Product management and product marketing are becoming essential roles in the digital world we live in. Companies that don’t have strong product management and product marketing functions run the risk of losing market share to more strategically focused teams.

But even when companies do have these functions, it isn’t enough to just check the box. Aligning objectives of product marketing and product management can give companies a competitive advantage. So what exactly are the responsibilities for these two disciplines?

Product Management (Focus on the User)

• Works cross-functionally to determine what to build, why it should be built, and when it should be built.
• Ensures that features being built meet the goals of the users.
• Ensures that features being built align with the high-level business goals.
• Connects product marketing, C-suite, client services, development, and sales to a clearly defined product vision and strategy.

Product Marketing (Focus on the Buyer)

• Oversees product brand strategy, product hierarchy, product packaging, and positioning.
• Educates buyers on the value of the product.
• Acts as the bridge between technical product knowledge and how the product is marketed and sold.
• Ensures that translation is aligned to positioning strategy around the product.
• Enables sales teams with foundational positioning and business value messaging.
• Connects product management, sales, marketing, C-suite, and customer success by translating the product details into layman’s terms, or language that resonates with the buyer.

Now that we’ve defined responsibilities for product marketing and product management, let’s talk about the opportunities for these two disciplines to work together.

Product management and product marketing can collaborate for the greatest impact by:

1. Defining market position
2. Creating a packaging framework
3. Enabling product and feature launch

1. Defining Market Position

A commonality between product marketing and product management is that they will both fail if the product tries to be everything to everyone.

If a product is designed for everyone, it will satisfy no one. A product needs to be built with specific users and use cases in mind. Along those same lines, if external messaging is not specific or tailored towards a target audience, the message will not be able to cut through the noise.

Product management and product marketing should collaborate in the following ways when defining market position:

Product Managers:

• Understand and communicate the goals and pains of users to build a product that the target audience loves.
• Advocate internally to inform product marketing and sales what the product can do, as well as what the value of the product is.
• Define what the product will be able to do in the future.

Product Marketers:

• Understand and communicate the value of the product in a way that resonates with the pains and goals of the target audience.
• Create product positioning that helps the product stand out in the market, differentiate from competitors, and allow for internal alignment.
• Build a framework to support consistent messaging across all marketing channels.

2. Creating a Packaging Framework

If it is not clear to buyers what they are buying, they will go somewhere else. To prevent this from happening, product management and product marketing can work together to create an effective packaging framework.

Packaging is how you group and sell your product’s features. Your product should be packaged in a way that is intuitive and easy to understand for buyers. A good packaging framework enables sales to have better, frictionless conversations with prospects.

Here are some ways product management and product marketing can collaborate on packaging:

Product Managers:

• Clearly communicate what features exist, why they are valuable, and who they’re valuable to.
• Explain what the most valuable features are.
• Collaborate with product marketing to identify the features that are so valuable that a buyer will pay more to use them.

Product Marketers:

• Communicate the value of the new product or feature in a way that resonates with the pains and goals of the buyer.
• Give sales a framework to speak about products they are selling through a product hierarchy.
• Enables sales with information around how this new product or feature stacks up against the competition.

3. Enabling Product and Feature Launch

Convincing people to buy your product is a challenging task. When sales is not supported in this endeavor, the company is leaving money on the table.

Product management and product marketing can collaborate to help the sales team understand a new product or feature that is being released. Below are some ways that the two disciplines can maximize revenue around new products and features.

Product Managers:

• Write and share internal release notes to communicate exact specifications of new features.
• Serve as the main internal point of contact for questions around the product and features.
• Ensure that product marketing has relevant and detailed information around what is being released in the product.

Product Marketers:

• Communicate the value of the new product or feature in a way that resonates with the pains and goals of the buyer.
• Give sales a framework to speak about products they are selling through a product hierarchy.
• Enable sales with information around how this new product or feature stacks up against the competition.

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Having a digital presence is no longer optional. Because of this, effective product management and product marketing can give companies a competitive advantage.

Strong collaboration between product management and product marketing ensures that our product is uniquely positioned in the market, buyers understand and get value out of what they are buying, and sales is enabled to sell better, faster, and more effectively.