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Jon Rooney

AMA: Unity Vice President Product Marketing, Jon Rooney on Establishing Product Marketing

December 5, 2024 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. What are some surprising ways that candidates have stood out to you in PMM interviews? What are your biggest watchouts?

    Jon Rooney
    Jon Rooney

    Box Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Splunk, New Relic, Microsoft, Unity, Oracle • 1y

    One of the main things I look for when interviewing PMM candidates is how they well they communicate their past experience - namely how they describe not just their roles but also what the company does, what problems they solve for whom, why they win against competitors, etc. Candidates who've stood out to me have been able to tell me a story about their former/current company in such a way that I get super interested and excited, especially it's in a space where I have no expertise or context ( ...Read More

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    2 requests

  2. How would you recommend scaling a product marketing strategy for a series A start up? What would you prioritize after positioning/messaging and product market fit have been determined?

    Jon Rooney
    Jon Rooney

    Box Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Splunk, New Relic, Microsoft, Unity, Oracle • 1y

    For series A or any early-stage start-up, I'd hyper-focus on really nailing product market fit (PMF) through deep engagement with customers who are actively using your products as part of their everyday workflow. In my experience, early stage start-ups have some early tech, a handful of early adopter customers (make sure you freshen up on Crossing the Chasm to not fall into early adopter traps) and a bunch of hypothesis that need proving (see the pitch deck for the A round). The first PMM at the ...Read More

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    3 requests

  3. How do you prepare yourself to become a Product Marketing Director and manage a team, without any experience managing anyone previously?

    I'm on my 5th year of product marketing in my career, with another 5 years before that in general demand gen at very small companies. I've had management experience in the past, but not in a Product Marketing role. Often times in smaller companies, there will be 1 or 2 PMMs, usually in a very flat hierarchy, or a single boss, with no room to really move up a proverbial ladder and into management experience. So what are ways that I can prepare myself now, so that if the time comes to apply for a Director position (either internally or at another company) that I can be considered even without recent people management experience? Are there any courses for this that are highly regarded in the management arena?

    Jon Rooney
    Jon Rooney

    Box Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Splunk, New Relic, Microsoft, Unity, Oracle • 1y

    To prepare your yourself to manage other PMMs as a Director, make sure you gain plenty of experience managing large-cross functional projects where success depends on your ability to lead through influence vs. leading through authority or team structure. It could be a positioning exercise, a major product launch or leading the submission of a major analyst report like a Gartner Magic Quadrant or a Forrester Wave. There's no telling how much cat herding you'll have to do to pull something like th ...Read More

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    1 request

  4. How do you work with the cross functional teams? And what are the key goals and deliverables for each of the below? 1) PMM with Sales 2) PMM with CSM 3) PMM with Marketing 4) PMM with Product

    Jon Rooney
    Jon Rooney

    Box Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Splunk, New Relic, Microsoft, Unity, Oracle • 1y

    The short, not super helpful answer to "How do you work with the cross functional teams?" is really closely and really well :) PMM is at the center of so much important work that, if you don't have strong relationships with key stakeholders like Sales, Product, Customer Success and the rest of marketing, you'll end up either being a short order cook or, even worse, getting sidelined altogether. Each of those functions has a different role, a different focus and, in my experience, requires you to ...Read More

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    2 requests

  5. What are the challenges one should be aware of when setting up a new PMM function inside the org? How can one overcome them -- any tips?

    Jon Rooney
    Jon Rooney

    Box Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Splunk, New Relic, Microsoft, Unity, Oracle • 1y

    Setting up a new (or a renewed) PMM function inside an org is fraught with all sorts of challenges. If a company made it to a certain point without PMM, there could be teams who feel like the company doesn't need PMM to grow. If you're brought in to reboot PMM, you're going to have to win over a bunch of teams who felt like the previous regime was ineffective and maybe doubt the need for PMM altogether. Overall, you're likely going into a situation where few, if any, of your key stakeholders kno ...Read More

    506 Views
    3 requests

  6. When establishing the PMM function in an org, how can you manage expectations and change perception if leadership (CEO, Founder, CMO) have a different interpretation of the role?

    Jon Rooney
    Jon Rooney

    Box Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Splunk, New Relic, Microsoft, Unity, Oracle • 1y

    If you end up in a situation where leadership has a fundamentally different idea of the PMM function than you do, you're facing an uphill road but you have a path to change perceptions. First, build content and programs that customers not only love but also openly express how much they love those things. Whether you look at CSAT, YouTube comments or ad hoc quotes from a key customer meeting, let happy customers be your advocates internally. Chances are, if your model for PMM churns out work that ...Read More

    529 Views
    3 requests