So, you want to develop a piece of software that will help your business grow. Awesome! You probably have a lot of questions regarding the best way to do that.

Many who build and sell software today do so with two separate teams — a product team and a marketing team.

In doing so, each team has its own feedback loop:

These feedback loops inform decision making for both the product team and the marketing team independent of one another.

For instance, the product team uses customer feedback to inform product specifications. What features do customers need? How should we prioritize what features we develop? How can we ensure we’re solving the right problems?

At the same time, the marketing team uses customer feedback to inform sales-related decisions. How should the product be priced? How are we going to promote the product? How should we position ourselves relative to the competition?

The problem

With this approach, the product team and the marketing team are fundamentally disjointed. They operate in silos where there’s little cross-collaboration and data sharing between them.

This, in turn, limits the impact of the data that each team collects and ultimately hinders their ability to make the right strategic decisions at the right times.

The solution

To address this problem your business should consider instituting an integrated product-marketing system.

With this approach, your customer data fuels both your product development and marketing teams with one continuous feedback loop.

Now, data and insight from the product development team help to inform marketing decisions. At the same time, data and insight from the marketing team help to inform product decisions.

A unified system like this breaks down communication silos and amplifies the value of the data that’s being collected and used.

The benefits of a joint product-marketing team

Let’s take a look at these added benefits more in depth:

Product familiarity — Your joint product-marketing team will know your product inside and out. They’ll know features, designs, user experiences, customer personas — they’ll know everything. This will help when it comes to communication and facilitating first-rate customer experiences. Not to mention, it will combat ambiguity and ensure product personnel and marketing personnel are on the same page.

Ensure the product is meeting customer needs — Many businesses develop software that doesn’t fully satisfy their customers’ needs. This stems from not fully understanding the customer. A joint product-marketing team can help ensure you’re building a product that will actually solve your customers’ problems. It gives your product team visibility into the marketplace, and aligns their efforts with market needs.

Feature prioritization and support — Your joint product-marketing team will thoroughly understand what your customers want and how best to service them. For instance, your marketing team will be able to assist with feature prioritization, prepare release notes, and provide quick and accurate answers to product-related questions.

Team member growth and development — Collaboration among your joint product-marketing team will expose your personnel to new skillsets and diversify your team’s knowledge. Team members will pick up new skills from their counterparts that they can use to improve their job function in the future.

Streamlined communication — Your joint product-marketing will communicate more effectively. Both sides will be able to drive relevant feedback to one another clearly and with fewer bottlenecks.

It’s not right for everyone

All of that being said, joint product-marketing teams aren’t right for everyone. It’s important to access where your company is at in its journey to find product-market fit.

Have you already built the right product for the right customer, and determined the right way to position it relative to your competition? If so, a joint product-marketing team probably isn’t right for you.

However, if you haven’t found product-market fit, a joint team will accelerate your efforts and give you a leg up over your competition.

It will give you a competitive advantage

When the divide between product and marketing disappears, your company will be in a unique position to make better informed decisions. Unlike your competition, your joint product-marketing team will rely on one continuous feedback loop that’s driven by both product and marketing data.

No more communication silos. No disjointed feedback loops.

A unified system like this will enhance the value of the data that’s being collected, and give your team access to the proper information it needs to make the right strategic decisions at the right times.

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