If you haven’t already, I would start by making sure your manager actually knows that you aspire to become a Senior PMM and would like to work towards getting promoted. It’s often implied as most people want to continuously work towards the next level, but that’s definitely not always the case and if you’ve never discussed that desire with your manager, then that’s a key first step. If you’re already performing well and it’s clear that you want to and are working towards a promotion, the conversation with your manager then likely becomes about any skill sets or areas you need to invest in developing further or prove that you have through more projects and experience. This is all to ensure you’ll perform well in at that next level. I think it’s often expected that you prove you can do the job above you before you'll get promoted, especially in smaller organizations or growing areas of a business. This is because there’s not time to get trained or ramped up, instead you need to just hit the ground running once you enter that more senior position. It can definitely be pretty challenging to work towards a promotion though because it does often mean going above and beyond to prove you're ready, by taking on projects that are typically owned at that next level, and unfortunately, often without relief on your already existing responsibilities.
Going back to the part of your question on proving yourself when you’re covering a new industry or very different product and dealing with a big learning curve, I think ultimately maybe it takes you a month or couple months more to learn enough to carry some weight, but if you already have very strong PMM skills, pretty quickly those should start to shine through, making it clear you’re already very experienced. I have someone on my team who switched to cover some new areas recently and is doing it again now, but she’s an incredible product marketer and has already shown her ability to ramp up to new areas of the business very quickly. I do think this is a pretty critical ability, especially in fast-moving, evolving companies and as you progress. For her, these changes haven’t slowed her down one bit. If anything, they just show her strength regardless of the areas she covers, so hopefully you’re in a position to do the same.
Lastly, in case it helps you at all to think about what you might need to prove you can do to get promoted and since you are specifically wanting to move to a Senior PMM level, here are actually some of the key things I included in my internal hiring guide when I was hiring a few Senior PMMs recently. These were for some high-impact positions where there would be a lot of strategic work, like determining how we best position and message our products to targeted audiences and launching entirely new products. I asked our interview panel to look for people that proved they could accomplish the following:
- Independently lead strategic projects and launches with a thoughtful approach and recommendations that account for all critical factors
- Take a massive, often nebulous project or launch and distill it down into the critical components and steps forward, while helping to align all involved teams
- Present effectively internally and externally with the ability to convince the audience of his/her point
- Be a good cross-functional partner with the ability to collaboratively develop strategic plans that take launches or initiatives to the next level and proactively ensure the team has done whatever they can in preparation to ensure they will be successful
- Influence others and inspire the broader team to do their best work, including stepping across cross-functional lines at times to pitch in when partners need help or an example
- Prove their strengths quickly in a new area and become a subject matter expert and go-to resource across the company
- Be a role model for others on the team, especially as a mentor to PMMs, and inspire new approaches and ways of thinking that make our entire team better