AMA: Pendo Senior Director of Product Marketing, Marcus Andrews on Product Marketing Soft and Hard Skills

Not sure if these are "technical skills" Product Marketing isn't a technical job, it's a communications job. But the three biggest hard skills that will help you succeed in PMM and that I interview for are.  Creative Generalist: Does the candidate bring a strong generalist marketing background. Do they understand the basics of demand gend, design, brand, video, etc. PMM is one place having a broad set of experiences is truly helpful.  Excellent Storyteller: Can the candidate tell a persuavie pro ...Read More

I think to be a great PMM leader, it's really important to have done the work. So to have owned massive product lauches, designed narratives, led sales trainings, etc. PMM can be an ambigous job so a leader that hasn't been there done that usually isn't succesful.  The hard skill then left to learn is management. Coaching, support, leadership, alignment. That's a hard skill that you can't overlook. Just becuase someone is a great PMM doesn't mean they will become a great PMM leader. It takes kno ...Read More

This is my version of the "T-Shaped marketer". It's how I coach PMMs to develop their skills.  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NhRmE4pf96M--bih_MSoT-7YpKW3p51i9_-yBhKhIZo/edit#slide=id.p I think starting by developing a great generalist base of knowledge is key. From there getting good at a set of skills more particular to PMM (writing, sales enablement, market research, creativity, product knowleged, presenting, etc) Those are the things we should be really good at.  Then finally there ...Read More

Here are the biggest 2 - communication and teamwork.  PMMs are one of the most cross functional roles in marketing / most companies. You have to be able to bring teams together and create momentum where none exists. This is hard to do if you're not a good collaborater / teammate. Skills like empathy, low ego, enthusiasm, transparency, and more come in real handy here.  The other big one is communication. Maybe it's controversial but PMM is a communications job. A huge part of our value is taking ...Read More

It certainly depends but I'd say it's more important to have the right soft skills. Specifically for product marketing teams. What PMMs do can really vary company to company. So while it's likely your hard skills will at least "sort of" transfer, there is no gaurentee.  So, communication, flexibility, hunger, transpartnecy, honesty, curiousity, etc. Those are the skills you'll be leaning on for a while till you figure out how to apply your hard skills.  Also the more senior you get the more I li ...Read More