What are the top three qualities of star PMMs?

The top three qualities of star PMMs are:

1. An inherent bias for action. Great PMMs GSD, it's a defining part of what we do and who we are. It's difficult to build trust and nurture partnership across a company of any size by opining on other people's work or being someone who may "know" stuff but isn't counted on to actually "do" the right stuff the right way. Great PMMs are driven to "do" stuff and are relied upon by partners across marketing, product, sales, etc. to deliver every time. We're no ombudsmen, we're PMMs.

2. The ability to boil complex concepts and details into simple, approachable ideas. This is, unfortunately, one of the hardest things to teach someone (read good writing of all sorts for a couple of decades?) but, in my experience, it's the single biggest differentiator for star PMMs. Enterprise tech companies, in particular, are great at building complicated, dense product offerings that require way more work and attention to understand than anyone not paid to work at said company would ever do. That's where great PMM's come in. You have to consume all of that gnarly mass of information (while getting your hands on the product per the next point) so you can digest it and churn out "big animal pictures" that a busy prospect or customer can glance at and understand. Analogies are your friends, let them help you help others understand what's most important.

3. A drive to get deeply hands-on with whatever products or services you're marketing (as well as competing products or services) to really understand what your customers are going through. It's surprisingly easy to spot messaging written by someone who's never really used the product being marketed and really doesn't understand the audience they're trying to reach. It's like when an actor in a film speaks in a different language by reading out the lines phonetically vs. actually having some fluency in that language. Don't be that PMM. When you join a new company or move teams, get the same product certification that a sales engineer (or similar technical pre-sales role) would get. When you show up in meetings with PM and Engineering, make sure you've done your homework and gotten enough hands-on experience with the product to earn a seat at the table. Check out competing products and see what it's like to do the same core things in those products as a customer would do in your product. And keep it up, block out an hour or two a week to keep your skills sharp. The "Product" in Product Marketing isn't decorative.