What do you look for when promoting a Product Marketer from individual contributor to people manager?

My first question would be to determine if this person would thrive as a people manager. Often in product marketing, the trajectory up is through individual contributor to people manager, but it's not necessarily the best path for everyone.   Good reasons to want to be a people manager:  * You like helping people grow in their career, and you've shown that through mentoring others (even when it wasn't your job) * You have shown that you are a "giver" and not a "taker" in the larger organization * You are comfortable as a player and a coach and focus on having your team succe...

I look to see if that person is already leading teams. A great product marketer already leads through influence. They will already lead cross-functional teams through launches or campaigns and they will already lead their team through challenges. I always look to promote someone who's already doing the work without being asked and without having the title. 

For any promotion, I look for the person to already be performing at the next level, and have an interest in doing so. Not everyone wants to be a people manager. That said, if they do and they are already managing contractors, agencies, and other people are working with them from other departments, we can put a plan together to make this happen and provide any additional coaching if needed to support the person's success. 

I look for a combination of: 1. Impact - have they played a significant role in driving positive business outcomes for the company 2. Skills - have they achieved a level of mastery necessary to successfully coach others 3. Leadership - have they recognized and elevated those around them, not just focused on themselves 4. Collaboration - do I hear positive feedback from others across the compnay who have interacted with them All weighted equally to me, and all super important.

The ultimate test is: are you passionate about helping people grow? If not, and that's ok, then people management might not be for you. People learn and grow with new experiences. I like to nurture learning for people looking for experiences & stretch goals, with tactics like: yearly rotation, having a major/ minor project (90/10), or doiong monthly lunch n learn within the team. Another big one for me is empathy. I know a lot has been said and written about that - it's true. If you can't put yourself in your directs' shoes, it will be harder 👟 Finally, I'd say... planning. It's best wa...

Covered this a bit in another question. PMM can bring a very strong customer perspective when it comes to product development. To have a seat at the table though, you have to do the work. This is what we do to bring customers perspective to our product teams: * Visit, shadow, do work at our customers. No research can compare to the insights you get by actually being in the shoes of our customers - in our case, small businesses * Talk to customer facing teams (Sales, Account Management, Support) and synthesize feedback. They are on the frontline all the time. You will be surpr...

I look for a couple of things:  1. Can they proactively identify and solve problems? 2. Are they coachable? Do they have a growth mindset?  3. Are they able to drive cross functional alignment, with peers and senior stakeholders? 4. Are they acting as a mentor and coach to others on the team and/or cross functional partners that have less experience or are struggling? When ICs demonstrate the skills above, I will often put them on the bigger and more strategic projects, or ask them to run a whole program (e.g., sales enablement). As their remit grows, there is typically a po...

The most important thing to keep in mind is this: having the product marketing title doesn’t automatically mean you get to influence the roadmap. You have to put in the work and show your value to get a seat at the table. There are three big levers to pull here to help you shift the way product marketing works from a team that’s just responsible for the launch of a product to one that’s involved in the entire product process. 1. Create a partnership with your PM: When you’re thinking about how to influence, you’re probably thinking about managing up and influencing people who are more se...

I touch on this a little in another question. That said, a Manager should have a solid grasp of major PMM skills alongside leadership abilities. Some attributes I look for are: * Evangelism - whether promoting core value proposition or the work of the PMM team, this person should be skilled in championing the interests of customers, the market and the team. Their opinion and perspective should be influential. * Diplomacy - PMM is so cross-functional (and often, the starting point for important projects) that a Lead should be able to work through stated and unstated priorit...

Yes, this is a pretty standard PMM interview question. When I ask, I am typically looking to see if the candidate understands product launch and go-to-market fundamentals. I'm also interested in which parts of the launch they led (i.e. was it a specific marketing channel or soup-to-nuts?).  I also like to ask different variations of this question, like "tell me about a product launch that did not go well and you had to get back on track" because let's be honest, not every launch goes exactly the way we plan :)