AMA: Forethought Head of Product Marketing, Ryan Van Wagoner on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

Everything! But really...I was pretty clueless. I wish I knew how product marketing works with sales, customer success, product, and core marketing to be successful. I wish I knew to spend time asking questions and getting as much information as possible before starting a project. I wish I knew how to use storytelling not just in external decks but also in internal meetings to influence strategy. I wish I knew how lucky I was to have a boss that wanted me to succeed and made it his mission to open doors and help me navigate my career. Overall, I wish I knew from the start how much fun product marketing can be. It's a fantastic career path with near-unlimited opportunities for learning and growth.

The truth is, almost every product marketer I know switched to a career in product marketing from a different field (I came from Sales!). This is very rarely a career that people start out in right out of undergrad (but it does happen! Check out my good friend Lauren Hanson's post). Because product marketing encompasses a wide range of responsibilities and specialities, it's usually made up of individuals with a wide range of experience. That's good news for you. The most important product marketing skill that *every* PMM should have or develop is messaging and positioning. Ironically, this is also the skill that will get you hired. Your goal is to examine your experience, see which skills are relevant to product marketing, and create messaging and positioning (i.e., a resume and prepared interview answers) to "sell" your qualifications to the hiring manager. Here are just a few important examples of skillsets you can develop in various fields that will help in switching to product marketing: - Writing skills - Design skills - Ability to work with numbers and track ROI - Understanding of sales and what salespeople need to be successful - Technical background (especially valuable if you can pair it with an understanding of marketing) - Working with customers to understand their needs

I'd have to go with this classic: "Describe your process for launching a new product." Why? A product launch is the quintessential act of product marketing. It places the product marketer as the orchestrator between product, sales, customer success, and core marketing. If you understand how to successfully launch a product, you understand how to be a successful product marketer. The best answers to this question don't start with a laundry list of channels and assets--they start with the "why". Why are we launching the product? What do we hope to gain? Is the goal primarily to generate leads? Drive revenue? Gain awareness? How will we measure success? Once the purpose and goals of the launch are made clear, the next steps are typically as follows: 1: Nail the messaging and positioning (get this into a doc as a single source of truth, and ensure every single deliverable and piece of content ladders up to it) 2: Make a list of the deliverables (internal and external content that needs to be created, the customers who need to be involved, approvals and buy-in, etc.) 3: Build your launch plan (specific activities that need to be completed by certain dates by specific owners) 4: Establish a regular check-in cadence to execute on the plan and ensure everyone is aligned

Over the course of my career, I've seen incredible product marketers enter the field in all sorts of ways: - Pursuing an MBA and getting an internship at a large tech company - Getting sales experience and then moving into a sales-enablement-focused PMM role as an entry point to the field - Starting in core marketing (demand gen / creative / content marketing / events / etc.) and using those skills to transition to PMM The best way to enter the product marketing field is the one that plays to your interests and strengths. Do you have a background in sales? Marketing? Customer success? Keep in mind the product marketing field is very broad in terms of roles and responsibilities, so play the long game and focus on where you can add the most value today. If you're currently a sales rep, you'll have an easier time moving into a GTM-focused PMM role than a messaging-focused PMM role. Note that PMM roles at smaller companies lean more toward generalist roles than specialist. If your goal is to become a PMM at a startup, you'll need to assess your strengths and then position and message yourself (see what I did there?) as the right fit based on those relevant skills. But before you make any drastic moves, talk to people (I don't like the term "network"--just have real conversations with real humans!). Try to understand what PMMs at your target companies/industries do and what they need. Remember, companies hire PMMs to solve problems and make things happen. As you better understand the value companies want to get from a PMM, you'll be able to tailor your personal positioning and messaging to pitch your skills in the best possible way.

Great question! Product marketing has been getting a lot of attention recently as a top career choice for anyone interested in marketing or strategy, but the truth is everyone's career path is different and product marketing may look different from one role or company to the next. The product marketing role sits at the intersection of product, sales, customer success, and core marketing, which means: - Some PMMs will specialize more in product: release marketing, product launches, product & feature messaging, etc. - Some PMMs will specialize more in sales: sales enablement, competitive analysis, etc. - Some PMMs will specialize more in customer success: customer stories, customer marketing, etc. - Some PMMs will specialize more in core marketing: content and messaging for digital campaigns, website content and messaging, etc. Ultimately product marketing encompasses all of this, so many product marketers will gain experience in each of these areas. Becoming well-rounded is a goal of many product marketers, but it often takes deliberate career planning and regular conversations with your manager. As you build up your product marketing resume, you'll be entrusted with more cross-functional responsibilities and will become more valuable to your company. For many, product marketing is the end career goal. For others, it's a stepping stone to an eventual Head of Marketing / CMO role or other executive role.

My first recommendation would be to make sure you understand exactly what exactly your stakeholders are wanting to know (and why). Are they looking at making product decisions based on this information? Adjusting the pricing? Refining the messaging? Knowing the strategic goals behind the request will help you know what types of information to search for. Next, frame your search by putting together a template for a product comparison matrix comparing your product with each of your top competitors' products (I recommend doing this in a spreadsheet where you can add additional information and notes). This exercise will help you discover which features are the most important to evaluate. Read industry reports and any other third-party research you can find to try to understand what customers are looking for. Once you've compiled the list of features to evaluate, it's now time to get detailed on what your product offers vs. what competitive products offer. This can be challenging, and you may have to get creative. Scour competitors' websites, read product reviews, download free trials (if available), talk to your sales team, etc. This is grunt work, but if you do it right these insights will be indespensible not only to product/engineering teams and the CEO but also to the sales team, core marketing team, and to your own product marketing efforts.

What the interviewer really wants to know by asking this question is how you would handle a product launch, and you don't need direct experience to ace this question. You DO, however, need to do your homework and genuinely understand the launch process. I would highly recommend talking with several other PMMs (either at your company or elsewhere) to hear various points of view on what it's like to launch a product, and make sure you have a detailed answer prepared on what *you* would do if you were in charge of a launch. An example answer might go something like this: "My colleague recently launched X product at our company, and I've spent a lot of time learning everything about the launch and the nuts and bolts of the process so I can be prepared for our next launch. Generally, this is how I would approach a product launch: [shamelessly repeating one of my answers from my previous AMA question below] Start with the "why". Why are we launching the product? What do we hope to gain? Is the goal primarily to generate leads? Drive revenue? Gain awareness? How will we measure success? Once the purpose and goals of the launch are made clear, the next steps I would take are: 1: Nail the messaging and positioning (get this into a doc as a single source of truth, and ensure every single deliverable and piece of content ladders up to it) 2: Make a list of the deliverables (internal and external content that needs to be created, the customers who need to be involved, approvals and buy-in, etc.) 3: Build the launch plan (specific activities that need to be completed by certain dates by specific owners) 4: Establish a regular cadence to execute on the plan and ensure everyone is aligned." I would wrap up your answer by asking the interviewer's opinion: "What do you think? Is there anything I left out?"

Generally as you become more senior in your product marketing career (or any career), your role will become more strategic and cross-functional. As you begin to show that you can not only work well in the trenches (create compelling messaging and content, etc.) but also come to the table with new ideas, take more ownership, and influence other stakeholders, you'll be seen as more valuable to the company. Ask your manager to help you develop a plan re: what skills to develop and projects to own that will help prepare you for a Senior PMM role. Another piece of advice that I can't give often enough: talk to everyone you can. Seek to truly understand the roles and priorities of your stakeholders in product, sales, customer success, and core marketing. As you incorporate their priorities into your planning, you'll find yourself thinking much more strategically. And last but not least: if you feel you're qualified and ready for a promotion, make it known! Often senior leadership can get wrapped up in other initiatives and may not be tracking progress as well as they should. There's nothing wrong with making the case for your promotion directly. 

Be sure you understand and articulate *why* you're building out the team. We all want to grow the marketing team, but growing for the sake of growing can often cause more problems than it solves. To be effective at a small company with a small team, you need to grow strategically and focus on the most important initiatives. Put together a list of projects you'd like to tackle and other marketing-related inititatives. Then talk with your stakeholders in product, sales, and customer success to see what they would like to see from marketing. Work with those stakeholders to prioritize your list. Then approach your manager or executive with a hiring proposal for the next 12-18 months that addresses those priorities (e.g.: hire a GTM-focused PMM in November to accomplish these sales enablement initiatives, a Creative Director in January to address these needs, etc.).

This is a fantastic question and often where PMMs either excel or fail. Product marketing is the glue between product, sales, customer success, and core marketing, and understanding how to align those four functions is the key to success. Start with listening. Talk with each stakeholder (in your case product and sales, but I'd recommend expanding to customer success and core marketing / demand gen in many cases) and understand their priorities, upcoming projects, and anything they'd love to see from product marketing. Talk about their strategic goals and where you can work together. Run new projects past them (before they're complete) to get their input and buy-in, especially new messaging. This will add value to your work, but it will also help them understand that you value their feedback and want to work together. I'd also recommend putting a regular alignment sync on the calendar to discuss various initiatives. For example, at Forethought we have a biweekly roadmap alignment call with representatives from product, sales, customer success, and product marketing. This helps everyone get on the same page with product priorities, and it helps me understand where PMM can be most helpful. I also have separate syncs with individual stakeholders in each department.

At Forethought, product marketing works very closely with the product teams to bring products to market. I hold regular check-ins with product marketing and the Head of Product, as well as separate check-ins with individual product managers. These check-ins enable us to: - Align on product strategy and product messaging. This is especially important if new products are in development. - Provide feedback from customers (either through Sales or Customer Success) that will be helpful for the development of new features. - Develop our product launch strategy and roadmap. - Get feedback on specific PMM initiatives.