AMA: Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Webex Suite, Manav Tandon on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

February 16 @ 10:00AM PST

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Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Webex Suite, Manav Tandon on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

Top Questions

As a lead product marketer with a broad set of responsibilities and very few resources, what are the critical KPIs I should report on? When you're responsible for product launches, messaging, sales materials and enablement, the metrics seem 'soft.'

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 16

Here's a non-comprehensive list of KPIs to choose from: * Launch content * # of press articles mentioning your product * # of views on blog posts * # of visitors to landing pages * # of downloads of gated content * # of social media post impressions * # of users adopting......Read More

5624 Views

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How do you find overlapping interest/commonality with product management that goes beyond wanting to connect the product to the customer?

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 16

A couple of other areas beyond customer that PMMs and PMs can find common interests in are market trends and competitive landscape dynamics. PMMs can provide conduct their own research and provide insights around the directions the current market is heading towards, or even suggest adjacent marke......Read More

368 Views

1 request

What is a rare and valuable skill each marketer should develop?

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 16

It's hard to pick one skill... product marketers have to master a variety of skills to be effective in their roles - influencing people, messaging, content creation, sales enablement, opportunity assessments, competitive analysis, etc. But if I had to pick one, I would advise product marketers to......Read More

1112 Views

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What advice do you have for recent graduates that want to go straight into product marketing?

Typically, these roles require 3-5 years of experience and/or an MBA. Are there roles we should target instead that will help transition into product marketing? What qualities do you want to see in young professionals that want to land in product marketing?

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 15

You should seek out product marketing specialist roles. In such a role you'll get to help product marketing managers conduct market, customer and competitive research, analyze data on product adoption and new customer acquisition, and develop marketing content and sales collateral. You'll have op......Read More

1038 Views

2 requests

How strongly is a product marketing certificate from the Pragmatic Institute viewed in hiring for a product marketing manager?

Considering adding this to my portfolio on top of my experience. Like to hear what others think/have seen in the market when it comes to hiring.

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 16

If you have it, display it. It never hurts to try to differentiate yourself from the competition in a highly competitive field, especially if you don't have relevant bachelor's degree in business/marketing or an MBA. Some employers and hiring managers will care, others won't. But nobody will see ......Read More

658 Views

2 requests

What advice would you give a junior product marketing manager who is the first product marketing hire?

I don't want to just be a launch project manager or a new releases copywriter.

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 16

Build relationships with your stakeholders in Product Management, Sales and other Marketing teams (Content, Digital, DG, Integrated, etc.). Ask them to invite you to meetings and listen intently to identify areas where they need help, and volunteer to help with with those areas - e.g. market tren......Read More

2200 Views

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How can a junior digital marketing generalist stand out as a PMM candidate in a role that requires 3+ years of product marketing experience?

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 16

In my experience, hiring managers don't know for sure how many years of experience is actually required for a role... it's not an exact science. What's more important is to demonstrate that you can do the work, that you can fulfill the requirements of the job. Find out what's relevant from your p......Read More

450 Views

2 requests

What were the best career decisions that you made that helped position you for a Head of Product Marketing role at a great company?

Manav Tandon

Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Collaboration SaaS • February 16

The decisions you make are a combination of your circumstances and the options available to you. I think luck and timing is always an overlooked factor. I recently read Einstein's biography, and it struck me how fortutious it was that he failed to get a job as an academic after graduating from co......Read More

1060 Views

1 request