Product Marketing Knowledge Base
A structured, practical reference of 73 product marketing frameworks and methodologies, plus 5 adjacent business-strategy and behavioural-science tools; organised by workflow stage, indexed by situation. Built for product marketing professionals who need to apply proven methods to real challenges: positioning, go-to-market strategy, competitive intelligence, pricing, and customer advocacy.
Live site: www.pmmkb.com, the web app built from this repository (web/).
Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Contributions welcome.
Quick Start
- Find your situation in BY-SITUATION.md or use the decision trees if you are not sure which situation fits
- Read the entry from the INDEX or directly from the entry file in its category folder under
/frameworks/
- Apply the steps from the "How to apply it" section with your own data and context
- Measure the outcome using the success metrics included in each entry
- Grab the quick-reference card from quick-reference/ when you need a one-page refresher
Not sure where to start? Skim the framework selector for a matrix by business goal, timeline, and data availability.
What's Inside
73 Entries Across 9 Categories, Plus Adjacent Disciplines
Each entry declares a Type (Framework, Methodology, Model, or Primer) and follows a structured template. See CLAUDE.md for what each type means.
| # | Category | Entries | File |
|---|
| 1 | Market & Customer Understanding | 11 | frameworks/01-market-customer-understanding/ |
| 2 | Positioning & Messaging | 12 | frameworks/02-positioning-messaging/ |
| 3 | Competitive Strategy | 6 | frameworks/03-competitive-strategy/ |
| 4 | Go-to-Market & Launch | 13 | frameworks/04-go-to-market-launch/ |
| 5 | Lifecycle & Workflow | 3 | frameworks/05-lifecycle-workflow/ |
| 6 | Product Experience & Adoption | 7 | frameworks/06-product-experience-adoption/ |
| 7 | Strategy & Planning | 8 | frameworks/07-strategy-planning/ |
| 8 | Pricing & Packaging | 7 | frameworks/08-pricing-packaging/ |
| 9 | Sales Enablement | 5 | frameworks/09-sales-enablement/ |
| — | Concepts (primers) | 1 | concepts/gtm-strategy-vs-product-marketing.md |
| Adjacent Disciplines | 5 | adjacent/ |
Adjacent Disciplines holds tools PMMs use to inform decisions other functions own: the BCG Growth-Share Matrix, the Ansoff Matrix, Porter's Five Forces, the Business Model Canvas and Cialdini's Principles of Persuasion. Each carries a "PMM's role" section instead of "Ownership", and they are counted separately from the 73 core entries.
See INDEX.md for the full taxonomy with type and description for every entry.
How to Navigate
By Situation
Use BY-SITUATION.md if you are dealing with:
- Launching a new product
- Entering a new market
- Competing against established players
- Reducing customer churn
- Enabling the sales team for a new segment
- Pricing a new tier or service
- Building a customer advocacy programme
- Recovering from messaging misalignment
- Scaling your PMM function
By Role
- Positioning PMM: Start with Category 2, then Category 1 for foundational research
- Sales Enablement PMM: Start with Category 9, then Category 4 for launch enablement
- Segment PMM: Start with Category 1, then Category 2 for segment-specific positioning
- Product PMM: Start with Category 5, then Category 6 for adoption and retention
- Strategy / Planning: Start with Category 7; use entries to structure quarterly work
By Workflow Stage
Categories are ordered by workflow stage: understand your market (1) → position and message (2) → assess the competition (3) → go to market (4) → manage the lifecycle (5) → drive adoption (6) → plan and measure (7) → price and package (8) → enable sales (9).
Each Entry Includes
Frameworks follow six standard sections:
- What it is: a clear explanation, no jargon
- When to use it: specific triggers and contexts
- Ownership: who typically owns vs executes, and how that shifts with company stage
- How to apply it: step-by-step instructions detailed enough to follow
- Example: a realistic, specific scenario showing the entry in action
- Pitfalls: common mistakes and how to avoid or recover from them
Methodologies, Models, and Primers each follow their own section template. See CLAUDE.md for all four.
Every entry is designed to be read standalone, but entries often build on one another. Cross-references and the dependency map show how they connect.
Reference Materials
| Document | What it does |
|---|
| INDEX.md | Full taxonomy; every entry with type and description |
| FRAMEWORK-MAP.md | Dependency map showing entry relationships and workflow sequences |
| BY-SITUATION.md | Maps your challenge to the entries that apply |
| decision-trees.md | Branching questions when you are not sure which situation fits |
| framework-selector.md | Selection matrix by business goal, timeline, and data availability |
| measurement-guide.md | Baseline metric, cadence, and owner for every entry |
| GLOSSARY.md | PMM terminology; 50+ terms grouped by theme |
| quick-reference/ | One-page condensed cards for every entry |
| templates/ | Working templates for planning, campaigns, enablement, and CI tracking |
| case-studies/ | Extended walkthroughs: STP, Value Proposition Canvas, Win/Loss, 10-Step PMM, GTM |
| ONBOARDING.md |
Using the Knowledge Base
In Quarterly Planning
Link each business goal to the entries most relevant to achieving it. The quarterly planning template is designed for this.
In Campaign Briefs
Reference positioning and go-to-market entries (Categories 2 and 4) in your campaign briefs. The campaign brief template includes a framework checklist.
In Sales Enablement
Start with the Sales Enablement Maturity Model (Category 9) to diagnose where your function stands, then pull from Categories 3 and 4 for competitive strategy and launch execution.
In Win/Loss Analysis
Use the Win/Loss Analysis entry (Category 1) to structure interviews; feed insights back into positioning and competitive intelligence.
With an AI Agent
agent-skills/ packages nine methods as Agent Skills, the open format most AI coding and work agents read. Install a skill directory and the agent runs the procedure with evidence gates and known failure modes, rather than improvising from training data. Start with pmm-framework-router when you know the symptom but not the framework. See agent-skills/README.md for installation.
Contributing
This knowledge base follows strict content standards documented in CLAUDE.md:
- British English throughout (spelling and conventions)
- No em dashes; semicolons and shorter sentences used instead
- Specific, realistic examples (not generic case studies)
- Actionable pitfalls with recovery steps
- Measurable success criteria (not vague outcomes)
- Every claim cited to a published source; fictional example companies labelled as such
See SOURCE-VALIDATION-LOG.md for the citation audit standard.
Proposing Changes
- Found an error? Open a PR with a clear justification.
- Framework missing? If you repeatedly encounter a challenge none of these entries address, propose it. Document the gap, the pattern, and your solution. If it holds up over 2-3 applications, it belongs here.
- Content standard questions? See CLAUDE.md for the full working principles and quality gates.
About
This knowledge base consolidates product marketing frameworks used across real product launches, go-to-market planning, competitive strategy, and customer adoption work. It is organised by workflow stage to mirror how PMMs actually work, and indexed by situation to support quick lookups during day-to-day challenges.
It is not a textbook. It is a reference guide you return to repeatedly as you face real problems. Every entry is here because it works; every example is here because it shows real execution.
Total: 73 entries (30 frameworks, 30 methodologies, 12 models, 1 primer) across 9 categories, plus 5 adjacent entries (1 framework, 4 models) in adjacent/.
