Horacio Zambrano

GTM is very broad and can mean so many things in industry. Strategic analysis and more marketing plan like, PPPP (packaging, pricing, placement, etc.), messaging/positioning You have to pick one, find a good framework and cover all the basis. Most likely they will think it's more academic than not. That said, do alot of competitive intelligence / research and that will speak more than the framework you pick. Some references: Kotler marketing, christianson (HBS 5 forces), SWOT analysis, templates on marketing plan I'll likely build a course on this soon so stay tuned.

For me, it's important to align PMM activities (and others) from the top down, realizing that there are always changes as the year goes on: 1. Business (Strategy) Goals 2. Marketing Goals and Strategy to achieve #1 (includes GTM strategy/plan) - chunked into quarters 3. PMM objectives and plan (in support of #2) - chunked into months by individual or product

We did more portfolio marketing at Cisco/Juniper where we had many "cybersecurity" problems, whereas in early-stage start-ups and fewer product companies I feel it's more classic product marketing. Portfolio is often more solution or suite level marketing. Strategy is almost business like (done at a higher level with more business level KPIs). You can use a portfolio (like a bundle) to give an individual product an advantage. Product marketing has more direct competitive elements. Other things like GTM level recommendations can be done across both. 

I think showing a promotion within an organization signals something a bit more special than a title change across organizations, so that is a way to motivate someone to stay on longer if an opportunity will open up for them. Start-ups offer a much broader scope of responsibility but may lack the true people management/external industry exposure that goes with say a Director or VP title at a large company, and may introduce risk into career progression if the growth stalls (I have seen this personally). At a senior manager level, you have demonstrated competence and can lead other IC's. At a director level, can you chart a functional or GTM strategy that generates results, at a VP level, are you able to come up with strategies and influence (Gartner, etc) that could have industry-level impact and disruption. Lastly, staying in one niche helps create domain expertise to move up, but doing PMM across 2 or more niches should help one master the function.

Definitely product management, to understand the blurry demarcation company to company between those 2 positions such as customer exposure, pricing/competitive analysis and salesforce training. Sales management and CRO, sales ops, marketing functional owners (digital, automation, ops) and customer support even to name a few. PMM can be purely tactical or it can be very strategic, depends on company culture relative to PM and the individuals in the seats. 

Try to make the switch in the company you are in already, will be very tough externally. that said, 1. learn online - there is practically nothing you can't master in business today at least theory wise (different in science or medicine, etc.) 2a. do it for free, start with battlecards, etc. build a portfolio 2b. if you know a founder, get in to a very early startup and be his product marketer, possibly for near free, if the company grows and you get your practical stripes, you are a product marketer 3. try content marketing / writing, edge your way in 4. isolate a domain , something you can get passionate about, build an audience 5. network at product marketing groups (just starting), unlikely to hire you today but could pay dividends later 6. start your own company, as you grow and get people better than you become the product marketer

All of the above. To create those higher level relationships internally and project more seniority, you need to be/sound as strategic (about your industry, competition, trends, shifting dynamics) as you are/can about feature richness. Executives tend to be strategic and they need people that can bridge the on the ground execution to their vision/story-telling.