Product Management and Product Marketing are two job responsibilities that are often confused with each other in enterprise software companies. Companies often struggle with where to draw the line between the two, and how they work together. There is no hard and fast rule about exactly what the roles are as companies can define them as they see fit. What one company might call a product manager another might see more as product marketing. With that being said I am going to give my best definitions of both and the difference between them.
Giles Farrow (@SmartSoftMarket) over at http://smartsoftwaremarketing.co.uk/ responded in this previous post, that “…the simplest useful distinction between product marketing and product management is to think of them as outbound and inbound respectively. ” I think that’s a good way to generalize the differences.
Product Management
Product management usually “listens” to the market and then works with the internal team to develop products to meet the needs that are articulated. They do not usually to interact much with the market on a day-to-day basis in a direct way, but rather listen to feedback obtained by sales and marketing. This does not mean that product management is or should be blind to end users or the market. It’s actually the opposite, external influence is very important to a successful product manager. It’s just that they spend a lot of their time taking that feedback and working it through internal processes to create products.
The product manager has a fairly hands on role with the development team, often writing detailed requirements documents, answering questions during development, possibly overseeing the development and assisting with the testing of the software products. Their job is to ensure that the products meet the specifications given, are developed on time and within budget. They do also work on the long term product roadmap in conjunction with product marketing.
Product Marketing
So if that’s product management in a nutshell, where does product marketing differ? Well, product marketing is a more externally focused role. The product marketers “talk” to the market more. They evangelize what the company’s product offers the world, and help the company focus their messaging to the market. Unlike product managers who focus on detailed requirements for the technical team,product marketers take their external conversations and often create marketing requirements that are not as detailed as the technical requirements but represent feedback from the external environment. Product marketers find themselves writing value propositions, marketing collateral and customer presentations. Their goal is to communicate the product’s benefits and value proposition back out to the sales team and ultimately the customer. They train the folks that will interact with the market on how to express that positioning. For a more in-depth definition of product marketing, check out So, What is Product Marketing, Anyways?
(editors note: As pointed out in the comments below this is not a one-way transmission of information. Product marketing talks and listens to the market. They just do a lot more “talking” than Product Management does)
Variance
Those are some standard descriptions of the two positions throughout the software industry, but these roles will vary depending on the company. The size of the company plays an important part. Many smaller companies do not have the people or budget to split the product management and product marketing tasks into two roles. They combine them into one position which can make for a busy and exciting role. The combined role will have a lot of work, but will also be a key person in shaping and delivering the products for their company. If that’s the case, they have a lot of work on their hands! Their vision and management skills will be of the utmost importance.
Working Together
Whether you work as a product manager, product marketer or in a combined role it is important to understand how all the pieces fit together. If you are in product marketing, the product manager needs to be your close friend and ally. And vice-versa. Make an effort to get to know your counterpart. It sounds like a no-brainer but with teams so widely dispersed these days, it takes effort to build that relationship. But it’s worth it. When talking to an analyst or a customer, you should be able to play off each other and know what the other one is thinking. It’s almost like a marriage! If you can get to that stage with your counterpart then your company (and career) is probably starting to see the benefits as well.
What do you think? Any tips on working together? Do you have any unique situations that differ from the way described above? I’d love to hear more about it from you.
Diego,
Thank you for the mention
I totally agree that where a software company is big enough, “marrying” a product manager and product marketer provides the best results. With startups, the roles are far more fluid, everyone’s more nimble, wearing multiple hats…
The inbound/outbound distinction works very well as a quick summary for everyone, but when you’re in the role you should find there’s about 30-50% overlap.
The only problem I have seen using the inbound/outbound distinction, is that sometime people think that product marketing does not include listening. Which is absolutely not the case. Product marketing should be listening to the market:
- what are buyers looking for
- what objections do sales come across
- which problems do competitors market to
- why do customers buy and refer us
When Product management is listening, it tends to be at a more technical level
- support issues reported by users
- product roadmap complaints
- industry trends e.g. technology innovations, supported infrastructure
- escalations from sales for customer-specific issues
I very much agree with Giles. Diego, I understand you’re trying to make a distinction but it feels somewhat artificial based on my experience. And the way you’ve outlined the marketing function above seems to be somewhat at odds with your much better description at http://whatisproductmarketing.com/so-what-is-product-marketing-anyways/ As you mention at that link, marketing is very much an interface between customer and company in relationship to the product. What you write above makes it sound as if marketing is all about a one-way transmission of product information…and I’m thinking that’s not what you meant to say.
Now with that said, in order for companies to get their own distinction right – if they have separate roles for product marketing and product management – is to clearly define those roles. There’s always going to be some overlap, but if there is any unresolved gray areas, that leads to potential conflict over responsibilities. I’ve seen too many tech companies disregard the importance of role clarification to their – and their customers’ – detriment.
Great points both!
It was definitely not the intention to imply that marketing does not listen. Some of the best feedback my company (and previous companies) has gotten is from product marketing sessions with analysts and customers. Maybe the listen/talk analogy is a bit too simplistic. To someone completely outside the technology world, it’s probably useful in a 30 second conversation but when you get into the details and with people who do it on a day-to-day basis there is clearly more complexity.
Let’s keep defining it. Love the comments.
Hi guys, yes it’s very fluid depending upon company size/organization, industry, etc. I am glad we are having this discussion. Very good.
Been in both worlds and if you see my CV you’d have a hard time truly saying I was ONLY one or the other (but these were venture startups). Yet in one I was PM and very much into the technology, visiting potential clients to enable sales on the technical aspects of the product. In another role, I definitely played in Fuzzy Front End, was very active in product development and totally immersed into product messaging – after defining the market. My most current company defined PMktg as product marcom – you do what your bosses want, right?
All good product professionals listen and listen well or they don’t last too long in their role, even if it’s managing product launches.
Thanks for the great conversations! Karol