AMA: Snowflake Senior Director of Product Marketing, Alex Gutow on Product Marketing Career Path

In general, I'm a big believer in product marketers having multiple "tools in their toolkit" to use depending on the project at hand. This means being able to pull different frameworks or skills from multiple places. So as much as possible, try out a course here and there instead of going all in on one certification. And spend time connecting with other PMMs to see what works for them. That being said, here have been some resources that I've found helpful: Pragmatic Marketing: Even if your compa ...Read More

As a product marketer, the top three skills I use are: Being curious and not being afraid to ask questions: Curiosity is so critical for product marketers, especially when it comes to the products and features that we're responsible for. The more you understand about your area, the better you can identify what are the parts that will matter most for your customers and your field team. Never be afraid of asking "why" many many times. Problem solving: One of my favorite parts of this role is being ...Read More

Having a portfolio at the ready is always helpful (and can be a nice thing to reflect back on for you). For product marketing, this can consist of things like blogs or web pages you've written, webinars or conference sessions that you've presented, etc. I recommend always keeping a running Google Doc of links to the ones you're especially proud of as they happen. (Reminder, make sure these are externally published and that you're not saving any internal materials from past jobs) If you don't hav ...Read More

Product marketing can be an especially hard role to break into, but not impossible! First, one of the most powerful things for a product marketer is how well they know and understand the audience they need to speak to. Look for PMM roles that are looking to sell to your current role, since you'd bring firsthand knowledge of that audience. For example, if you're in finance, you can look for PMM roles at companies selling finance products that you might use; or industry-specific PMM roles focused ...Read More

While I certainly love product marketing, it's definitely not for everyone. PMMs often deal with a fair amount of ambiguity. Even if the problem is clearly defined (which isn't always the case), there can be many different paths to solving it. It's on the PMM to create the structure to solve the problems at hand. If you prefer clear cut problems and solutions, PMM might not be a fit. PMM can also be a high visibility role. You need to be the champion of your area, whether that's internally to di ...Read More

Over the past few years (and continuing), it's become more important that product marketers have technical depth in the areas they cover. Being able to go deep in your area will make your messaging better and will help you better identify what are the right topics and tactics necessary to land in the market. This will also make you a more valuable partner to PM, and can open doors to helping with betas and influencing roadmap. You also need to be able to understand data. This ranges from being a ...Read More