Julie Brown

Great question! I have seen customer marketing both within PMM and outside of it. Depending on the organization, it could work either way as long as product and customer marketing work very closely together. To ensure success, I would suggest that customer marketing be part of product marketing for many reasons. PMMs are expected to be experts on customers and are usually the ones that either lead or highly influence customer-related activities such as: * Increasing product adoption * Content for customer events * Win-loss analysis * Customer stories/case studies * Customer communications, specifically about best practices and feature launches * Advisory boards * Etc. When customer marketing and PMM work together and there are no silos, then the customer experience improves. A win-win situation.

I browse a number of different resources from here on Sharebird, AIPMM, Pragmatic, SiriusDecisions (Forrester), Crayon's blog, Medium (includes a number of different publications I recommend following such as Product Marketing Community, Women in Product, Project Product, The Product Launch, etc.) LinkedIn, Facebook (great Product groups here to join like Women in Product & Product Marketing Masters), and Twitter. So many PMMs have treasure troves of workflows, frameworks, and best practices they share on various blogs and social platforms.

Great question! I've used one of those vendors in the past and have evaluated various others. I have found a number of reasons why these tools are extremely helpful: 1. They save so much time vs. manually searching through Google (setting up Google Alerts) or scrolling through social media. It is nearly impossible to do your day-to-day PMM work plus keep tabs on your competitors. Having an app that automatically gives you daily updates is a true time saver. I would estimate it saved the PMM team 5-8 hours each week in staying on top of competitive news updates. I would estimate 10+ hours were saved in creating the program and templates by using the tool (being conservative in my estimates). 2. These tools give you a way to track how your teams are actually using/consuming the competitive intel you're publishing. For example, after publishing a battlecard, I could see who viewed it and how many times. This helps in tracking the progress and success of your program. 3. In addition to battlecards, you can create other resources such as dashboards and newsletters. For example, I created a competitive dashboard focused on a specific industry (financial services) and it covered all the competitors who play in that space. 4. If you or your sales team comes across intel that isn't found on the web, you can upload it into the tool. Nothing is lost and it is all stored in the same place. 5. Everything is easily editable in the app vs. updating and formatting a static document such as a PPT or Word doc. Can this be done without a tool? Of course! It just will take more time. Creating a competitive program without a CI tool can be done, but is much easier if you have other tools such as other social listening tools and sales enablement portals whether that is a Seismic, Highspot, Showpad, etc. Even just SharePoint makes it much easier because you can upload your battlecards and cheat sheets and still track who is viewing them and how often. I actually have paired up my CI tool with SharePoint a number of times to create the comprehensive competitive program the business needed. To add, having the CI tool will not magically provide a competitive intel program. A lot of work still has to be put into using the tool. The tool is simply a platform that helps automate, standardize, and measure. I've been the champion for CI at many places and sadly the programs disappeared after I left each company. The 6 keys to a successful CI program are: 1. Championed (and not just by 1 person, but by multiple, ideally, by multiple teams so if there is turnover, the program doesn't disintegrate) 2. Centralized (everyone needs to know where to go to find the intel) 3. Scalable (want to be able to grow it easily and not reinvent the wheel) 4. Consistent (need to be able to remain consistent and predictable, i.e, send out your weekly newsletter on the same day each week) 5. Concise (we all have the attention span of a gnat, so keep your battlecards and newsletter short, sweet, and to the point) 6. Measurable (not being able to measure the success of your program makes it much harder to justify the time spent on it) Hope this was helpful!

Such a great question! And sadly, a common challenge for product marketing. I've found even when a company hires its first product marketer, not everyone is aware or on the same page. I have struggled with this very same thing at multiple companies and have found creating a team charter to help. You can check out how I tackled that here: https://medium.com/@julie.ef.brown/how-to-write-a-product-marketing-charter-916d91e53a65 The critical components are: * Define what PMM is (and can even say what it is not) * Set goals * List out roles/responsibilities * Get buy-in/approval from leadership * Continually share and educate the organization on what PMM is to help manage expectations

Great question! I am a HUGE fan of templates and frameworks. I create templates and then modify them for each company so it better suits the needs of the business. I've written a couple of articles on this topic (see below): Part 1: https://medium.com/projectproduct/the-power-of-a-message-house-for-product-marketers-8b9bfe01e5a4 Part 2: https://medium.com/projectproduct/the-power-of-a-message-house-for-product-marketers-part-2-bca8f3ea9ad7 I have found holding a cross-functional workshop to be very helpful when developing and finishing the "message house." You might need to hold a few different workshops depending on the depth/breadth of your document and the number of colleagues you need to involve.

Awesome question and welcome to the world of searching for a PMM role! I have interviewed for more product marketing roles than I can count and have come up with a few observations and tricks/tips along the way. 1. People do not read your resume closely. I have links to samples of my work in my resume, and I am always asked to forward specific pieces of content or send links to my work. So have those pdfs and blog and video links handy. 2. Sometimes companies ask for a project. Be cautious here. When a company asks for you to write a press release on a product announcement or come up with a product launch plan for one of their products, and you are not being compensated... I would highly recommend taking a step back and evaluating whether or not this is worth it. Is the company trying to find free work? In some cases, it is worth taking the risk, and at other times, you will want to walk away. It is a judgment call. 3. You might be asked to give a presentation. This could be on either a past project of yours or could be a pitch of how you would approach product marketing in your first 30, 60, and 90 days. These can be fun for you to showcase your stellar skills. The sky is the limit on how you can approach this one! 4. Like with your resume, have your portfolio line up with the job description. PMM roles can vary quite a bit, so you might need to showcase your different experiences and skills. I like having a master slide deck of all my work handy to tailor to each specific role. Many people have an online portfolio as well. Your own website or a Google Site can work here. As what to include, here are a few examples: * Analyst relations: Ever help on a report and get the leadership spot? Grab that analyst logo and show off your product landed in the leader's quadrant. * Public speaking: Do you have a link to a recording of a virtual or in-person presentation? Get a screengrab of your slide or you on video and paste the link right on your slide. * Frameworks & templates: Employers love to see that you created repeatable templates whether that is a messaging house, a CI program, a product launch guide, etc. * Launching a product: Do you have a template to share? Can you display any final assets like a web page, success story, blog, datasheet, press release, video, metrics, etc.? * Sales enablement: Do you have a framework, templates, and stats of how sales engaged with your content? Find an eye-catching way to display those on a slide or your web page. * And there is so much more like competitive intelligence, customer research, win-loss, etc. 5. When you can, tout stats and metrics. People love to see metrics. Were you able to increase the pipeline? Improve win rates? Did sales engage with your cheat sheets and battelcards? Etc. I wrote a blog on a similar topic that might be helpful as well: Tips on How to Transition into a Product Marketing Role

So happy you found product marketing and it interests you! I actually wrote about this topic years ago: https://medium.com/projectproduct/10-skills-traits-youll-find-in-exceptional-product-marketers-12fccfd35e2a Now, today, I can narrow it down to just a few traits I look for as I find these skills very difficult to teach/train in the workplace. I can help and teach those early in their careers how to overcome public speaking fears, how to price and package a SaaS product, or how to go about competitive research, but I find these 3 traits difficult to teach: 1. Curiosity: If you're not a person who is curious, product marketing is not for you. A willingness to research, dive deep, and ask questions is critical. 2. Solid writer: Product marketing is all about communicating the value of what you're selling. If you cannot clearly articulate your message and the value, a career in PMM will be tough. And you might work at places where there are no other strong writers to lean on, so being able to clearly write is a key skill. 3. Project management: As with many professions, there is plenty to juggle and competing priorities. And a core responsibility for a PMM is launching products, which can be large, complicated projects with many stakeholders. All this requires the ability to manage projects, stay on top of deadlines, and remain organized. Hope this helps!

I like to utilize a document I call a message house. Having a structured format with each section outlined and definitions and examples at the ready can make for a great workshop experience and help keep stakeholders more focused and aligned. Below are 2 articles I've written on the topic. Might be helpful in jumpstarting your next messaging project. Enjoy! Part 1: https://medium.com/projectproduct/the-power-of-a-message-house-for-product-marketers-8b9bfe01e5a4 Part 2: https://medium.com/projectproduct/the-power-of-a-message-house-for-product-marketers-part-2-bca8f3ea9ad7

Great question! It depends. It depends on how the company defines product marketing, what specific experiences, tasks, and responsibilities are listed in the job description, the size of the company, the industry, the maturity, goals, etc. First, I recommend looking over the job description and company profile. Then try to match as many relevant experiences and skills as you have to those listed in the job post. Key Items to Consider: * Do you have experience working in a similar industry? If so, highlight it! * Do you have experience marketing to the same types of customers they do (industry, B2B, B2C, etc.) If you do, be sure to mention that. * Do you have experience working in a similar-sized company? It might not seem like something, but pointing out as many similarities as possible could make the hiring manager feel more comfortable and confident about you. * Do you have experience working for a company at a similar maturity or growth stage? (Series A, aiming to hit $XXX.XX in revenue, etc.) Hiring managers love to hear you have experience working at a place in a similar situation. If this applies to you, demonstrate your know-how of working in an early-stage startup and understanding the strains on a cash-strapped company. Or showcase how you helped a company grow X% in a short amount of time. Nothing is guaranteed, though, because it all depends on the company/hiring manager and how they view/define product marketing. As you may know, product marketing is defined differently from company to company. Relevant Skills to Highlight: * Writing: Do you have blogs, articles, datasheets, eBooks, whitepapers, case studies, etc. you can point to? Even a personal blog is great! So much of being a product marketer includes messaging and drafting content (even if a writer is on staff, PMMs still need to know how to write). * Project Management: Everything a product marketer does entails project management. Need new messaging? Better create a project plan because it will involve many stakeholders. Product launch? You know that will involve nearly every department, so you need to be organized with multiple deadlines outlined. PMM is a collaborative position that acts as the connective tissue in an organization. And product marketers lead large projects time and time again. Project management is key for success, so anything on your resume you can point to where you honed your project management skills the better. * Research: Any experience with research is good to include. You could highlight primary research (surveys/interviews) and secondary research. You could also share a story about how you gathered and leveraged qualitative and quantitative data for an initiative. * Customers: Have experience working with customers either by interviewing them, presenting, selling, hosting an event, etc? All this is applicable to a PMM position. * Go-to-Market: Product marketing is the driver of go-to-market (or at least should be). If you can on your resume and in your interview showcase how you led or were part of a go-to-market strategy, be sure to do so. Talk about personas, ideal customer profiles (ICPs), positioning, channels, goal setting, metrics tracked, etc. * Campaigns / Launches: Did you ever create a campaign or launch something? And it doesn’t have to be a “product” launch. You can talk about how you launched an internal program in your last role or helped with a campaign to increase awareness or leads. Be creative and think outside the box. How did you use messaging, multiple channels, and other campaign elements to create awareness or promote an action or change? Maybe something you’ve done outside of work like a volunteer project could apply here. * Public Speaking: Product marketers are constantly tapped to speak in public whether it is at a customer conference, user group meeting, product release webinar, or an industry event. So if you have ever spoken publicly and can share a link to it, be sure to do so! * Events: Have you planned, marketed, or even spoken at an event? Again, very relevant because product marketers are often tasked with defining the messaging, creating the agenda, or speaking at the event. Hope this helps! (And wrote an article on it because I loved the question)

Such a great question because market research is a very important element for product marketing. There are a number of different tools and avenues: * Surveys: Always a great way to gather both quantitative and qualitative feedback. Tools out there are SurveyMonkey, Microsoft Forms, Google Forms, Zoho, Qualtrics, Jotform, etc. I personally like Microsoft or Google if I don't have any budget. If I have the budget, I like the tools that have features such as skip logic like SurveyMonkey. (Blog on various tools here: https://www.jotform.com/blog/best-survey-tools/) * Focus Groups: When you get a group of people together, you are bound to uncover a gold mine of information. I've done both in-person and virtual focus groups. The key is to be very organized. If your company holds an annual customer/user conference, that is a perfect place to host one. * In-depth, 1:1 interviews: I love sending out a survey, and for those who show an interest, I reach out and conduct a 1:1 interview to gather more insights. If I have the budget, I hire a 3rd party to conduct the interview. If I lack the budget, I or someone else in PMM conducts the interview. And if you can, try and make sure sales is not on the call. They always request to be on the call, but stand strong and say no! * Prospect/Customer Calls: If there is no time and money, try to be a fly on the wall or at least get the sales call recording to listen in and find out what keeps your prospects and customers up at night. * Industry Analysts: Industry analyst reports are a great way to gather research. I've used and worked with Forrester/Sirius Decisions, Gartner, SpendMatters, IDC, Markets&Markets, Quadrant Solutions, etc. * Online Forums/Review Sites: Online review sites and community forums are a great way to gather research as well. G2, TrustRadius, Gartner Peer Insights, Reddit, Glassdoor, and so many more out there depending on your industry. Lastly, when I conduct research, what tools I use and the depth of the research all depend on time and money (as with almost everything in life). When I had a large budget, I hired an outside firm to conduct the research. Why? 1. Saved tons of time 2. They are the true research experts 3. You will uncover better insights that are unbiased 4. You receive a fabulous, comprehensive report and the research firm usually hosts summary calls for your stakeholders that you can record A few research firms I've worked with in the past include GLG, Spailey Solutions, and B2B International. Hope this helps!