AMA: DocuSign Senior Director, Global Solutions Marketing, Paul Rudwall on Product Marketing Skills
December 17 @ 9:00AM PST
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How important are brand marketing skills for product marketers compared to analytical skills?
There is often a huge emphasis on analytical skills, instead of brand marketing skills, when it comes to product marketing job descriptions.
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DocuSign Senior Director, Global Solutions Marketing • December 17
Great Product Marketers are made, not born. While some may have innate talents suited to the role, Product Marketing is a craft that must be honed over time. Here are some ways to continually improve your skills: 1. Pay Attention to Marketing Around You: * We’re surrounded by marketing every day. Most of it is forgettable, but some stands out—it might change your perspective, evoke emotion, surprise you, or make something complicated feel simple. When you notice great marketing, ask yourself: * What makes it different? * Why does it work? * How can I apply those principles to my own work? 2. Practice and Test Your Story: * Great messaging is rarely a stroke of genius. It’s the product of asking the right questions and constant refinement. * Test your messaging with different audiences. * Deliver it out loud to see how it feels. * Observe how it resonates, then iterate. Over time, you’ll recognize patterns in what works and can apply them to future efforts. 3. Study Great Storytelling: * As a PMM, you need to be a great storyteller. Pay attention to the stories around you, how they're structured, and the tactics they employ to make you feel something. This could be in marketing campaigns or presentations, but it could be books, movies, songs, or stories your friends tell. Learn from great storytellers and apply what they do to your messaging. 4. Read: * Reading has a huge number of benefits. In addition to keeping you sharp, it gives you the ability to learn from people who have been in your shoes before and who have thought deeply about the things you're trying to solve. Learn from their experience and use it to your benefit. 5. Get Close to Customers: * Customers are at the heart of everything you do. Ultimately, they buy because you solve problems for them. Understand: * Their challenges and goals. * How they perceive your company and product. * How your messaging resonates with them. * By knowing your audience deeply, you can craft messaging that addresses their needs and compels them to act. 6. Learn Sales: * In many PMM roles, you're supporting a sales organization. Your buyer journey, sales process, and the skillset of your sales team will have a big impact on the effectiveness of your messaging. The more you know about the situations where it's delivered, who it's delivered by, and how it fits into the objectives of the stage of the buyer journey where it's used, the more effective your messaging will be. Most importantly, view Product Marketing and messaging as a craft that can be continually improved but never perfected. Never stop practicing and working to uplevel your skills.
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How do you recommend working in my soft skills and their importance in the job interview when not directly asked?
I find that interviewers very often focus on the hard skills, but I think it’s the soft skills that can make/break a candidate. I usually try to highlight my soft skills within the context of my “STAR” stories.
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DocuSign Senior Director, Global Solutions Marketing • December 17
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to crafting effective emails for sales teams—it depends on the purpose. However, understanding salespeople and their day-to-day is critical. As a former salesperson, I can tell you that sales teams are eager for Product Marketing support, but they’re also inundated with requests and communications that can pull them away from their primary focus: working with customers. Here are a few tips to make your communications more effective: * Get Close to Your Sales Team: Build relationships with salespeople and sales leaders to stay aligned with their priorities and challenges. This network will help you keep a pulse on what’s top of mind for sales and how they view your work. * Bottom Line Up Front: Salespeople are busy, and long emails without clear takeaways won’t hold their attention. Start with a quick summary of the key message or action item to ensure they grasp the main point, even if they only skim. * Frequent/Short vs Periodic/Long: There's a tension between overly frequent comms and overly long comms. Get a sense of how your sales org likes to receive information and tailor it to their preferences. * Frequent/Short: Ideal for quick updates that are easy to digest, but be mindful not to overwhelm the team with too many communications. * Periodic/Long: Useful for consolidating information into one structured email. Just ensure it’s well-organized to avoid losing their interest. * WIIFM: Salespeople have a lot of competing asks, so make sure you include what's in it for them. If you're asking without giving something in return, you're likely to be ignored. So, make sure you include the benefit of what you're communicating clearly and prominently. * Sections/Bullets: Structure your email so that salespeople can easily skim to understand the key points you're trying to convey and move to the sections that are most relevant to them without having to read the whole thing. Ultimately, there’s no perfect formula. But by staying attuned to your sales team’s needs and preferences, you can create communications that resonate and drive action.
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DocuSign Senior Director, Global Solutions Marketing • December 17
I often get asked about the difference between a PMM and a Sr. PMM, and I think it’s a critical distinction to understand. In my opinion, the difference is less about what you do and more about how you do it. Some of the key distinctions I see include: 1. Self-Reliance: * As you move into a Sr. PMM role, you're frequently expected to be able to do a task or a project with significantly less oversight than a PMM. * While coaching and feedback are still part of the process, you should be able to take a project from inception to completion independently. * The shift is from needing guidance on what to do to receiving feedback on how you’ve done it 2. Critical Thinking: * I you're completing an exercise and are provided an approach for completing it, you should be able to do it as directed, at the PMM level. * As a Sr. PMM, you’re expected to assess whether a new approach is needed and propose alternatives. For example: “Here’s the work we discussed, but I believe there’s a better way. Here’s my recommendation.” 3. Ability to Navigate Ambiguity: * As you grow into roles of greater seniority, you'll be expected to deal with questions and problems that are increasingly ambiguous. * At the PMM level, you should expect a good deal of guidance on how to navigate these situations. * At the Sr. PMM level, it's generally expected that you're able to navigate them with a fairly high degree of independence, asking for support only where needed. 4. Pattern Recognition: * Your ability to quickly and easily identify potential solutions because you've encountered the problem (or a similar one) before is a big difference between PMM and Sr. PMM. 5. Scope: * There may not be a difference between what you're focused on at the PMM and Sr. PMM levels. * But, your leaders should be able to trust that you can take on problems or areas of responsibility that are significantly more complex or important to the business as you move to the Sr. PMM level. * For example, you might move from managing secondary features to owning primary, business-critical ones. The biggest shift is your ability to take direction and independently find solutions without requiring detailed guidance. As a Sr. PMM, your leaders rely on you to independently chart a course and solve complex problems, driving outcomes with confidence and minimal oversight.
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What is your superpower product marketing skill in that is a differentiator?
I find that product marketing has become a position that doesn’t require much experience. You can be fairly seasoned and compete with someone that is just out of undergraduate because the discipline is not the same in tech as it might be in consumer goods or retail.
DocuSign Senior Director, Global Solutions Marketing • December 17
My two superpowers are storytelling and my experience in sales. These skills have been invaluable in my career, and I encourage everyone to identify their own strengths and lean into them. Every PMM brings a unique background to the role, and it’s those differences that can set you apart. The Power of Storytelling Storytelling is a skill that can be learned, and in my (admittedly biased) opinion, it’s often the difference between a good PMM and a great one. * Can you clearly articulate the problem someone faces, your solution to it, and the benefits of making a change? * Can you do it in a way that’s easy to understand, memorable, and emotionally resonant? If so, you’re ahead of the game. The good news is that anyone can learn to tell a great story—it just takes practice and a commitment to improving over time. The Role of Experience in Product Marketing While I believe someone with the right skills and growth mindset can quickly advance in PMM, I also think experience is hugely important, especially as you progress in your career. * PMMs Are Made, Not Born: Product Marketing is a craft that requires ongoing refinement to jump from good to great. * The Value of Pattern Recognition: A big part of the job is quickly assessing problems, identifying potential solutions, and determining the best course of action. This process becomes faster and more effective with experience—having “been there before” is incredibly valuable. Critical thinking and asking great questions can help if you’re encountering a problem for the first time, but experience becomes increasingly important as you move into leadership roles. It provides the context and intuition needed to navigate complex challenges. My Advice * Don’t let a lack of experience stop you from pursuing opportunities or tackling challenges if you believe you’re capable. * At the same time, don’t discount the value of experience—it’s what helps you hone your craft and grow as a PMM. Seek out new experiences and stretch yourself regularly. Every challenge you face is an opportunity to learn, improve, and ultimately become a better product marketer.
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How do you build a Go-to market PMM portfolio when you only have content marketing skills?
I'm a PMM with 4+ YOE and I work at a B2B SaaS company. The issue is that I only have content marketing, sales enablement and campaign management experience, and NO product launch or go-to market experience.
Across different interviews, I've been rejected because I'm not able to come up with strategies for positioning a new product in the market. I've consumed several courses and understand the theories now. But I don't have any practical experience of working with the Product team for launch.
How do I leverage my theoretical knowledge into practical applications and crack interviews?
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What core skills should new product marketing managers learn first?
I'm new to PMM. What should I learn first to ground me in the foundation of PMM.
DocuSign Senior Director, Global Solutions Marketing • December 17
If you're new to Product Marketing (PMM), start by grounding yourself in the fundamentals of messaging and positioning. In my view, these form the foundation of everything else in PMM. A PMM wears many hats, but at its core, the role is about taking a complex subject and simplifying it in a way that resonates with your buyer—leading them to choose your product over a competitor's. Product Marketing is often essential when the benefits or differentiation of a product aren't immediately obvious, which makes this work both challenging and critical. To excel, you need to craft a story that's clear, compelling, and positions your product distinctly in the buyer's mind. Here's how I break it down: Key Skills You Need to Master: 1. Storytelling: People remember stories, not facts. Your goal is to take the customer on a journey—from their current understanding of the problem and market to a place where they feel compelled to take action, believing your product is the solution. * Remember, every story needs a hero—and the hero is always the customer, not your product or company. 2. Positioning: Positioning is about creating a unique and differentiated space in the buyer's mind for your product. Ask yourself: * What do we offer that no one else does? * Why should a buyer choose us over other options? 3. Messaging: Messaging is how you communicate your position clearly and consistently, both to internal stakeholders and external audiences. Use language that is simple, authentic, and easy to understand. Effective messaging enables your team to articulate what you do and what makes you different. You Need to Overcome Inaction: The path of least resistance for buyers is often to do nothing. To overcome this inertia, you need to show that the "Pain of the Same > Pain of Change." If you can clearly demonstrate that the cost of inaction is higher than the cost of adopting your solution, you're on the right track. Recommended Reading If you're just getting started, I'd check out: * Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout * Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath * Loved by Martina Lauchengco
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