AMA: Salesforce VP of Product Marketing, Rekha Srivatsan on PMM Interviews

I don't care about the candidate's background when interviewing for my team. I've hired folks from engineering, solution engineering, sales, and customer success teams and they've become successful PMMs. That being said, most of them have this in common:  Can-do and flexible attitude - Ready to take on any challenge. Open to solving it creatively and however long it takes to wrap it up.  Connecting the dots - Instead of being siloed as just a PMM, thinking about the adjacent functions like campa ...Read More

I'm a huge fan of shorter, concise resumes. If you can articulate your journey and experience on one page, it will help me to process your resume well. Some red flags I've observed: Typos/grammatical errors - Attention to detail is a core skill for a PMM, so it is a big turn-off for me if your resume has these errors. Lack of customer narrative - Customer conversations are integral to a PMM role, so if it's not mentioned in your resume that's a flag for me.  Run-on sentences - As a PMM, you are ...Read More

I'm a huge fan of shorter, concise resumes. If you can articulate your journey and experience on one page, it will help me to process your resume well. Some red flags I've observed: Typos/grammatical errors on resumes - Attention to detail is a core skill for a PMM, so it is a big turn-off for me if your resume has these errors. Lack of customer narrative - Customer conversations are integral to a PMM role, so if it's not mentioned in during the interview that's a red flag for me. Run-on sentenc ...Read More

For more senior roles, I'd ask more about their decision-making skills around the team and PMM. For example: Tell me about a time when your product launch budget was cut by half. What did you prioritize and why? You have 2 great team members both looking to grow their careers and you can promote only one. What factors do you consider in this decision?  Tell me about one of the products that you worked on that was not successful. What did you learn from that experience?  For more junior roles, I' ...Read More

This is a fun challenge! Because most junior candidates are extremely eager to learn and super coachable. I'd ask: Does the candidate have excitement around the product? Or do they believe in the vision? Ask them how they connect to the product or company? For example: when I hired junior PMMs for my SMB business, I'd ask them for their favorite small business.  Ask them to do a trial of your product and see what feedback they provide. This one is a good one because that's the product they will ...Read More