Alina Fu

Every company has its own system or values that they look for during candidate review. During interviews, especially at larger enterprise companies, the recruiter or hiring manager usually has a rubric that assesses how much the candidate fulfills the criteria. Here are what stands out for me in a pool of PMM candidates: 1. Achievement - how do they take initiative and demonstrate that they are results-oriented 2. Influence - how do they convey ideas that can influence others without formal auth ...Read More

If I could only pick 3, it would be: Storytelling Competitive insights Customer-obsessed Telling a story isn’t just filling out a messaging and positioning framework but about being able to pitch a narrative on why status quo is broken, paint what that world would look like, and why your product will address the need. Layer in competitive insights in your analysis about the market, trends, and competitors to highlight your product’s differentiators and you can go even farther. Finally, doing all ...Read More

I think that depends on the hiring manager. I would even go so far as to suggest maybe you haven’t found the right role or HM who is looking for that broad horizontal PMM or you may be under-leveling yourself. As you become more senior, that is when the broad horizontal PMM skills come into play. It also has to do a lot with the culture of hiring at said company. I’ve worked at a company where they are looking for that ALMOST-EXACT fit and domain expertise; I’ve worked at a company where they di ...Read More

This one is challenging because I’ve witnessed year long integrations from newly acquired products into the overall strategy, and even then, it wasn’t “fully” absorbed into the main strategy. First, I would recommend looking at the reasons why this product came under the fold. What was the vision and use cases of how it connects? Sometimes it's for strategic reasons, sometimes it’s to complement the product. Understanding the why will help with the how. Then, I would analyze the target segment f ...Read More

I structure my PMM teams based on a blend of the following: What are the goals of the PMM team How the PMM team will be measured (this is related to how the company regards the PMM team) What is the vision of an ideal PMM team I believe in an end-to-end approach to Product Marketing. Some companies focus primarily on outbound PMM while some companies emphasize inbound PMM - I like my PMM team to cover both. Additionally, it depends on the headcount allocation and who is already on the team. I’ve ...Read More

How much do you trust your manager/management chain? I’ve had direct reports who share their career aspirations with me, even if it’s a role outside of my team, and I count myself lucky that they trust me enough to share that. When they did, I would put them on projects that would expose them to the opportunity to build those skills. When I was at Google, they offered 20% projects and that allowed my direct report to experience what the other role would be like. I believe in nurturing people’s p ...Read More

ABM is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, as we just announced 7 new ABM integrations and hosted a webinar about ABM strategies. Data-driven marketing has extended beyond analytics, social, SEO/SEM, and A/B testing into insights and 3rd party data on customers’ wants and needs to tailor and target more relevant messaging and content to the recipients. How does this impact what product marketing focuses on? It has made targeting and segmentation a greater focus for the team. In the past, ...Read More

I don’t know if there is a turnkey framework but there are definitely lots of framework options available. You can find one that fits your needs or make your own (like I do). Core to a GTM strategy include these essentials: Core Bill of Materials (pitch deck, demo, battlecard, FAQ/data sheet) Customer Journey across the funnel (or bowtie, which I prefer since it covers retention marketing) Brand positioning and SWOT analysis Messaging house (value prop and messaging pillars) Segmentation and Tar ...Read More