Establishing Product Marketing
How do you prepare yourself to become a Product Marketing Director and manage a team, without any experience managing anyone previously?
I'm on my 5th year of product marketing in my career, with another 5 years before that in general demand gen at very small companies. I've had management experience in the past, but not in a Product Marketing role. Often times in smaller companies, there will be 1 or 2 PMMs, usually in a very flat hierarchy, or a single boss, with no room to really move up a proverbial ladder and into management experience. So what are ways that I can prepare myself now, so that if the time comes to apply for a Director position (either internally or at another company) that I can be considered even without recent people management experience? Are there any courses for this that are highly regarded in the management arena?
9 Answers
How can I get started in setting up Product Marketing w/in my organization?
Product Marketing is new to our organization. A lot of folks don't understand the role. Additionally, it's very difficult to identify metrics for this function. What do you recommend in terms of how to earn buy-in, as well as where to start in the beginning to be able to add value?
2 Answers
How do you introduce Product Marketing functionality in an organization that lacks the relationship with Product Management?
Still in startup mode, our Product Managers are very tactical and development focused. They don't have the ability to work directly with Marketing on positioning, messaging or competitive analysis. Essentially, reactive. How do you suggest creating a Product Marketing workflow that helps close this gap?
2 Answers
What's your best product marketing 30-60-90 day plan to make a big impact?
I'm starting a new job next week! Would love to hear your top tips in general as well as at the director level.
28 Answers
Sales says they don't need a "pitch deck", they just use a few slides but you see untapped value in how sales talks about your platform. How do you convince sales they should considering tapping Product Marketing to build a pitch deck?
One approach would be for Product Marketing to build the deck and prove it to sales. BUT, that could be a huge waste of time. What other options exist?
2 Answers
How do you manage the transition from being the sole person responsible for product marketing activities to now having someone else who can share the burden?
One of the biggest changes when managing people and a team is handing off the responsibility to others. This is tough to do when you're so used to handling everything yourself. Any tips or suggestions on how to best make that transition?
5 Answers
What can I include in my marketing portfolio to standout from the crowd as a product marketing candidate.
I'm new to Product Marketing. In the interviews that I've done, I am being asked to present a marketing portfolio.
16 Answers
How do you communicate product marketing achievements upwards and build visibility?
It can sometimes be a struggle for those on the executive team, or in higher leadership roles, to see the value that product marketing is bringing to the business - especially if they do not have regular interaction. How do you build visibility for you and/or your team, and clearly communicate the achievements and activities throughout the year?
19 Answers
What does your product marketing team org structure look like?
Do you simply have Product Marketers by product/portfolio? Do you have a release communications manager? Someone in sales enablement? What other roles exist in your product marketing teams today?
15 Answers
When thinking about adding new talent to your team, how do you structure focus areas like Customer lifecycle stage, Persona, Areas of the product and Functional expertise?
We only have one product at HoneyBook but PMM does a lot of different things, ie, lifecycle marketing, research, competitive, feature launches, etc.
9 Answers
What is your process for collecting user feedback?
Do you use ever use NPS or any other survey style?
9 Answers
How do you measure the contribution of Product Marketing to the growth result?
Oftentimes, PMM does not directly execute the campaign but rather provides a foundation or collaterals for sales and marketing to use. How do we calculate our percentage of contribution to the final results?
4 Answers
How do you measure the impact of product marketing in your company?
The demand gen teams can optimize pipeline, MQLs and costs per lead. The sales people work to meet their quotas. Marketing support completes tickets within a time window. What objective measures do we PMMs have?
6 Answers