How to Build PM & PMM Teams That Actually Work Together (and what you can do right now)

On a last minute whim in September Nic and I flew into San Fransisco for the Product Marketing Alliance's largest summit of the year. We bought tickets and booked hotels nearly the day before, deciding it was worth it to brush shoulders with PMMs from all over the world - seriously, I talked to a PMM from as far away as Latvia.
At the summit, our top goal was to listen, not just to the speakers (which were great, by the way). What we wanted to hear were the questions. What problems, confusion, and ideas were being shared by the crowd? And what did we find?
The biggest problem PMMs face is figuring out how to work with the Product team.
Here are just a few questions we heard:
Advice for new PMM working with new PM. Best place to begin?
Any advice how to more gracefully insert yourself into those PM conversations so you don't miss those MVP releases?
How do you deal with PM teams that are in challenging time zones and is difficult to connect regularly?
How do you deal with product teams who tier everything as tier 1?
How do you get product to align on ICP?
Clearly, we think a lot about this, and one of the missions of ProductColab is to help fill the gap at the intersection of PM and PMM. With that in mind, let's look at 9 actionable steps you can take to make PM and PMM teams strategic partners.
1. Clear Tooling and Source of Truth
Take a hard look at the tools each team is using. Where are releases tracked for each team? Is there a source of truth? Where are feedback and customer insights tracked? Is there a dedicated space for discussions between the teams?
Remember, PMs and PMMs are strategic partners; this means each team should have a vested interest in tracking releases and customer insights together and be able to clearly communicate around those areas. If each team isn't operating on the same page, opportunities will be missed, and things will fall through the cracks.
What you can do now:
Coordinate across teams to build sources of truth in collaborative tools, ensuring transparency and alignment.
Choose platforms that allow real-time updates, shared documentation, slack integrations, and cross-functional visibility into projects' statuses. This could be a tool like Notion or Ignition.
2. Automation for Efficiency
Okay, now that you have your tools in order, the next is to automate as much as you can. Solid async processes can reduce meets and unnecessary clicking between tools to hunt down updates.
What you can do now:
Identify repetitive tasks and processes that can be automated to free up time for strategic collaboration.
Set up integrations with the tools you use that streamline workflow processes, either with native integrations or a tool like Zapier. For example, when a new feature discovery is added to Notion, send an update to Slack to alert the rest of the team.
3. Be Transparent and Build Clarity
Operating with radical transparency means fewer DMs and more sharing updates in public channels where others can be included. Transparency goes hand in hand with the first two steps, and having open conversations builds clarity around ownership across PM and PMM domains.
What you can do now:
Clearly delineate the roles and responsibilities of PM and PMM, ensuring a mutual understanding of how each team will work together. For example, sometimes PM writes release notes, and sometimes PMM owns this. Figure out what works for your teams as long as you are working together.
4. Work Together From the Get-Go
PM and PMM teams have shared goals and should be transparently working together, from product roadmap planning to feature announcement. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean everyone is always an executor. For example, PMM should be an informed party in the product's discovery process.
What you can do now:
Involve both PM and PMM from the inception of projects, ensuring a shared vision and objectives.
Foster an environment where both teams can openly discuss and align on the target market, value propositions, and key messaging.
5. Customer-Centric Collaboration
Always be closing learning. At the core of both PM and PMM is understanding how the product provides value to the customer. The best way to keep this front and center is to prioritize constant feedback loops together.
What you can do now:
Encourage joint customer-facing activities, such as interviews and product demos, to garner real-time market insights. Use automation to share NPS scores, Sales, and Success feedback directly into tools like Slack or Ignition.
6. Co-created Strategies and Playbooks
Templates are your friend. Work across teams to build processes with template playbooks that you can easily rinse and repeat. However, keep in mind that these are guides, not rulebooks. No feature is the same, no launch is the same. The goal is to have an outlined mental model everyone is aligned around.
What you can do now:
Develop joint strategies and playbooks for product launches, marketing campaigns, and customer engagement. Be sure to make these documents living and evolving with input and updates from both teams. Remember, these are guides, not rules!
7. Cross-Functional Education
It's fair to assume that PMs won't be product marketing experts and vice versa. However there should be some understanding of basic domain knowledge. Understanding the other team's goals can add more meaning to their goals, questions, and collaboration - and it's a great way to build more empathy across teams.
What you can do now:
Facilitate cross-training lunch & learns, allowing PM and PMM teams to gain insights into each other's domains. Encourage ongoing learning and development to stay current on best practices and industry trends.
8. Celebrate Joint Successes
Give credit where credit is due, and appreciation goes a long way. Never be afraid to give shout outs and celebrate launch together. Building products are a team sport.
What you can do now:
Publicly recognize and celebrate the collaborative achievements of PM and PMM. If you can give individual shout outs and share success stories that highlight the impact of your collaboration.
9. Strategic Buy-in from Leadership
Getting leadership to view PM and PMM as strategic partners driving the product vision is critical. The output of these teams can drastically impact both the product offering and how the company communicates with the market. Ideally, leadership offers a seat at the strategy table.
What you can do now:
Advocate the strategic importance of both PM and PMM roles, emphasizing their unique contributions and interdependencies by sharing regular updates and the downstream impacts from each team. Remember, a new feature can be a product pivot and completely change the story you tell the market; strategic alignment is critical.
These steps are just the start, and it won't all happen at once. This is a muscle that needs to be built over time that can help develop empathetic relationships between PM and PMM. Team leaders can drive collaboration. However, B2B SaaS leaders can significantly bridge the chasm by transparently supporting initiatives. In doing so, not only is an environment for innovation nurtured, but a solid foundation for delivering market-resonating products is established.
The end game? A robust, agile, and market-responsive collaboration poised for sustainable growth.