AMA: Atlassian Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Jeremy Hemsworth on Product Marketing Career Path

This is a simple enough question, but a very complex answer. There are more PM roles, yes. Typically, there are several PMs mapped to each PMM in larger orgs (Product/Feature, Platform, Growth), while in startups they may delay adding PMMs and instead rely on performance marketers with PMs owning messaging.With AI allowing PMMs to scale, I see this ratio increasing. As for the market, the Minnesotan in me defaults to the neutral but loaded phrase, "it's interesting." Entry-level roles everywhere ...Read More

A few thoughts come to mind: Build trust and credibility as a partner — this is a prerequisite as you need to deliver to show the value of engaging you. This means delivering value to the business (enablement, content, ads, etc.) and sharing how it's driving impact. Don't just share: "we did a session for the sales team." Instead, "we enabled the NE Sales team and in the following 2 weeks we saw a 15% increase in attach rates and 3 new opportunities from that team." Communicate why sharing the r ...Read More

I’ll answer this a bit differently and share what I think it actually takes to make the jump. Ownership mentality — The people who make the jump operate like owners. They understand how the business works, where the gaps are, and what to prioritize. They don’t wait to be told what to fix. They’re not just clocking in. Make your intent known, but don't obsess — You need to know why you want to lead and make that intent known, without turning every conversation into a promotion discussion. Show up ...Read More

This is such a hot topic on LinkedIn/X. Here's a quick list, not in ranked order: Taste — Knowing what good looks like. AI output can seem solid at first glance, but it often falls apart on close read. When everyone uses the same models and similar prompts, the results converge. You need to spot bad ads, weak email copy, and anything that won’t land with your audience and cut it. AI Fluency — Knowing which tools to use, how to prompt them, and how to stitch the output into the rest of your stack ...Read More

Get involved in cross-functional projects — It’s very competitive right now. This move is possible, but your best odds are usually inside your current company. Look for chances to do real PMM work through launch tiger teams, pricing work, or enablement refreshes. Change fewer variables — Career switches get harder the more you change at once. Keep as many constants as possible. From sales, target GTM-heavy PMM roles. From partnerships, look at channel or ecosystem marketing. The change needs to ...Read More

The fastest way to build product marketing skills is to get more reps on meaningful work. Prioritize real exposure over theory and focus on situations that force you to make decisions with consequences. A few ways to do that on the job: Raise your hand and take ownership. When a major launch or company initiative comes up, look for ways to get involved, even if it’s outside your formal scope. Separately, build the habit of spotting business problems on your own—unclear positioning, weak adoption ...Read More

A few things have consistently accelerated my career. Looking back, they fall into three buckets: deliberate transitions, compounding experiences, and well-timed company moves. Making a clean career transition with intent. I moved from sales into marketing through an MBA. That gave me a solid grounding in fundamentals, exposure to real projects, and a network I still rely on. More importantly, it let me reset my trajectory instead of drifting into marketing sideways. Choosing work that compounds ...Read More

There isn’t a single, universal skills list for product marketing because the role changes a lot by company size, industry, and go-to-market motion. That said, there are core traits that consistently show up in strong product marketers, regardless of context. Here are the ones I look for: Intellectual horsepower. The ability to quickly understand new domains, connect dots across product, customer, and business, and form sound points of view. Comfort with ambiguity. Many problems are loosely defi ...Read More

The biggest difference between early-stage startups and larger companies isn’t talent or ambition. It’s how the job changes as the organization scales. The same PMM title can mean very different work depending on stage, and understanding those differences helps you choose roles that match how you like to operate and learn. Here’s how I think about the tradeoffs as companies grow: JTBD change with stage — Early-stage PMM is often pure generalist work. Jobs-to-be-done shift week to week: writing a ...Read More

There isn’t a single right way to balance early-stage startups and big tech. I did it in a non-linear way, including joining a high-growth startup while raising two young kids. That worked because I had enough experience at that point to actually make an impact. If I were giving general advice, I’d think about it in phases: Get a strong brand early. A well-known company on your resume matters. It functions as a heuristic for quality and benefits from the halo effect, creating credibility and ope ...Read More

I don’t think there’s a single universal lever. The data doesn’t support that. The 2025 State of GTM work by Kyle Poyar and Maja Voje shows that what moves the needle depends heavily on ACV, ARR, and motion. Different stages reward different tactics.There’s also a credible counterpoint from Andrew Chen: many channels are saturated right now, and a lot of “best practices” simply don’t work the way they used to.Given that reality, the most reliable lever for a PMM isn’t a specific tactic. It’s sta ...Read More