AMA: Eventbrite Global Head of Product Marketing, Jameelah Calhoun on Establishing Product Marketing
February 10 @ 9:00am PST
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Product Marketing Team With Jameelah Calhoun, Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite Already a member? Sign InTop Questions
How do you think about your first 30/60/90 day goals when coming in as the Head of Product Marketing in a startup that didn't have product marketing before?
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex
The first 90 days are crucial to any job, but especially for new product
marketing leaders. This is the time to establish your credibility, build
relationships, and layout team roles that will set your function up for success
for the months to come. Here’s how I break down my priorities by month:...more
What is your advice for creating and/or improving the product marketing process when joining a small but growing team? Particularly for a small company with no or little structure and an inexperienced management team?
What are the best ways for establishing good communication, trust, and buy-in across departments?
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex
See my answers on gaining buy-in from resistant functions and 30/60/90 day
priorities. The most important thing to do, especially in an environment with a
less experienced management team, is to educate everyone internally about what
product marketing is, what your impact will look like, and how ...more
What are the most common mistakes you see candidates make during an interview for a product marketing position?
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex
Interviewees often forget to convey their knowledge about their customers. Many candidates focus exclusively on the outputs and not on the inputs. It would be best if you talked about your results and product outcomes but also articulated the why. Who was the customer? What were their unmet needs?
What's the best, most turnkey framework to use for building GTM presentations for multiple stakeholder groups?
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex
Simple is always better when bringing stakeholders on the journey for a product
launch. I typically structure my presentations around the What? When? Who? Why?
How? and Where? in that order. This framework is straightforward but covers the
most critical questions that matter for the launch. Addit...more
Whenever you are new to a PMM role, what are the top 3 things you look for in the work that has been done before you arrived? (e.g. personas, messaging templates)
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex
As I mentioned in the question regarding your first 90 days, the first 30 days
are all about establishing a baseline and assessing the current product
marketing status. The first 3 things that I look for when onboarding are:
1) Audience strategy and research. Here I want to understand what’s kno...more
Question about org structures - what does your product marketing team org structure look like?
Do you simply have Product Marketers by product/portfolio? Do you have a release communications manager? Someone in sales enablement? What other roles exist in your product marketing teams today?
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex
Organization structures for the PMM team vary depending on your companies’
stage, customer base, and product suite. There are 4 basic approaches for
designing PMM teams: 1) functional (i.e. sales enablement, monetization, GTM,
product strategy), 2) product lines (i.e. subscriptions, retail), 3) c...more
What's your advice on improving a historically tense relationship between functions?
Global Head of Product Marketing at Eventbrite | Formerly Amazon, Ex-Amex
At the core, these situations are about finding the product-market fit for the
product marketing function in your organization. You are trying to establish a
conversion thesis that will make them a future advocate for PMM instead of a
detractor. So take a similar tact as you would do for customer...more
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