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Kavya Nath

AMA: Sprinklr Senior Director of Product Marketing, Kavya Nath on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

March 24, 2021 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. What is your favorite product marketing interview question and the best answer you've heard?

    Kavya Nath
    Kavya Nath

    Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 5y

    What is your superpower?!

    This one is great because it gives you insight into how a candidate perceives themselves. There's a self-awareness that comes through with the responses that allows for you to getting a sense of who they are an individuals and how they work in a team. The best example of this was someone who told me their super power was being able to make silos disappear. 

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  2. What is the best way to prepare a mock Go-To-Market plan for a product in a very precise and concise way, when asked in an interview?

    I usually come across an interview round wherein I am handed the task of preparing a mock GTM plan for a product. I find it pretty vague as expectations vary widely and I am usually confused about what all to include and how to represent. Is there any example?

    Kavya Nath
    Kavya Nath

    Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 5y

    This is a great question and something I’ve also used when interviewing candidates. I completely see how it can be daunting and spans varying levels of expectations. Personally, the thing I try to emphasize as part of this task is that I’m not looking for a perfect deck or designed project plan. But what I’m interested in seeing is how you strategize and think through a GTM approach. From research on market and competitors, to aligning internal stakeholders around packaging, pricing, positioning ...Read More

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  3. How to approach the conversation with my manager regarding promotion after working in b2b product marketing for several years and not been promoted

    I started a new role recently at the PMM level, and already have several years of PMM experience. both roles were in enterprise software, but the industries / products are very different so there is a big learning curve in the new role

    Kavya Nath
    Kavya Nath

    Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 5y

    My advice would be to come right out and state that this is what you’re looking for in terms of career growth and next steps. If you have 1:1’s with your manager that is a great place for this conversation. As a manager, it’s my job to understand what my teams’ careers aspirations are and work to give them the opportunities where they can grow and learn the skills that will take them to the next level. But that starts with the intent being made clear on what your goals are so they can help get y ...Read More

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  4. What are the most important skills (both tactical and intangible) that are must-have for product marketers?

    Ex... GTM: it more important to be skilled at product or feature-specific launches or to be skilled at high-level overall GTM (messaging, positioning, pricing, packaging).

    Kavya Nath
    Kavya Nath

    Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 5y

    The most successful product marketers are ones who lead with empathy and take on the customer point of view. I actually wouldn't separate out high-level GTM strategy from product/feature specific launches. The skills you've listed as high-level overall GTM (messaging, positioning, pricing, packaging, etc.) are the fundamentals to be able to launch any product or feature. Tactically all PMMs should be able to write, and present, and analyze data to make decisions that help grow revenue and suppor ...Read More

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  5. If you have the opportunity to step back and evaluate where/how to grow as a product marketer (after 2 years self taught in the field), what would you advise to focus on?

    Kavya Nath
    Kavya Nath

    Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 5y

    I would start by taking a hard look at all the things I felt I accomplished over those two years (writing a list helps!). Next start bucketing them into categories of skills (positioning, GTM, content writing, etc.), then have a little retrospective of how well you felt you did on the things you accomplished. I think you’ll naturally start to see areas where you yourself (given the time to reflect) feel like you knocked it out of the park or could maybe take a different approach or do things a b ...Read More

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  6. In what ways to you see (or recommend) product marketers build trust with their XFN partners?

    Kavya Nath
    Kavya Nath

    Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 5y

    Building trust is the key component here and I think you get there by taking the time to listen and learn. With the product team specifically, it’s educating them on your role and how you’re ultimately aligned to the same thing --> amplifying the value of the product they’re building and to grow revenue and adoption. That said, there are many cross-functional teams product marketing works with and the best way to build trust is to know your products, your market, and your customers. If you ca ...Read More

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  7. I am moving into a new product marketing leadership role and working adjacent to product managers/directors for the first time. I will also be responsible for managing one direct report. I imagine I will lead the GTM strategy side of things and my DR will focus on tactical execution, but I am curious if there are recommended best practices for structuring PMM roles and responsibilities.

    In over 12 years of B2B mktg exp, I've only worked on corporate marketing teams reporting to General Management, so the switch to a product management structure is new for me.

    Kavya Nath
    Kavya Nath

    Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 5y

    This to me depends on your company and the products you sell and will vary based on the composition of your solution set. A larger platform solution might have a VP or Director that’s overseeing platform level messaging and responsibilities related to the solution set as a whole while having a team that is aligned to specific product areas within the platform. A single point solution might have roles mapped to features that support the one product, etc. The most important thing especially in sma ...Read More

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