AMA: Amazon Product Marketing Lead, AI/ML Acceleration, AWS, Shruti Koparkar on Product Marketing Skills

Large companies can mean limited scope, but you can still be a well-rounded PMM! Here are some tips: Be Proactive: Seek opportunities to learn from other PMMs. Shadow colleagues working on launches, offer to cover competitive events and lead competitive responses Focus on Depth within Your Scope: Master your area and bring those insights to other areas of PMM. For e.g. if you work in sales enablement you are close to your sales teams, their needs, and through them the customer needs and market t ...Read More

Create messaging that is compelling to your customers, differentiated than your competitors, and articulates a clear advantage for your customers. You have to have a clear understanding of your ideal customer profile, and also the various personas in your target audience. Messaging pillars need to convey the primary benefits of your product/solutions for the specific audience. This is done through an integrated and iterative analysis of market trends, customer needs, competitive options, and pro ...Read More

The most important thing to be able to scale content is to create a messaging framework that can be a north star for all your sister teams in marketing, product, and sales e.g. social team, campaign team, sales enablement, product management etc. There are many templates for messaging framework - so use whatever is most suitable for your organization. This framework can multiply your efforts by providing a guiding document that you and your colleagues can rely on. Beyond that following are some ...Read More

Marketing measurement has been, is, and will likely continue to be imperfect - attribution in particular is so tricky. So you can't always rely completely on data. Same thing with revenue pipeline metrics - the quality of pipeline depends on sales discipline. Revenue is a good measure, but it is often a lagging metric, especially when the buyer journey can span several months to a year. And often times you don't have sufficient data and have to make decisions, make bets, allocate marketing budge ...Read More

Product marketing needs several soft skills including strong verbal and written communication, negotiation, mediation, time management, influencing people, building trust–the list goes on. You can weave these into many of your answers. In choosing your STAR scenarios think of examples where you can highlight that while the hard skills were necessary, they weren't sufficient - and it is the soft skill that really helped you succeed. E.g. Getting sales team trained on the product messaging and pit ...Read More

You need to network with other teams and find ways to get involved. Choose initiatives that can move the needle for the company but also contribute to your growth as only these type of win-win situations are sustainable long term. As an example, I really enjoyed being a guest on the AWS podcast for one of my service launches. That made me get interested in being a host as I thought it would allow me to learn more about other AWS services organically, while also being able to bring my story telli ...Read More

These are the skills I look for in a PMM: Communication & Relationship building: Ability to bridge gaps & translate complex ideas across departments. Writing Expertise: Craft clear, concise messaging that resonates with diverse audiences. Balance of analytical, technical & storytelling skills: Understand complex technology, analyze data & weave insights into compelling product narratives. Go-getter with focus: Get things done proactively. Prioritization Pro: Master the art of say ...Read More

I don't think one is better than the other. When joining a new team, the best skills are the ones you already have. Play your strengths while making sure you have a actionable plan to work on your weaknesses. For e.g. if you have switched industries as a PMM, you'll need some time to ramp up on the technology, the market, the specific customer needs. But use your other transferable skills such as analytical skills, communication/writing, coordination, negotiation etc. to build trust. In fact bec ...Read More