The PMM role has always demanded a certain level of agility, whether it’s adapting to new product launches, responding to changing market dynamics, or balancing sales and product teams.
But, in 2025, PMMs aren’t just adjusting. They’re actively investing, and not just in their outputs, but in themselves as well.
According to The State of Product Marketing Report 2025, the share of product marketing budgets being allocated to training and professional development has increased fivefold in the last year, jumping from just 2.4% in 2024 to 11.2% in 2025.
It’s a sign that PMMs are seeing their role differently. But why are product marketers making personal and professional development such a priority, and what exactly are they doing with that budget?
A bigger role with higher stakes
PMMs are being asked to do more than ever and prove their impact at every step. Messaging and positioning are still at the core of the role, with 91% of PMMs owning this responsibility, but there’s more.
“Positioning discipline is one of the often underestimated skills for PMMs is the ability to build strong, disciplined positioning. It’s a clear articulation of value, not just capability. It’s what turns messaging from just a list of features into a narrative the audience can relate to. And this isn’t something AI can generate for you.
“Sure, it can help polish the words, but true positioning comes from pattern-matching across customer conversations, competitive insight, and market context. It has to be validated in the real world – with sales teams, with buyers, with actual humans.
“The PMMs who are great at this don’t chase clever copy. They root the message in something real: why it matters, who it’s for, and how it improves the customer’s life. That clarity becomes the foundation for everything else – from launches to campaigns to enablement.” – Laura Kaminski, Head of Product Marketing at iTradeNetwork
Our data shows a notable rise in strategic contributions. PMMs are now heavily involved in sales enablement (78.7%), onboarding (37.5%), competitive intelligence (65.2%), and managing customer-facing materials like websites and sales documents (65.2%) as well, on top of their usual responsibilities.
They’re spending more time supporting cross-functional teams, more time in customer research, and more time crafting and refining stories that not only capture product value but also drive revenue.
Alongside this is a shift in how success is measured. Traditional content metrics have taken a back seat. Instead, product marketers are being judged on their ability to impact the business directly: new revenue generation, marketing-qualified lead growth, with rate improvements, and go-to-market strategy execution.
In other words, PMMs are no longer expected to just influence growth – they’re expected to deliver it.
This kind of role expansion brings opportunity but also a huge amount of pressure. It’s no wonder, then, that product marketers are choosing to invest more in the skills, knowledge, and resources that will help them not just survive the shift but also lead it.
“As product marketers, we’re often one of the few consistent touchpoints where cross-functional teams can share goals, raise challenges – and receive direct strategic support.
“These stakeholders are willing to help with PMM’s priorities, too, but they also need to see clear, consistent value in every interaction. Make it a priority to show up with something meaningful. This could be competitive intelligence, win/loss insights, market shifts, a strong GTM plan, or just a helpful snippet you heard on a recent Gong call.
“Embrace your role as a strategic hub and give generously. You’ll get more in return than you offer.” – Tom Crist, Principal at Fluvio
A strategic pivot toward growth
Professional development hasn’t always been prioritized in product marketing budgets. In leaner times, it was often the first thing to go, but 2025 tells a different story.
That increase – from 2.4% to 11.2% of overall PMM budgets – suggests that training is no longer seen as optional, but as essential. And, in many cases, it’s not being driven by companies, but by product marketers themselves.
Many PMMs who made it through the tech sector’s layoffs in 2024 now find themselves carrying broader remits, supporting stretched teams, and reporting to more senior stakeholders.
With that visibility comes new pressure to show up, speak the language of leadership, and move metrics that matter. This is a fundamentally different job from even a year ago – and product marketers are treating it that way.
To meet these expectations, PMMs are investing in skills they know will help them deliver, such as customer research techniques, positioning frameworks, sales enablement planning, or the ability to connect product stories to commercial results. These aren’t just career skills, they’re business-critical.
Learning, not just doing
This new era of development isn’t just about getting certifications or attending webinars. It’s also about purposefully closing the gaps that exist between where PMMs are today and where the role is headed.
Across the board, product marketers are enrolling in more structured learning experiences, from live training sessions and cohort-based courses to competitive intelligence deep dives and win/loss analysis workshops.
They’re also seeking out peer groups and mentorship opportunities to learn from others tackling similar challenges.
What’s particularly notable is the shift in where development budgets are going. In addition to training and certifications, the report shows a massive uptick in spend on conferences and networking events, which jumped from 13.5% in 2024 to 38.5% in 2025. That’s the most significant increase across any single category.
This signals that PMMs don’t just want frameworks, they want connection. They want to hear how others are navigating shared problems, validate their own approaches, and benchmark against the best in the business.
The rise in community engagement reflects a profession that’s no longer content to operate in silos. Today’s PMMs want to build together and learn from one another.
Whether it’s learning how to analyze usage data more effectively, creating a scalable enablement program, or improving the narrative around a product line, PMMs are pushing themselves to operate at the next level.
It’s about the next move, too
Professional development isn’t just helping PMMs in their current role, it’s helping them plan for what’s next as well. The report shows that nearly four in ten PMMs (36.2%) want to grow within their current company, but a growing number are looking elsewhere.
Just under a quarter (23.6%) want to move to a new employer while staying in the same role. And interestingly, the number of product marketers who want to switch roles entirely has almost doubled, from 5.9% in 2024 to 10.6% in 2025.
This shift speaks volumes. PMMs are starting to see their skills as more portable. And they’re not wrong. The best product marketers combine strategic thinking, commercial awareness, and customer empathy – all of which are valuable across departments, from product to strategy to sales.
Amit Alagh, Global PMM at Wolters Kluwer, shared how he’s built his career by identifying the parts of the PMM role he enjoyed most, then seeking out opportunities to make those the focus of his next move. “I’d encourage other PMMs to do the same,” he says. “Reflect on the part of the role that energizes you, and let that guide your next move.”
What this means going forward
For all the talk about product marketing becoming more strategic, the rise in professional development spending is one of the clearest signals we’ve seen that the role is changing – and that PMMs are rising to the occasion.
They’re not waiting for companies to catch up. They’re doing the work and investing so they can move faster, go deeper, and operate with more influence.
The fact that the share of PMM budgets going to training has quintupled in just twelve months tells us something important. It tells us that PMMs aren’t content with being seen as executional partners. They’re aiming higher and they’re backing themselves to get there.
Because in today’s market, learning isn’t just growth, it’s insurance. It’s how PMMs stay relevant, strategic, and valuable. And in a role that’s only becoming more important, that kind of investment helps product marketers lead the next phase of change.
