Jason M. Lemkin discusses expectations and limits of product marketing, arguing CEOs often expect 'magic' from product marketing—especially pre-scale—while noting its vital role at large companies like Adobe. He questions appropriate reporting lines for product marketing.
I think we over index in product marketing. I think, you know, I was briefly an SVP to Adobe. I can tell you product marketing there is super important because everyone knows Adobe, right? Everyone, literally every business on the planet is an Adobe customer. They don't even have like contacts or opportunities at Adobe because everyone's a customer. So it's critical. I think these days CEOs and others are looking for too much magic from product marketing. Product differentiation is important, being crystal clear, but until you're massive, there's only so many people to product market to, right? So the rambling answer, which isn't the question you're asking, is I do think we expect too much even going into Series B, even up until 1020 millionaire. I think we expect magic from product market. I don't see it there. But who should it report to? Right.
