To showcase your work without actually showing your work, you can instead show your process. Any messaging work will have a before and after, even if the prior state was an unlaunched product. 1. Describe what you were given. What was the new product/feature or existing messaging? 2. What was your process for determining the new messaging? 3. Were there any disagreements or misalignments about your new messaging? How did you get alignment to launch your new messaging through sales and marketing assets? 4. What was the result? How did you measure results to know whether it worked? Spend most of your time on describing your process. The hiring manager isn't hiring you for the specific messaging or results that you produced in your past role. They're hiring you because you have a repeatable, but flexible process or playbook to create effective messaging. Use the messaging you created as an example of that process and spend your time on that instead.

It totally depends on what's already there when you've arrived ;) What's easier to answer is what is OFF the table -- pricing refreshes, website overhauls, launching a strategic narrative. Those are big, time-consuming initiatives that shouldn't be undertaken without a foundational understanding of customer, market, product (and that takes time to develop). Some examples of quick wins I've delivered include: * Creating a single resource for product releases -- this made our CS org insanely happy, because nobody could keep up with all the changes in the product. * Setting up a monthly blog to share with customers -- this made our sales and customers happy, because the company wasn't publishing ANY external collateral on what was new. * A readout of any customer interviews you've done. It's likely that the leadership team hasn't done extensive customer research for some time. As a PMM, you're able to offer fresh perspective on customers' careabouts, reasons for buying, challenges, etc. * Setting up a launch calendar to help product and marketing teams get visibility into key themes and major launches.

I've done a lot of interviews and hiring over the years and I'm constantly impressed by how smart and driven Product Marketers are! It's one of the things that makes interviewing so much fun - you get an opportunity to talk to and learn from the best of the best. That said, I think there are a few things that really stand out for me, and they are: * Curiosity - Most candidates are well-educated and skilled, so it's the folks with humility and a curiosity to learn that really shine during the interview process and on my team * Customer-First - Candidates with deep empathy for the customer (both buyers and sales) and can show consistent examples of how the work they've done has been developed with them in mind * Creativity - Whether it's their ability to creatively solve problems or the level of creativity they bring to their campaigns and strategies, I often find that these individuals are the spark of innovations that a team or project needs! * Resourcefulness - I believe you don't always have all the answers and neither do those around you. The best candidates can share how they've identified solutions across their team during ambiguous times. They don't let the lack of clarity prohibit their progress. Instead, they take steps to build clarity. * Impact-Focused - Finally, they never forget that the reason they're leading all the projects and programs at their organization is to have an impact. The best candidates can speak clearly to the impact they have had and have a POV on the additional impact they'd like to see. 

PMM can influence several touchpoints across the enterprise sales motion. PMM’s biggest impact will likely vary widely depending on the business stage. Identifying and anticipating the needs of each person in the buying group and building appropriate content and messaging and aligning that to the sales process will be key. Adding value through the enterprise sales cycle can be done in a number of different ways including managing standardized Request for Proposal (RFP) responses, building a partnership with analyst relations team to help drive analyst outlook, and enabling the sales team with a differentiated story that speaks to large business impacts with solid proof points. I’d recommend analyzing your current sales motion today, what’s the biggest area of impact you find? Is there enough pipeline coverage? What are your conversion and win rates, can they be improved? What objections do your sales teams need to overcome? Is your message resonating in the market?

This is a great question because, as every PMM knows, each launch holds a surprise hiccup. If you can mitigate as much risk as possible before that time comes, then you’ll be successful in solving those last minute snafus. Assuming your marketing brief and GTM plan are finalized and approved, a successful GTM execution comes down to organization, stakeholder alignment and (the hardest one!) seeing around corners. Here are the riskiest components in each of those categories and how to mitigate that risk: 1. Lack of organization: * Misaligned plans * Losing track of documents and creative files * Overly tight timelines * Rehashing previous conversations How to mitigate: Keep a source of truth document (or spreadsheet, my personal favorite) where you track every single launch component, including status and timeline, meeting notes, resources, channel plans and assets, launch day tick tock and more. 2. Missing stakeholder alignment: * Vague R&R * Lack of resourcing * Unclear expectation-setting How to mitigate: Bring your cross-functional and marketing partners along for the journey by pulling them in at key strategic milestones when you’re creating your plan, then holding regular status meetings up until launch through to a post-mortem. 3. Not seeing around corners: * Lack of familiarity with the deployment tech * Broken user journeys * 11th hour feedback How to mitigate: This one tends to be company-specific, so ask your colleagues about unexpected day-of discoveries on previous launches and then prepare for those specific scenarios. Also, it never hurts to build a buffer into your timeline and have an extra set of eyes on the creative before it goes out the door.

What are some surprising ways that candidates have stood out to you in PMM interviews? What are your biggest watchouts? PMMs are notoriously difficult to hire. The best PMMs I've worked with are * Balance left and right brain * Are equally adept at fast thinking and slow thinking * Can maintain the 10,000' view while understanding the details at 1,000' It’s important to identify the 1-3 skills that will be most important for your company and domain. Then look for experiences that suggest they’ll excel in those domains. A few examples: * Large enterprise sales force - Here, being able to enable and hold court with a large sales team is critical. Does the candidate have leadership experience (in PMM or outside of work)? One PMM I worked with organized a 1,000 guest annual fundraiser for a non-profit they were involved with. Their ability to corral multiple stakeholders, drive sponsorships, and drive to a productive event suggested they’d be great at enablement. * Technical products - Here, having the hunger to dig into technical details is key. Does the candidate have a personal interest in a complex domain. Perhaps they’re savvy investors in their personal life. Perhaps they’ve built demos or software in the past. In one interview, a candidate came having used our product with dozens of recommendations for how we can improve the product and our marketing. Ultimately, the things I look for: * Grit: Have they demonstrated resilience in high-stakes environments and persistence in the face of volatility? * Leadership: Can they influence peers and leaders across Product, Sales, Marketing, and e-staff? * Persistence: Can they operate in highly ambiguous and variable environments. This is especially important in the early stages. * Domain/Persona: Do they have past experience with your domain/persona? Not necessary but helps accelerate their path to becoming opinionated. * Tenure: Have they been able to build tenure and have impact in their past roles * Pace: Can they hustle in a fast paced environment? * Portfolio: Can they produce a portfolio of high-quality work? * Stage Experience: Have they operated at your stage of company before? * Revenue: Have they operated at the revenue target you are looking to reach in the next 12 -18 months. Be mindful of planning for the future and not today. Candidates should pull your business forward. * GTM Motion: This one is critical, but have they worked with your GTM motion before (PLG vs. SLG)

Once messaging is developed, internal teams use it in a number of ways including: * Marketing: Webinars, emails, web refresh, social, blog posts * Sales: Pitches, collateral * Press, analyst, and investor relations: Previews and debriefs * Executive leadership: Internal socialization and external pitches As product marketers, we can support our cross-functional teams by translating messaging into formats that would be most beneficial for our teammates, including one-pagers and pitch decks.

Too often I see folks trying to assemble the broadest ICP possible. The logic is that by inflating my TAM/SAM/SOM to the biggest number possible, I am increasing my odds of success. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE big markets. I want markets big enough, that even if we f*ck it up, we can still be successful. It is infinitely easier to build a healthy business that is 1-5% of an enormous market than it is to build the same size business by capturing 80% of a much smaller market. The value of an ICP is that it gives you information to inform core PMM work such as positioning, messaging, distribution, and even product strategy. When you make Ideal Customer Profiles too broad, spanning many industries, role types, or firmographic segments, it leads to weak messaging, poor targeting, a higher CAC, lower conversion, and higher churn. Your challenge as a Product Marketer is to assemble ICPs big enough that they are worth pursuing, but specific enough that they help you pull in a perspective of the buyer, their challenges, and the things they care about into your product and GTM strategy. Finally, prove them in the real world, and iterate them based on learning.

I need to unpack this in therapy but for some not-yet-fully-explored reason, I hate messaging houses and marchitecture like that. Perhaps it feels like it's forcing structure. Perhaps it feels too permanent and untouchable (because it's housed??). Not sure. But I do concede that they can be useful and are helpful for many, many people. So, for me, if I'm trying to get internal buy-in on messaging, I try to keep it as simple, concise, and as contextual as possible. * Target audience, * value prop, * 3 benefit or RTB pillars, * and corresponding proof points (like a product or feature). Then, I take that and set it in context to provide positioning guidance and build a larger, more interesting narrative. * What's happening out there in the market and why are we talking about this? What's the challenge our audience is facing in this market? * Then insert our claim we just worked on. * Include validation (customer quotes, product metrics, analyst reports, etc.). * And articulate your CTA - inspire your audience and give them a call to arms.

* Building a strong foundation of product marketing skills to become a "full stack" product marketer has been key for me. Understand how to manage product positioning, messaging, how to launch a product, and all the different aspects that go into building a successful product offering. * Raising my hand for projects where I felt uncomfortable and needed experience - like pricing , researching competitive offerings, and creating customer journey maps - has been an invaluable experience. * Learning how to work cross-functionally with product managers, UX designers, and developers / engineers to deliver a successful product launch was also important for me to grow. * Regularly attending webinars, seminars or conferences related to the field of product marketing kept me up-to-date on the industry. * Taking risks - sometimes that means going to a growth area of your business or jumping to a smaller company. When I moved from Google to AdRoll (then a 500 person company) - that's when I got my first management opportunity and managed an entire product marketing team. * Making sure to set realistic expectations - both for yourself and your teammates, has also been important. You can't build a product overnight yet as a Head of Product Marketing you want to be able to push and inspire the team while being realistic about what resources are available. * Finally, it's really important to build relationships with people both inside and outside of the company is important in order to be able to share