When you hear the word “market” as a PMM, what comes to mind? Is it the market you serve or the industry you play in? In reality, it is a blend of both and more.
As PMMs, we have to understand all market elements. Our customer base, who they are, what they need, and how they behave. The competitive landscape, including who else is playing, their positioning, and where the gaps lie. And the broader market conditions, the industry trends, economic shifts, and emerging policies that shape where things are heading for our industry.
In this article, we will be walking through why great companies argue less about these three market spheres and what they do differently.
Now, before we go any further, when I say great companies, I do not mean your top-tier tech giants. I mean companies that have a great synergy, one that reflects not only internally but externally as well. Companies where everyone is working from the same picture of the market.
I will also share practical examples based on my own experiences and offer tips on how you, as a PMM, can play a strategic role in influencing this within your own organisation.
At the centre of it all, the main reason why companies argue about the market, be it the customer base, competition, or industry threats, is because of a lack of clarity. Clarity from positioning, communication, and sometimes from leadership.
When positioning is not clearly defined and understood internally, different teams form their own interpretation of where the company stands and who it serves. When customer listening is inconsistent, teams make assumptions rather than decisions. When external market research is not a shared activity, some teams are working from current intelligence, while others are working from outdated information. And when data is not used to drive strategy, decisions become strong opinions, and strong opinions can fuel disagreements.
So why do they argue? Based on my experience working across different industries, fintech, edtech, and B2B SaaS, it has become clear to me that this is not an industry-specific problem.
The same patterns show up regardless of what sector you are in, and so do the same solutions. The principles we will be walking through in this article work across the board.
So what do great companies do differently? From my experience, the ones that argue less about the market share have a few common traits:
- Positioning that is clear internally and is reflected externally
- External market research that keeps them ahead of industry shifts
- Consistent customer listening that supports business decisions
- Data-backed evidence that drives a proactive and strategy-led approach
Now let’s break each one down with a practical example from my own experience and a tip on how you, as a PMM, can play a pivotal role in making this happen in your organisation.
1. Clear positioning
I know, I know. We are probably tired of hearing this word. But as simple as it sounds, positioning is one of the most critical factors for any company. It basically drives everything you do. Who you are as a company, who you partner with, your ethos, how you serve your customers, and so much more.
A company must have its positioning clearly defined and understood by everyone in the organisation. Not just the marketing team. Everyone. Because when positioning trickles down into your product, it defines how you build, how you do your research, and how you serve your customers. It becomes the lens through which every decision is made.
Keeping your house in check is critical because, whether you know it or not, your positioning is being reflected externally. From every interaction with your company or your products, the market is picking up signals about what your company stands for. You do not get to opt out of that. The only question is whether those signals are intentional or not.
And here is how clear positioning makes you argue less. You know those awkward meetings that somehow take you down a tunnel with no clear way out? Clear positioning gives you a way back.
Every idea, every initiative, every decision becomes a simple check. Does this match how we want to be seen? Does it align with our positioning? If yes, you move forward. If no, you do not. It turns what could be a lengthy debate into a straightforward conversation.
Practical example
I work for an edtech company, and our positioning is built around creating real impact for our customers, an impact that can be evidenced. We have over eight products across different verticals, but that principle sits at the centre of everything we do.
If we are building a new feature or changing a process, the core question is always the same. Does this deliver impact, and can it be evidenced? If not, it is probably a waste of time.
I apply the same thinking as a PMM. If what I am doing to enable the team does not impact their set KPIs and help them move from 1x to 2x, there is no point doing it. Positioning is not just a marketing exercise. It is a decision-making framework for the whole organisation.
PMM tip
Use positioning as leverage. If your company does not have a clearly defined positioning, this is one of the most exciting and impactful projects you can take on as a PMM. You are uniquely placed to lead it because you sit at the intersection of the market, the product, and the customer.
2. External market research that keeps them ahead of industry shifts
One of the best business classes I attended during my master’s was when we explored market research, especially when it came to understanding competitors and industry threats.
We played around with SWOT and PESTLE analysis, and it just sucked me in. The idea that one government policy can crash an entire industry and that the very same policy can create so much opportunity, leading to exponential growth for the companies that are paying attention, was a lightbulb moment for me.
External market research is not just about keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing so you can react. It is about identifying gaps. And identifying gaps does not mean you will explore every opportunity that surfaces. It means you can find the ones that align with your company and go after those. And if you have done the work on your positioning, you will already know which opportunities are worth pursuing and which ones are not.
See where positioning comes into play again? Staying abreast of industry changes also means you are aware of threats before they arrive and opportunities before your competitors spot them. That is what allows you to plan accordingly rather than scramble.
Practical example
In my industry, the Department for Education is a major government body that drives how the edtech sector moves. We listen closely to policy changes because we understand that we have to be aligned.
These policies shape what our customer base is expecting, and so we leverage this intelligence to feed directly into our product development roadmap. That way, we are always building towards where the market is going, not where it has already been.
PMM tip
AI is your friend here. There are tools available that allow you to build listening agents that pick up competitor activity and industry insights in real time.
As a PMM, your job is not just to gather that intelligence but to analyse it and feed it back into product development and strategy in an actionable way. Set up your listening infrastructure, make it a habit, and make sure the insights you surface have a clear route into the conversations that matter.
3. Consistent customer listening that supports business decisions
Everyone says the PMM sits at the intersection of core business teams. I like to see it differently. I see us as a core linking element between the customer-facing team and the back-end team( product & engineering). And this link has to be well-oiled for it to be rust-free.
The customer-facing teams do the listening and the interaction with the customer. The PMM digests and analyses this, feeding it to the back-end team. And it goes the same way in reverse. The product team builds, the PMM digests it and extracts the value of what has been built, then delivers it to the customer-facing team, enabling them to drive adoption and product success.
Consistently listening to your customers cuts down unnecessary meandering and guesswork because you can feel their pulse and be proactive about core business decisions. It is also a plus that feedback from customers can be used to build churn strategies, feed into product roadmaps, build support enablement and sales battlecards, and create amazing case studies, or what I like to call success stories.
Practical example
When I joined my company, we were exploring building a customer-facing roadmap, somewhere customers could engage with what we were building, so there was clear transparency. They could put in their own feature requests and upvote the features they liked. But most importantly, we wanted to get their feedback even before we started building.
I was really excited to get the opportunity to execute this and launch the company’s first customer-facing roadmap. The impact has been significant. It has become a direct source of product research insight and given us a pool of customers we can speak to about what we are building, getting their feedback even before development starts.
PMM tip
Stay close to the customer-facing teams. Listen to their calls, ask for transcripts even, and always find time to analyse these feedback channels. They always hold amazing insights that you can use to enable the team and build long-lasting customer-facing strategies.
4. Data-backed evidence that drives a proactive and strategy-led approach
It is true what they say, numbers never lie. Companies that listen to the numbers and act on them are proactive and build long-term strategies instead of constantly quenching fires. Reactive companies are always one step behind, responding to problems after they have already cost time, money, or customers. Proactive companies see the signal early because they have built the habit of looking.
Data from market research, product usage, sales, marketing, and other sources can bring hidden insights to light that drive key decisions and cut out the noise.
This matters because without data, decisions tend to be shaped by whoever is loudest in the room or whoever has the most senior title, not necessarily by what is actually true. Data levels that out. It gives everyone something objective to align around, which, on its own, reduces a huge amount of internal disagreement.
I also think taking the time to synergise this data can make a much bigger impact. Looking at one data source in isolation only tells you part of the story. Product usage data on its own might tell you a feature is underused, but it cannot tell you why. Combine it with sales conversations or customer feedback, and suddenly the why becomes obvious.
A good example of this is how marketing and sales data can be analysed together to forecast and predict, spotting patterns in what is generating interest and what is converting that neither team would catch looking at their numbers alone.
Practical example
We launched an app that was critical to cross-selling our product verticals, and it was a key business move. The data showed that if we drove app adoption, we could double the value of each customer. This meant we had to leverage usage data to build adoption strategies that could be adapted for customers at different levels of adoption.
PMM tip
Build your data analytics skills as a PMM. This moves you up and makes you more technical. The ability to use data to drive decisions and build strategy is a great skill, and it is one that drives the most impact.
Before closing on this article, I really need to talk about how strong internal enablement and clear communication play a key part in everything we have discussed above.
It is great that companies that want to disagree less about the market implement all we’ve discussed, but none of it matters if there is no clear communication. A culture of clear communication and internal enablement means everyone in the company is enabled to put this into practice through set company processes.
It is not enough for people to simply understand the positioning, the research, or the data. There has to be a clear, repeatable process for how that information is shared, who owns passing it on, and how teams are expected to act on it.
Positioning is only useful if every team can speak to it the same way, and that consistency comes from a process, not from hoping people remember. Research is only useful if it reaches the people making decisions on a set cadence rather than by chance. Customer feedback is only useful if it gets to product through a defined channel, and data is only useful if there is a process for people to actually see it and act on it.
This is where internal enablement becomes the thread that ties everything else together. It is not enough to have the right information sitting somewhere. It has to travel, clearly and consistently, to every team that needs it, through a process built for exactly that purpose.
