The Double Triangle: PM as Go-To-Market Discipline
Sit the PM between two triangles — build (eng/product/design) and sell (sales/marketing/PM) — and originate the customer's language
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Beyond the familiar build triad of engineering, product, and design, Nan Yu treats product management as partially a go-to-market discipline, forming a second triangle with sales and marketing. The PM sits in the middle of both, connecting the company's commercial motivations to what actually gets built and, crucially, originating the precise language the product is described in — because the PM understands the customer more deeply than anyone else. This is the highest-leverage under-used surface for most PMs.
Origin
Nan Yu's 'double triangle' model of product management at Linear; he links it to Brian Chesky's move at Airbnb to merge PM and product marketing (every PM is a product marketer), and notes Apple has long operated this way.
Core principles
- 01The PM connects the building side and the selling side, tempering commercial goals with what's buildable
- 02Expert practitioners (engineers, PMs) have sensitive BS detectors, so the exact words and phrasing must sound native to how customers speak
- 03Because of the discovery and requirements-gathering you do, you understand the customer more deeply than any other group
- 04Most PMs already collaborate well with eng and design; the untapped impact is on the sell side
- 05You don't need to touch demand gen or channel strategy — your leverage is originating the words, emphasis, headlines, and copy
How to run it
- 1
Picture the two triangles with the PM in the middle
On one side, the build triangle: engineering, product, design. On the other, the sell triangle: sales, marketing, product management. The PM sits between them, translating commercial goals into buildable product and vice versa.
Watch out Many orgs have low-grade antagonism between product and sales/marketing; the double triangle is a deliberate antidote.
- 2
Originate the native customer language for launches
Because you understand the customer most deeply, help marketing pick the exact right words and phrasing so the product sounds native to the language customers (and engineers) actually speak.
Pro tip Get the vocabulary right — call them product managers, not project managers — or expert buyers give you the stink eye.
Watch out Don't try to own demand gen or channel strategy; those are pure marketing concerns and not where your leverage is.
- 3
Close the loop through sales in the field
Feed the crafted messaging to sales, who say the words to customers directly and report back whether they stick — creating a tight feedback cycle across product, marketing, and sales.
Pro tip Linear embeds a full-time product marketer on the PM team who writes all changelogs and release notes and crafts launch language directly with build teams.
In the wild
Linear sells to expert practitioners with sensitive BS detectors, so a full-time product marketer on the PM team originates changelogs, release notes, and launch language working directly with the build teams. Nan Yu personally sits on sales calls, and sales validates the messaging in the field, reporting back what sticks.
→ A tight three-discipline feedback cycle that makes Linear's messaging sound native to engineers and PMs, reinforcing the brand's 'this is for us' pull.
Common mistakes
Treating product and sales/marketing as antagonists
Leaving the two functions in tension wastes the PM's unique customer understanding and the leverage of the second triangle.
Ignoring the sell side of the PM role
Since most PMs already do build-side collaboration well, neglecting go-to-market is exactly the impact they're leaving on the table.
Is it for you?
Best for
B2B product managers, especially selling to expert practitioners, who want to increase impact by owning customer-facing language and messaging
Not ideal for
PMs who want to own demand gen and channel strategy (pure marketing turf), or orgs where product genuinely has no discovery-driven customer insight to contribute
From the transcript
“we think of product management as as partially like a go to market discipline in the same way that sales and marketing are”
“it's it's the PM in the middle and then you have engineering product design and then”
“a big part of what we try to do is we try to help them pick um which I help our marketing team like pick…”
“actually picking the words and what where the emphasis is like you should understand the customer at a pretty deep level probably deeper than any…”
From the episode
Linear’s secret to building beloved B2B products
Nan Yu (Head of Product)