By Oluwafunminire ‘ Nire’ Adetimehin
Product marketing is one of the few roles in tech where you are accountable for outcomes you do not directly control.
“In this environment, being influential is more than a soft skill; it is a currency you must trade with.”
A product marketing manager’s output is a dependent variable, meaning the success of product marketing efforts relies largely on the performance of other stakeholders, including product, engineering, customer success, marketing, and sales teams.
Though each department carries its respective responsibilities, product marketing teams are held accountable for the product’s market performance despite managing no developers, product managers, or sales representatives.
In this environment, being influential is more than a soft skill; it is a currency you must trade with.
If you are not bringing high-value insights to the table, you have no buying power with your stakeholders.
I learned this early in my career while supporting go-to-market efforts for Faaji App, an EventTech product, where the team achieved 2,000 users and $10,000 in revenue in less than six months.
The work that drove those numbers was not execution alone. It was the ability to get product, sales, and marketing aligned around a clear market signal, and that required influence I had to build deliberately before I had the seniority to claim it by title.
Over the last quarter of 2025, I researched what differentiates high-performing product marketing managers, drawing from industry insights and expert perspectives.
A consistent pattern emerged: influence is not tied to effort alone; it is tied to the ability to shape decisions.
Culled from THISDAY
Read More: Why-influence-not-authority-drives-product-marketing-success/
● Nire Adetimehin is a product marketing professional with experience across EventTech and AI products.
