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. (B2C focused PMM)

Question

Alex Wagner Lavian · Accepted Answer

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.

Brianne Shally · Answer

* 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.

Jennifer Kay · Answer

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.

Madison Leonard 🕶 · Answer

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!

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