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AMA: Amplitude Former Head of Product Marketing, Suyog Deshpande on Developing Your Product Marketing Career
November 19 @ 10:00AM PST
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Amplitude Former Head of Product Marketing, Suyog Deshpande on Developing Your Product Marketing Career
Top Questions
Why do product marketing jobs have high turnover?
Most of my marketing colleagues have either gotten fired, laid off, or found a new job within the past 18 months. I've personally have been laid off 5 times and left on my own 5 times in the past 10 years. Why such high churn in marketing?
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 19
Not just product marketing but overall marketing has relatively higher turnover compared to other functions. This is true for CMO vs other CXOs as well. If it is initiated by the candidate, then in most cases, it would be fair to say that the job market is hot and we all should be happy. Of cour......Read More
5645 Views
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Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 18
Salespeople are NOT your customers, they are team members: This will change how you look at your marketing strategy and deliverables. It is fair to say that the content product marketers develop will be consumed, used and delivered by sales. However, the content should resonate with your prospect......Read More
6625 Views
5 requests
How important are brand marketing skills for product marketers compared to analytical skills?
There is often a huge emphasis on analytical skills, instead of brand marketing skills, when it comes to product marketing job descriptions.
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 19
First, you can not decouple analytical skills from brand marketing skills. They are not mutually exclusive. You are right that there is more emphasis on analytical skills in job description for product marketers. Primarily because analytical skills are easier to evaluate. They are also critical b......Read More
4541 Views
2 requests
How do you break into a product marketing role?
I've seen associate roles that still require 1-3 years of experience and haven't gotten results from applying for them with transferable skills highlighted in my resume.
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 19
It is tough. If you are planning to move internally, it starts with finding a sponsor - someone who is willing to take risk for you. That is not going to happen automatically. I answered a similar question so posting that reply. There are multiple entry paths into product marketing If yo......Read More
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Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 18
It is different in different companies but you will most likely see the content divison as follows - Product Marketing content: Product focused, long-form, strategic, longer shelf life, consumed by sales (in addition to customers), not all content PMMs do is technical or semi-technical but be......Read More
4002 Views
3 requests
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 18
There is no one path but let’s unpack what it means to be a director. It isn’t that the directors know exponentially more or they suddenly become better decision makers. When we all start our careers, we search for the right answers. In fact, we are judged by our ability to find the right answer......Read More
4172 Views
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Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 19
Answered a similar question on "Sr.PMM to Director". Here's my response for that question: There is no one path but let’s unpack what it means to be a director. It isn’t that the directors know exponentially more or they suddenly become better decision makers. When we all start our careers, ......Read More
3269 Views
2 requests
What advice would you give a junior product marketing manager who is the first product marketing hire?
I don't want to just be a launch project manager or a new releases copywriter.
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 19
Know your ARR/Pipegen numbers and analytics tools: Get comfortable with building reports and dashboards. Know how to run reports and play around with that data. You will start uncovering interesting things - ex: we are weak in a certain market segment or we tend to have higher win rate for certai......Read More
5519 Views
2 requests
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 19
You already are a marketer, which is a good starting point. Key differences: * In B2C, you are focused on users. In B2B, you also need to think about accounts: That means you are moving from a “a buyer” to “ a committee of buyers” for your product. That means additional personas, object......Read More
2654 Views
2 requests
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 18
There are multiple entry paths for product marketing If you are fresh out of college (MBA) and want to switch to product marketing - Problem solving (Can you identify the right problem and can you analyze the problem to identify the root cause?), Creativity (Will you bring a fresh perspective to......Read More
3926 Views
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