Sharebird
Sign Up / Sign In
Aneri Shah

AMA: WhatsApp Product Marketing Lead, WhatsApp Business, Aneri Shah on Consumer Product Marketing

February 17, 2022 @ 9:00AM PT

View AMA Answers

  1. What can I include in my marketing portfolio to standout from the crowd as a product marketing candidate.

    I'm new to Product Marketing. In the interviews that I've done, I am being asked to present a marketing portfolio.

    Aneri Shah
    Aneri Shah

    Ethos VP Marketing | Formerly Meta, Microsoft • 4y

    Think creatively about marketing-adjacent work you've done, and put together a series of case studies that you can share with the hiring team. Examples can include:  Identifying customer insights and defining a scalable solution or creating a piece of collateral, e.g. identified a trend in X vertical, and built a vertical playbook to help customers in that vertical grow  Website work that shows how you structure problems and present information Presentations you've created that could be customer ...Read More

    12,157 Views
    4 requests

  2. How does your company define the difference between product marketing and integrated / brand / customer marketing?

    Do you see value in having both roles, e.g. Integrated team works more closely with the creative team on seasonal/holiday/brand campaigns whereas Product Marketing works more closely with the Product team on product launches, user research/insights, positioning strategy, etc. I have found it challenging for Product Marketing to own all of this, and often see different skill sets from marketers who are great at creative brand campaigns vs. PMMs who are skilled at positioning a new product and bringing it to market.

    Aneri Shah
    Aneri Shah

    Ethos VP Marketing | Formerly Meta, Microsoft • 4y

    Yes, great question! As a PMM, I've always worked closely with a separate integrated/brand marketing function. The PMM sits closer to product/eng, is more initimately familiar with the product, owns inbound product marketing (including user insights, strategy, competitive benchmarking, roadmap prioritization etc.). When it comes to outbound marketing, PMM sets GTM strategy and works with a variety of GTM stakeholders, including comms and integrated marketing, to bring a launch or campaign to lif ...Read More

    10,390 Views
    4 requests

  3. What are you favorite resources to find product marketing *workflows* and best practices & case studies regarding them?

    For instance, I like Kapost's, Drift's, and Intercom's handbooks.

    Aneri Shah
    Aneri Shah

    Ethos VP Marketing | Formerly Meta, Microsoft • 4y

    I also love Drift and Intercom's blogs and handbooks! First Round Review also has some great case studies. 

    For courses, I like Pragmatic Marketing [great PMM frameworks] and Reforge [growth-focused, but really valuable for PMM too]. 

    I find a lot of PM-focused resources to be helpful too since there's often a lot of overlap between the roles - I've subscribed to the Product Manager HQ newsletter for years and often find valuable resources that way. 

    2,515 Views
    6 requests

  4. Given that Product Marketing role definitions and skills vary so much by company, how do you develop a transferrable career path if you end up switching firms along the way?

    Aneri Shah
    Aneri Shah

    Ethos VP Marketing | Formerly Meta, Microsoft • 4y

    PMM role definitions and skills do vary significantly across companies (and even teams within the same company!) but I see this as an opportunity.  The main skills are still foundational across all roles:  1. Having a deep understanding of the customer - being able to clearly grasp customer pain points and communicate them to the product team, and ensure you're solving for them with any messaging. This also includes being able to ramp up on a new space quickly and learn the nuances of a product/ ...Read More

    455 Views
    2 requests

  5. What are the key differences between b2b and b2c product marketing?

    Aneri Shah
    Aneri Shah

    Ethos VP Marketing | Formerly Meta, Microsoft • 4y

    Having worked across both, the key differences in my mind fall into 2 key categories: 1) ability to get customer insights, 2) role in the GTM motion. 1. Customer insights - In B2B, it's relatively easy to get on a customer call and get deep insights from some engaged customers. There are also certain customers (e.g. enterprise clients) whose feedback it's easy to skew towards as they contribute disproportionately high revenue. In B2C, you need to get feedback at scale, which is better done throu ...Read More

    1,248 Views
    6 requests

  6. Do you recommend developing deep focus in B2B or B2C PMM work? Are skills transferable? When you look for a candidate do you look for B2B or B2C experience specifically?

    Aneri Shah
    Aneri Shah

    Ethos VP Marketing | Formerly Meta, Microsoft • 4y

    I've thought about this a lot as I've worked across both B2B and B2C and wondered if it makes sense to specialize and how transferrable skills are. This is also something I've asked many leaders and mentors. The overwhelming advice I've gotten is to focus on being a good marketer and not focus on B2B vs. B2C - instead, think about the types of problems you're interested in solving, the day to day work that most engages and challenges you, and how much you'll learn in a certain job. Additionally, ...Read More

    682 Views
    4 requests

  7. How do you get product management to bring you into initial design process?

    Aneri Shah
    Aneri Shah

    Ethos VP Marketing | Formerly Meta, Microsoft • 4y

    Lead with insights. The best way to get involved as a PMM is show that you have both the breadth and depth of insights that articulate the customer problem, and can help shape the designs. Positioning yourself as this expert makes it a much more natural solution for you to be involved. Some ways to do this are:  Bringing in competitive insights for how others have solved similar problems - better yet, show differences in competitors' solutions and think about where your company should lie along ...Read More

    456 Views
    3 requests