Question Page

What are potential career paths after Product Marketing?

I've spent ~4 years doing Product Marketing at different Fortune 100 companies and wanted to know what are potential career growth opportunities beyond PMM. Almost everybody I know stays in PMM and continues on into leadership or goes into Product. What else is out there?
Lauren Barraco
Lauren Barraco
Inscribe VP, MarketingDecember 15

Oh my gosh - the possibilities are endless! The skills required for PMM are transferrable in so many ways. Like you mentioned, there's the product route that you can build on and either lead a PM or PMM team (or both!). The other obvious one is in the CMO direction - for this, you'd definitely need to expand your marketing lens into other areas of the marketing org (DG, ABM, field marketing, etc.) - you could start by trying out corporate/brand marketing or content marketing as an easy transition there. Other routes I've seen: enablement, product evangelist, go-to-market strategist, etc. Also, if you like the startup world, another less common but interesting route could be VC - a lot of times they look for people with product/pmm backgrounds at the associate level. 

...Read More
2256 Views
Jason Lyman
Jason Lyman
Customer.io Chief Marketing OfficerMay 30

I have seen product marketers move into various roles as their careers evolve. The PMM skill set is very applicable in most marketing roles. For example, a successful PMM should be able to translate insights into strategy, build power narratives that engage customers, and drive cross-functional alignment/execution. Therefore, you can apply those skills in a more data-driven way on the demand gen side, or you could use those abilities to have more ownership over product decision-making as a PM, or you could help sell more of a given product in a GTM role. I loved being a PMM because it offers you a lot of flexibility for the future.

...Read More
1084 Views
Differentiating through Storytelling
Thursday, October 24 • 12PM PT
Differentiating through Storytelling
Virtual Event
Brian  Castillo
Tina Yu
Stevan Colovic
+273
attendees
Jodi Innerfield
Jodi Innerfield
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing Launch Strategy & Emerging ProductsJuly 10

I don't know if you'll like this answer--there is no one career path after Product Marketing. I believe career "paths" are more like jungle gyms than ladders--sometimes you go forward and up, other times you've got to move to the side, and sometimes you've got to hop from the swings to the monkey bars.

What does that actually mean?

Product Marketing in particular has so many different roles and skill sets within it: messaging, enablement, events, product launches, product adoption--the list goes on. My question for you is: what part of PMM do you enjoy most? What do you enjoy the least? Are you analytically minded and like clear metrics and KPIs, or do you prefer iterative, qualitative work? Identify the work that challenges and motivates you, and find a role that leans into those skill sets while also giving you the opportunity to learn something new. Maybe that's a PMM role, or maybe it's Growth Marketing or Product Management or Customer Success or Campaigns or...Every person is different, and every role and company is going to prioritize something different.

...Read More
2028 Views
Top Product Marketing Mentors
Mary Sheehan
Mary Sheehan
Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing
Brianne Shally
Brianne Shally
Nextdoor Ex-Head of Product Marketing
Jeffrey Vocell
Jeffrey Vocell
Panorama Education Head of Product Marketing
Marcus Andrews
Marcus Andrews
Pendo Sr. Director of Product Marketing
Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing
Leah Brite
Leah Brite
Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Employers
Susan "Spark" Park
Susan "Spark" Park
Monzo Director of Product Marketing
Kevin Garcia
Kevin Garcia
Anthropic Product Marketing Leader
Jeff Hardison
Jeff Hardison
Calendly VP of Product Marketing
Jane Reynolds
Jane Reynolds
Match Group Director of Product & Brand Marketing, Match Group North America