Is product more important than marketing, or is it the other way around? Should a start-up invest early in building an audience, or should all the resources go into crafting something that people will love? Will the product manager lead future development, or will it be the marketing manager?

These questions are a distraction, they put departments and professionals one against the other. And at the end of the day, it does not matter.

A better one would be: “who has the capacity to distance themselves enough from what we do to understand the needs of our audience?”. An even better one could be: “who can tell us where to go with no regard for where we’ve been?”.

A degree of neutrality is necessary, and sometimes it will come from product, sometimes it will come from marketing.

It’s the people, not the roles, that will make a difference.