The PMM survival guide
40+ practical tips from the product marketers who’ve been there, done that.
👋 Hi, I’m James. I write Building Momentum to help you accelerate B2B SaaS growth through product marketing, GTM strategy, sales, and marketing.
“What’s your top tip for people who are new to product marketing?”
Dozens of people shared their insight - and actually, the tips are great for those new to the role AND a great reminder to even the most experienced PMMs.
In this post, I’ve categorised over 40 insights into one place. Every quote is real, everything is practical, and there are things in here you might not have thought of.
Let’s get into it!
Get close to sales, support, and real customers
Not only will you create stronger relationships to help you in your role and influence others, but this is where your judgment forms. Without frontline exposure, your decisions rely on assumptions instead of evidence - and we all know that’s a no-no.
1. Shadow sales early and often
“Shadow a few sales calls every week — it’s a great way to build trust with individual sellers.” — me
Observing sales calls helps you understand how real buyers react to your story - you hear the hesitation, the excitement, and the confusion. It shows you where your messaging works… and where it fails. You also learn what sellers need from you to move deals forward.
2. Understand the pressure sellers face
“Walk a mile in their shoes… shadow top producers, ones starting out, and those struggling to make numbers.” — Anne Ellegood
Spending time with different sellers helps you see the full range of experiences. High performers show you the tactics that work, while newer sellers reveal the onboarding knowledge gaps you need to fix. Struggling sellers expose friction that needs attention - maybe its sales skills, maybe it’s product knowledge, or ICP mismatch. This broad view helps you build stronger enablement with fewer blind spots.
3. Use support as a source of insight
“Shadowing customer support!!” — Anna Ursin
“Listen to calls, view support ticket trends, and chat with your UXR team.” — Shannon Kearns
I have spent tons of time looking through support tools like Zendesk. Support tickets reveal patterns of confusion before they appear anywhere else. You hear the words customers use when they struggle, see how they interpret the product, and where where expectations are not set clearly enough.
“If the customer says ‘how do I do X’ and it’s not a feature… that’s a product marketing insight — not a feature request.” — me
Many internal teams misinterpret repeated questions as product gaps. This is a tip from David Cancel, the founder of Drift. Often, customers asking ‘how do I’ are more often raising an unclear positioning or confusing education experience rather than a roadmap question.
4. Observe real-world usage
“spend time with customer(s) and see how they use your solution, the pain points they have, the language they use… I spent three days in the OR suite and Cath Lab at a hospital in Phily as they implemented our solution…. That experience proved invaluable to me as I developed the messaging for the solution..” — Ned James
Watching people use your product in a real environment helps you understand what matters most. Researchers will call this ethnographic studies. You see so much more than how they use the product - you see the customer’s real life: distractions, workarounds, political pressures, and practical constraints. This level of context changes how you build positioning because you understand the world your proposition must survive in.
5. Talk to customers constantly
“Talk to your customers. Every. Single. Chance. You. Get.” — Jenna Jean Berris
“Talk to your customers before creating messaging documents.” — Michael Robin
Every conversation teaches you something new: their words, their priorities, and the moments that drive action. You begin to see patterns that help you shape stronger narratives.
This habit builds a foundational understanding you can rely on when making decisions or communicating anything, so you can truly represent the voice of the customer.
6. Use account managers for deeper insight
“Make account managers your best friend… they feed you customer challenges and voice.” — Ghina Kammerer
Account managers see patterns across long periods, and they know what drives renewal and what drives frustration. They hear how customers explain value and problems. PMMs who use this perspective refine ICPs and make messaging more accurate.
7. Understand the full business context
“Get to know different teams — how they work, how they are measured, what they do. Then connect the dots.” — Jeff Rezabek
Different teams have different goals, so obviously understanding these helps you position PMM work in a way that supports everyone. This reduces friction and builds trust across the organisation. When you know how teams operate, you can anticipate their needs and collaborate more easily.
Understand the product more deeply than expected
Your product knowledge shapes your credibility. Teams trust PMMs who understand how the product works and why it works that way.
8. Embed with product early
“Sit in tech standups, read their PRDs, ask dumb questions early… prove you understand the product.” — Alicia Carney
Embedding with product gives you insight into decisions that shape the roadmap. You learn why certain features exist and why others do not. You also understand the constraints behind development. This helps you write accurate messaging and contribute earlier to strategic work.
9. Become a true product expert
“Take time to get to know the product… it pays off.” — Carrie Silver
Being fluent in your product helps you support sales better, write clearer messaging, and diagnose issues faster. PMMs who understand the product deeply are seen as partners rather than request handlers. This encourages teams to bring you into conversations sooner.
10. Get demos from multiple perspectives
“BFF your Solutions Consultants / Sales Engineers and CSM… have each of them take you through their own version of a demo.” — Shannon Kearns
Different functions highlight different parts of the product. Product managers focus on intention. AEs focus on persuasion. SEs focus on accuracy. CSMs focus on long-term use and maximizing value. Seeing all of these reveals gaps and strengths that influence messaging and positioning.
11. Stay curious and keep digging
“Ask questions, then listen… listen to understand.” — Anne Ellegood
“Ask ‘why’ until you’re genuinely sure you understand — even if you have industry experience.” — Anna Ursin
Curiosity helps you avoid making assumptions, and asking why helps uncover hidden assumptions that might not be correct. Every product and every market contains nuance - asking questions helps you uncover the small details that shape better decisions.
12. Use your early clarity wisely
“Treat your naïveté as an asset… outsiders notice when things are done out of habit.” — Jesse Friedman
Your first days give you the clarity of an outsider. You can see areas where the team has fallen into routine, and your questions help reveal better ways of working.
Build your own insight instead of waiting for it
13. Build ongoing research loops
“Build an ongoing research process… sales data, case studies, customer research, competitor research, teaming up with CS and RevOps.” — Anna Ursin
Building a research loop forces you to gather, interpret, and apply insight regularly., so you can bring evidence to conversations and decisions to represent the customer.
14. Ship a customer story early
“Add ‘create a customer story’ to your 30–60 day plan… it’s a tangible deliverable early on.” — Tom Barragry
A customer story gives you access to buyer language and real proof of value, offers sales a tool they use daily, and shows shows your ability to deliver meaningful work quickly. A win all round!
15. Write your own positioning guide
“Write your own messaging and positioning guide — based on listening tours, support tickets, Reddit threads…” — Darya N.
Even if you have an existing positioning doc to reference, writing your own can help you identify gaps and refine your understanding, and throw up some good ideas and opportunities too.
16. Know your strengths
“Invest in figuring out what your superpowers are… through StrengthsFinder or mentors.” — Darya N.
PMM covers many responsibilities, so knowing your strengths helps you define your role and add value quickly. I’m a fan of Myers-Briggs - INTJ here!
17. Join a PMM community
“Join a PMM community… talk about frameworks and tools.” — Darya N.
Back in London like 8-9 years ago, Alicia and I started the first London product marketing meetup in a pub - and it was invaluable, if for nothing more than group therapy.
Finding a community helps you learn faster, and get access to advice, shortcuts, and real examples from people working on similar problems.
18. Use value-focused proof points
“Focus on time saved, money kept, workflow improvements… concrete results do the heavy lifting.” — Mayte Saez
Proof points help you connect the product to real outcomes, making your narrative stronger and easier for teams to trust. It also helps sales build confidence.
19. Know the metrics that matter
“Know your numbers.” — Sébastien Millanvoye
PMMs should know key metrics including adoption, usage, conversion, churn, pipeline influence, feature usage, and win rates. Knowing this data helps you guide discussions, helps you measure the impact of your work, and gives you an understanding of where the business is focusing.
20. Share uncomfortable truths early
“Share the customer quotes that contradict the roadmap… the competitive threats no one wants to talk about.” — Manraj Riat
This separates senior PMMs from the rest. Speaking up and pushing back helps teams see problems before they grow. As PMMs, we often notice patterns early - sharing these helps avoid wasted work, and builds trust and shared clarity.
Master clear, human communication
Your communication style shapes understanding and alignment. Clear, natural language helps people internalize and repeat your message.
21. Write like you speak
“If you feel embarrassed reading it out loud, imagine a salesperson saying it.” — Steven Choi
“If you wouldn’t say it at a barbecue, it shouldn’t be in your core messaging.” — Jesse Friedman
If your writing sounds unnatural, teams will struggle to use it. Speaking the words aloud helps you check clarity. Messaging has to feel human - would someone say it in a natural conversation at a bbq?
22. Tell stories to spread your narrative
“Learn how to tell a story and practise on anyone who will listen.” — Tim Sadler
Stories help teams remember details and repeat ideas - a start, middle, and an end. Check out my post on literary theory for some useful storytelling tips!
23. Adapt your communication to each person
“.…understand each person’s working style.” — Darya N.
Different people prefer different communication methods - I prefer direct, others prefer to be sandwiched. Learning how people work naturally helps you collaborate more smoothly, builds trust and encourages open dialogue.
Use soft skills and emotional intelligence
PMM work is, ultimately, people work. Your ability to support, listen, and collaborate shapes your effectiveness.
24. Develop emotional intelligence, lead with empathy
“Hone your emotional intelligence… consider downstream impacts.” — Jonathan Pipek
“Empathy. Ninety percent of the time you’re managing people.” — Parousia Khan
Build your EQ muscle and understanding where they’re coming from helps you avoid conflict, helps you shape better recommendations, and build stronger relationships.
25. Listen deeply to uncover nuance
“Ask questions… let the other person talk… paraphrase what they said.” — Jeff Rezabek
Paraphrasing shows understanding and encourages people to share more. This approach helps you gain clarity in interviews, sales calls, and internal meetings.
26. Expand outside your comfort zone
“Step outside your comfort zone… being a Swiss Army Knife is indispensable.” — Anne Ellegood
PMMs have a broad skillset. Learning skills outside your immediate responsibilities helps you support teams more effectively, and increases your opportunity to contribute.
27. Accept that learning takes time
“Breathe… imposter syndrome is normal… your skills are transferable.” — Darya N.
Whether you’re new to the role or struggling with a part of it, you’ll get it soon. Accepting this helps you move forward without pressure. Building a growth mindset is important to stay confident and consistent, even when things aren’t going well.
28. Build cross-functional workflows
“Build relationships and good processes with teams.” — Carrie Silver
Strong processes help teams work together with less confusion so you can all do better work.
Protect your time and prioritize with discipline
Without boundaries, PMM becomes reactive. Focus helps you deliver meaningful work.
29. Tie your work to company goals
“Find out company goals and build your PMM charter accordingly. Do less things better.” — Jonathan Pipek
“Don’t become an order taker… make sure whatever you’re working on contributes to that goal.” — Jeff Rezabek
“Be clear about priorities… have a business-rooted argument behind telling someone their request can’t be done till Q2.” — Ivan Kostyuchenko
Laddering up your work to top-level goals means you’ll stay focused on high-impact projects, and have the ability to decline lower-value work. Sure, requests will come from many teams - but you need to judge which ones matter, and having goal-based guardrails can help massively.
30. Co-create instead of doing everything
“Have sales do the first rough draft — even if it’s a voice memo. It makes them own the outcome.” — Anna Ursin
This is a great tip. Co-creation helps teams think more deeply about their requests and gives you more context on what they’re hoping for.
31. Ship something early
“Don’t over-rotate on strategy or listening. Ship something small early.” — me
I’ve seen product marketers spend months of listening before they get into the real work. But it doesn’t work.
Early work builds momentum, shows teams (and your boss) that you can deliver.
32. Prioritise launches using tiers
“Not all launches are created equal. Align on Launch Tiers.” — Chloe Nicholls
Maybe it’s tier 1/2/3, or Feature/Product/Launch, Small/Medium/Massive… setting a plan for how your business will prioritize launches makes sure attention and resources go to the right projects.
33. Influence the roadmap, own the story
“PMMs don’t own the roadmap, but we do own the story.” — Chloe Nicholls
You influence how features are understood, not which ones get built. Use that to your advantage: help product teams understand how features will be marketed/sold up-front, as well as share where the greater story is going.
34. Validate assumptions with customers
“Validate your assumptions with customers… advocate for VOC.” — Chloe Nicholls
Assumptions are ok. Evidence is better. Validation is a must.
Not only are you protecting everyone from internal bias, you’re saving effort and costs. The opportunity cost of working on insignificant features compared to things customers actually care about can be huge.
35. Frame your work in business outcomes
“Frame your impact in business outcomes, not busy work.” — Chloe Nicholls
Positioning your work by its influence on revenue, retention, or adoption helps people value PMM contributions.
36. Think ahead before choosing tactics
“If you’re doing a price increase, go talk to CSM/Support… stagger rollout based on volume of angry callers they can handle.” — Jonathan Pipek
Second-order thinking shows how PMMs think ahead. Considering what happens next helps prevent overwhelming teams and protects relationships with customers.
You can apply this to everything: launches and rollouts, sales bandwidth, TAM/SAM/SOM, and more.
The pattern
Across all 35 tips, the same theme keeps showing up.
Great PMMs:
Stay close to customers and sales
Understand the product in uncomfortable detail
Build their own insight instead of waiting for it
Communicate in simple human language
Use soft skills as a core tool
Protect their time so they can focus on work that matters.
You don’t need to fix everything at once - pick one area where you feel weakest right now and choose one tip from that section.
Can you block time in your calendar this week to act on it? Shadow two sales calls, pull support tickets for an hour, book three customer calls, or write your own positioning guide - then repeat that next week with a different tip.
If you can treat these tips as habits instead of a checklist, your impact as a PMM begins to compound: you become the person who knows the customer, shapes the story, and helps the company make clearer decisions.
Good luck!