Principle #2
Without the support of all departments within our businesses, we would - and will - never be able to reach our full potential. Be a team player. Every aspect of the business is valuable, and should be treated as such.
Ultimately, you are all working towards the same goal.
Work together to ensure you reach the goal smoothly. Don’t work in a vacuum; keep your key stakeholders in the loop and involve them in the processes and decisions early on to create a more positive and collaborative environment.
Take the Ikea Effect as an example. This is a theory that personal labor leads to love. So, if someone feels they have been involved in building something, whether that’s a physical creation like an Ikea table, or a digital process like a business project (wink wink), they are more likely to put more value into the end product.
Be intentional about developing relationships with key internal stakeholders because it will impact your success too. Get to know everyone within your organization on a personal level to have a better understanding and empathy for their role and objectives, and ultimately improve your project in the long run.
That being said, don’t shy away from chasing deadlines for fear of being too forceful. If you’re asking for something, clearly articulate why it’s important for Bob to complete task X, and how it supports the company’s overarching objectives.
Su Simha, Chief Marketing Officer at Morressier, shares her view on the importance of collaboration within a business:
“In essence, product marketing is a central nervous system of companies. So, the interaction with everybody is equally important. I think product marketing is kind of an aggregator in many ways. You're aggregating what's going on from the product side of the world.
“For example, you’re helping enable the sales teams by doing the sales enablement, talking to customer experience and understanding what's going on with customer experience, what's going on with the consumers and customers, whether it's a B2B buyer, or whether it's a B2C buyer, what are they really giving the feedback on? So every different department is important in this case.”
Jasmine Jaume, Director of Product Marketing for Support and Platform at Intercom, gives her insight into why she considers communication to be a core characteristic for any PMM:
“It's kind of cliche, but communication is so key in a product marketing role. It helps people build relationships with different teams and know when something is happening.
“Whether it’s a feature announcement, or a change to the UI, knowing who that's going to impact, being able to consider which teams need to know about it, and then being able to communicate messages clearly and concisely to people, so they know A) why it’s important to them, and B) why they should care about it is typical of why good communication skills are key. I don't think you'd get very far in a PMM role if you can't communicate well.”