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AMA: Asana Head of Global Product Marketing, Dana Barrett on Developing Your Product Marketing Career
October 15 @ 10:00AM PST
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Asana Head of Global Product Marketing, Dana Barrett on Developing Your Product Marketing Career
Top Questions
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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......Read More
15568 Views
3 requests
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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......Read More
21675 Views
2 requests
What advice do you have for a current product marketing manager who's looking to grow his/her career in product marketing?
What type of opportunities should current product marketers seek out in order to best position themselves to lead the product marketing function at a company?
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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......Read More
16222 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.
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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 yo......Read More
13450 Views
2 requests
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?
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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 cle......Read More
10113 Views
1 request
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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 assi......Read More
16399 Views
1 request
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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 be......Read More
18334 Views
1 request
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
I look for a couple of things: 1. Can they proactively identify and solve problems? 2. Are they coachable? Do they have a growth mindset? 3. Are they able to drive cross functional alignment, with peers and senior stakeholders? 4. Are they acting as a mentor and coach to others on the ......Read More
11101 Views
4 requests
How do you manage people who don't necessarily report into you?
This could be while giving feedback on a piece of work? Or getting them to prioritise the project you're running.
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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 effectiv......Read More
22786 Views
2 requests
Dana Barrett
Tremendous VP of Marketing • October 15
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 prepar......Read More
3218 Views
1 request
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