How a Successful Product and Marketing Relationship Drives Growth
As someone who develops product and growth marketing strategies, I work at the intersection of automation, demand generation, sales and retention. It’s an exciting and experimental space when the product and marketing teams are in lockstep from the inception of every initiative. It can also be a nebulous and sometimes contentious space where the product team operates on an “everything that touches the light is mine” premise, while the digital marketers believe that “sprint deadlines aren’t real for me.” This thinking, I’ve learned, can create redundant work, and missed opportunities as a business tries to scale.
So what can be done? At Bloomberg, where I helped launch the company’s first paywall business, we realized that aligning the product and marketing teams is essential. But it required structural and cultural shifts to reap the benefits of collaboration among product, brand, growth marketing and the data science stakeholders.
I've learned that it starts with leadership.When product and marketing leaders aligns on strategy, priorities and tradeoffs, they are better equipped to dismantle frustrations around unclear deliverables, competing agendas and moving targets. One simple way leaders can help break teams out of siloed workflows is to formalize a weekly sync to review business KPIs, consider new initiatives and review the roadmap, together.
Read the full article: Five Ways to Create a Successful Relationship Between Marketing and Product here.
It’s important to note that any change in a team’s dynamic can feel painful and be met with reluctance at first. So why do it? The most obvious benefit is the customer’s experience — the product and marketing efforts are no longer the only pathways into the business funnel.
Aligning your product and marketing teams improves their ability to act on new consumer habits. They’ll learn to identify new opportunities, test concepts across the full user experience (opposed to testing in silos) and proactively respond to moving targets.
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” — Desmond Tutu
Thank you for reading. The opinions shared in this article are solely my own and are not endorsed by or affiliated with any particular organization.