The relationship between Product Management and the Sales and Marketing teams in some companies can be unnecessarily strained. Often, this shows itself in such counter-productive behaviors as sales reps making promises to prospects or renewing clients based on their own interpretation of the roadmap, or the marketing teams creating collateral that materially misstates the capabilities of the product. Unfortunately, when left unchecked, these behaviors create a self-fulfilling prophecy on the part of both the Sales/Marketing teams and the Product Manager.
The good news is that there are some things that we can do as Product Managers to both proactively minimize these situations, as well as to respond to them when they occur in a way that stops the vicious cycle of bad behavior and centers everyone on the same goals — to create a product that delights the buyer and users who are out there looking for solutions to their problems.