How important is it that PMMs have experience in other roles whether that is marketing communication, sales, development or any other department PMMs typically partner with?

I get this question a lot and I think it’s dependent on the hiring manager and the need at the time (stage of the company, maturity of the market, product-market fit, how ARR/NDR is doing, etc)

I personally hire candidates that have completely different backgrounds and strengths from each other. I’ve hired people from sales roles, biz dev roles, product management roles, customer success roles etc. The reason is that I structure my PMM team to embrace the entire lifecycle of a product: from concept to launch and possibly sunset. I need diverse experiences to support these phases.

The best compliment I got from a C-level exec was “how did you build this team of PMMs in which each PMM has a strength that is completely different from each other but it all works so well together?”

Some of my favorite PMMs have spent time in field roles— Sales, Sales Engineering, and in particular Customer Success. Getting first-hand experience working with customers and prospects is invaluable and having empathy for the people serving your customers is also important.

Exposure to sales provides invaluable insights into customer needs, pain points, and purchasing behaviors. Roles like sales engineering offer a deep understanding of product functionality and technical aspects. Experience in customer success equips PMMs with a holistic view of the customer journey, from onboarding to retention and where value is delivered.

Having a diverse background like this fosters empathy, adaptability, and a customer-centric mindset, qualities that are essential for success in product marketing.