PMM Lifecycle Management
Welcome to the fifth guide of our series on Product Marketing Fundamentals. In this guide, we’ll explore the Product Marketing Management Lifecycle, a concept that distinguishes the product marketer’s role and defines the various stages a product goes through in the market. Understanding this lifecycle is crucial for product marketers to navigate challenges, drive success, and excel in their roles.
Key Takeaways
- Design thinking is a human-centric, cross-functional approach to innovative problem-solving.
- Current economic trends highlight the importance of experience-driven customer journeys.
- Technology democratization and empowered customers require new strategies.
- Product leaders must adopt design thinking to identify and solve meaningful problems.
Find the right Product Management program for your career goals
The Customer Adoption Lifecycle
The Bell Curve of Adoption: The Customer Adoption Lifecycle outlines the journey a product takes as it gains traction in the market. From innovators to laggards, each customer segment plays a unique role in the adoption process. Understanding these segments and their needs is essential for product marketers to tailor their strategies effectively.
Product Marketer’s Challenges: Crossing the Chasm from early adopters to the early majority is a significant hurdle for many products. Product marketers must also focus on maintaining momentum as products mature and face challenges like market saturation and declining interest.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
The Three Keywords of MVP: A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is crucial for navigating the early stages of the customer adoption lifecycle. By focusing on the minimum features needed to address the core problem, delivering tangible value to users, and launching a complete product ready for testing and feedback, product marketers can accelerate market entry and iterate based on user needs.
Crossing the Chasm: “Crossing the Chasm,” a term coined by Geoffrey Moore, highlights the critical transition from early adopters to the early majority. Product marketers must focus on continuously improving the product, gathering user feedback, and creating a compelling user experience to drive positive word-of-mouth and facilitate this transition.
Roles of a Product Marketer at Each Stage
Early Stages (Innovators and Early Adopters): Product marketers act as subject matter experts, focusing on achieving product-market fit, rapidly adapting to customer feedback, and ensuring the product effectively addresses user needs.
Growth Stage (Early Majority): During the growth stage, product marketers shift their focus to expanding reach, scaling marketing efforts, and optimizing for rapid growth while balancing user support and continuous product improvement.
Maturity Stage (Late Majority): Product marketers prioritize customer retention, refine the product’s value proposition, and develop strategies to maintain market share in a maturing market.
Decline Stage (Laggards): In the decline stage, product marketers explore options for product pivots, new feature development, or other strategies to revitalize the product and mitigate decline.
Real-world Example: Snickers
Adapting Marketing During COVID-19: Snickers effectively adapted its marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic by acknowledging the challenges of working from home, using humor to connect with its audience, and highlighting the advantages of remote work.
Understanding the product marketing management lifecycle and embracing the diverse roles it demands is essential for driving product success and becoming a truly impactful product marketer. By anticipating future trends, adapting proactively, and embracing change, product marketers can navigate challenges, drive growth, and excel in their roles.
In this series, we’ve delved into the fundamentals of product marketing, crafted effective go-to-market strategies, explored budgeting and planning techniques, deciphered essential metrics, and navigated the product lifecycle. By understanding these concepts and strategies, you’re equipped to embark on your product marketing journey with confidence and clarity.