Sahil Sethi

Engagement model and teams Bring Sales/CS (end user of plays), Enablement (Orchestrator), Marketing (who provide air cover) and Product (who build the product) in the same room Align on the plays we need to build (by product, competitor, solution, industry, use cases). Align on the ones we don't want to prioritize Bring leadership to sign-off The best engagement model is collaborative, transparent, gives everyone equal voice, explains trade-offs well Operating norms Lock on plays Align the DDACI ...Read More

My favorite question is very simple I ask them “Can you pitch me your product?” (if they come from any marketing role) It allows me to understand their storytelling skills. It helps me understand if they are truly comfortable with the idea of messaging and positioning (which I think is fundamental for any PMM to be successful. They have to understand it - even if they aren’t developing it). It helps me understand their oral communication skills. Sometimes, it also demonstrates a bit of flair and ...Read More

Not being able to strongly respond to the question “Can you pitch your product to me ?” Not being ready with good writing samples Not coming with strong examples of your leadership skills - influence, persuasion, relationship building, collaboration and more These questions demonstrate the fundamental aspects of product marketing. The first is about messaging/positioning/value prop. The second is about whether you can write/communicate that in words (even a pitch deck or a webinar abstract or a ...Read More

This is such a good question There are many ways to demonstrate success of messaging/positioning work Talk through the process - Explain your approach to developing messaging and positioning. Talk about the customer interviews you did, the drafts you wrote, the messaging pillars you discarded and why, the frameworks you followed, the internal sales validation you did, the product deep dives you sat through, the brainstorming sessions and workshops you led, the customer testing you observed and t ...Read More

For tenured PMM roles (e.g. team leads/directors or senior/principal PMMs who may not be team leads), I do ask for an assignment We usually give an open question that mimics a real business situation (often a challenge we are facing). It could be around marketing to a new audience, or launching a new product, or some change in positioning and messaging we’d like to effect. The final presentation is usually a 30-60 min 1:many presentation where you (the candidate) has the freedom to decide how th ...Read More

Good question. As PMMs, our roles touch so many aspects of the company that ROI could be hard to define. My advice to every PMM is to think through the impact of their work, and the process of measuring their impact --- on a day to day basis, and not after the activity. So when the question does come up, you have a response ready.  ROI can be measured both in terms of quantifiable business metrics as well as your impact on people, on the company brand, on the product roadmap or the company strat ...Read More

As long as you have generally worked in functions in or adjacent to product marketing (e..g content, campaigns, market research etc.), my guidance is to always use one resume that covers the breath of your experiences.  I see some candidates fret over preparing a resume that is more tailored to PLG, and another that speaks to enablement, or another that is more tailored around launches - depending on what they believe the role demands. I don’t think that is necessary. All hiring managers appreci ...Read More

Four career paths Grow as a PMM. From Individual contributor to manager to director to VP, here you keep growing as you keep honing your PMM craft but eventually graduate from leading the work to leading initiatives to leading a function Grow as a marketer- Same as PMM growth path but in the broader disclipline of marketing. Lots of PMMs transition to roles in campaigns, demand-gen, brand, customer marketing or other fasctinating aspects of marketing. At a leadership level, a fair amount of B2B ...Read More

The best sales relationships come from the top. Where the PMM leadership, or marketing/product leadership is aligned with sales leadership on key OKRs and where and how product marketing can come in. If you are truly not getting that support from your leadership, or you are in charge of building a relationship - there’s a few ways you can gradually build a relationship with sales First - if you don't want to be known as the "collateral team" , then stop talking about collateral in your interacti ...Read More

As a hiring manager, I often ask candidates for these exercises if I feel like I need to better understand their thought process. This comes in the form of question prompts where I may ask them to develop a POV on a particular GTM problem and their approach to it. It covers elements of what you describe (e.g. SWOT analysis, or their thoughts on company/product) I personally don’t ask candidates to prepare 30-60-90 day plans, or reports on the company/product as I don’t believe they have the enti ...Read More