Ask the Experts
Festival Q&A Evan Davies, Head of Solutions, Partnerships, & Marketing at Coda is answering all your questions after his #PMMfest presentation, "Lessons from an Accidental Marketer." 👇
Evan Davies, Head of Solutions, Partnerships, & Marketing at Coda is answering all your questions after his #PMMfest presentation, "Lessons from an Accidental Marketer." 👇
Where am I?
In Product Marketing Alliance you can ask and answer questions and share your experience with others!
As you say, all roles should understand the Product Marketing function - this can't be confined to a specialist team. Yet, with a comprehensive knowledge of the PMM role still proving elusive in some cases, why do you think the role is challenging for some people to grasp, and more importantly, what can be done moving forwards to help colleagues improve their understanding and invariably gain more from Product Marketing within their organization?
That's a great question @Lawrence Chapman Lawrence! I've actually had many recent conversations with PMMs in other companies about this, especially given more scrutiny on headcount in the world.
On why it's challenging to grasp - I think it's at it's core a specialist vs. generalist dynamic. Marketing historically being a team of specialists makes it easy for hiring managers. If there's a need for performance marketing, you hire someone with paid ads background. If you need to write for your blog, you get a content marketer. PMM is an amalgamation of experiences, which makes it both harder to justify (can't I just write a launch email myself?), and harder to quantify from an impact standpoint (what's the CPA a PMM is optimizing for?).
To me, you need a relevant anchor and lean into it inside of the organization, so as not to fall into the generalist trap. When I joined Coda, the anchor was my understanding of customers and their onboarding experience, and my focus on developing the first successful case studies. The leadership team needed that experience, and through that I was able to inform all the other parts of PMM (e.g. how we tell our overall story in launch). For the PMM I hired last year, the anchor was our product launch cadence. The core need was a consistent massaging and coordination cadence of our roadmap. And now his role has grown into all the other areas we know product marketing can provide value on, but based on his success with the immediate need.
Worth saying I think PMM is experiencing a bit of a renaissance right now, like Customer Success years ago. The understanding of it's importance will grow as this groups collective voice is brought to the forefront!
Imposter syndrome is a problem often faced by Product Marketers at all stages of their journey, perhaps even more so amongst entry-level PMMs who, like yourself, may classify themselves as an ‘accidental marketer.’ What advice would you give to Product Marketers in this situation, to help them overcome any initial apprehension they may have, to ensure they can perform to their optimum potential?
Totally @Amy Solo ! There is just so much to learn, it can feel overwhelming and like you've only ever just scratched the surface.
I think for me, it came down to embracing my strengths and calling out my weaknesses actively. As I looked back on my career, I realized that building customer and product empathy was at my core, and that I had an eye for brand and creative. But when it came to things like channel optimization (ex. paid, SEO, conversion funnel, etc), I knew I wasn't going to be the expert. By calling that out explicitly, it allowed me to focus on depth in my t-shape on the things I cared about and would get energy from learning, and could negotiate for headcount or support in other parts of the team for the spots I wouldn't be able to prioritize.
Also, I just keep reading and staying in touch with communities like this! Since this space is changing quickly, seeing how others have solved similar problems is incredibly helpful, and frankly validating of challenges I've experienced or my own imposter syndrome.
Hope that helps!