What's the best way to prepare for a product marketing interview at a big tech company? What resources would you recommend to a prospective so they can best showcase their experience and aptitude for role.

• Be a Product Marketer: Understand the marketplace, trends, and competitors.
• Use the product: Use the product, sign up for emails, check out their SEO and social presence, and interview current users to form a point of view on the product and opportunities (e.g. opportunities in the onboarding process, use cases, etc.). For an interview with a company, I interviewed a handful of their customers to understand use cases, pain points, and their target audience. From these insights, I developed recommendations and brought an informed point of view to the interview. Also, I demonstrated I was interested in the customer, the product, and willing to roll up my sleeves to get insights.      
• Bonus Points: Conduct an analysis (competitor, messaging, segments, etc.) to provide value and demonstrate your skills, and show your interest.

There are three key types of interviews you should consider preparing for when applying to a small or big tech company:

· Product marketing core competency interviews

· Behavioral interviews

· Case interview / portfolio review assignments

The skills companies look for are consistent, but each company assesses candidates slightly differently. For example, a company like Uber may lean on case study interviews (e.g., "How would you enter a new industry vertical…?") while a company like Amazon does more behavioral questions aligned with their cultural principles.

Regarding resources I recommend, I wrote a few articles about how to prepare for PMM interviews. See below:

1) Product marketing interview preparation tips

2) Product marketing interview questions

3) Mastering go-to-market strategy interview questions

PMMs are storytellers so just as you would approach a marketing narrative, tell your personal story in a crisp and compelling way. Prior to the interview, reflect on a few projects you want to highlight that showcase the breadth of PMM competencies and be prepared to weave those stories into your answers. Some examples include: a complex go-to-market strategy you drove, a time you influenced the product roadmap, a challenging customer problem you solved. In addition to preparing your story it's important to experience the product to put yourself in the customer's shoes. This will provide you with the knowledge to speak to product pain points and offer suggestions on ways to enhance the product or the marketing to improve adoption.

Here are some tips on how to prepare for a Product Marketing Manager (PMM) interview:

1. Research the company: Before going to the interview, make sure you have a good understanding of the company, its products or services, and its target customers. Visit the company website, read its mission statement, and review its recent press releases, and pricing pages to understand its operating model. 
2. Understand the role of a PMM and product stage: Make sure you understand the responsibilities of a PMM such as conducting market research, developing messaging and positioning, creating go-to-market strategies, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. Understand the product stage to get a sense of what the team needs (MVP has different pmm needs then a product that has been in market for years).
3. Prepare for behavioral questions: PMM interviews often include behavioral questions that ask you to describe your experiences in detail. Be prepared to provide specific examples of how you have solved problems, overcome challenges, and achieved success in previous roles. STAR method is a great one to work from.
4. Be ready to showcase your marketing skills: As a PMM, you will need to have strong marketing skills.: Some common PMM interview questions include "What experience do you have with product launches?", "How do you conduct market research?", and "What is your approach to developing messaging and positioning?" Come ready to speak to specific examples. Be ready to discuss your experience with market segmentation, value proposition development, pricing strategies, and product positioning.
5. Ask about the customer and be ready to speak about the customers and segments you've focused on in the past and how you came to understand them.
6. As far as showcasing your aptitude, for better or for worse, most roles require you to do a project as part of the hiring process. 

B2C PMM is all about the product itself. You're not having to go through buyers like you do with B2B - so you've got to speak to the product success. 

Don't make the common mistake I see B2C PMMs make today! I see so many people just focus on output (number of blogs, that a launch happened, copy skills, etc). Talk about the impact of your work - did it help the product grow? Did you increase adoption or retention? Did you find product-market-fit? 

And since it's a big company, they're going to also want to have trust that you can manage a political atmosphere with lots of different stakeholders. 

Best of luck! 

In my experience, the best way to prepare for the interview is to be knowledgeable about the industry that you’re working in and how you can bring the customer’s needs and voice to the table in a way that only you can. Whether that means doing a little research into the industry so that you can understand the consumer or deep diving into how the product currently comes to life for consumers.

When I was interviewing with Strava, I started my subscription and got familiar with the product so I could see where I could apply my expertise in the fitness space. Then I read a lot of Fitt Insider and AthleTech News to better understand what the market was offering and what the challenges we could be facing as a company. Don’t be afraid to constructively voice your outside view. This is a way to showcase your aptitude, outside of presentations or practicums, to highlight that you can see the bigger picture, come up with ideas, how you would bring them to life, and how you would measure them. This is a gift to share with the hiring manager because they can see your full thought process, the diversity of approach, and business acumen that isn’t always captured in the interview questions.