The Product Marketing Manager: Responsibilities and Best Practices in a Technology Company

by Lucas Weber

The Product Marketing Manager plays the crucial role of defining the positioning, messaging, and unique selling proposition of a product or product line. This involves taking detailed and technical product information and distilling it into key marketing and sales messages as well as working among several teams in an organization to plan and execute product releases and launches. This book is a must-have for anyone who works as, or with, a Product Marketing Manager. It not only explains the role but focuses on practical applications of the information presented and ties everything together with entertaining life lessons and anecdotes collected through years of experience by the author as well as interviews with his colleagues and other industry experts. If you are considering a career as a Product Marketing Manager, are new to the profession and looking for guidance and clarification, already have many years of experience in the role and are looking for new inspiration and ideas, or are interested in learning what a Product Marketing Manager colleague of yours is responsible for within your organization, this book is for you.

Genres: Business

123 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2017

Reviews

[Julian Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently took on a new job as a product marketing manager (PMM) and like Weber, I come from a PM and engineering background. In the introduction, Weber said that when he first became a PMM, he scoured the Internet for resources on how to do the job, and finding none is what eventually led him to write this book after a few years of doing the job. Now I’m one of the beneficiaries, so I’m very thankful to Weber.

Fortunately, nothing about the scope of responsibilities of the job (as described by Weber) were surprising, but he does offer many pieces of advice for how to work with other departments in a company to best craft the messaging and position one’s products well. I particularly appreciated his thoughts on how to work with sales. Now, I will say, his advice will be easier to act on the more solution-oriented your sales reps are, and how much sales and executive management support the development and enforcement of a disciplined sales process. Otherwise, all the great messaging and positioning created by PMM will be wasted on salespeople who routinely ignore it because they are relationship selling.

Overall, Weber’s book is a very easy read but packed with useful information for folks who are doing the PMM job now or are considering moving into it. Highly recommended.

[Mark Mzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a product marketing manager (PMM), nor do I plan to become one. I'm a software engineering manager, but I read this book to give me insight into another part of the organization that was mostly opaque to me. And this book did exactly that. Lucas lays out in detail the various roles that the PMM fills and how the PMM acts as glue within an organization. I rate this book highly because it's fairly short, to the point, and does what it says it will do: explain the how and why of the PMM role. For myself, who is very much a systems thinker and likes to figure out how to improve organizations, understanding this role and how it can be effective in an org is great insight. Thanks Lucas.

[Jordi Mon Companys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent summary of the PMM role and what tactics and deliverables are required from them. Provides some hints on how to balance and specially focus in a role that is yet to be defined in many organizations.

Thanks Lucas!!

[Basia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very practical book, full of tips, templates and good practices, easy to follow and read.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful and entertaining!

[Achal Kagwad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Product Marketing Manager: Responsibilities and Best Practices in a Technology Company

Not a concept book like "Crossing the Chasm"(by Geoffrey Moore) which deals in explaining a concept, This book is more of Authors own Journey on landing a role as a PMM(Product Marketing Manager) , journey and experiences.

The Author ties his own experiences in this book with the life cycle of
1. Product Management and Development
2. Marketing
3. Sales
4. Product Positioning and Messaging

These experiences helps readers to be aware what the road ahead looks like. I would suggest anybody reading this review to also compliment their learning with other books namely ABM(Account Based Marketing), MOVE By Sangram Vagre and "The Goto Market Handbook for B2B SAAS Leaders by Richard Blundell. These books give more of concepts and less of personal experience. April Dunfords Book on Positioning also gives concepts. All these books revolve around the role of PMM.

[Aniket Patil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently (a day ago) read this book. I really liked it and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand role of Product Marketing Manager and how one can become effective Product marketing Manager.

Background info: I am appearing for PMM interviews and wanted to revise things quickly. Moreover, I wanted to understand things which are beyond my current process. I come from multiple backgrounds such as Product Management, Data Science, Product Marketing , Sales. I wanted to fill the knowledge gap quickly and this book is super helpful.

Why you should read the book?
1. Small book and saves your time about undestanding the role
2. To the point
3. Comes with real life scenarios
4. Its a good example of storeytelling
5. It guides you about best practices about Product Marketing Management
6. It helps you building a very good mindset for the job by clearing concepts

Bottomline: Its a crisp book which helps you in getting perfect mindset for the role. a Must-read.

[Roy Frenkiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great PMM playbook

This is a really good read to understand the overall structure of product marketing management. The book is layered out by discussing in detail the interaction with every major stakeholder group (Product, Marketing, Sales) and then discussed how to take the input to create the key PMM value. Every section is broken to sub-sections so you can skim on what is less relevant and dive deep into what you find interesting. A good value for time and money overall- very practical and concise advice.

[Sveta Soboleva · Rating 5 out of 5]

After an extensive quest for a source written by a high quality professional on the role of PMM this book was the only one to quench my thirst. The author eloquently covers all the most important areas that PMM touches. Being a "hub" position it is necessary that PMM is literate in marketing, product development, sales and basic commercial activities to be efficient and effective and the book reflects this very truth. It is practical and applicable. I would suggest this read to a person on any level of his/ her PMM career road either at the point of entry or far along the way.

[Fabrizio Trotti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and harmless business book with interesting insights on the PMM position and its relationships with different stakeholders. Good selection of examples and frameworks to use in day-to-day practice. Worth the read.

[Mary Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quick read - read most of it in last two days. Good primer for anyone starting their career in marketing, especially in software or other technologies. Nothing earth-shattering but solid advice.

[Karthik Pasupathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good basic book about Product marketing

Walks you through the basics of product marketing and how they can work in tandem with other teams in the organization. The content could've been useful. But, the book was good and informative.

[Utkarsh Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid book to introduce product marketing to someone new to the role. You can walk away with a lot of actionable, no faff pointers for your first 3-6 months, and that's as useful as books like these can be.

[Eric Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

This book is a great blueprint for creating the foundation for a PMM. I recently took on a role in commercialization and found this book to be great help with outlining what I should focus on.

[Vovka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent overview of the PMM role within a B2B context. Doesn't cover the B2C role. Could be more helpful with examples of good/bad positioning and other GTM assets and materials. A fine book that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to folks looking to understand the role.

[Silvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, with an interesting and light reading. Begginers and experts can use the tips and have good insights. Worth every cent! (:

Livro excelente, com uma leitura leve e interessante. Iniciantes e seniores podem usar as dicas e ter bons insights. Vale cada centavo!

[Siim Puskai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am glad this book exists!

If you are working in service/product management, this is a worthwhile read, especially if you are relatively new to the space.

[Jonas Rytter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book outlines perfectly the role of a PMM in any technology company. The best practices described are nice and actionable and the book is short, concise, and definitely re-readable.

[Vivian Schaeffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly comprehensive book on recommendations on the general and nuanced areas of PMM. Thanks for writing it!

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear, succinct overview of the product marketing field.

[Felice Lam · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can read this in one day. It’s a good summary of what product marketing is. Some of it almost reads like a memoir.

[Dan Chancellor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really just sort of an extended job description with basic high level info about the role. More details or descriptions or examples or templates would be nice.

[Cher Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well organised structure with real-life case studies and examples. Easy to read and to apply to any Marketer's daily life.

[Nevine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy useful read

Good overview - author delivered exactly what was intended by the book, found it precise and concise. Well written and flowed nicely

[Ingrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of a PMM role, although the book could’ve used more structure and 0-1 anecdotal examples.

[Dylan Bucossi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet. Good primer for anyone looking to break into the PMM space.

[Stacey W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for early stage start-up product marketing.

[Melis Atalay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great summary of the role for a technology company including some valuable & practical use cases/ best practices

[Chris Gomez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one! As a brand new PMM, I appreciated Weber's practical examples (I've copied down most of the charts in the book!) and advice when working with various departments. This is a resource I will refer back to for the foreseeable future.