Two Questions that Connect Product and Marketing

Product people are primarily concerned about creating the right product for people who want and can use it. The latter makes most of their days.

Designers create interfaces using known patterns. They build prototypes that validate (or not) assumptions. They focus on bringing the product's power under a logical and straightforward interaction pattern so that people can use it.

So, one question is: "Will the users be able to use the product?". It's about the designer's ability to balance features, industry patterns, and familiar patterns (to that user segment).

Marketing people spend much time uncovering the reasons behind a product's adoption and finding people who should care about it. So, in essence, they ask themselves: "Will the user want to use the product?". Also, they translate the product's outcomes into words that fit the user's needs and goals.

Designers build better products when having the right people as their focus to iterate on. Marketers will attract the right audience they see in real-time the product effectively solving a given range of problems.

It all starts with two questions that lead to a much valuable collaboration between Product and Marketing.