What is the most common mistake you see from product marketers during their job interview?

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5 Answers

Product Marketing Interviews

Sahil Sethi

Freshworks Vice President - Global Product Marketing | Formerly Klaviyo, Qualtrics, Microsoft, MckInsey • 3y

Not being able to strongly respond to the question “Can you pitch your product to me ?” Not being ready with good writing samples Not coming with strong examples of your leadership skills - influence, persuasion, relationship building, collaboration and more These questions demonstrate the fundamental aspects of product marketing. The first is about messaging/positioning/value prop. The second is about whether you can write/communicate that in words (even a pitch deck or a webinar abstract or a ...Read More

4,426 Views
Alissa Lydon

Actively AI VP of Marketing | Formerly Mezmo, Sauce Labs • 1y

Getting too lost in the details. I am always evaluating a PMM's craft knowledge and attention to detail, but I don't need to know all of the details to know if you're a good PMM. Instead, I want to see you flex your storytelling muscle and show me that you can elevate mundane concepts into a strong and compelling narrative. When I'm interviewing PMM candidates, one of the questions I ask myself is, "Would I be able to put this person in front of the sales team/leadership team/entire company to g ...Read More

1,180 Views
Jon Rooney

Box Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Splunk, New Relic, Microsoft, Unity, Oracle • 1y

The most common mistake I've seen from product marketers during job interviews is mistaking information for messaging. Especially for more senior roles, your main job as a product marketer is to synthesize all sorts of data and information into a story. So in an interview, weave together a logical, compelling story, don't just rattle off facts, stats, speeds and feeds. Make database management or end-point-security or lead contact enrichment or AI agent-powered whatever interesting in the 30 min ...Read More

3,477 Views
Ben Geller

Former Director, Product Marketing & Demand Generation at You.com | Formerly LinkedIn • 1y

The most common mistake I see is candidates not doing sufficient research about the company and the space.

It’s quite common for hiring managers to throw out problems on their desk that they want an opinion on, and some basic grounding in the business can go a long way in facilitating a good conversation.

771 Views
Abdul Rastagar

Sirona Marketing CEO of Sirona Marketing: GTM for healthcare and life sciences • 6y

A lot of product marketers will simply rehash their functional activities during their interview. They’ll talk about how they conducted messaging, built personas, created sales enablement. Maybe they get more strategic and talk about a product launch but will still spend more time on the mundane mechanics of it. I want to hear about outcomes. What were you trying to achieve and how did you progress to that goal?

2,111 Views