A bit of intuition based on experience - vs “hard”, trainable skill - is part of ANY job really. But do you think product marketers need to rely on it a bit (or much) more than other roles in a software company?

Absolutely! While there are probably several key metrics to what makes a successful Product Marketing team, there are so many different paths to getting there based on a number of factors that are oftentimes not in our control. This, combined with the fact that Product Marketing is still very much being defined, makes strong intuition one of the most important skills a Product Marketer should have, in my opinion.

As PMMs, we’re often asked to make decisions without all of the necessary data, changing priorities, and oftentime too many cooks in the kitchen :) In these situations, I’ve seen the most successful product marketers lean on their intuition to help come to a decision, rally others around that decision, and continue moving forward.

I think that intuition lends itself to a lot of the role. If you can empathize with the users/customers, then you can backwards can think about what would move you along the product adopton journey. However, there are some trainable skills that help with the cross-fucntional influence and management (i.e. project management, conflict resolution, negotiation, etc.).