AMA: GitLab Vice President of Brand & Product Marketing, Dave Steer on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

I'm going to cheat a bit on my answer to this great question. Let me break this down into two parts that I've found crucial for PMM success - foundational capabilities and core skills that power them. First, the three essential PMM capabilities: Positioning, messaging, and strategic narrative development: This is where you shape how your product lives in the market and in customers' minds. It's both art and science. It requires deep understanding of your market and competitive landscape, your cu ...Read More

I love this question because my path to management wasn't exactly a straight line! About 7 years into my marketing career, I was wearing different hats as a product marketer, brand marketer, and communications manager. While I enjoyed these individual contributor roles, something interesting started happening: I found myself naturally gravitating toward leading massive cross-functional projects. In these projects, my roles and responsibilities were shaped by identifying a shared vision and strat ...Read More

This is a fascinating question that gets at the heart of modern marketing career development. Let me share my perspective based on my journey through various marketing disciplines. Marketing has evolved into a sophisticated ecosystem of specialties, each demanding deep expertise. For PMM leaders, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge. The unique position of product marketing - sitting at the intersection of marketing, product, and sales - naturally exposes you to different aspects of ...Read More

Building your path to product marketing management requires focusing on two critical areas - and I'll share what I've found works best based on my experience. First, it's essential to develop true expertise in the core product marketing craft. The scope of product marketing is incredibly broad and nuanced - you need to be fluent in  everything from strategic narrative development to positioning and messaging, while building deep knowledge of your product, customers, and business landscape. Take ...Read More

As a product marketer, strong writing is absolutely fundamental to success. I'll be direct: I spend about 90% of my time writing - whether it's crafting messaging for external audiences, communicating with internal stakeholders, or answering that 100+ page Gartner MQ!  If you're feeling uncertain about your writing skills, here's what I've found works: First, embrace that becoming a better writer is a journey. There's no magic solution, but consistent practice is transformative. The good news? A ...Read More

Building emerging talent is job #1. I start with a clear professional mission and leadership philosophy. On the mission side, my goal is to unlock people’s potential. I care deeply about my teammates and there’s no greater reward for me than helping people develop and grow their careers. In terms of leading, I have high expectations for my teammates (calibrated to where they are in their careers) and I’m a fierce advocate for them. I’ve found that there needs to be an equal balance (expectations ...Read More