Why Marketers make great Product Managers
Marketers becoming Product Managers…Wait, what?
Are you a marketer thinking about switching to Product Management? Not sure if your previous experience and skills acquired through your marketing years are “good enough” to be considered for a first position in product?
Or maybe you are a recruiter who has a hard time seeing why a marketer would make a great PM.
Yah, you’re not the first one. And probably not the last one.
But here are my two cents on why I think marketers make awesome Product Managers.
First, you don’t need to code to be a good PM.
Yes, you read it right. You don’t need to be an engineer or to be a master of code to be a great PM.
Yes, of course knowing how to code helps to communicate better with the development team. And yes, it also helps to better challenge the solutions that are being discussed. And some products require more technical profiles. BUT (there’s always a “but”, right?) guess what…Your main job as PM is to (over)think about your users and their problems. To be the “Customer Advocate”.
You should be obsessed with your users. Know everything about them: understand what they want to accomplish, how they do it, their expectations, but especially their pain points. And then, think how your product can help them. Why would they use your product over other existing solutions? How can you improve their experience when using your product?
Also, your product was likely not built by a non-for-profit organization, so you should figure out how you are going to monetize this. How is this product/feature bringing value to the business? How can you boost the KPIs?
And all this, dear marketers, should sound very familiar. Isn’t this what you used to spend most of your time on? — The only difference is that now, instead of promoting your company’s value proposition, you get to shape and work on the actual value proposition — the product. (Pretty exciting, huh?)
That being said…
Marketers, your skills are relevant(!)
Many of us coming from non-technical backgrounds are often afraid of taking the leap, thinking we will have to start our career from scratch. I was one of them. But hey, you’ll be surprised how many skills are not only transferable but extremely relevant when considering switching to PM. Here are some of them:
- Being “user-centric”
- Understanding business goals
- Being data-driven
- Funnel optimization
- Knowing the importance of good UX
- “Systems thinking”
- Optimizer mindset
- The importance of “communications”
- Multi-tasking and project management skills
- Collaboration skills
1. Being “user-centric”
It seems “user-centric” is everywhere nowadays. It could sound like a buzzword, but it’s actually one of the main factors for successful products (and companies!).
So…what does “being user-centric” mean? It basically means that instead of developing a product and then figuring out who is interested in buying it (yup, you’d be surprised how many teams still do that…), you identify a segment of population and a (real) problem to solve and you develop a product to help them.
Developing your product strategy around your “users”. It seems pretty basic, right? Well, this sounds basic when you come from a marketing background. It’s almost an automatism. Analyzing your target audience, defining your personas, mapping their needs, desires, what they think, feel, want, do; and adapting your offer accordingly. It’s part of any marketer’s daily duties.
So good news is, you already possess one of the most important skills a Product Manager should have. Being user-centric. Are you starting to feel a little bit more confident already? Good. Let’s move on.
2. Understanding “business goals”
Being a Product Manager is not only thinking about your users. It’s also about making sure your product is aligned with the business goals and strategy (and let’s be honest, also about keeping your internal stakeholders happy). It’s about results and alignment.
Have you ever monitored KPIs? Analyzed your website’s traffic? Worked on engagement and sales reports? Developed marketing plans? Business cases? Well, you’re not far from what a Product Manager does, actually. — Ok, instead of marketing plans you create strategic product roadmaps — . And you’d be surprised how rare this business acumen is among more technical profiles. So hey, not bad so far uh? Ok, next.
3. Being “data-driven”
I’m sure that, as a digital marketer, at some point you did some A/B testing on digital campaigns, or modified landing pages or CTAs in order to improve your KPIs. Or that you decided to tackle a new target audience as analytics showed they were the segment converting the most. All these decisions were based on data.
So as the product leader, your job is not that different. There’s an important part of our job that requires using our gut and good instincts (otherwise, they would hire a robot, right?). But we’ll always need data to confirm that our instincts were right (or not). Relying on user research, analytics, market reports, or customer feedback, among others, is key if you want your product to keep being engaging, enjoyable and relevant.
So being “data-driven”: checked. Next.
4. Funnel optimization
Digital marketers know that getting the customers to land on your website, or to download the app, is just the beginning of a long (very long) customer journey. And most of the time it’s a never-ending infinite loop. Acquisition, onboarding, engagement, conversion, referral. Product Managers need to not only understand the product funnel, but also know how to engage the customer in every step of the journey. In other terms, be the masters of funnel optimization.
And again, marketers have a significant advantage here. Funnel optimization is often 90% of what digital marketers do.
5. Knowing the importance of good UX
There is often this general misconception among more technical profiles (and even recruiters!) that UX = beautiful interface (or what we call UI). But breaking news: it’s not.
UX is more than a “pretty” interface. It’s helping users achieve their goals (functionality) through intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces. But it’s also about making products desirable and enjoyable. And we marketers know this pretty well: we’ve been applying the principles of good UX to optimize our funnels for years (!). Need examples? Optimizing landing pages, re-organizing content, adding “thank you” messages after filling up a form … to mention just a few.
Users are human, and if they find two products that solve their pain points equally (functionality), they will choose the one that they enjoy using the most. So your UX skills are essential for the success of your product.
6. “Systems thinking”
The user experience is not limited to the few minutes a day we are using an app. The user experience is every-touch point we have with the product or the brand, online and offline.
The notifications we get reminding us to go back to the app, promotional emails, customer service if we ever need their help, etc. All this shapes our user experience and how (annoying/ useful/ stressful/ you-name-it) we perceive the product and its brand.
As a product manager, it’s important to understand the full product lifecycle. Not only what the user “experiences”, but also all the systems and departments involved in the user journey, what they do, what data inputs they need, how they measure success, etc. Viewing the product as a complex system— with multiple stakeholders and needs within the ecosystem of a company — becomes key when leading the evolution of a digital product.
So Marketers: Raise your hand if, during your marketer years, you have ever added some extra questions in a form because the sales department needed it in order to better prepare the follow-up with leads. Or if you ever had to prepare reports for different stakeholders (finance, sales, operations…). Well, you get the point then.
7. Optimizer mindset
As Marketers, we are constantly monitoring the performance of our websites, our campaigns, our sales, etc. Always looking for what should be optimized next. Is it that button in the landing page? Is it the key message that is a bit off? Is it the SEO? The main menu? The … Well, you get the point.
And yes, of course. After a bit of training or a few months on the job you can create that habit. But let’s be honest. Being an optimizer is an attitude. A mindset. An intrinsic drive to always “do better”. And obviously, it is not an attribute exclusive to marketers. But I find most digital marketers — especially those willing to take the leap into product management — are quite the optimizer type.
8. The importance of “communication”
For Marketers, communicating with customers and stakeholders is like coffee for most mortals: an essential daily task.
Most of the time, marketers have to justify to stakeholders why initiative “X” or “Y” are worth investing in. Or what initiative “A” or “B” brought to the company. And your audience is not always familiar with concepts like “positioning” or “consumer segmentation”. Or they just don’t care — and that’s ok. Stakeholders have their own goals. And as a marketer your job is to educate and adapt your message to your audience.
On the other hand, effective communication with (potential) customers is fundamental. You could have the best product in the world and still have no sales. Presenting the right message, at the right time, the right way, can make all the difference.
And this, my dear marketers, is a hell of a skill to have. As Product Managers you will spend a looooot of time presenting your strategy and results to stakeholders, justifying why A or Z should be built first, etc. And of course, optimizing “the message” within the app and collaborating with other teams so we don’t lose customers along the way.
Feeling more confident already? I hope so. Now, let’s move to the next point, shall we?
9. Multi-tasking and project management skills
Have you ever worked on a thousand different projects with different collaborators, deadlines and complexity? Have you ever coordinated the release of the latest newsletter (brand assets, texts, translations, links, etc) or the launch of a new event or product? I’m sure the answer is “yes”. Ok, maybe they are not the most complex projects a human could manage (Think about SpaceX’s launch to space, for example). But hey, so many things and people to coordinate. Am I right?
Well, from my experience product management is — depending on the company, obviously — not that different. Lots of features (mini projects in some way) to prioritize, coordinate and monitor. Sometimes dealing with many different collaborators like UX designers, business analysts, back-end developers, front-end devs, you name it. But I think having worked as a marketer before jumping into product management helps a lot here. I cannot guarantee it gets easier but hey: At least constantly jumping from “project” to “project”, or from a task to task is not new for you.
10. Collaboration skills
And last but not least: collaboration, collaboration, collaboration.
Usually, as a Product Manager you don’t hold any power over anybody. So a huge part of your results relies on how good you are working with others. Are you able to ask for help to the right people in your company? Let’s say business analysts, to better understand the process and the systems you may affect with this new feature. Or designers, to create that animated asset that would be just perfect for that screen.
As a marketer, and as I just mentioned in the previous point, we spend our days coordinating projects and people to deliver on-time. In most cases, collaborating with people out of our team (design, development, analytics, sales…). So we get the importance of being good at working with others. And with time, we become great at it.
Truth is, most marketers tend to be “people-person”. So reaching out and including others in the conversation is something that comes kinda naturally to us (ok, most of the times). That alone already helps a lot when collaborating with other team members.
Conclusion: Be a badass product manager
When I decided to switch to Product Management I was full of doubts. Doubts about whether it was the right decision or not, or the right path for me, or if all those years in marketing would help me somehow or if I would have to start my career from scratch, again.
Well, I really hope this article helps you erase some of those same doubts you may have, dear marketer. All those years in marketing do mean something. What you learnt, all those soft skills, are important; and an added value you bring to the table that other product managers coming from more technical backgrounds may not have (yet). (That is your super power. Use it wisely…)
Next step? Learn all about the methodology specific to product management. Learn all about scrum methodology, requirement gathering, feature prioritization, product roadmap, user stories, sprint planning, etc. (I totally recommend this Product Management coursera specialization, by the way). And practice, practice, practice. Working on real life projects are the best way to solidify your learning and hey, you’ll even be able to add those projects to your CV(!).
And last but not least, believe in yourself. And be a badass product manager.
