Jenna Crane

I'd recommend having on hand: Your story. Be prepared to give a brief walkthrough of your background and experience. I always like to see when someone has a strong narrative about their career — why they made each move, the highlights of their experience and what they learned, and what they're looking for next.  An example of a product launch or major project you led that you were particularly proud of. Be prepared to talk about the process of putting it together, any difficulties you faced and ...Read More

My favorite question is "What would be your positioning statement for yourself as a product marketer?"  I love that question because it shows me how comfortable they are with the basics of positioning, and it tells me a lot about the aspects of product marketing that they care most about. For example, they may highlight their strength in messaging and positioning, or their customer-centricity, or their ability to partner with teams across the company. It's also another opportunity to see how the ...Read More

Cross-functional work is Product Marketing's middle name!  PMM <> Sales Key deliverables: Pitch decks, enablement assets (internal resources like battlecards and personas, external resources like one-pagers and case studies), and trainings  Key goals: Improve win rates, improve competitive win rates, increase ASP, shorten sales cycles, improve demo request to demo held rates, generate pipeline, improve sales team confidence  PMM <> CS Key deliverables: Same as sales, but with an exis ...Read More

Courses, certifications, and books can definitely help transition into product marketing, but the best way to learn is by doing. I would see if there are side projects you can take on with the PMM team, in addition to self-driven learning.  For courses and certifications: I typically recommend the PMA. They have a variety of programs depending on how broad or narrow you want to go, and how much time you have.  I've also had great experience with General Assembly; depending on your location they ...Read More

1. They didn't prepare. It's really hard to justify moving a candidate forward if they don't know basic details about our company, their answers lack details and depth, and/or they don't have questions for the interviewer. 2. They are too long-winded or rambling, and/or their answers are mostly jargon. Of course we want to hear candidates reference terms we use in our day-to-day work. But if all their answers are more buzzwords than substance, or if they struggle to communicate in a concise and ...Read More

Absolutely writing samples! I always ask for those. (As you can tell from my other answers, communication is something I care deeply about!)  Case studies, landing pages, pitch decks / other enablement assets, and messaging frameworks can also be great additions to a portfolio. Just make sure you can speak to the process of building those, because it's impossible to know just from looking at them how much was built by the candidate vs. a collaborator.  What really makes a candidate stand out, I' ...Read More

I explain it across 4 core responsibilities:  Experts on our customers, products, and markets We find the right insights and turn them into strategy, and make the insights easily consumable for the rest of the org Marketing owners for product We partner with product teams to make our products successful — driving awareness, acquisition, adoption and expansion for our product lines Integrators We sit at the intersection of most teams, working with each of them to break down silos and get to bette ...Read More

I find that it depends on the scale of what I’m messaging. If it’s for a small project (a landing page, a video, etc.) I like to go with: Key message 3 supporting value propositions, with taglines and descriptions Supporting points for each of those value props — whether those are unique differentiators, supporting features, and/or reasons to believe/proof points I like to use the following table structure: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x1catf2yn6zh451/Screen%20Shot%202021-07-14%20at%209.59.54%20PM. ...Read More

Make sure you talk about the process! That includes:  What was the existing state when you started (i.e. messaging didn't exist, it did exist but it was falling flat / was outdated, etc.)?  How did you go about developing the messaging (i.e. what inputs did you use)?  How did you test and/or validate it with customers / prospects? How did you socialize it and get buy-in internally? How did you roll it out?  How was it received in the market? (Can be anecdotal if needed, but of course ideal to ha ...Read More