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Mike Flouton

VP, Product, GitLab

About

Former VPM, VPPMM, investor and advisor. Back to my roots in Product.

Content

What's a typical product marketing career path?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • August 17

The product marketing part of the typical career is pretty straight forward. Generally, you will start as a Product Marketing Manaer. In larger orgs, you may take on a Sr. Product Marketing Manaer or Principal Product Marketing Manager title as you become more of a senior individual contributor. ......Read More

3109 Views

Why do product marketing jobs have high turnover?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • August 29

I'd first like to call attention to your last sentence - this is an issue with all of marketing, not just PMM. The CMO the the highest turnover spot on the exec team. There are two reasons IME. 1. The bad news. Marketing is an easy target when times are bad because many of the ways we are ......Read More

1540 Views

What are the pros and cons of getting an MBA when you're already in product marketing/marketing and looking to stay in this field and under what circumstances does an MBA help?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • November 15

Perhaps this is controversial, but I would say there are zero pros and many, many cons. MBAs can be useful if you're looking to switch fields. Otherwise, I'd much rather see two additional years of work experience. I've hired MBAs from top 15 schools and from a PMM perspective, I was basicall......Read More

1269 Views

For those of you in more complex sales targeting larger companies, what are the go-to pieces of content/collateral that you encourage sales to send? More specifically, what do you like to send to help a user convince their economic decision maker?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • November 16

Complex enterprise sales are more about relationships and solution selling than they are collateral. So, if anything, content and collateral becomes less important the farther up market you go. These sales are about face to face presentations, conversations, solution selling and discovery. Th......Read More

1158 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?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • January 30

Become the go to expert on something - quickly. Generally, as a PMM, you want to be the expert on the buyer. Shadow as many sales calls as you possibly can. Develop relationships with customers. Call them, show up at their office, take them out for drinks. Compile a library of stories, personas, ......Read More

1009 Views

As a lead product marketer with a broad set of responsibilities and very few resources, what are the critical KPIs I should report on? When you're responsible for product launches, messaging, sales materials and enablement, the metrics seem 'soft.'

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • August 17

I think about two buckets of metrics - activity and outcome. Activity metrics are easier to measure, but are not as directly tied to company performance ("hey, we delivered 2,748 leads to sales this quarter!"). Outcome metrics are often abstracted a layer, but focus on what really matters ("booki......Read More

987 Views

A lot of companies struggle to see the value of product marketing. What is the best way of measuring product marketing ROI?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • November 15

Don't bother. If you work for an executive team that doesn't see the value of PMM, you need to get a new job. You've got way too much work to do to waste your time trying to demonstrate something that should be obvious to anyone with a clue.

986 Views

What are the most useful skills to have at the entry level? What job should you have right before you transition to a product marketing role?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • November 22

Coaching/mentoring is my favorite part of the job. But there are certain pre-requisite skills I don't want to spend time teaching you. We could probably come up with a really long list of those, but in the interest of keeping this list useful, I will stick to three. * Be an excellent writer. F......Read More

952 Views

What are some examples of different projects that Product Marketing Managers at different levels would own? For example, a PMM vs a Senior PMM vs a Director of Product Marketing?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • August 8

This is going to vary widely by organization, and you'll find Jr. PMMs doing the same work in one organization that a director or even VP would in another. That said, as a general rule, the more junior PMMs typically take on more tactical work. This can take many forms, but content creation, gh......Read More

948 Views

How can I break the ceiling from Sr. Product Marketing Manager to the next level (director or team lead)?

Mike Flouton

GitLab VP, Product • November 14

First, Make sure you own your company's most strategic product. Usually that's the product with the highest revenue or fastest growth. Ideally both. Second, make sure the execs know who you are. Go as high as you can go. Develop relationships with the CEO and/or board if you're small or mid-s......Read More

933 Views

Credentials & Highlights

VP, Product at GitLab