PMM life: So many hats. So little budget. But. There's two important sides to Product Marketing: 1️⃣ Inbound 2️⃣ Outbound Are you an inbound PMM or an outbound PMM? Tamara Grominsky explains the differences 👇🏻 Inbound product marketers primarily focus on understanding the market, customers, and competitive landscape to help influence product strategy and roadmap development. Their responsibilities include: → Market research → Customer insights → Competitive analysis → Strategy development Outbound product marketers are responsible for leading launches and ensuring new products and features are successfully introduced to the market. Their responsibilities include: → GTM planning → Positioning and messaging → Cross-functional collaboration → Sales enablement Trying to balance all the hats? It's almost impossible to be great at both. Or is it... 👋 P.S. Can PMMs be great at both? Let us know your thoughts!
Yes, you can be great at both - especially if you simplify a situation where there's just one product to market. Depending on what phase you're in, there may be a higher need to invest in the research side vs the launch side, but you balance your skillset to adapt to the product's maturity. Gets easier to maintain a competitive landscape once you build the template and benchmarks. Gets easier to launch a product once you've nailed down what messages and channels resonate with your audience. The reality, though, is there are multiple products. Or products that are in development that may not have as compelling of selling points than you wish for, so your success is really limited by a lot of other factors than your own personal skillset.
Love this! I’m not sure “inbound” and “outbound” are the right terms for the different hats worn by PMMs though. I like to think of it as more “conversion focused” vs “awareness focused”. The conversion focused PMM is looking to assist buyers in understanding what they need to know about the product in order to make the purchase. The awareness focused PMM is seeking to increase knowledge that the product exists, the key features of the product, and the problems it solves. Of course, both roles are essential and ideally, the same person.
You don't need to be great at both, but you do need to be able to identify when you need to flex which muscle. If you're pre-revenue or early in the product development lifecycle, you'll need to lean into your Inbound hat. If you're post PFM and need to put gas on the fire, you're most likely flexing those Outbound skills.
A perfect summary of the diverse responsibilities in product marketing!
The best PMM's can do both. I think PMM leaders at a minimum should be able to do both. I think we are moving towards a scenario where PMM's can’t just be one or the other. PMM's with multiple skillsets will be able command the highest salaries.
Insightful post! It's crucial to understand the nuances between these roles.
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5moI don't think we have the luxury to ask if we are more "inbound" or "outbound" since both are so important to the role - especially if you believe that product marketers need to be holistic leaders. To that end, I believe with enough experience one can definitely be great at both - perhaps a better question is where your background/personality/skills you are stronger at and where you can improve. That being said, I believe that "cross-functional collaboration" is required regardless if they consider themselves to be inbound or outbound. The best product marketers know when they need to work with others and also know when they need to rely on themselves to get their jobs done. What do you think?