How Do Top Hiring Managers Interview and Evaluate PMM Candidates?

I've done a lot of interviews and hiring over the years and I'm constantly impressed by how smart and driven Product Marketers are! It's one of the things that makes interviewing so much fun - you get an opportunity to talk to and learn from the best of the best. That said, I think there are a few things that really stand out for me, and they are: Curiosity - Most candidates are well-educated and skilled, so it's the folks with humility and a curiosity to learn that really shine during the inter ...Read More

The best product marketers have the following traits in common: 1) They are type A. All of them. 2) They have a growth mindset. There is no finished product, product marketer. This role requires constant learning to succeed day-to-day and only people who enjoy the treadmill of non-stop skill building will last. 3) They are sharp. If the candidate isn't incredibly sharp, I won't trust them, and this cannot be micromanaged. 4) They are "tactfully pushy" which is my term for people who can convince ...Read More

I don't care about the candidate's background when interviewing for my team. I've hired folks from engineering, solution engineering, sales, and customer success teams and they've become successful PMMs. That being said, most of them have this in common:  Can-do and flexible attitude - Ready to take on any challenge. Open to solving it creatively and however long it takes to wrap it up.  Connecting the dots - Instead of being siloed as just a PMM, thinking about the adjacent functions like campa ...Read More

I think the best product marketing candidates — and product marketers — have one thing in common: empathy. Empathy helps you understand where others are coming from, and that is the foundation of great messaging & positioning as well as great collaboration.  If you can put yourselves in your customers' and prospects' shoes — what they care about, their needs and pain points, what success looks like to them, their emotional state at different phases of the customer journey, etc. — you are hal ...Read More

I think the best product marketing candidates have three things in common They are strong on the core requirements for the role. In most cases, it involves a degree of comfort with developing or activating messaging/positioning/value propositions for products/solutions/audiences/segments. They can simplify complex ideas, convey it in different media types and can explain the process behind it confidently They are natural collaboators and very very strong at working with others. Could be product, ...Read More

I have some data here. For years, I used "candidate fit tests" (offered by Pittari.io). It's like Myers-Briggs but focused on workplace style & drivers. For successful PMMs, I noticed a pattern. When it comes to workplace style, PMMs scored highly for "commanding" and "outgoing", favoring an "easygoing" style more than "exactlng". In other words, they like to enage with people and push conversations forward, but they're still flexible in groups. Then, across 7 possible drivers, PMMs scored h ...Read More

We use a formal leveling rubric to evaluate levels. This is used across all market-facing roles, other than sales reps. To summarize a few of the key differences across levels: SENIOR MANAGER A Senior Manager independent works cross-functionally; a Manager does not. A Senior Manager can independently update their task list to reflect company/department goals; a Manager cannot without help. A Senior Manager can independently learn and reflect industry best practice; a Manager has to be trained. A ...Read More

The specific panel composition I would recommend will depend highly on your company stage / scale. For example, when I led Product at a Series A company and was hiring our company's first PMM, the importance of getting this hire right was magnified. As such, the PMM interview loop included peers across Design, Growth & Comms, but also required leadership buy-in: my CEO, CMO and Head of Sales were included, given how much our early messaging/positioning needed to guide / align with our overal ...Read More

These may seem overly simplistic, but I've found these to be effective even when interviewing for senior PMM roles: Tell me about your current/last company - what do they do? Who are their customers? What problems do they solve? When customers pick your company, why (why do they win)? When customers pick competitors, why (why do they lose)? What launch/program/piece of collateral are you most proud of? What impact did it have? How did you pull it together? What skill do you have that was the har ...Read More

Top questions depend a bit on the role since I always try to make sure each question is evaluating a specific competency tied to that job. (More on this below). That being said - here are a few questions I find useful a lot of time when hiring PMMs.   What can product marketing contribute to an organization? of What's the role of product marketing? Tells me about how they view product marketing's role and value and their general understanding of the role. I'm listening to see if them talk about ...Read More

I have started to ask "What is the biggest trade-off decision you had to make?"  Most people go straight to themselves and a trade-off that they've had to make about a job or career path, not a company decision. One interviewee floored me when he talked about hard decisions on needing to lay-off members of his team, but then described how he worked through his network to get every person on that team a job at another company. Not only did he show he could make tough calls, but he was trying to b ...Read More

I like to ask PMM candidates to deliver their company's pitch. I'm not grading their pitch but rather the empathy and insight they display for and about their customers' challenges, the way they deliver it, and the storytelling ability of the candidate. There's no one answer to this that's stood out but it's the delivery that makes the difference. People who can clearly explain what pain point their customer feels and succintly how their company solves it (and can throw in some proof) are always ...Read More

It's hard to pick a favorite because most of my interviews look different from candidate to candidate. Often, my questions are focused on deeply understanding their past experience and asking for relevant examples that demonstrate the skills and compentencies that will be unqiue to the role and business need. Or, we unpack a case study together. I also go beyond the resume when I'm interviewing. One question that I typically ask is where the candidates want to learn and grow. The best answers to ...Read More

My favorite question is very simple I ask them “Can you pitch me your product?” (if they come from any marketing role) It allows me to understand their storytelling skills. It helps me understand if they are truly comfortable with the idea of messaging and positioning (which I think is fundamental for any PMM to be successful. They have to understand it - even if they aren’t developing it). It helps me understand their oral communication skills. Sometimes, it also demonstrates a bit of flair and ...Read More

I always like to hear from product marketers what companies they believe do product marketing well, and why. Before I go into what makes a good answer, I'll point out that there is a difference between a good product and good product marketing. Many times I'd hear all about why a PRODUCT is great, but not enough about how their marketing was great. I'd also say that although companies like Apple and Patagonia have renowned product marketing - it is sometimes more beneficial to focus on the examp ...Read More

The question I ask every PMM candidate: "What is your major & minor in Product Marketing?" PMMs flex many muscles, but asking this question helps me learn 1) where you shine the most, and 2) your humility as a team member. The strongest answers I've heard have focused on skillset strengths with specific examples, and how they lean on xfn peers in their 'minors' that aren't quite as skilled at or find as fulfilling. Highly recommend asking this question for roles beyond PMM too - oftentimes t ...Read More

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

I'm a huge fan of shorter, concise resumes. If you can articulate your journey and experience on one page, it will help me to process your resume well. Some red flags I've observed: Typos/grammatical errors - Attention to detail is a core skill for a PMM, so it is a big turn-off for me if your resume has these errors. Lack of customer narrative - Customer conversations are integral to a PMM role, so if it's not mentioned in your resume that's a flag for me.  Run-on sentences - As a PMM, you are ...Read More

Getting on my soapbox here for a second (though I suppose I've been on it this whole time) — make sure your resume is concise and clear. It should be 2 pages MAX, ideally 1 page. I don't care if you've been in the industry for 30 years, you should be able to distill down your experience into 1 or 2 pages.  I've passed on candidates who technically have strong experience because their resume is a long rambling mess that I tried to read and couldn't get through.  This sounds like a ridiculous and ...Read More

I don't know if I have a simple answer to this question. This is more about my management and networking philosophy. First, I think great people beget great people. So I am always trying to maintain the strongest, happiest internal team that I can. I do this while also keeping my own network active, so when I do need help filling a role, warm introductions come easier. When it comes time to actually pitch a role, I typically focus on selling the business momentum and upside and the problem space ...Read More