AMA: UserTesting Director, Product Marketing, LeTisha Shaw on Developing Your Product Marketing Career

Whenever you are starting a new role, it's critical to understand what's important to your manager and what the objectives are for your new organization so you can align yourself well to them. Every company has a different onboarding plan, and for PMMs I think it's critical to get the lay of the land through meet and greets with the people you'll work with to hear first hand what is on their mind, so you can start to understand how you will work together. I also work with my manager to define what I can deliver as soon as possible to show impact to the organization. This is not PMM specific, but there is an app that I use called the "The First 90 days" which I use to help me think through different elements of my new role. The information is useful enough that you can adapt it to a PMM role. 

I think this depends on your past work experience...are you an undergrad very little work experience or grad with several years of work experience? It's challenging to get a PMM role coming straight out of undergrad, mostly because when we look for entry-level PMMs, we look for people who have work experience in general marketing areas or have shown they have transferrable skills from functions that work closely PMM, such as Product or Customer Success, and this comes with several years or work experience. If you are looking to jump into PMM right after grad school and you have several years of marketing or other related experiences, you definitely have a leg up. I'd start by doing informational interviews with as many PMMs as you can to learn about the different types of roles out there. Speak with PMMs are different levels, hiring managers and individual contributors who can give you a good picture of what we do and what we're looking for. The responsibilities can vary by industry and size of company, and it's important to figure out in which type of role you think would be the best fit for you. If there are opportunities for interships or short-term projects, say yes to those as they can be resume builders and a way to get your foot in the door. 

I'd say presentation skills are pretty critical for a PMM. I've often heard other say that PMMs create "pretty slides" jokingly, but everyone knows we do far much more than that in developing positioning, messaging, enablement materials, etc. I'll I'd admit, I'm still working becoming a better presenter myself ;) Because we work in such a cross-functional manner, communication skills are pretty key and presentation skills are a tool in that arsenal. We are successful because we effectively share information that enables teams to go-to-market with products and this often take the form of presenting to others. One could say the most successful PMMs are also great at pitching and building trust with their counterparts which is a higer level skill in giving presentations. The good news is that presentation skills can be developed in many ways, from getting a Toastmasters certification to asking a presenter at your company that you admire to mentor. Start to study presentations and figure out why some are better than others. Since practice makes better, I'd also look for speaking opportunities outside of the company, at alumni events, industry meet ups, podcasts, etc. There are lots of opportunites out there.

Yes, this is a pretty standard PMM interview question. When I ask, I am typically looking to see if the candidate understands product launch and go-to-market fundamentals. I'm also interested in which parts of the launch they led (i.e. was it a specific marketing channel or soup-to-nuts?). I also like to ask different variations of this question, like "tell me about a product launch that did not go well and you had to get back on track" because let's be honest, not every launch goes exactly the way we plan :)