From silos to synergy: Strategies for better product and marketing collaboration 

What makes a great customer experience? It’s not just a product’s features or messaging that drives action—it’s how those elements come together to create a cohesive, purposeful journey for the customer. Every touchpoint matters from the moment someone discovers your product to the instant they achieve value.

Behind the scenes, creating seamless experiences requires more than just vision; it demands deep collaboration between internal teams. From engineering and design to customer success, every team plays a role. Among these, the partnership between product and marketing is particularly critical. When these two groups work hand-in-hand—aligning on strategy, goals, and execution—they ensure that what is built aligns with how it’s communicated.

Of course, achieving this alignment isn’t always easy. We sat down with three marketing-product duos here at Customer.io to understand how they’re driving collaboration to build exceptional customer experiences:

LJ Ho (Director, Product Management) and Molly Murphy (Sr. Product Marketing Manager)

Shared goal: Help customers deliver personalized, real-time messages that enhance engagement and drive conversion.

Kate White (Sr. Product Manager) and Naomi West (Sr. Product Marketing Manager)

Shared goal: Create powerful tools for building, editing, designing, and delivering world-class messaging.

Jason Huertas (Sr. Product Manager) and Matt Johnson (Sr. Product Marketing Manager)

Shared goal: Empower customers to connect and activate their data, helping them create personalized, data-driven campaigns.

Here’s what we’ve learned from their stories, along with actionable takeaways to help your teams create customer-first experiences.

In a product-led growth (PLG) model, the product isn’t just part of the customer experience—it’s at the heart of it. PLG succeeds by delivering value directly through the product, creating moments of delight and engagement that drive retention and expansion.

Central to this strategy is the partnership between product and marketing teams. Here at Customer.io, we’ve seen firsthand how this alignment helps transform ideas into features, features into stories, and stories into memorable customer journeys.

But how is product-led collaboration achieved? According to LJ and Molly, Naomi and Kate, and Matt and Jason, there are five core strategies for success.

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Trust isn’t just something you build once and move on—it’s a constant effort. For product and marketing teams to collaborate effectively, trust must be the foundation of every interaction. This means valuing expertise, communicating openly, and supporting each other’s goals.

For Matt and Jason, trust began with having clear roles and responsibilities.

Jason echoes this sentiment, noting how Matt’s marketing expertise reduces his workload and allows him to focus on development.

Re-establishing trust is equally important. Regular check-ins and alignment sessions help teams address issues and maintain a strong partnership. LJ and Molly have built trust over time through candid communication.

Trust is more than a feeling—it’s an actionable commitment to showing up for your team, valuing their expertise, and maintaining open lines of communication.

Clear communication is the glue that holds collaboration together, and it’s most effective when teams establish regular, structured touchpoints. At Customer.io, our product and marketing duos use a mix of formal rituals and spontaneous check-ins to stay aligned.

For example:

• Weekly 1:1s: Matt and Jason meet weekly to review progress, discuss roadblocks, and align on goals.
• Daily standups: Naomi and Kate hop on daily calls, even just to get a quick rundown of what’s happening. Being part of each other’s daily flow means they’re always in sync with what’s happening and can contribute in real time.
• Slack check-ins: For quick questions and updates, teams rely on informal Slack messages to keep communication flowing.

Frequent and structured communication ensures that everyone is kept informed and that teams remain aligned on priorities.

When the marketing team is involved in product decision-making from the beginning, it ensures that the entire product lifecycle is cohesive and customer-focused. At Customer.io, marketing isn’t treated as an external resource—it’s an integral part of product development. This is especially true for Naomi, a marketing team member who is also a core member of Kate’s product group.

Naomi’s proactive approach has made a significant impact.

Kate describes Naomi’s dedication as an aha moment for the team. When Naomi made it clear that she wasn’t just there to be briefed after decisions were made—but wanted to actively help solve problems—it shifted how the team worked together. Naomi’s proactive involvement pushed the team to think critically about how they were solving customer problems. If they couldn’t clearly articulate the value of a feature, it became a sign that they needed to revisit and refine their approach.

Shared goals keep product and marketing teams aligned while allowing them to focus on their unique contributions. At Customer.io, these goals guide decision-making and ensure both teams pull in the same direction.

Naomi and Kate aim to drive adoption of Parcel-powered features. While Kate focuses on ensuring the features solve customer pain points, Naomi works on messaging that highlights their value.

This shared vision also guides LJ and Molly’s work on anonymous in-app messaging (a feature now in early access and soon to be released).

By anchoring their efforts to shared goals, teams can minimize friction and make decisions that support the bigger picture.

Shared tools help teams stay aligned by providing a central source of truth for data, plans, and updates. At Customer.io, tools like Mixpanel, Notion, and Linear are essential for collaboration:

• Mixpanel: Tracks product performance and user behavior, providing a clear view of what’s working and what needs adjustment.
• Notion: Houses FAQs, go-to-market (GTM) plans, and collaborative documentation, ensuring everyone is aligned and informed.
• Linear: Helps teams organize tasks and tag each other for collaboration on shared projects.

By leveraging these tools, teams can avoid misalignment, make faster decisions, and ensure everyone works from the same data and plans.

For product-led brands, creating a seamless customer experience begins and ends with having a product customers love. But delivering that product takes more than great features—it requires a strong foundation of backend processes, internal alignment, and a culture of collaboration.

When product and marketing teams are in sync, they ensure that what’s built aligns perfectly with how it’s communicated. This alignment isn’t just functional—it creates meaningful experiences that drive retention, build trust, and inspire loyalty.

In the end, it’s not just about building better products; it’s about creating positive experiences that define your brand. And that kind of impact is only possible when your teams work in lockstep toward one shared goal: delivering value at every stage of the customer journey.