Whether you’re looking to break into PMM or have been a practitioner for years, this interview is full of advice on how to further develop your career. We are joined this week by Mike, VP, Product Marketing at ClickUp, who has had an amazing career finding the right roles and ultimately landing him a VP role. Mike and Jeffrey discuss how to gain credibility, evaluate your future role, prioritize the right goals to advance your career, and expand your horizons outside of product. Connect with Mike on LinkedIn.Join Mike on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview: Tell me about your career path to becoming a PMM? What’s your outlook on the career of Product Marketing? Is it a good place to be right now? What’s one nuance about Developing Your Product Marketing Career that you only know now because you understand it deeply? Around doing it effectively.
In this week’s episode Natala and Jeffrey are talking all about product launches. How do you make the magic happen while getting the organization excited and aligned? It’s not just about storytelling and designing a great narrative for your product, rather it’s creating a product that delivers on those items. Tune in to hear how to create a distinctive narrative and story in a competitive landscape, what it means to “work backwards”, and how to conquer any divisions and fractions amongst teams by serving as the “glue” to repair. Also, Grammarly is hiring. So be sure to check out their available positions! Connect with Natala on LinkedIn.Join Natala on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview: Tell me about your career path to becoming a PMM? What’s your outlook on the career of Product Marketing? Is it a good place to be right now? What’s one nuance about Product Launches that you only know now because you understand it deeply? Around doing it effectively.
Alex is a former product manager and consultant who has found his way into the adtech world, and specifically measurement. This interview is all about how him and his team leverage research and measurement. When it comes to measurement, he and his team look at how well advertising is working and it’s overall performance. In regards to research, he talks about what it’s like to work for a company that is incredibly data and experiment driven, the importance of talking to customers, and how research informs what they build. Tune in to hear how him and his team build and manage a large ecosystem of products. Connect with Alex on LinkedIn.Join Alex on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview: Can you tell me a bit more about your path into product marketing and also more specifically measurement? Can you share a bit more about how you think about Measurement at Facebook? How do you use that data you gather at Facebook to influence other activities like the roadmap, marketing strategy/campaigns, product launches, and more? How have you gone about segmenting your audience and then use that information to inform content? What’s one thing a manager, colleague, or mentor has taught you that’s served you well in your career? Can you share a bit about it?
We’re on a messaging kick! This week we are discussing how Sophia and her team approach messaging and positioning that serves both B2B and B2C target audiences. Sophia and Jeffrey discuss what Glassdoor has done to maintain a position of leadership in a crowded market and how they’ve evolved their messaging while remaining true to the core values of the company that have not changed since day one. They also discuss how to measure the success of messaging and positioning and navigate the competitive landscape. Connect with Sophia on LinkedIn.Join Sophia on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview: Can you share a bit more about your path into PMM and how you got into product marketing? Can you share a bit about how you think of the category Glassdoor is in, and how you made some of the tradeoffs in positioning and messaging? With a lot of different use cases and audiences, how do you ensure the messaging you and your team are releasing is consistent? How are you measuring the success of your messaging and positioning? Differentiating from competition is crucial as we know, but how do you think about competitive intelligence and how your key competitors are positioning themselves as a part of your messaging process? What’s one mistake you’ve found a lot of PMMs make with messaging? What’s one thing you’ve learned from a mentor, colleague, or manager that has served you well in your career? Can you tell me a little bit about it?
From startup companies to being at a large scale organization, Jeff has been doing product marketing work since before it was even defined as PMM. In this interview you’ll hear his point of view on the emergence of self serve and how it’s impacted the role of product marketing. He shares how the environment at many companies has made the switch from a sales led environment to product led and why product marketers are earning their seat at the table in making big decisions. He also discusses the co-creation that exists with sales, how to position yourself in the market, advice on how to conduct listening tours and better serve as the cross functional diplomat to reduce friction amongst teams and champion stakeholders. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn. Join Jeff on Sharebird.Questions covered in this interview: Can you share a bit more about how you got into product marketing, and also into more of a growth role? Product-led Growth is clearly a hot topic everywhere around us. How do you think about product marketing differently in a product-left growth company versus a more traditional sales or marketing led company? How have you structured your growth PMM team? How would you say it’s different from a traditional team? Beyond just structure, how is the role different for an individual PMM? Are there different traits or skills your looking for that a traditional PMM would need to develop? With your focus on growth, how do you draw lines on what you and your team handle versus others in marketing or product development? How do you think about driving user adoption at Calendly? Is there anything that a mentor, colleague, or manager has taught you that has served you well in your career? Can you share a bit about it?
Messaging is a fundamental aspect of product marketing that includes testing, refining, and a huge amount of internal alignment across the organization. It’s a living breathing process that when done right, equates to an impactful impression left on your market. Tune in to hear messaging frameworks that will help you win deals and make your GTM process that much more effective.Crisply articulating the unique aspects of your product that you’re bringing to market is key to the success of your GTM process!Follow Alexandra on LinkedIn.Join Alexandra on Sharebird.Questions covered in this episode: Tell me about your career path to becoming a PMM? What’s your outlook on the career of Product Marketing? Is it a good place to be right now? What’s one nuance about Messaging that you only know now because you understand it deeply? Around doing it effectively.
How do we become product marketers? Pallavi shares her extensive background in marketing and how she’s evolved to lead all marketing functions at a quickly growing company. She also shares her take on the 80/20 rule, how to structure your team, and achieve KPI’s. You’ll also hear why she values happiness and believes that “the success of the company depends on the manager”. Follow Pallavi on LinkedIn.Join Pallavi on Sharebird. Tell me about your career path to becoming a PMM? What’s your outlook on the career of Product Marketing? Is it a good place to be right now? What’s one nuance about Product Marketing Org and KPI's that you only know now because you understand it deeply? Around doing it effectively. How do you think of structuring your product marketing team, or just generally? Based on the structure, how do you coordinate work across the team and have similar goals with PMs and other groups you’re working with? Speaking of goals, as a leader how do you measure the success of your team? How do you set goals differently for individuals on your team who are at different levels? What are some mistakes you’ve made and what you’ve learned from them?
Product marketing hasn’t always been recognized as a value ad to organizations, but more and more companies are recognizing the need for the function and therefore more roles in the field are being created. Keeping up on the trends in the market and playing to your strengths will ultimately help you not only land the role you desire, but keep that role and excel in it. This week’s expert shares his twist on the 80/20 rule and how identifying the areas you currently excel in and the areas you need to further develop leads to success in your career. Also, never underestimate the power of kindness and being a nice person.
What makes your messaging stand out from competitors isn’t the simple task of stringing together a lovely sequence of words and putting pen to paper - it’s the constant evolution and iteration, rooted in testing and market research, that ultimately sets your marketing apart. In order to know how to reach your target audience, you’re going to have to get customer insights and collect the data and feedback necessary to prove why your product is valuable, how it differs from others on the market, and what language best resonates with your customer.
In this week’s interview with Andrew Forbes, who directs PMM at Zendesk, him and Jeffrey discuss GTM strategy - from organizing your team, sales enablement, getting internal alignment, to the importance of market research - tune in to hear how to make your product launches bigger and better.