What is product marketing? An honest answer.
“Friction unlocks the full potential of working together. When triggered, your ancestral preference for group survival through collaboration over isolation aligns interests in a powerful way.” — From The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky
I’ve been a product marketer for over seven years. And in 2019 my role changed… product marketing isn’t my sole focus anymore. It’s still part of my remit, but I have other teams to steward now. It’s an odd feeling to take a step back from something that’s been such a true passion. As we close this year I’ve been reflecting on what it means to me. There are a bunch of articles out on the web trying to define the function tactically. What are the functional responsibilities? What’s the job description? But when I reflect on the craft of product marketing I see it differently.
What is product marketing? It’s leading just about everything without official authority. It’s a job of persuasion (not manipulation) and influence. It requires living in constant ambiguity and yet needing to create clarity at every turn. You’re constantly making something out of nothing. Your job is to build structure that enables simplicity for others — your team, customers, prospects and the market.
Product marketing requires researching your customers endlessly and knowing the point at which you have to take a leap of faith without data.
Product marketing is doing your job even when the majority of the company has no idea what you do.
So much of what we do (if we’re doing it right) means existing in intentional friction. Product marketers are change agents. We exist to drive growth. To keep rogue sales reps in check. To push the organization to think “outside in” instead of favoring pet projects. To recommend sunsetting a product or feature that doesn’t have usage. Friction is part of the job. The key is to keep it healthy and intentional rather than allowing the friction to erode relationships or your job satisfaction.
Product marketing is being giddy to watch the rough video edit of the newest customer case study because customer stories are the best parts of our job.
Product marketing is knowing when to compromise and when to draw a line in the sand. It’s being a masterful diplomat.
It’s about agonizing over a single word to define your category. For weeks. Months.
Sometimes you’ll launch features that don’t get used. Or, you’ll have to jump in on crisis communications to clean up a release that caused customers more problems than it solved.
It’s the anxiety you feel before every demo.
It’s the sense of relief and deep satisfaction when customers repeat your own messaging back to you.
Did I mention repetition? It’s truly a marathon. Repeating yourself endlessly. Reminding every sales rep, every day, where to find that one PDF. Reiterating the core value prop to your marketing team until it oozes from every line of copy. Restating what your product does to analysts (including the ones you’ve already briefed). Your job is to be the drum beat.
Product marketing means pulling your hair out because… sales.
Product marketing is also the joy you feel when that one sales rep uses the slides or talking points you painstakingly crafted and they take the time to let you know why it worked.
It’s when your product launch is more than code pushed to production or a keynote … but when people really use it and it creates differentiation in the marketplace with customers, prospects, analysts and the media.
In this job you sometimes feel like you’re the only one who cares. You feel alone. You’ll question whether or not what you’re doing matters. It would be so much easier to let the sales reps say whatever they want. It would be so much easier to let Executives yank the roadmap around every quarter. It would be so much easier to stop trying to reschedule that customer call for the fourth time. It would be so much easier to copy that competitor’s positioning. It would be so much easier to ship the second version of that messaging document instead of pushing for the tenth version. But you care. You know what you must do. And that’s all that matters.
Product marketing is about sometimes standing alone and sometimes it’s about rallying the entire company to move in a new direction. It’s infuriating. It’s exhilarating. If you do it right, it’s not easy. It has led me to find my crew of nerds who I depend on and cherish. And it has been the most fulfilling work of my life.
What is product marketing? It’s something I love.
