Get the Ultimate Job Search Guide for Product Marketers to help you land more interviews, position yourself as the best candidate, stand out, ace assignments, and navigate the entire job search process with confidence. Looking to land a PMM role in 2026? Download this 20-page guide for concrete frameworks and tactical guidance to navigate each stage of your job search. Take charge of your job search with 20 pages of insights distilled from thousands of hours spent coaching over 150 clients. By providing your email address, you'll also subscribe to my newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time, and I respect your privacy. Valentina Llinas Sr. Product Marketing Manager @ Cornerstone OnDemand "I had been in the hunt for 6 months already without luck, and by meticulously following Yi Lin’s process (trust her process!), I was fortunate to secure a role that checked all of my boxes within just 2 months! The confidence that Yi Lin’s approach provides is priceless and game-changing." What You'll Learn How to tailor your search to your unique strengths, values, and competitive advantage. How to position yourself as the best candidate and understand the most strategic way to apply. How to ace your interviews and take-home assignment based on what hiring managers are looking for. Get Instant Access to the Ultimate Job Search Guide for Product Marketers Now By providing your email address, you'll also subscribe to my newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time, and I respect your privacy. Why I created this guide Waves of tech layoffs have made it more important than ever to stand out in the job market. If you’ve been applying to dozens of roles and haven’t heard back or you keep getting passed up for more experienced candidates, it’s time to get more strategic. This ebook consolidates insights from hundreds of hours helping clients land product marketing roles. I hope it can help you avoid pitfalls and build confidence as you navigate your search.

Get the 30-60-90 Day Onboarding checklist for product marketers to help you start your new product marketing job with ease and confidence. Starting a new PMM job and already feeling overwhelmed? You're not alone, and you’re not failing. The first 90 days are tough for everyone. That’s why hundreds of PMMs swear by my free 30/60/90 onboarding checklist: the go-to playbook to help you turn overwhelm into clarity and confidence. By providing your email address, you'll also subscribe to my newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time, and I respect your privacy. Angelea Ennamorato Product Marketing Lead "As I tackled my role as a startup's founding PMM, I knew I needed help. This list was a life saver as I started my new role and with it, I felt I had a real plan on what to do in my new role. that propelled me to a new phase of my career and job where I felt empowered to tackle opportunities and challenges."

Learn about Yi Lin Pei, your dedicated career coach at Tech Growth Coach. From immigrant to a leader in product marketing, with solid credentials and first-hand experience, Yi Lin offers unique support, aiding you to overcome hurdles in your career path. Get acquainted with her values and understand why she's exceptionally suited to guide you towards your dream job. ABOUT YI LIN PEI My mission is to help you achieve your dream career goals with confidence and courage. My Career Story Hello! My name is Yi Lin Pei. On the surface, it may seem like I have it all figured out - I am the founder of a successful coaching business, a 3x Product Marketing Leader, and a mother to two wonderful girls. In short, I seem to be living the dream. But I didn’t start there. As an immigrant Asian woman who grew up in Zambia, the odds were against me from the beginning. I came to the U.S. alone when I was 16 to get an education at the University of Florida. I didn’t know anyone. My mother, who raised me all on her own, gave me her entire savings so I could pay for my tuition. So it was no-brainer when I chose to focus all my attention on getting the highest grades possible and securing a safe and respectable job out of college. I did exactly that and got an offer to work as a transportation engineer at a great consulting company (two college degrees later). For a long time, I thought that was my path for life. But even after having climbed the proverbial career ladder, I felt something was missing, and I was not happy in my role. A lightbulb moment went off in my head when I learned about marketing for technology companies. It was exactly what I had wanted to do and what I know was missing. So when I decided to quit my safe job and pivot into this new role that I barely knew (and had zero experience in), people thought I was crazy. Doing a 180-degree career pivot was no cakewalk. I was met with countless failures and rejections. Every time I was told I didn’t have the relevant experience or lacked certain skills. While I was initially devastated, I picked myself back up, changed my strategy, and developed a unique method that focused on my strengths while honoring my authenticity - and soon I landed my first role in tech marketing at Autodesk. Today, several promotions and roles later, I'm now a coach and advisor. I can truly say I feel a deep alignment between my work and my purpose. What my personal experience taught me is that no matter where you are in your career, and no matter your background, it’s possible to achieve your dreams and rise up. Since 2021, I have helped more than 200 clients thrive in their dream product marketing careers (and helped many companies with building strong product marketing foundations) . My clients work in a wide variety of industries like B2B, B2C SaaS and hardware, Edtech, Fintech, E-commerce, and more. I'm ready to help you on your journey. Why I am Uniquely Qualified to Help You 1. I deliver real results based on proven strategies. Having coached and interviewed hundreds of candidates from APMMs to VPs of product marketing, I know what it takes to land the exact job you are pursuing. As a result, you can achieve your career goals in the shortest time possible - with the most tailored support - based on a proven, repeatable, and structured process that has been tried and tested many times over. 2. I coach you on both hard and soft skills. Most coaches focus on either one or the other. I focus on the whole person since I believe it’s the most effective way to achieve long-lasting results for years to come. In every coaching program, I provide you with the hard skills you need to build your domain expertise and the soft skills you need to navigate your career, from effective communication to overcoming self-limiting beliefs. 3. I have the experience and credentials. As a career pivoter myself who went from newbie PMM to director in 3 years, I walk the walk and combine theory with practice in my coaching. I understand what it’s like to be an outsider, a minority, an immigrant, or a female in a world where you may feel like you don't belong. I will work relentlessly to cheer you on and become your biggest advocate. I am guided by my purpose to create better representation in tech and help everyone succeed. CREDENTIALS & EXPERIENCE Experience Founder and Coach of Courageous Careers PMM/GTM Advisor for Navattic (High Growth PLG Startup) Director of Product Marketing at Teachable (Edtech Startup, acquired) Director of Product Marketing at Brightflag (Series A Legaltech Startup) Sr Product Marketing Manager at View (NASDAQ: VIEW) Content Marketing Manager at Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) Brand Management Associate at Nestlé (Global 500) Former startup founder of InnoWaste Social Impact startup Awards & Interests Top 25 B2B Marketing Voices on LinkedIn (Exit 5) - 2025 Top 100 Product Marketing Influencers (PMA) – 2024, 2023 Top 5 PMM Career Coaches (PMA) - 2024 Best Companies to Work for in Product Marketing – 2022 Award-winning Watercolor Artist and Painter Education M.B.A., U.C. Berkeley - Haas School of Business M.S. in Civil Engineering and City Planning, Georgia Tech B.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Florida (Summa Cum Laude) Ready to work together? Book a Free Consult My Values insight knowledge warmth authenticity directness

Imagine you've just started a new product marketing role. Before you've even figured out where everything lives, your manager drops five things on you, all marked high priority: Revamp all the product pages Build a new sales pitch deck Help the CSM team improve their QBR deck Update the pricing page and revamp packaging Lead the repositioning exercise, which leadership wanted yesterday Where do you even begin? How do you tackle all of this without dropping the ball, or worse, accidentally burning a relationship you haven't even fully built yet? These are the exact situations so many PMMs and new leaders face every day. And the thing is, most of us underestimate how critical the first 90 days really are, until we're in it. That's why 2.5 years ago, ​I put together a framework​ I used to onboard successfully in my own career, one that helped me get promoted every single year in a new role. Since then, I've coached over 75 PMMs and leaders through this same process via my ​Grow onboarding program​, and I've learned a lot along the way. Given the world we're operating in now, I've given this proven plan a little makeover: a framework optimized for an AI-enabled environment. Before you groan inwardly (or outwardly) about "AI again", let me reassure you: this is a good thing. Because it's going to help you prove your worth more quickly. Like it or not, AI has changed the pace of product development. Product teams are now shipping in days what used to take weeks or months. As a result, PMMs are being asked to do more with less, get up to speed faster, and create more impact earlier in their tenure. The basic principles and activities are the same, but I have now added a layer that explicitly shows how you can use AI to accelerate what you’re learning and delivering, and made sure this plan works with the pace that hiring managers now demand. So let's dive in. The reframe that changes everything in your first 90 days as a PMM Before you even start your first day, here's an important mindset shift you need to make: Your first 90 days as a PMM are about reaching your break-even point, the moment when the value you're contributing to the business clearly exceeds the value you're consuming in time, training, and other people's attention (the line graph below). In the beginning, it's completely natural and expected for that balance to tip toward consuming (the yellow part of the graph). You're new. You need context. That's fine. But your goal is to close that gap thoughtfully and cross it, so you move to the value delivery part (blue part of the graph). When you do that, you can feel your manager relax, other team members start coming to you, and you stop feeling like you're playing catch-up, but that you actually belong there, because you do. The secret the best PMMs have figured out is this: you don't cross that threshold by doing more. You cross it by doing the right things, in the right order, with the right people. Often, that means doing less than you think you should, so that what you do deliver is genuinely excellent and genuinely aligned. To make that work, you need to be intentional about where you invest your time: what you learn, what you deliver, and who you spend time with. Here’s how that plays out across three phases. 30 Days: Establish trust and credibility Your main goal in the first 30 days is to make the right people feel heard, and to show, through a small number of well-chosen actions, that you understand what matters here. What you need to learn: The most common trap I see is PMMs who spend their first month consuming everything – support docs, demo recordings, Gong calls – and end up feeling overwhelmed and unanchored. One client described it perfectly: "I feel like I'm consuming so much, but I'm not actually absorbing anything." The fix is simple but counterintuitive: learn by doing. Find a small project to dive into immediately before you feel ready. For example, you could take on a project to do competitive comparison pages, which will then force you to understand your product, your market, and your differentiation all at once, and you walk away with something actually useful. What you need to deliver: Because you've been learning by doing, you're already partway toward your first wins. Pick 1–2 small but high-priority projects and execute them well. AI is your friend here: use it to synthesize call summaries, pull themes from release notes, and turn raw research into something usable faster than you ever could before. You’re not using it to replace your thinking, but to free up more of your time for the conversations that matter. By the end of 30 days, everything you've learned and delivered should feed into one key output: your gap analysis, which is a clear, honest picture of where PMM is strong, where it's thin, and where the biggest opportunities are. This is the foundation that makes everything in the next phase strategic rather than reactive, and this is usually the place I spend time with my client building. Who you should meet with: Your product managers, marketing leads, sales leadership, and your own manager. Go on a listening tour not to impress, but to understand. What does success look like from their seat? What are they worried about? Every one of these conversations is an investment that will pay off for months. 60 Days: Deliver larger wins, keep learning By now, you have some early wins behind you and a gap analysis in hand. In the next 30 days, you're moving from listening to doing. You've earned enough context to have a real point of view, and people are starting to see it. What you need to learn: Go deeper on customers. Shadow sales calls. Sit with CS. Your first 30 days gave you the foundations and now is when you learn how customers actually experience the product day-to-day: what makes them stay, what makes them leave, what keeps coming up in deals. This is also when you start mapping who really holds influence in your org, not just by title, but by internal trust. Every team has someone whose opinion others look up to. Find that person early and invest in that relationship. What you need to deliver: Turn your gap analysis into a prioritized project plan you can share with your manager and stakeholders. It should answer the question everyone is really asking: what are you working on, and why does it matter to me? If you’re in a founding PMM role where the function isn’t well understood, start by aligning on what PMM is meant to drive, and tie it directly to their goals, not yours. This is also a great phase to start building AI-powered workflows that support your bigger projects. Start with the problem to understand where time is being lost, and where AI could help. Show your work as you go, and invite people in before things are finished. Who you should meet with: Sales reps and CS for richer customer and prospect insights. Product design and engineering to understand the roadmap more deeply. And of course, any additional centers of influence you've identified. 90 Days: Ramp up for peak performance This is the phase where it all starts to come together. The focus shifts from building context and racking up early wins to showing that your work is creating real, measurable impact, and you cross the break-even threshold. What you need to learn: At this stage, your most valuable learning comes from feedback on your deliverables, your priorities, and how you're showing up as a partner to other teams. Pay close attention to what's landing and what isn't. This is the phase where your self-awareness compounds fastest. What you need to deliver: Show real progress on your most important project. It doesn't have to be finished as sharing work in progress and inviting input is often more valuable than waiting until something is perfect. Socialize what you've already shipped too: what changed, what the impact was, what you learned. This is especially important for solo PMMs who are still helping their organization understand what product marketing does and why it matters. On the AI front, this is a great time to formalize what you've been building and present a simple AI strategy to your manager and team, something you can fold into the broader team plan going forward. I'd suggest framing it as a crawl, walk, run approach: here's where we started, here's where we are, here's where we're headed. Who you should meet with: Key stakeholders to share your results and map out what's next. This is also the moment to schedule a 90-day check-in with your manager separate from your regular 1:1. Use a simple start, stop, continue framework: what should you keep doing, stop doing, and start doing? It removes the pressure of a formal review and gets you more immediately useful feedback than almost any other conversation you'll have. And start establishing the recurring rhythms that will define how you operate going forward, with your manager, and with the product, sales, and CS partners whose work intersects most with yours. These relationships are the infrastructure of everything you'll build from here. What's next? The framework above will take you a long way to go through your first 90 days with intention. But I also know from experience that knowing what to do and applying it to your specific situation, your company, your manager, and your team dynamics are two different things. That's where having someone in your corner makes a real difference, especially if you're navigating a transition like: Moving from a large company to a startup, or vice versa Stepping into a new industry without the domain shorthand yet Taking on a leadership role for the first time (e.g., director, head of roles) Coming in as a solo PMM with no playbook to inherit Here's what a couple of people said after working through this with me: "Yi Lin gave me a clear, actionable roadmap that helped me quickly build relationships and impress my leadership team from day one. Within six months, I received an award for my contributions, something I never expected so early on." — Terver Bendega, Sr. PMM, Tipalti "Working with Yi Lin has been like product marketing therapy; she's not just an expert, she's a true partner." — Emily Highstreet, Head of Marketing, RevenueRoll If any of this resonated, I'd love to hear from you. Reply to this email and tell me, what's the one thing you're most hoping to get right in a new role right now? I read everything personally and always write back. And if you'd like a guide beside you for the whole journey, learn more about the GROW program here. Before you leave, one more thing: Come meet me in person this month! If you have ever wondered what working with me is like (or if I am real 😄 ), I will be hosting two small, off-the-record PMM dinners in New York and San Francisco this month! No agenda, no pitch, just real conversation with a handful of mid-career PMMs navigating real transitions. Think of it as a supper club for the stuff we don't usually say out loud. New York (Manhattan): May 17th San Francisco: May 27th If you’d like to join any of the dinners above, just reply to this email, share a bit about yourself, and grab a spot. :) I would love to meet you! Until next month, Yi Lin 💜

Before we dive into the main content, here is a quick announcement! If you’re a PMM stuck in your job search and tired of rejections, this is for you. I’m opening the next enrollment window for my ​ PMM Job Search System​  from April 13–17. 4 reasons to join this program: 1:1 time with me . You get a focused 30-min session to tackle your most critical blocker A proven, end-to-end playbook  with 9 modules and 30 lessons built specifically for PMMs Live workshops led by me , covering everything from resumes, interviews, case assignments, and even AI fluency A 300+ PMM private network , with alumni inside hiring teams and companies you want to work at On average, at least one member per week from the program is landing a job right now. If you’re serious about landing your next role, don’t miss this opportunity. :) 👉 Read the rave reviews and apply Now let's dive in. The question underneath all the noise Every week, I get some version of the same message. A PMM who is accomplished, capable, and clearly good at their work reaches out, wondering if they are building the right career for what’s coming next. Sometimes it’s driven by AI. Sometimes it’s a role that no longer feels like a fit. And sometimes it’s more vague, like a sense of being stuck or off track. Underneath all of it, the question is almost always the same. Am I actually in control of where this is going? And if I’m not, how can I be? When that question starts to surface, it is very natural to narrow your focus too quickly and look for answers in what feels most visible, urgent, or widely talked about. It creates a sense of direction, or at least the feeling of doing something productive. But this is usually where things start heading in the wrong direction.  Because you might begin making decisions that are not fully aligned with where you actually want to go, or you might optimize for what seems important in the moment, rather than what will meaningfully move you forward. Over time, that gap compounds. You can put a ton of effort into solving problems that don’t change your trajectory, and end up feeling more stuck because of it. I see this often in how PMMs respond to shifts like AI. There is a tendency to double down on tools or tactics when trying to address a deeper question about career direction, only leading to more frustrations and feelings of FOMO, or straight-up fear.  The PMMs who navigate through changes successfully approach this differently. They are not the ones chasing the newest or most talked-about trends. Instead, they’re the ones who have enough clarity about themselves to make intentional choices as their environment shifts. This is a pattern I have seen consistently across the 300+ PMMs and leaders I have coached, regardless of company, level, or market conditions. It is also what led me to develop the Thriving PMM Framework. The framework is a way to think more systematically about how you build your PMM career.  It has three layers:  Layer 1 focuses on PMM craft , the core skills that define the role, which are now increasingly augmented by AI.  Layer 2 is about  human skills , the capabilities that carry across contexts and are not easily replicated by tools. Layer 3, which sits at the foundation, is your  career agency . This is your ability to define your path, shape your story, and navigate key inflection points with intention. Today, I’ll walk through each of these three layers to help you get clearer on where you are and what actually matters next. Let’s dig in.  Layer 1: The core PMM skills Let’s start with the first layer, PMM craft, because this is where most of the noise is right now. First, let me reassure you. The core PMM craft isn’t going away. If anything, AI is raising the bar for quality, which means the fundamentals matter more than ever. In fact, from what I’m seeing in my own advisory work, demand for positioning and messaging has actually increased, not decreased. What is changing is how the role shows up. AI is pushing PMMs further into orchestrator roles, where you are coordinating work to improve efficiency while keeping the strategy intact.  To use music as an analogy, as the conductor of an orchestra, you are not playing every instrument yourself, but you are responsible for how it all comes together. That requires a strong understanding of what each instrument can do and how to bring them together in a way that actually works. Ultimately, that is what determines the quality of the performance, and is what separates great world-class philharmonics from the rest.  So what are the core elements of the PMM craft? Here is a refresher on the four foundational elements: Research.   Deep competitive, market, and customer research. The insights that move strategy. AI can synthesize faster, but you still need to make judgment about what to pay attention to and what’s just noise.  Positioning and messaging.   Turning insights into a clear narrative that resonates. AI can generate options, but you need to shape what’s actually true and differentiated that doesn’t sound like everyone else. GTM systems.   Building the operating model for launches, campaigns, and go-to-market strategy. AI helps with execution; you still need to design the architecture, often  in collaboration with other humans.  Enablement and evangelism.   Making sure the message lands internally with sales and externally with the market. AI can help with content; but again, the relationships and influence are human. Of course, these don’t cover every responsibility a product marketer might have. The scope will vary depending on company stage, size, and go-to-market motion. Some PMMs will own pricing and packaging, while others focus on analyst relations or even in-product activation. But these four areas form a core foundation. Without them, it is difficult to build real strength in the role. In summary, the right way to approach AI is to treat it as an execution accelerator across all the core PMM craft elements. It increases the speed and volume of work, making judgment and prioritization even more important. The table below breaks this down more concretely across human-led, AI-assisted, and AI-driven work. Table: How PMM work shifts across human judgment and AI support (not exhaustive) 👉 If you want to go deeper on how to use AI in your daily work, check out my comprehensive State of AI in Product Marketing Report . Layer 2: The human skills no tool can replace If Layer 1 is about the work itself, Layer 2 is about how that work actually gets done. I was recently talking with a Lead PMM at a large tech company who was hired to own her company’s platform AI narrative. Her role is entirely centered on AI. But when I asked what actually makes her successful, she didn’t mention tools or technical depth. She said it was her ability to build relationships, align teams, and get people to believe in what they’re building. The irony wasn’t lost on either of us. The most important skill of an AI PMM is, in fact, irreducibly human.  Here are the two skills that are fundamental to being a great PMM that AI simply cannot replace:  Influence and relationships.   This is one of those areas that can sound almost cliché, as “Influence without authority” gets talked about a lot. But in practice, it is still one of the most important skills to get right. Influence is your ability to build trust across all stakeholders, such as product, sales, leadership, and customers. It shows up internally, in how you align teams and drive decisions, and externally, in how your message lands in the market. It also requires judgment, e.g., knowing which battles to pick, when to push, and how to bring people along. Because let’s face it, this is what determines whether your work actually gets implemented and seen.  👉 If you want to go deeper on this, I’ve written an entire newsletter on this topic that you can check out here Business strategy.   This has always been critical for PMMs, but it is now more important than ever. Because as AI takes on more execution, the work becomes even more about deciding what is worth doing in the first place, and why… and that is business strategy. You need to understand how the business operates, connect your work to revenue, growth, and company priorities, and prioritize ruthlessly and communicate trade-offs to leadership. This is what separates strategic PMMs from tactical ones: the ability to work one hour with product management, hop on a customer call with CX, and then present a deep dive on the competition to the leadership team, all while thinking about the business as a whole, and not just that particular piece of it. 👉 If you want to go deeper on how to connect PMM work to business strategy and growth, I’ve written more about that here The bottom line is, PMM is a connector role between many different functions, and success depends on navigating people as much as it does on producing work. It requires emotional intelligence, judgment, and a strong understanding of how the business operates, along with the ability to align across different priorities. None of that can be automated. The image below shows how the PMM role works in practice,  not as the center of teams, but  as the connector across them. Layer 3: Career agency as the foundation  If Layer 1 is about the work itself, and Layer 2 is about how that work gets done, then Layer 3 is about the direction you’re actually heading in. This is the layer most PMMs don’t spend enough time on, but it is the one that makes everything else work. There’s a chart I often share when I give a talk about PMM career design at conferences: Most people who see this focus on the winding parts, aka “my second act”: the startup that failed, the art business, the pivot into product marketing, etc.  What they don’t always notice is what the straight line (blue area) at the beginning actually represents. That was me with low career agency. I was an engineering consultant out of Georgia Tech, moving predictably upward, but unhappy. Even though I knew early on I didn’t want to be a consultant, I stayed for 6 years anyway, mostly out of fear and uncertainty.  What changed wasn’t that I suddenly had a perfect plan. It was that I started treating my career as something I was actively designing, rather than something that was happening to me. Once that shifted, the path became more nonlinear, but also more intentional. The startup that didn’t work, the stint in content marketing, the art business, they stopped feeling like detours. Each one gave me information and shaped what I did next. And over time, that led to outcomes that would have been very difficult to plan up front. i.e., moving to PMM, being promoted three times in three years to Director, building teams from scratch, and eventually creating a portfolio career that spans coaching, advising, and my art business (and living perhaps the most fulfilling phase of my career)  If you’re curious, I once wrote a “resume of failure” that captures a lot of these pivots and detours. I share this because it’s what career agency actually looks like in practice. I also share this to show you that no matter where you are at one point, you can change it and take control of it.  Career agency is not just about having skills. It’s about being the primary driver of your own career, making decisions even when it’s hard, evaluating trade-offs, and moving in a direction that aligns with what you actually want. In practical terms, career agency consists of skills that empower you to do the following:  Path design:   Getting clear on where you actually want to go, whether that’s leadership, a deeper IC path, a portfolio career, or something you can’t quite name yet. There’s no right answer because it’s about you, and your unique journey. Landing the right role:   Knowing how to articulate your value clearly, finding roles genuinely aligned with that, and finding a role that maximizes growth and what you value instead of settling for any offer that comes along (or other people’s definition of good). Thriving once you’re in it:   Having a real playbook for the first 90 days, knowing how to position yourself for promotion, and building the internal relationships that actually move your career. Building optionality:   Designing a career that goes beyond the current job, which includes your personal brand, your network, and the reputation you’re building in the market. This is the work you do for yourself, not just for a company’s roadmap. To give you an example, one of my clients came into our first session and said, “I don’t even know what my career goal is.” So we actually spent that first session just clarifying that. And what she realized was that she didn’t want to be a full-time PMM anymore. She wanted to build her own business. From there, we spent the rest of the program building out her business idea, her offer, and her entire GTM strategy, including how she would test and get her first clients. Within two months of launching, she had already signed a major client. That’s what I mean by career agency. Because it doesn’t matter how strong your skills are or what others perceive as success. If you don’t know where you’re going or are just following others’ playbooks, you can end up just rowing harder in the wrong direction. That’s why this layer sits at the foundation of everything else. What’s next - Start building your PMM career with intention If you’re reading this and it’s making you think more seriously about your own direction, this is the work I do and have been doing.  I’ve worked with experienced PMMs across different stages, whether they’re trying to land a new role, get promoted, or figure out a bigger shift in their career. But I also know that when you’re at that point, you might not even know what the right next step is, or which program makes sense. That’s why I am offering a limited, one-time Career Clarity Session. This is a focused session where we look at where you are today, assess what’s actually going on across these different layers, and help you get clear on what your next move should be. This is a good fit if you’re a mid-career PMM: thinking about a new role or promotion feeling stuck in your current role or trying to figure out where your career is actually going This offer is valid only for the next 2 weeks.  → Learn more and apply here And if you’re wondering what this looks like in practice, here are a few experiences from PMMs I’ve worked with:  That’s all for today! See you next time.  Yi Lin

I've spent years running positioning workshops and training PMMs across companies of all sizes. Before each session, I ask these teams to rate their current positioning process on a scale of 1 to 5. The pattern is remarkably consistent. Most teams rate themselves somewhere between 2 and 3. I rarely see 4s, and almost never see 5s. And these aren't struggling teams. They're talented, experienced product marketers. They have strong frameworks and know April Dunford’s process inside and out. They care deeply about getting it right. But they feel stuck, because positioning is hard.  AI has made it even harder. Categories are saturated,  and differentiating your solution is more important than ever. In fact, the ability to create differentiated positioning supported by strong narratives is one of the MOST important skills hiring managers today are looking for.  So if you feel like you or your team haven’t quite “figured out” positioning or that output is less than ideal, you're not alone.  Let me walk you through why it fails and what actually fixes it. Why product positioning fails 1. Positioning gets created in isolation or diluted by committee. These are two common patterns – both extremes, and neither is good. In the first, a PMM creates positioning on their own. Stakeholders weigh in randomly or through ad-hoc meetings, but there's no space made for shared conversation. In the second, teams go too far in the other direction –  trying to build consensus by incorporating everyone's feedback, and losing the positioning’s edge and clarity in the process (the peanut butter approach). Read about it here .  Both approaches miss something fundamental: positioning is an alignment exercise , not a solo deliverable. The goal isn't to write the perfect statement and get approval. It's to create shared understanding across the people who need to use it. 2. Positioning is treated as a launch deliverable instead of a strategic input.  This often happens when product management doesn’t understand the product marketing function.  They see positioning as something that happens at launch: features get built, decisions get locked, and then PMM comes in to explain it all. This is actually the wrong order of operations. Positioning works best when it informs product development, not follows it. Early positioning creates clarity on what the product does and who it's for. That clarity shapes better decisions. Positioning that comes after decisions are made is reactive: you're explaining features without knowing if they matter to customers. It evolves in stages: Discover  — before a line of code is written, pressure-test your right to win. Design  — refine value pillars as the product takes shape. Develop  — lock the narrative before launch. Deploy  — activate it across messaging, channels, and sales. When positioning informs the roadmap early, you build the right thing. When it’s layered on at the end, you’re just trying to explain it. I break this down in more detail here .  Also, see the chart below to represent this.  3. Teams focus only on the positioning statement itself, not what feeds into it or what happens after. Most positioning conversations stay narrowly focused on crafting the statement – skipping  two critical pieces get skipped: The inputs:  What data and insights should actually inform positioning ? Some good news: most teams already have the research they need to start. The activation:  How will you translate positioning – first into messaging, and then sales conversations, on product pages, in customer onboarding? Without a clear activation plan, even great positioning sits unused. These three problems feed into each other. Positioning stays misaligned across teams, sales doesn't use it, Product and PMM aren't aligned, and positioning becomes a box you check off rather than something that shapes business operations and helps you grow. A strong positioning process – the one I’m about to walk you through – can solve all three at once. It’s not just for writing a statement, but a system for how to make sure it gets used throughout your organization. Before we dive in, let’s quickly reset on some commonly used but often misunderstood terms:  Positioning, messaging, copy, and narrative Before we dive into the process, let's get clear on what we're actually talking about. Positioning  is your strategic foundation. It's how your product fits in the market: who it's for, what it does, why it's different, and why it matters. Think of it as the internal logic that guides everything else. Messaging  is how you communicate your positioning. It's the language, themes, and key points (value pillars, benefits, capabilities, and features) you use to convey your value to customers.  Copy  is the execution. It's the actual headlines, body text, CTAs, and specific language that shows up on your website, in emails, in ads. Copy brings messaging to life and can be clever, punchy, or creative.  Narrative  is the story arc that connects your positioning across touchpoints. It's how you guide customers through understanding your value over time, from first awareness to deep conviction.  You can think of these as layers of the onion with positioning in the middle – and if the center is not right, then everything falls apart,  no matter how great your copy is. That’s why it’s so critical to get it right.  My 5-step product positioning process  I've been refining this process for years across companies of different sizes, stages, and industries. It's designed to fix the positioning mistakes we just talked about: create the right amount of alignment, bring PMM in earlier, and give teams a repeatable system. This is a mixed-method approach, not pulled from a single playbook but instead influenced by some of the strongest positioning frameworks (including April Dunford’s), combined with what I’ve learned from running workshops and leading PMM within organizations. I’ve used it to train dozens of teams and individuals.  Step 1: Gather data and insights Notice I didn't say "do more research." I said, gather what you already have. The goal here is to determine the least amount of data needed to come up with the best possible insights to inform positioning. This does NOT necessarily mean conducting more customer interviews, competitive analysis, or market research. Because you probably already have enough insights to move forward. The problem is that no one has synthesized these insights in a way that's useful for positioning. So how do you do this with the least effort?  Start with the end goal in mind First,  get clear on what you're trying to inform. You need to understand: Market segmentation and ICP Personas, use cases, and jobs to be done Differentiated value Customer proof (if it exists) Keeping these goals in mind helps you figure out which insights actually matter. Use the triangulation method Here's the framework I use: instead of gathering a ton from one source, mix your data types. You’ll get better coverage, reduce bias, and have more usable data. Think of it as a triangle with three types of data: Qualitative data (what people say):  Customer interviews, call recordings, online reviews. You don't need dozens; just two to three will usually surface 80% of what you need to know. Outcomes data (what they choose):  Customer acquisition cost, NPS, churn rates, conversion rates. These give you directional clues about what's working and what isn't. Behavioral data (what they do):  Usage analytics, feature adoption, onboarding completion rates – how customers actually interact  with your product, not just what they say they do or plan to do. Mixing these types rather than going deep on just one will give you a more accurate picture than 50 interviews alone. . Step 2: Conduct the positioning workshop This is where the magic happens, and it's not a solo exercise. A positioning workshop brings cross-functional stakeholders into the same room (or Zoom) to speak the same language about the product's value. You absolutely need product in the room;  sometimes sales, sometimes customer success. The exact mix and seniority levels needed depends on your org, but the point is: this isn't something PMM does alone and then presents. The workshop format works because it  forces alignment and focus in real time.  Instead of endless Slack threads and comment wars in Google Docs, you hash it out together. Disagreements will surface, but you resolve them in the moment. Product teams start thinking about capabilities and outcomes, not just features. Sales starts understanding the strategic rationale behind the messaging. Everyone leaves speaking the same language. It builds buy-in without authority. As a PMM, you often don't have formal power over product or sales. But when you facilitate a strong workshop, you demonstrate influence. You become the person who brings clarity to the chaos. The structure of the workshop matters. I use a set of forcing questions and exercises designed to pull out what people actually know (and reveal what they don't). These are listed below..  1. Start with your happiest customers   Ask: Who gets the most value from us?  This is where alignment gaps show up. If there’s no consensus on your best-fit customer, everything downstream breaks. 2. Identify the champion persona   Within the ICP, who actually drives the deal forward –end user? Budget owner? Executive sponsor? Sharp positioning requires a clear champion. 3. Clarify their jobs-to-be-done   What is the champion trying to accomplish? What motivates them? What gets in their way? 4. Define the real alternative   If you didn’t exist, what would they do instead? It might be another vendor, a workaround, or nothing at all. Pick one. Positioning needs a clear reference point. 5. Pressure-test differentiators   What truly sets you apart from that alternative? Some claims will be table stakes. A few will emerge as real competitive strengths. 6. Build the value matrix (post-workshop)   Translate differentiators into impact:  Attribute → Capability → Benefit → Business Outcome  This connects product details to what the champion actually cares about. 7. Synthesize into a messaging house   Bring it all together: • ICP & champion • Core challenges/jobs • Differentiators & value pillars • Proof & business outcomes Tools like Miro or FigmaJam boards are best for this kind of exercise, whether in person or virtual, as a way to truly preserve the work you’ve done (see visual below). Of course, positioning can't just live in your head or be buried in a slide deck. You need to document it in a way that's accessible, reusable, and clear. That's where the positioning and messaging canvas comes in. It's a structured document that captures not just what you decided, but why you decided it. Step 3: Capture into a positioning and messaging canvas The centerpiece of this canvas is the value hierarchy exercise. This is where most teams get stuck, and it's also where the biggest breakthroughs happen. Here's how it works. You map your product across four layers: Features : What it is. The tangible pieces of your product. Think: dashboard, API, mobile app. Capabilities : What it does, and enables users to do. Think: track performance in real time, automate workflows, and centralize data. Benefits : What it means for the user – capabilities translated into value. Think: save time, reduce errors, increase visibility. Outcomes : The transformation or business result. Think: grow revenue, improve customer retention, scale operations. Example Value Matrix of a Fake B2B SaaS AI platform Features Capabilities Benefits (User-Level) Outcomes (Business-Level) AI-powered anomaly detection Automatically identifies unusual patterns across revenue, usage, and churn signals Teams don’t need to manually monitor dashboards Faster issue detection → reduced revenue leakage Natural language data queries Allows anyone to query data in plain English Non-technical teams can self-serve insights Increased data adoption across departments Predictive forecasting engine Projects revenue and usage trends based on behavioral patterns Leaders can anticipate risks and opportunities earlier More accurate quarterly planning and resource allocation Most common teams jump from features straight to benefits, completely skipping the capability layer. But capabilities are the bridge that connects what your product is to why it matters. Without that bridge, your positioning feels hollow. You're making claims ("save time!") without showing how the product actually delivers on them. When I have teams fill out a matrix with these four columns during workshops,  the capability row is always the hardest and the most revealing. It forces product teams to articulate what the product actually does before they start making promises about what it means. Once you've mapped the hierarchy, you capture it in the canvas alongside your target audience, competitive differentiation, and proof points. This becomes your source of truth. Step 4: Test and validate Before you roll out positioning across the org, you need to pressure test it. This helps during the workshop when stakeholders disagree too much on positioning decisions; you can say, "Look, we're not trying to create perfect positioning here. We have to test this anyway." That speeds up the process instead of three months of back and forth. Because positioning is a hypothesis . It's what you think is best, but you can’t validate until you see how your audience actually responds to it. Three ways to test positioning Below are three practical ways to validate your positioning. First, direct discussions with customers  (especially powerful in B2B). Have salespeople use the new positioning directly in sales deals. See what resonates, what confuses, and what questions customers ask. Second, panel research . For B2B, Wynter is a tool that's widely used. User testing platforms work well, too. Get direct feedback on whether your positioning is clear to your target audience. Third, direct channel testing . Test it across your marketing channels. A/B test emails. Try different social copy. Put variations on your website and see what performs. You’re doing this; just apply it to positioning. The key insight is that testing doesn't happen once before launch. You test, learn, refine, and test again. You can create something,  validate it in the market, iterate, and do it again. This mindset also helps you move faster. When teams get stuck debating positioning details, remind them that the market will tell you what works, which beats endless internal debates. Build the hypothesis, test it, learn from it, and refine – here’s how.  Step 5: Activate and iterate This is where most teams drop the ball. They create the positioning, share the document, and then… nothing happens. Sales keeps using their old pitch. Product keeps talking about features. The problem is simple: it’s not obvious to other teams l how to actually use your positioning document.  So you need to create derivative assets for each team. For marketing, create a quick reference guide for copywriting. What to say, what not to say. Specific phrases. Examples of off-brand language to avoid. For product, create a strategic insights brief. Share the competitive intel and customer feedback that can inform their roadmap. For sales, develop the actual talk track. The pitch, the objection handling, and the proof points they can use in customer conversations. The more directly you answer their questions, the better adoption you get. And when you help them, something powerful happens: they start helping you back. The teams that treat positioning as locked either stick with outdated messaging or reinvent everything from scratch every six months. Both are painful. Instead, build a rhythm. Make positioning a part of how your organization operates. How this process brings in PMMs earlier (and earns you a seat at the table) A  strong positioning process doesn't just improve messaging. It changes when and how PMMs get involved in product decisions. Right now, if you're like most PMMs, you're brought in after product decisions are made. The roadmap is set. Features are locked. Your job is to "make it sound good." But when you establish positioning as a repeatable process, not a one-time deliverable, it becomes a forcing function. Product teams start to realize they can't ship without clear positioning. And positioning can't happen without PMM. Here's how to use this as leverage: Make positioning a requirement, not a nice-to-have . Explain why it’s a critical input to the product development cycle, not an afterthought. When Product proposes a new feature, ask: How will we position this? Who is it for? What value does it deliver? Show how positioning informs product decisions . Use the value matrix exercise with product teams before features are built. If they have trouble articulating a feature’s capabilities and outcomes, they start questioning whether it's the right thing to build in the first place. Create a repeatable rhythm . Don't wait for launches to do positioning work. Build it into your quarterly planning. Make it part of how product and marketing operate together. The positioning workshop itself becomes your leverage. When you facilitate a strong session that brings clarity and alignment, people notice. You become the person who makes the complex simple. You demonstrate strategic thinking, not just execution. That's how you earn a seat at the table: by proving you belong there through the value you create. What’s next If you see yourself and your team in what I’ve described above, you don’t have to fix it alone. Here's how I can help: ​ 1:1 coaching ​ for PMMs looking to elevate their positioning work, influence without authority, and become true strategic partners - not just launch support. ​ Team training and advising ​ for companies that want to build a great positioning, especially for navigating complex positioning challenges, multi-product portfolios, or major strategic shifts. Simply contact me if you are interested, and we can discuss how to work together.