Ben Geller

Director, Product Marketing, You.com

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You.com Director, Product Marketing, Ben Geller on Stakeholder Management

May 30 @ 10:00AM PST

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What are common struggles of product marketing managers?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • February 13

One of the biggest struggles I've seen for PMMs is explaining the role and the value we create to team members who have never worked with PMM before. If you encounter this challenge, here's a simple framework I've found helpful: Elevator pitch: Product Marketing’s superpower is being the “Voice ......Read More

594 Views

How to land senior product marketing interviews and how to effectively prepare for them?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • February 13

For landing Sr. PMM Interviews, here is a six-step approach (thanks to Coach Erika, for the framework): 1. Hone your online profile/resume * Know what’s out there (about you or authored by you): this could be your LinkedIn profile, Medium, Twitter, Github, etc * Assess w......Read More

566 Views

How does a college grad, best position themselves to be a successful Product Marketer or Marketer in general? Any advice on getting your foot in the door?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • February 13

Many of the best PMMs and marketers I've worked with are extremely analytical and/or have deep experience in advertising. If you're unable to land a dream PMM/marketing job directly, roles that give you experience working with data or advertising can be a great stepping stone. Some possible caree......Read More

558 Views

What's the best strategy in pushing for a raise and promotion as a Product Marketer?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • February 13

The best strategy that I've seen in pushing for a raise/promotion is demonstrating a bottom-line impact on the business. Why is this? * As you become more senior, it's not entirely up to your manager whether you'll receive a raise/promotion -- they will likely need to pitch you to a broad......Read More

554 Views

If you were to hire a PMM today, what skills and attributes would you value most in a candidate?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • February 13

In hiring PMMs, typically, there's a specific problem I'm looking to hire for, and I want someone who is an expert in solving that type of challenge who can bring best practices to the table (i.e., a specialist vs. a generalist). For example: in one of my most recent openings, I was looking for a......Read More

427 Views

Is it better to get startup experience or experience with a more formal organizational structure?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • February 13

For candidates who are early in their careers, there's a huge benefit to getting experience with a more formal organizational structure. Larger companies tend to have well-thought-out best practices, and a deep bench of resources and mentors to tap. On the other hand, startup experience can be......Read More

408 Views

What do you see as the foundational skill sets and areas of focus for a product marketer? And what are the best ways to establish those skills and competency in those areas?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • February 13

When I think about foundational skill-sets and areas of focus for a PMM, I tend to think about Inbound vs. Outbound skills. * For inbound: * Get as much experience as possible running customer research, and then using those insights to drive changes in the product roadmap. Especiall......Read More

393 Views

Where should you start, especially if you have little to no budget for research. Are there any free/low-cost existing resources? Or standard strategies/plans of attack?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • December 10

If you can't secure a budget, it may mean that your research doesn't have sufficient buy-in from stakeholders or leadership. Getting alignment around the core problem/opportunity may be a better use of time than spinning cycles on research. Here's a quick story about how I conducted a leadersh......Read More

246 Views

Do you create a risk and mitigation plan for the gtm strategy right out of the gate? If not, how do you predict and reduce foreseen risk?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • December 6

One of the biggest challenges when preparing for a launch is identifying the “unknown unknowns”—risks that can cause a launch to fail but aren’t immediately obvious or intuitive. Before a significant launch, I definitely recommend investing time to identify potential issues in order to give th......Read More

192 Views

What pointed recommendations do you have on gaining influence as a new member of an organization or as a junior product marketing team member?

Ben Geller

You.com Director, Product Marketing • December 10

There's some great advice here. To add on, here are a few things I've seen new PMM hires do to onboard successfully: * Drive a project with clear definition: Oftentimes, there's an unglamorous piece of work that new hires/junior PMM are asked to take on that the organization desperately n......Read More