AMA: Bumble Head of Product Marketing, Bumble For Friends, Lindsay (Saran) Gatta on Consumer Product Marketing

I use a simple metaphor. If the product team is supposed to know their product inside and out, the product marketing team is supposed to know their customer/member/consumer inside and out. A product has a much higher likelihood of landing with a customer if it meets their needs and/or addresses their pain points. We help the product succeed by connecting it to a key user problem/opportunity to be solved.

Skills are ABSOLUTELY transferrable! Being the voice of the customer, influencing product development, building positioning & messaging and leading GTM are all transferrable skills. I have not written off a candidate in the past if they only had B2B or B2C experience, pending their level of seniority and the role I was looking to fill. More than anything, I really look at the TYPES of projects they have lead and the impact they have driven. For the most part, deeply understanding your product/service/customer can be learned on the job and an exact industry match is something I consider bonus points but not necessary, again pending the level of seniority of the role. I also talk more about this with some other B2B/B2C skillset questions as well, so keep reading :)

I've had the pleasure of working across both and there are some key differences I'd take into account if you have the opportunity to pick a lane: -B2B planning cycles are a bit more predictable than B2C ones- i.e. you have a good sense for what the key buying patterns might look like for your product/service, what the key events that reach that audience are and when they happen, etc. I personally found there isn't a ton of reactive planning in the B2B world unless there is a massive competitor shift driving that reactivity, in comparison to B2C which I find to be somewhat unpredictable as there are always new trends you're trying to be relevant for as well as constantly shifting and evolving consumer mindsets. -In the B2B world, a key audience in addition to your external customer is the internal one - your seller. You need them on board just as must as you need the buyer/customer. And yes the customer journey is often times longer in terms of sales cycles, but the number of key decision-makers/ people you need to influence is usually bigger and therefore more complex. -Pending the product/service, your budgets might be bigger on the B2C side, especially if you have a decent advertising/above-the-line budget. I have loved both B2B and B2C - I was pretty hesitant to take a B2B marketing role and I loved it so much more than I ever thought I would. Both experiences are valuable, and you might end up having a preference if you try both. Think about what motivates you most - do you prefer to touch/see/feel your product so you can have a deeper personal connection to it? If you do, B2C might be for you. Or if you know you like being close to the traditional sales model and enjoy relationship building, B2B might be for you.

Yes, my two top hands down are Reforge and Lenny's Newsletter ([email protected]).

In all of my PMM teams, we've aligned to how our product team aligns (some are pods, some are product trios), mapping as closely to their priorities and focus areas.

Generally, I find 90+% of the core skills do overlap across B2B and B2C. I wouldn't call these skillsets, but two things to keep in mind: 1) I have personally experienced a much closer relationship to my tech (eng, PM, etc) team on the B2C side than B2B side. B2B PMMs are influential over the product roadmap but so are sellers and other internal stakeholders, so I didn't find the direct impact I had on the product itself to be as significant. 2) The GTM channels you activate will be different. In my current B2C world, social media is absolutely critical and in my B2B world, experiential and event marketing was absolutely critical. For the most part, those channels can be learned - but if you are going for a role where you will be required to manage that channel independently, and you have no experience with that channel, that will likely be pretty tough.

Regardless of B2B or B2C, translating data to insights to inform your positioning (and product strategy and GTM strategy) is critical. Understanding your product, its competitors, the market and your customer needs/ motivations are the inputs you need for both types of positioning. The question is: How do you get to that level of understanding? In the B2B world, sellers were a huge asset to get deeper understanding, but in the B2C world, social media listening is an incredible treasure trove of consumer insight. In both worlds, it is nice to have a research partner running first party studies (qual/quant) if possible and/or supplementing with 3rd party tools. Usually, your company will have proprietary sources of data too, so those will differ pending the product/service. Regardless of the tool/data you use, the translation skill is universal for any (product) marketer.

Here are some I like: -What's good product you believe is marketed poorly? -What's a product you believe is not a market category leader but is because of its marketing? -Tell me about the last time you promoted someone on your team. What was that process like? -What inspired you to pursue a career in product marketing? What do you think is unique about product marketing than other types of marketing? -This is not a personal favorite but I always get it personally: Tell me about a time when you influenced a product roadmap.

I would ask about a few things: -What types of marketing decisions do the founders want to be involved with? What types of decisions are they comfortable giving you autonomy to run? -What is your budgeting process? Are the founders involved in that? -Has the founder worked with a product marketer before? What did and didn't go well in their working relationship? Can you talk to that person? -How does your founder(s) define product marketing? -(If more than 1 founder), what types of approvals and decisions will each of them manage, or will you need 2-3 approvals/rounds of feedback with the majority of your day to day work?