a straight waterfall. Fosters Innovation: It is incredible how many innovative ideas come out of this loop. Frequently, that is not the idea to build for the situation but can be used on a later release or developed for another purpose. It has the added benefit of creating collaboration with early participation and buy-in cross teams.
How do you handle the research piece on a PMM team if you have a dedicated research and insights function, I invision it looking at this image as PMM works with the R&I team on projects as part of a launch, in addition to doing their own research on the market, buyer, and competition to stay up to date themselves. Is that how you'd think about it? Just not sure how many other PMM functions have a dedicated R&I team for marketing that they can utilize.
Thoughts - For B2B I often have an internal launch, a Partner launch, and an external launch. I totally agree that if you are in sync with your PM there are so many ways this process gets tighter and you can increase alignment; like getting a beta customer to be a reference for the release. Including as many relevant functions in the pre-release launch meetings also has tremendous value.
A clear PRD or PRFAQ is essential during the ideation and validation stages. Engaging PMMs early not only enhances the launch impact but also sharpens the differentiation, messaging, and positioning. Continuous communication between PMs and PMMs is vital, rather than sporadic discussions just before a launch.
A launch does not begin when the feature is done, but rather when the decision was made to solve the problem.
Sr Director of Product Marketing @ ZayZoon | Creator of PMM OPS
7moI’d like to think that PMMs role is even more ubiquitous than this. Often times, the “idea” is sparked by us as we track a technology, a competitive space, or a market opportunity. We can (and should be) contributing to the “ideas” early and often. It’s not even about the trope of “influencing the roadmap” - PMM can be in the drivers seat, orchestrating from opportunity -> go-to-market. THAT said (lol) is your diagram really logical and functional for most companies? Yep! Love this and have shared it with my teams 🙏