AMA: Asana Former Head of Global Product Marketing, Dana Barrett on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

You are 100% correct that the hardest part of a PMMs job is managing without authority. Often, PMMs rely on shared resources or centralized teams to get their job done. I have found three things work really well in managing without authority. They are all hard and take time, but they are effective. First, invest the time in building a relationship with your cross functional partners. If someone knows you and likes you, they are going to be much more open to any feedback you have. They are also m ...Read More

I don’t think there is a typical career path to get to VP or CMO. That said, many CMOs for tech companies have product marketing experience, so it's a good place to start if your ultimate goal is to be a CMO. From my perspective, the VPs and CMOs that I admire most have often worked in a range of roles across Marketing (and sometimes even Sales), so they have a wide range of experiences and skills to draw upon. They are strong managers who are able to build high performing teams because good peo ...Read More

I spent a lot of time in my early career worrying about getting to the next promotion and how I was progressing versus my peers. Looking back now, this was all wasted energy. I wish I had been more focused on learning and picking up as many skills and experiences as possible. I also wish I had been less worried about making mistakes. I think I would have been able to take more risks and push myself to try new things that would have ultimately helped me to build more skills. I also wish I knew ho ...Read More

I started as an IC and was working on a product that was on the verge of being deprecated. Fast forward three years, and I got a promotion and was managing a team of 9 people. How did I do it? Well, the short answer is that I delivered results. I saw an opportunity to grow the product I was assigned to, and sought out other people who had the same vision. We all worked together to turn that product into a success. Once the product started succeeding, I was given a small team. Then, I was called ...Read More

Every product marketing org is different, but there are typically three big areas that may or may not be included in a product marketing org including, inbound (working more closely with Product), outbound (or GTM, working more closely with Sales), and compete (often supports competitive needs of Sales or Marketing). On top of that, Product Marketers can often be called upon to support many other functions across Marketing such as demand generation or acquisitions.If you want to run a Product Ma ...Read More

I don’t think there is a typical career path for Product Marketers. I personally started my career in investment banking and consulting and transitioned into a corporate role via Operations. I made the transition to Product Marketing by networking and building relationships while I was working in Operations. I built a relationship with someone who gave me the opportunity to work in product marketing even though I didn’t have experience.From there, I worked on products that I loved (video for man ...Read More

It's hard to break into product marketing with no experience as it is a tough job. PMMs have to manage a lot of cross functional stakeholders and are often responsible for executing large, complex launches. My suggestion is to enter a company in a function where you have experience and network your way into a PMM role. That is how I got my start in Product Marketing. I transitioned from Operations to Product Marketing by working on projects (some outside the scope of my role) with a woman who wa ...Read More

I look for a couple of things:  Can they proactively identify and solve problems? Are they coachable? Do they have a growth mindset?  Are they able to drive cross functional alignment, with peers and senior stakeholders? Are they acting as a mentor and coach to others on the team and/or cross functional partners that have less experience or are struggling? When ICs demonstrate the skills above, I will often put them on the bigger and more strategic projects, or ask them to run a whole program (e ...Read More

You do not have to have direct reports to develop some of the skills you will need to be a good manager and demonstrate that you are ready to take on the challenge of managing a team.Many PMMs have to mobilize large cross functional teams to get work done. To do this well, you need to set a clear vision, set expectations for what will be done by when, provide feedback and coaching when the work is not on track, etc. All of these skills are critical to being an effective manager. In addition, you ...Read More

Yes, the easiest way to make this transition is to try to move into the Product Marketing org in your current company. I recommend getting to know some of the folks on the Product Marketing team. Ask them about their jobs and figure out if there are things you can do in your current job to prepare you for a role in product marketing. If you feel comfortable, set up time with the head of the team and express your interest in some day working in product marketing. This way, they will know of your ...Read More