AMA: Asana Director of Product Marketing, Erica Conti on Product Marketing Skills

I agree that it seems like there are significant developments in AI nearly every day! To stay up to speed, I do the following - Follow AI thought leaders on LinkedIn (for example, Yann LeCun, Allie K. Miller, and Andrew Ng) Subscribe to AI-focused newsletters like The Rundown AI Read technology-focused newsletters like Lenny's (Rachitsky) Newsletter, Ben Thompson's Stratechery, and Jason Lemkin's SaaStr Weekly I also find it helpful to try some of the new AI products hitting the market myself! I ...Read More

I believe that learning about PMM starts with a good dose of curiosity about how people learn about, think about, and ultimately make a decision about a product! My own product marketing journey began years ago with - Keeping my eyes open: I started noticing how I personally discovered new products, what I liked / didn't like about them, how the company talked to me about them, and how this was the same / different from friends of mine. I began getting a sense of what different purchasing journe ...Read More

I like to consider myself an experimentation-oriented PMM, so I can definitely face pushback when executing on a new idea! I've found the following helps to bring leadership and partner teams along - Paint the picture: When you're presenting the idea, lead with your vision for the launch, campaign, or activation. Why will customers engage with it? What could it look like in the wild (consider mocking up creative to do this)? It should be easy for partner teams to not only grok, but also get exci ...Read More

To make the prioritization conversation easier, I think a few things need to be in place - A relationship with the stakeholder: I like to have regular 1:1s with my key stakeholders across the Marketing team, even if only once a month or once every 6 weeks. These 1:1s help to build trust, discuss what's top of mind, and give a preview of what's on the horizon, which makes prioritization conversations later much easier. Tie to a clear business outcome: I think it's the responsibility of PMM to cle ...Read More

I've leveraged a variety of communities and resources to grow as a PMM - Product Marketing Alliance (PMA): The PMA has a whole host of async resources that cover foundational PMM topics like messaging / positioning, segmentation, and packaging. They also frequently host events, where you can hear directly from other PMMs. Jason Oakley's PMM Files: Every week, Jason shares examples of great PMM work in the market. It's an awesome way to stay up to speed on how different PMM teams are experimentin ...Read More

I've found these three skills to be most important for PMMs to develop - Customer obsession: PMMs are the stewards of the customer within the Marketing organization. Being interested in their pain points, impactful trends, current product usage, and more is critical for you to put together compelling messaging / positioning and launches that resonate. Cross-functional collaboration: PMM sits at the intersection of Product, Marketing, and Sales. They need to understand each of these department's ...Read More

To me, executive presence boils down to being a strategic thought partner for your leadership stakeholders. This means viewing yourself as their collaborators and helping them tackle a challenge or make a decision. This can sound daunting for more junior PMMs, but I've found that a few things help you to show up in this way - Have a POV: If you were the executive - and the ultimate decision maker - what would you do? Why? What data are you relying on to support your position? When you show up wi ...Read More