A little life update: I’ve just begun the search for a new job.
I should say that I’m only dipping my toe into the hunt, as the main thing I’m thinking about for March is… Japan! My wife and I are heading there for our honeymoon next week and absolutely can’t wait. So if you have any last-minute tips, I’d love to hear them.
The extra time will be handy, though, because I am rusty. I’ve interviewed hundreds of product marketers over the past few years but it’s been a while since I was on the other side of the table - or Zoom call, more realistically.
There is one surefire question I can expect to hear for any Product Marketing leadership role, though.
Where should Product Marketing sit in an organisation?
Yes, this is the age-old debate of where in a company Product Marketing should live. An affliction that was given to us at the point of conception, when somebody merged two different departments to give us our name, confusing business leaders ever since.
I’ve been asked about this by pretty much every company I’ve interviewed with over the past ten years. And my answer has evolved slightly over time. The two most obvious options are inevitably having it sit within either Product or Marketing. But there are a couple of other scenarios, too.
My core belief is that with a successful, effective Product Marketing team, it should feel like they’re a part of both departments, regardless of where they officially sit. Your company’s Chief Product Officer should feel as satisfied, listened to and supported as your CMO.
You should be able to take Product Marketing as an entity and slot it into the other half of the business and have nobody really notice the difference. In fact, you should consider actually doing this every year or two, to test the theory.
Whichever department you’re in, you should be investing a ton of time in the other, to avoid silos. It’s a proper balancing act, where there’s always a risk of spending too much time on one half, so it’s a good reminder that you should constantly be working on your relationships across the commercial and technical departments in your company.
But I’d better avoid sitting on the fence here, so let’s look at the options.
Should Product Marketing be a part of Product?
I’ve been part of the Product org many times in my career and have always valued the deep product knowledge you can accumulate, plus the insight you get into the department’s inner workings, which unlocks that PMM superpower of being able to think like a product manager. If you’re a product marketer and you haven’t yet worked within a Product organisation, I’d strongly recommend it for your development.
From experience, though, I’ve found that product teams at startups at scale-ups tend to be less familiar with Product Marketing and therefore less likely to understand the work we do.
This comes with a number of risks. It could be product managers assuming that PMMs are there to be an extension or mouthpiece of Product. Or you might have a product manager who enjoys doing the typical Product Marketing work (communicating to customers, working out the value prop, planning the GTM) and that creates friction between the two roles.
So in this scenario, part of the job of a product marketer is to educate your colleagues on what it is we do - and what we don’t do. (Perhaps start by sharing this article with them…)
I should say this option tends to work better at larger, more established tech companies where Product is likelier to have a strong understanding of Product Marketing and tap into our full potential.
Should Product Marketing live in Marketing?
Instinctively, this feels like the more popular option in tech right now. And it makes sense. Marketers tend to have a solid understanding of what a PMM does, and Product Marketing often provides the missing ingredients for a Marketing department, such as consumer insights and a deep understanding of the product - and roadmap.
The perceived challenge here is that Product Marketing can end up being ‘too commercial’ if it doesn’t sit within Product, but I’m not sure I agree with that. I’d argue that everyone in a business should be thinking commercially and that the bigger priority is for a PMM to be thinking about the customer and championing a great experience for them. As long as you’re making the customer your top priority, you can’t be ‘too’ anything.
A good balance can see Product Marketing rolling up into Marketing but individual PMMs being assigned to specific product teams, so the product marketer can build up their expertise in a certain area, and those product teams have a go-to person on the commercial side of the business.
Any alternatives?
I’ve also reported into CEOs and CROs over the years and seen the benefit of Product Marketing having a seat at that slightly more strategic table. Product Marketing is at its best and most effective when it sits at the heart of a company’s strategy and is working on the toughest, most important problems, so having it report into these roles is a good way for a business to get the most out of its Product Marketing team.
The other advantage is that it removes the debate of ‘Product vs Marketing’, allowing Product Marketing to work agnostically across both. But a lot of companies don’t have the set up or flexibility for this kind of luxury, so you’ll likely have to land on a decision between the two more popular departments.
In conclusion…
If I had to choose, I would recommend Marketing as the better home for us product marketers. I think what clinches it is that under Marketing, you are more likely to be working with a leader and team that understands the work of a PMM. Having colleagues that ‘get you’ makes time at work so much more rewarding, and allows you to move at a faster pace.
That said, you can definitely find product leaders who get Product Marketing and know how to unlock the superpowers of our function. And, more importantly, it’s on us as product marketers to make it work wherever our team lives, and to educate the business on the work we do. It’s all part of the fun of being a PMM…
See you after Japan! Cheers 👋