AMA: Okta VP, Industries & Platform Product Marketing, Christiana Rattazzi on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

Every executive team is different, so I would encourage you to think through the culture (and sometimes - quirks!) of the members of that team as you craft your own approach. That said, I've found a couple things particularly effective in my experience.  Bring along key lieutenants for the ride - once you get to the exec team, a number of important leaders should have been part of the ideation and review process. Individual sales leaders, product owners, customer success leads should all be stop ...Read More

I touch on this a little in another question. That said, a Manager should have a solid grasp of major PMM skills alongside leadership abilities. Some attributes I look for are: Evangelism - whether promoting core value proposition or the work of the PMM team, this person should be skilled in championing the interests of customers, the market and the team. Their opinion and perspective should be influential. Diplomacy - PMM is so cross-functional (and often, the starting point for important proje ...Read More

First of all - I don't think you HAVE to become a VP of Marketing from Head of PMM. You can choose to take on bigger PMM roles at bigger companies.  That said, I've made the move to be a VP of Marketing at an earlier-stage company. I personally believe that PMM leaders make great VPMs for certain businesses - especially ones that have a mid-market or enterprise sales motion, require category creation or are in crowded markets (and will rely on differentiation).  While in the Head of PMM role, ma ...Read More

A Lead should be able to drive a strategic, cross-functional effort and solve issues without any defined structure. Some things I might look for: Messaging - can independently define product (and cross-product) positioning and secure the right buy-in from cross-functional stakeholders to move forward Interpersonal skills - someone who can navigate complex team dynamics and can effectively influence key stakeholders Strategic thinking - proactively surfaces the most impactful initiatives and brin ...Read More

I love this question, as I've spent time across these related organizations in my career (Product Marketing, Solutions Marketing and Industry Marketing).  Typically, Industry and Solutions Marketing consider the audience and business outcomes related to the combination of multiple products (and sometimes multiple products + tech partners).  Industry will be considering the specific audience (often a vertical like Fin Serv or Healthcare) whereas Solutions will be thinking about it horizontally.  ...Read More

Ah, that's tough. When you're competing with an internal candidate, you're up against someone who has considerable product, market and organizational intel. They won't take a long time to ramp, and they have minimal cultural risk too.  So - to counteract this, you have to come prepared - and I'm not just talking some Google research. I would develop a compelling outside-in perspective that is deeply informed. Prepare some provocative questions, have recommendations for positioning on the website ...Read More

I think there are a couple ways I'd think about it - and it would depend on what the PM organization looks like and the individual skills of the folks on the PMM team (if already in-seat).  Approach 1 - Make one of the PMMs Product-facing (handling predominantly new product/feature introductions or launches and product enablement) and one of them more Marketing- or Sales-facing (handling things like first-call decks, website copy, core positioning) Approach 2 - Map those PMMs to the PMs and have ...Read More