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Melinda Chung

AMA: Adobe Director of Product Marketing, Adobe Sign, Melinda Chung on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

January 13, 2022 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. How do you prepare yourself to become a Product Marketing Director and manage a team, without any experience managing anyone previously?

    I'm on my 5th year of product marketing in my career, with another 5 years before that in general demand gen at very small companies. I've had management experience in the past, but not in a Product Marketing role. Often times in smaller companies, there will be 1 or 2 PMMs, usually in a very flat hierarchy, or a single boss, with no room to really move up a proverbial ladder and into management experience. So what are ways that I can prepare myself now, so that if the time comes to apply for a Director position (either internally or at another company) that I can be considered even without recent people management experience? Are there any courses for this that are highly regarded in the management arena?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    Yes, this is a tough one. I would suggest doing the following to gain some more recent “management” experience: Hire an intern - either summer or part-time Manage agencies or contractors If side projects are possible at your company, see if anyone wants to work on a PMM side project with you While you do need to acquire management experience somehow, you’re more likely to get the opportunity to do it (with less experience) if you go to a small company. And don’t completely discount your cross-fu ...Read More

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  2. How do you define success leading PMMs? What are the KPIs you track?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    For myself, I track based on completions of specific milestones (specific deliverables we planned for - i.e. sales play development, enablement, strategy completed, etc) that were led by myself and/or my team.

    I also track my team’s engagement score in our annual surveys and work towards improving against the opportunity areas that I’m not as strong on.

    886 Views
    1 request

  3. What are the most important soft and hard skills Product Marketing Managers can build to become successful in their field going forward?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    Required Hard (Functional) Skills: Analytical — both quantitative and qualitative. From financial modeling to behavioral analysis to awareness campaign tracking to focus group findings, you’re going to need to be able to dissect data, interpret it, and figure out what the implications are. Strong communicator — can clearly explain rationale for decisions as well as tell stories to persuade Able to influence — can shift mindsets in peers as well as senior leadership. This includes peers and leade ...Read More

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  4. What pointed recommendations do you have on gaining influence as a new member of an organization or as a junior product marketing team member?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    With every new job, you have a period during which you need to prove yourself. As PMMs, we gain influence and prove ourselves by knowing the customer, market, business, and product better than others in the company. Figure out which one of those matters most to your company and your leadership, become an expert, and drop it anecdotally in your conversations.

    Also, align yourself with the people who have influence and power and make sure your contributions are valuable to them.

    1,080 Views
    1 request

  5. The job of a PMM can vary greatly from company to company, industry to industry, and even based on where they report to (Product vs Marketing). What have you found to be successful in defining your career as a PMM?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    1. Ensure that your focus areas are aligned with what is most important to the company. For example, if Enterprise is the core segment, you might not get the support and interest you need/want if you are focused on B2C. Doing what is most important to the company means that you are delivering value where it matters and where people have investment and attention paid. 2. Ensure that you are doing what you are most passionate about. I always say that we manage against two objectives in any job: do ...Read More

    680 Views
    5 requests

  6. As a b2c product marketer, how best move into SAAS industry/b2b?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    People often say that you can get into organizations by either function or domain. If you haven’t been in SaaS before, get into a SaaS company through your functional expertise - product marketing.

    I would recommend moving into a SaaS company that does both B2C and B2B. You have the product marketing functional expertise to land in B2C there, and then you can network and move into a B2B function from there.

    578 Views
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  7. What are some key attributes that an experienced PMM has or needs to get to SPMM?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    The key differences in Sr PMMs and PMMs come down to ownership, self-sufficiency and complexity.

    As a Sr PMM, you will be expected to self-sufficiently drive projects on your own without significant guidance from your manager. You will also be expected to be able to lead and own more complex initiatives than as a PMM and to work amongst more ambiguity to figure situations out. You are influencing at higher levels, not just contributing and taking orders.

    1,397 Views
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  8. How do you get into a saas based company if you have no experience working in one and what are some of the core competencies you need when you are starting out?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    People often say that you can get into organizations by either function or domain. If you haven’t been in SaaS before, get into a SaaS company through your functional expertise - perhaps marketing, demand generation, or operations, for instance. From there, you can move around. The core competencies for operating in SaaS as a PMM are not that different from any other company, but I’ll highlight one difference - you should definitely understand the business model and how the company makes money. ...Read More

    1,288 Views
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  9. What are some of examples of ways you have been able to get promoted or support your colleagues to get promoted at the same company?

    Melinda Chung
    Melinda Chung

    Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • 4y

    Here are two opposite examples of people getting promoted to more senior product marketing roles: “Nancy” was extremely motivated and driven to get promoted. She proactively raised this in our regular check-in’s, and I asked her to create a plan with milestones against her annual objectives that would demonstrate her ability to be at the next level. She regularly achieved against the plan, I put together her promotion case, and she was promoted. I recognized during our work together that “Linda” ...Read More

    1,033 Views
    4 requests