AMA: Zendesk Director of Product Marketing, Polomi Batra on Product Marketing Skills

Few things to keep in mind now with AI in the picture: Master AI prompting: Know how to craft effective prompts to get the best outputs from AI tools for messaging, content creation, and brainstorming. Build and customize AI assistants: Set up custom GPTs or AI models tailored to review and improve your messaging, copy writing, and campaign materials. Leverage AI for competitive analysis: Use custom GPTs to gather, synthesize, and summarize competitor insights quickly and accurately. This is goi ...Read More

Yes, you’re absolutely right—PMM hiring is more competitive than ever, especially at companies where product marketing is seen as a strategic function. But the good news is, you can stand out—if you focus on the right things. Here’s what I’d recommend: 1. Bring clarity to complexity One of the biggest ways to stand out is showing that you can take something messy or complex and bring structure to it. Whether it's a go-to-market motion, a value prop, or a launch plan—clarity is your superpower. I ...Read More

Such a good question— the most underrated product marketing skill is stakeholder alignment according to me. People often focus on the other more popular parts of PMM—positioning, launches, storytelling—but the real magic happens behind the scenes, where you’re aligning product, sales, marketing, and leadership around a clear narrative or go-to-market strategy. That’s not always glamorous, but it’s critical. You have to be able to read the room, understand different perspectives, and bring people ...Read More

That’s a great question—and I love that you’re already thinking about how to build PMM skills, even before landing a formal role. The truth is, you don’t need a job title to start thinking and acting like a product marketer. One of the best ways to get involved is to look for scrappy opportunities—helping a student-run club, a small nonprofit, or an early-stage startup. Many of them need support with things like messaging, positioning, or launching something new, and these are core PMM responsib ...Read More

Here's a few things that might help: Reframe your startup experience as an assetLarger companies are often looking for people who can move fast, be scrappy, wear multiple hats, and think strategically—all things you’ve likely done at a startup. Position your experience in terms of outcomes: Did you launch a product from scratch? Did you build the messaging or go-to-market from the ground up? Were you responsible for multiple segments or full-funnel execution? Highlight how this makes you more ve ...Read More

Ah! That can be tough. But you can turn this into something good - this as a perfect opportunity to educate them about your role and become the go-to spokesperson for product marketing within the company. Start by clearly explaining that product marketing is the bridge between product, sales, and customers, focusing on translating product features into compelling messaging, understanding buyer needs, enabling sales with the right tools, and driving go-to-market strategies that impact adoption an ...Read More