AMA: WhatsApp Product Marketing Lead, WhatsApp Business, Aneri Shah on Consumer Product Marketing
February 17 @ 9:00am PST
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Product Marketing Types With Aneri Shah, Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp Already a member? Sign InTop Questions
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.
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
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...more
What are the key differences between b2b and b2c product marketing?
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
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 ce...more
I'm new to Product Marketing. In the interviews that I've done, I am being asked to present a marketing portfolio. I'm not sure what would be the best to present so I stand out from the crowd. What would you present? Can you give specific examples please?
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
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...more
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.
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
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 pr...more
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?
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
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...more
How do you get product management to bring you into initial design process?
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
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 ...more
Given that PMM 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?
Product Marketing Lead at WhatsApp
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 pai...more
