Do you have any advice for those starting out in product marketing? Are there certain things you wish you knew before going into the field?

I'd say there are 3 things to keep in mind as a new PMM:  1. Go easy on yourself and prioritize the things that will have the biggest impact. Product Marketers are central to a GTM strategy, but that doesn't mean you have to know everything or do everything. Think of your career less like a sprint (which leaves you quickly exhausted and solely focused on getting across the finish line!) but more as a run (in which you can manage a comfortable conversation and can keep your head up to see and emb ...Read More

Time spent understanding the customer is not time wasted. Period. A lot folks tend to look at marketing as the “front page news” of flashy executions and campaigns that people outside of the company see and/or experience to help them understand what is you all do. There is so much work before the point of external outreach that makes a great PMM. My strongest marketers are supremely empathetic with our users and their challenges/needs. These marketers can describe users in depth, they know where ...Read More

When I started in Product Marketing there were very few resources - like Sharebird - where you could learn the fundamentals of Product Marketing. At that time, there was Pragmatic and a couple of blogs here and there.  Today, there is a wealth of knowledge available online and even books on Product Marketing. I would have loved to have all of these resources available to me to learn from when I was starting out. I would have immersed myself in them and I would have used this content to help me i ...Read More

The analogy I like to use for folks new to Product Marketing is that it's like archery on horseback. The role requires two very different skills sets that are hard enough to develop separately. A good PMM is an expert marketing/communicator/getter-of-stuff-done while at the same time a curious, fearless technical practitioner who's bent on learning as much about a certain customer/domain/technology as possible to be credible in the marketing work they do. So my general advice is that there's no ...Read More