In my career, I’ve worked on both sides of the fence between product management and product marketing. I enjoy both of them, but I recognize that they are very different functions. And while it is important that they be coordinated and aligned from the very beginning of any initiative, I’ve also seen that a company is best served when different people or teams do the work of these two jobs. It’s just too much to ask one person to do both roles very effectively.
To simplify it, product management is focused on the building the right product, and product marketing is focused on selling the product to the right customers. It’s a very important difference that we should remember. We don’t always have control over both sides of the fence in our careers, and we have to do the best with what we have, but I think a product person should learn both the product management and product marketing as much as possible. For me, I’ve seen it come up in several ways:
First, sometimes your company just doesn’t have both functions and you have to do both. The fact is, the work needs to be done if the product is going to be success. So if you don’t have a dedicated product marketer, then you have to be that person. And if the company has no product managers, then you have to push to influence development and engineering. So knowing both sides of the fence is important because sometimes you don’t have a choice.
Secondly, when there are two functions, they should be aligned from the very beginning. How many times have products failed when during the “hand-off” between product and marketing? We see it all the time. Therefore, its important to have marketing along for the ride. And the more you know about what they do, how they work, and what they need to be a success, the better.
Even better, it is important to have marketing involved with the customer development process from the beginning, so that marketers can see the value you are creating for their audiences. This saves time, creates aligned interest, helps perfect the messaging, and drives marketers to focus on finding the right customers.
Thirdly, both product and marketing should collaborate over time to be effective. They should iterate their respective tactics to learn, fix problems as they come up, and adapt strategies to changing realities. Information needs to flow back and forth freely. And for that, you need trust.
So my little tip is that if you are a product marketer, learn a bit about product management. And if you are a product manager, learn about product marketing.
Of course, this is a double-edged sword that you need to be aware of. If you ever do move to the other side, you also need to learn to let go and let someone else do that job. Otherwise, if you move from product to marketing, you could create tons of conflict with whoever fills your past role because they are not doing things the way you did them. And if you move from marketing to product, you need to let the marketers do their job, even if you would do it differently. Otherwise trust breaks down, and things fall apart.
