How can you identify potential conflicts in Product Marketing?

Manager of Product Marketing - Banking Products | Product Marketing Specialist for Fintechs | Payments | Positioning. My goal is to help build the future of this ecosystem with strategic positioning and new financial products. I

Sayng about conflits with product team, first of all the process of product development need to be clear and effective. Then, the responsabilities of all stakeholders in this process need to be (i) documentad, (ii) communicated and (iii) with all the parts align and buy about the game plan - these basic things make relevant saving of conflits with de product team.

The great thing about the role of a product marketer is that, it is the connector between product, sales, customer success and customers. A product marketer should continuously engage with the various departments to ensure that everyone is aligned on the organisation's objectives.

Quando você é um Product Manager, você é o líder de todos os departamentos da empresa, sem ter a "patente" para isso. Por isso, é de suma importância se relacionar bem e saber gerir conflitos entre áreas para manter a engrenagem sempre rodando. O bom relacionamento e respeito traz para você todo o time e com sua demonstração de sabedoria ao lidar com situações difíceis, saindo do caos à solução é o que os "seus liderados" vão admirar e passar a confiar no seu processo. Tenha sempre em mente que você, bem como todos, estão em busca de um resultado muito maior, o futuro da empresa.

As a PMM, it is important to meet with our cross-functional stakeholders regularly. Setting up regular meetings (weekly/fortnightly/monthly) and defining a clear agenda that includes listening to their pain points and challenges is a great way of building trust. These meetings also serve as a way to let your stakeholders know about what you and the PMM team have been working on- specific to their needs and requirements.

It's not only about listening to what was shared, you'll need to listen to the nuances and what was not said! Thereafter, the ability to connect the dots will show how you make a difference.

Conducting a "Listening Tour" can be the significant first step in a product marketing strategy. Collecting insights from sales, marketing and product to gain a cross-functional understanding of all the challenges that they face. Good example questions for a listening tour survey are.. 1. What is the biggest challenge you face? 2. What is the number one problem PMM could solve for you? 3. What is your definition of product marketing within this brand? These answers can generate insight into each department, which can help prevent and solve future conflicts that arise from rolling out the product marketing strategy.

Know your stakeholders, know their goals and objectives and align with those. If you feel those goals are unrealistic or not aligned to product and org objectives, take a stand. Represent your arguments with logic and data. You should be close to your product, sales and leadership teams

In my experience, it’s also important to regularly revisit stakeholders views, opinions and perspectives. This is vital to proactively identify changes in the marketplace or customers. A small insight can be a leading indicator of greater change.

Product Marketing touches every function in the organisation either directly or indirectly. This understanding must never be lost on a product manager. Here are a few tips to manage expectations 1. Set clear objectives - then make sure everyone understands it as intended 2. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate - critical to have a common understanding so roles and expectations are understood 3. Involve key stake holders early - early buy-in gets the support 4. Be open about challenges and collaborate to success 5. Stakeholders have their own needs, align yours with theirs

I agree with the colleagues in this thread. The product marketing role requires good research skills, team collaboration and business sense. With these 3 key elements we should manage expectations by setting achievable and measurable goals. So then we can translate it to the teams, optimize, learn and iterate.

Conflict often stems from unclear expectations and goals. Active listening is key to understanding these expectations deeply. It's important to work closely with stakeholders, understanding their objectives, methods, and expectations, and then aligning them accordingly. Transparency regarding your authority and obstacles, coupled with a genuine willingness to collaborate, is key to finding solutions. Rather than focusing on one perspective, strive for mutual success, and remember to recognize and celebrate incremental progress.

As Chadwick Moulton said: "Low expectations are the key to happiness, but high expectations are the key to success. The trick is to find the right balance." Managing expectations is a critical skill for anyone. It involves setting realistic goals, communicating them clearly, and being adaptable. This prevents disappointment, fosters trust, and increases the likelihood of achieving success.

Managing expectations is true for any role that requires immense collaboration and shared goals. But it is more so important for a product marketer. Every stakeholder should know that they cannot just commit anything without PMM's nod. Imagine product agreeing to a launch date with leadership without having a launch plan from PMM. So manage expectations and keep a track of progress made

I view any work we do as PMMs as a Deming cycle. This way, seeking feedback becomes a part of the process instead of an afterthought. It also allows us to test our biases, question or discuss our reasoning, and improve! Given that as PMMs, we are exposed to multiple stakeholders and, hence, multiple perspectives, we get access to a rich and diverse set of feedback. This can, in turn, be extremely valuable in influencing strategy (product, GTM, and business).

To improve your product marketing performance as a Product Marketer, it is expedient to seek a two way feedback; from customer and stakeholders. Feedback isn't necessarily a positive feedback, be ready to embrace negative feedback too as both is expected to improve your overall performance in your product marketing role.

This is the key aspect to get right. Go out and validate, validate and validate. I made the biggest mistake not listening or getting feedback. You might want a shiny feature they want a different file management interface. A room with clients is always smarter then the smartest product marketeer. Meet clients, look at usage data, listen in on call center calls, check what people say when you are not in the room. And ask them for advice and NOT for an opinion. The first one will get them in an expert role the second will start to judge.

I believe it is important to develop trust between product marketing and stakeholders across the organization. This facilitates effective change management and improves conflict resolution. Open communication, transparency and trust is essential.

Open communication based on facts, and not emotions is the key resolving most conflicts. Most conflicts arise when objectives of stakeholders clash even when both are individually only trying to fulfill their independent roles. In such a scenario it is sensible to involve higher ups who have a large organisational vision to make any trade-offs, concessions if required and resolve the conflict. Key point is to never make it personal.

The most important thing? Keep it cool and don't take it personally! Easier said then done. You are not Your problem. Talking straight and sticking to the facts, without letting our feelings take over, is a super way to solve most disagreements. A lot of times, arguments pop up because two people or groups, each doing their own thing, bump into each other's plans. When this happens, it's a smart move to get some advice from management who sees the big picture and most of the time are the ones who set the planning tasks/goals.

As a team it’s always important to understand that the success or failure of an individual is the same for the entire team that works against joint goals. That’s why it is important to find the golden path to solve conflicts understand the root cause for them and move forward in a positive way

Understand the capacity of your channels and your customers' ability to take on information. As Product Marketers, we're critical champions of our product in the downstream space, but in larger organizations, we can be one of multiple voices trying to catch the attention of the same customer. Just because we feel something needs to be said (and even if the data is there to show that the customer needs to hear it), doesn't mean there is capacity to hear it. So working in an organization that is transparent and open in its communications between teams to understand what is potentially going to clash in terms of launch timing, and involve MarCom and Sales Leadership early in the process to ensure resources and capacity is available.

Know your teams. Ask questions and, quite frankly, back channel. People aren't going to rock the boat in meetings, especially if leaders are present and everyone is trying to put on a good face. Trust, but verify. Make sure you are working for leaders who believe you and engage with you productively when you come to them with thorny people conflicts. Some leaders prefer to have you there to take the fall. Run as fast as you can from those leaders.

Another way to resolve this is by setting shared goals. In those situations, since everyone will be rewarded for the same thing, conflicts will be less likely to occur to begin with. In short, conflict avoidance.

Often serving as a hub, product marketing has to balance between the needs of different groups. Product wants to be certain, they don't want to be pressured to launch before they are ready because they face the blowback. Marketing / GTM needs to be able to manage the workflow of the work related to launches and not have erratic firedrills. The key is to keep the priorities of different parties (e.g. certainty, utilization, productivity, scheduling) in mind, and work ahead on assumptions while also monitoring for risks and changes. Oh and also: overcommunicate!

Identifying conflicts in product marketing involves ensuring alignment with company goals, avoiding competing priorities and messages, addressing target audience overlap, managing resource allocation, coordinating across sales channels, maintaining brand consistency, monitoring customer feedback, fostering internal communication, and conducting regular audits. Effective conflict identification and resolution are essential to maintain a cohesive and successful marketing strategy.