AMA: Microsoft Sr. Director of Product Marketing & Growth- Microsoft Copilot, Bhavika Thakkar on Product Marketing Career Path

As PMMs grow from mid-level to senior-level, they are consistently expected to demonstrate these 3 areas- Strategy vs. Execution- Product Marketers start their career by doing product launches or messaging or growth but a VP of Product Marketing is expected to build a 3-5 year strategy to drive business growth. That requires bringing understanding the market, the competition, differentiated value, pricing/packaging, GTM motions, technology advancements and bringing it all together to build the s ...Read More

I'd ask why are they doing that? I'm sure no one likes to do work that others can do for them so if they are creating their own messaging and positioning I'd sit down with them or with your manager and their manager in the spirit of asking for feedback. Is their messaging resonating? Is their messaging accurate? Is their messaging covering differentiated value? How can you incorporate what's working into your official messaging so you are consistent across marketing and sales content? Asking que ...Read More

Networking is key and even more important when leaders hire for mid-senior roles. I always start with people in my network. I don't think having exact experience matters as much as mindset, product understanding and attitude to get things done. I've done a product role because someone took the chance in me knowing that I exceled at Product Marketing. Here's how I'd approach finding roles in adjacent functions- Since you come from performance marketing background, taking up roles in a data-orient ...Read More

Someone from investment banking or finance industry would already have strong analytical chops. I think this is a huge advantage as data-oriented PMMs automatically have advantageous position in career growth. You'll naturally excel in funnel analysis, TAM analysis, segmentation, Running the business work. Where I think you'll want to build skills are- Customer empathy. Just talk to 20 customers a quarter in the early days of transition. Not all decisions in Product Marketing are excel based. Th ...Read More

I love this question. I've personally always sought roles where Product Marketing is a strategic business leader vs. a marketer and a launch manager. Microsoft is definitely organized where Product Marketers have business ownership which gives them the empowerment to shape product with their product and engineering counterparts. Adobe and GoDaddy are similarly organized. I believe Salesforce is too(but don't quote me on that). But, these are some questions you want to ask when you interview with ...Read More

I've been a SaaS, Marketplace and now AI PMM so a PMM can represent multitude of things. At it's core, Product Marketing is taking 'something' and figuring out how to make that 'something' a winning product/service/solution by building a strategy. I think if you're doing that with services, that can easily translate to product marketing if you're doing some of the work as below- Understanding your customer segments and building target profiles Building differentiated value prop keeping competito ...Read More

The answer to this question is the same as what I responded to another question asking about difference between Group PMM and VP of Product Marketing. In short, it's strategy, product influence and business impact. Here's what I typed up- As PMMs grow from mid-level to senior-level, they are consistently expected to demonstrate these 3 areas- Strategy vs. Execution- Product Marketers start their career by doing product launches or messaging or growth but a VP of Product Marketing is expected to ...Read More

Product Marketing is the most strategic and impactful marketing function but it's so mis-understood. Mainly, because the definition of product marketing varies by companies. I'd say ask yourself these questions- Can you thrive in ambiguity? Role of a product marketer varies by what the business needs. It could be customer acquisition one quarter and retention the other quarter. You may not have all the data and insights you need, but you might still be expected to deliver a POV/strategy/plan etc ...Read More

A lot of PMMs focus on the product they worked on vs. what impact they created on the product and business. For most part, PMM skills are transferrable and unless specific industry experience is required, it doesn't matter what your product does and does not. Focus on the PMM actions you took and focus on the impact you made. This goes without saying- personalize your resume, cover letter and interviews for every role. Your answer to "tell me about yourself" for each role you applied to should b ...Read More