Shar Patel

One of the best pieces of advice I got was to take the necessary time I needed to be a "sponge" and let things soak in, before going straight into "solve-mode". Of course, that's easier said than done :)  When joining any startup as the first product marketer, you'll be getting requests from every angle from week 1(and sometimes before you even start!) - and that's especially true with PMM, because it is such a cross-functional role. This is what I've found to be helpful:  30 days: understand bo ...Read More

This is a great question, and one that I ask most of the candidates I interview at some point in the process. The kinds of materials I like to see are dependent on the job they’re being hired for, but generally speaking pitch decks, sales one-pagers, competitive battlecards, messaging docs, launch strategies, buyer personas - these are all helpful bodies of work to share with your PMM hiring manager. If you’re brand new to Product Marketing or even Marketing in general, don’t feel shy about maki ...Read More

I made a similar jump and learned that what matters most is not whether you’ve done enterprise before, but whether you can think strategically, influence cross-functionally, and tell a compelling story that resonates up and across. Start by showing you understand how enterprise buyers think and buy, even if you haven’t marketed to them directly. Enterprise PMM isn’t just about bigger logos, it’s about longer more strategic sales cycles, more stakeholders, deeper product integration, and risk mit ...Read More

An A+ product launch example to me includes the following characteristics or elements: What stage of the product launch the candidate was involved in.  1. Clear delineation between the PMM and PM’s responsibilities for the product launch and where there was overlap. 2. Examples of cross functional alignment between product, marketing, and the GTM teams. 3. An example of something that didn’t go according to plan during the launch and how the candidate overcame it. 4. An out of the box marketing ...Read More

As mentioned before, product marketing is one of the most cross-functional roles of any in most companies. And as such, you’ll be getting requests for projects and deliverables from every angle. The first thing I try to understand is: what responsibilities fall under me vs. another team (ie: is there a separate pricing team? Enablement team? Market research team?) Once my purview is clear, I put together a Product Marketing Charter (my PMM mission, PMM pillars, responsibilities under each pillar ...Read More

This is a great question, and I've seen so many projects get stalled because of "too many cooks in the kitchen". I've found the key is to listen broadly, but decide decisively. Early on, I cast a fairly wide net: I want to hear from product, sales, CS, marketing, especially if the decision impacts multiple teams. But eventually, more feedback just adds noise, not clarity. I look for convergence. When multiple people raise the same themes, that’s usually signal. Once feedback starts to diverge or ...Read More

One of my favorite parts of being a Product Marketer is that a lot of the work that we do is highly visible and can affect completely different parts of the organization. For example: buyer personas of course help sales sell your product, but they also help your engineering team figure out who they’re actually building the product for. Or competitive landscapes - this is a project that everyone at the company from your IT team to HR to Leadership is hungry for - everyone wants to know where you ...Read More

The nature of enterprise deals is that each one will be a little different, that’s the biggest shift when selling upstream. You’re navigating complex buying groups, custom requirements, and often, unique internal politics. That’s exactly where PMM can shine. Our job isn’t to create one-size-fits-all messaging, it’s to equip teams with the toolbox of building blocks to adapt. That means things like modular messaging frameworks, persona-based value props, competitive differentiation, objection han ...Read More

This is a muscle you will continue to flex, anytime you start a new role or at a new company. Soft skills go a long way here. When you're new, your best strategy is to listen first, then add value fast. I always start by trying to understand and empathize with each stakeholder’s world...what pressures they’re under, how they define success, and where they feel stuck. At ServiceNow, I made a point to ask, “What’s one thing I could help with right away?” That often led to quick wins: better messag ...Read More

Absolutely! While there are probably several key metrics to what makes a successful Product Marketing team, there are so many different paths to getting there based on a number of factors that are oftentimes not in our control. This, combined with the fact that Product Marketing is still very much being defined, makes strong intuition one of the most important skills a Product Marketer should have, in my opinion. As PMMs, we’re often asked to make decisions without all of the necessary data, cha ...Read More