Tell me about a time you had to influence the product roadmap as a PMM?

Situation:

We had a currency exchange product that allowed customers to trade with a bank for the best rates. This product was unique in the local market. However, only a small number of customers were using it.

Task:

The challenge was that the product owner believed this was the most innovative product on the market and wanted me to launch a marketing campaign quickly to acquire new customers. However, I knew that the product was still relatively new, and before we launched the campaign, it was crucial to understand why customers weren't using it. I believed we needed to gather insights from customers to better position the product and craft the right messaging.

Action:

I negotiated with the product owner to postpone the marketing campaign and proposed conducting customer research first. Since the product was new, I felt we needed to gather feedback to understand customers' hesitations and identify any issues. This would help us refine the product and base the marketing campaign on real customer insights.

Result:

As a result, the product owner agreed to conduct a survey, which revealed that there were bugs in the product preventing customers from using it properly. Prodcut owner realized that we needed to address these issues before launching a marketing campaign. This approach not only saved the marketing budget from being spent ineffectively but also highlighted the product’s need for refinement to work as intended.