Why Product Marketing Is the Most Undervalued Strategic Function in Tech Right Now
Ask any early stage founder or executive team what roles are most critical to growth, and you will hear familiar answers: Product. Engineering. Sales. Maybe Marketing, if revenue is lagging.
Product Marketing? Usually somewhere near the bottom of the list.
It is not that product marketing is misunderstood. It is that it is consistently under-scoped.
The reality is that PMMs sit at the center of some of the most important dynamics in a company, across Product, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success. But in most organizations, they are treated like content creators or launch managers. Their work is measured in collateral produced and assets shipped.
Meanwhile, the role that could be shaping company narrative, aligning teams, and surfacing high-impact insights from the field is left stuck in support mode.
That is a missed opportunity. Because if you are leading a startup right now, product marketing is likely one of the most strategic functions you are not fully using.
PMMs Have a 360-Degree View of the Business
A good PMM is not just tuned into what Product is building. They know why it is being built, who it is for, and what the customer is expecting.
They are not just sitting in on Sales calls. They are listening for objections, testing messaging, and identifying where the story breaks down.
They are not just creating assets for Marketing. They are watching performance data, evaluating resonance, and using it to refine narrative direction.
They are not just looping in with Account Managers. They are identifying retention signals, churn risks, and expansion opportunities based on customer behavior.
Very few roles in your org touch that many points. Even fewer know how to synthesize those signals into something usable. PMMs do that. Or at least, they should be allowed to.
But Most Companies Keep Them in a Box
The problem is that most org structures do not reflect this potential.
PMMs are often positioned under Marketing, where they are tasked with delivering “support.” They are assigned to launches, enablement decks, and messaging updates. And while that work matters, it is only one slice of what PMMs can offer.
When you limit PMMs to execution, you lose the opportunity to bring their perspective into decision-making.
You are not asking them to weigh in on product direction, even though they are hearing customer feedback daily.
You are not involving them in pricing strategy, even though they can frame value more clearly than anyone else.
You are not using them to pressure-test positioning, even though they know what language is working in the field.
PMMs have more context than most roles. But context is only useful when it is invited into the room.
Let Them Shape, Not Just Translate
The strategic value of product marketing is not just in translating product features into customer-facing language. It is in shaping how the product is understood and adopted in the first place.
That means giving them access to roadmap conversations. It means letting them participate in growth strategy. It means trusting them to flag when something is not landing, and recommending how to fix it.
If you are treating product marketing as a post-production role, you are not only missing their insight, you are making their job harder. It is much easier to position something clearly when you are involved in the thinking, not just reacting to what was decided.
PMMs do not want to own everything. They want to influence the right things.
You do not need to make product marketing the center of your org. But you do need to recognize the vantage point they have, and make space for them to use it.
Because when you give product marketers a seat at the strategic table, you do not just get better messaging. You get stronger launches, tighter alignment, and faster learning loops.
And in a market this noisy, that might be your most important advantage.
