What are the critical skills required to succeed in Product Marketing at a senior level and what are the failproof way to learn them?

I really love this question and it's something I think about daily. Here are some of the skills I coach my team on frequently:

1. Strategic Thinking

• Market analysis

• Business strategy alignment

• Long-term planning

• Cross-functional leadership

2. Stakeholder Management

• Executive communication

• Cross-team influence

• Project orchestration

• Relationship building

3. Data-Driven Decision Making

• Analytics interpretation

• Market research

• Customer insights

• ROI measurement

The best way to learn these skills is with hands-on experience leading major launches where you can own the strategic initiatives and manage cross-functional projects. This often requires taking on stretch assignments if it's not part of your current scope.

Don't under estimate the value of network building as a key skill. Build relationships with your peers, learn from other leaders in your company and across other industries. And always share your experiences and best practices with your peers and PMM community.

Communication is #1. This is what I look for in senior leaders regardless of focus area. If it's a core PMM, I want to see launch assets or customer-facing assets. If it's a GTM PMM, I want to see internal decks walking through how strategies were set up and sold to stakeholders.

Here's what I look for in communication:

-Is it concise?

-Is it clear?

-Is it compelling?

Details matter here. I look for people that intentionally choose every work and image. The failproof way to learn this is work on customer-facing content that gets a lot of views or internal content that goes to executive stakeholders. The key is to create content for the harshest critics, over & over again.