As a product marketer, if you are stressed or feel like an imposter, you are not alone. Besides all of the deadlines, lack of understanding of what you do, or general mentorship, many of us PMMs experience a broader tension: What level am I supposed to be at? What’s the path for me? Unfortunately, I can say with confidence that more than 50% of startup PMM roles are wrongly leveled. This is a real problem, both for businesses and for employees. Navigating Your Product Marketing Career Map To help solve this issue, I am excited to share the Startup PMM Career Roadmap. By creating this, I hope to help you, current PMMs, and job seekers, understand what title you should target based on your experience and career goals. So let’s dive in to understand this map in more detail. Two Factors for Career Growth in Product Marketing To begin, growing and advancing in product marketing is a balance between 2 factors. The first is the amount of guidance and oversight needed (Y-axis), and the second is strategic work opportunity (X-axis). As you progress in your career, you will (generally) need to do more strategic work and be increasingly independent. The Four Main Roles in Product Marketing Based on the mix of these 2 factors, there’s a natural progression of four main roles in product marketing: 1. The BEGINNER (Associate PMM) This is a role for someone with 2-4 years of total work experience. Look for this kind of role if you’re just getting started in your career and trying to break into product marketing. Companies generally hire for this role if there is a lot of tactical work that needs to be done. You should get plenty of guidance and mentorship in this role (from a Director or Sr PMM), given you will need to be trained from the ground up. Offering this level of guidance is often not a priority for leaders, which is one of the reasons I believe there are very few Associate PMM roles on the market. 2. The KICKSTARTER (PMM) This is the traditional starting point for product marketing. However, that doesn’t mean it’s an entry-level job. PMMs generally have 4-7 years of total work experience, since they need to be capable of supporting large strategic projects such as positioning and messaging while executing multiple projects (sales enablement, product launches, etc). Leaders should aim to spend 30-70% of their time coaching PMMs to help them gain confidence and navigate more complex projects. As a PMM, evaluate whether you are getting the amount of guidance you need to succeed in the role. Based on my discussions with hundreds of PMMs, lack of guidance is the #1 cause of stress for PMMs. 3. THE ADVANCER (Sr PMMs). Sr PMMs are experienced individual contributors who have mastered the core areas of product marketing. They are expected to launch Tier 1 products with minimal support, design and implement research studies on their own, and meaningfully contribute to positioning and messaging work. Leaders should aim to spend ~20-30% of their time coaching Sr PMMs. They are also generally high performers with a clear track to becoming a leader. If you are a Sr PMM, ask yourself if you are being given the scope that will stretch and help you grow. 4. THE LEADER (Director of Product Marketing) The Director needs to be a people manager. While most Directors need to roll up their sleeves and become players/coaches to some degree, this role is distinguished by leading other product marketers and owning the entire PMM function for the company (or product line). As a Director, you will set the strategy, liaise with other teams, and mentor your reports. You will generally not require much oversight from senior leadership and are the functional head entirely responsible for the results of your team. The coaching from senior leadership is likely focused on executive functions (communication skills and people management), rather than core PMM skills. The expectation is that you are already a master of your craft. Special Cases in the Product Marketing Career Path This is the standard leveling and path at most startup companies—anywhere from Series A to IPO—but I’ll include a few caveats: The First PMM: At very early-stage companies, the founders or general head of marketing will likely complete product marketing functions. The level of the first hire will depend on the company’s needs, but I would be cautious about seeking this kind of position unless you are a Director level (so you can implement a strategic plan immediately) or Sr PMM level (so you can do the hands-on work and grow into a strategic role when it’s time to expand the team). A mistake would be joining as a junior PMM, as they may be expecting you to replace the role of the founders. Head of PMM: This is simply a title used to call the person at the top of the PMM food chain, which could be at the Director or VP level (confusing, I know!) The VP-level title is a natural progression from the Director level and generally is present at later-stage startups only. The IC PMM: What if you want to be an individual contributor, rather than progress up the management ranks? That’s totally fine. People who want to pursue that track generally take Sr. PMM roles and can have a great career there. However, given the collaborative and cross-functional nature of product marketing, even an IC PMM needs to be able to work well with other people. With those outlier situations explained, I hope you have a good understanding of how these roles progress. But if you are looking to find your place in the PMM world, there are two particular anti-patterns to watch for. Anti-Patterns to Watch Out For 1. The Stressed-Out Doer (PMM without enough support) This is a very common case I see. This could be a Sr PMM or even PMM asked to manage a large number of tactical projects with little oversight. They are hired with the promise of ownership, but that ownership came at the cost of real mentorship which they need. People in this position often just take orders from the Sales team or launch what’s needed, but don’t have the expertise to develop the PMM functions that companies really need. If you find yourself in this situation, seek out mentorship or coaching. If this is not available within your organization, ask around in your network for product marketers who might be able to advise you. There are lots of great resources available online. I’d recommend ShareBird—or, you can always set up a call with me! ​ 2. The Glorified IC (PMM leader, but only in title) This is someone who has the title of Director but has no authority. Maybe they are really not managing anyone, or perhaps they have an overbearing manager who makes all the strategic decisions above them. Either way, it will be very hard to show value in this role and the person may feel bored or underutilized. Although this can be frustrating, it’s actually a great opportunity: Impress your boss by asking for more responsibilities and opportunities to make decisions. Be Cautious but Optimistic In summary, your career success and your mental health can be significantly affected by how well your role is designed, and how much support you are given. Comparing your current role and responsibilities to the Product Marketing Career Map above will help ensure you are at the right level and on the right path to be in the best place to succeed. If you are a job seeker, spend time asking the hiring manager thoughtful question to really understand the scope and support they can provide you. If you get stuck, here is a set of reverse interview questions that can help.

Product marketing is enjoying a meteoric rise, but I also know from speaking with many of you that being a product marketer can be stressful - burnout, lack of best practices, and uncertainty about how to rise up are just some of the challenges. So today, I will show you how I went from feeling stressed and awful to getting promoted to Senior Product Marketing Manager and the Director of Product Marketing in less than three years while working less. So let’s dive right in. The Path to Success in Product Marketing Without Burnout Lesson #1: Focus on one big project that will deliver an outsized impact The biggest secret to doing any job well is to have focus. And that means letting go of the desire to do every aspect of product marketing at once, which will dissipate your energy and lead to diminishing returns. To have focus, you need to work on the one project that will have an outside impact at a given time and then double down on that. The best way to find the project is by speaking with others. When I start a new job, I talk to nearly everyone in the company. I try to understand the biggest challenges that no one is helping them with. I then create a plan to address that, show results, and get feedback. For instance, when I was at my first startup, I had to enable a team of 50+ enterprise sales reps - who were the main drivers of our revenue. I had no idea where to begin helping them, but as I spoke to them individually, it because clear that all the reps said something different about our value prop. So I focused on standardizing our pitch to increase win rates. I dedicated an intense 2 months to revising our sales deck and listened to dozens of live pitches before rolling out the final product. The sales reps could see the difference right away and I was given a cultural award for the work I did to help them. If you are struggling with figuring out your big project, ask yourself the following questions: What is the most crucial goal of your company? Which team is most important for influencing that goal? What are the different levers that can affect that goal? What lever can you most readily influence? Lesson #2: Ruthlessly prioritize your time and energy To focus on the projects with the most impact, you need to say no to things. This was something I had to learn the hard way. Saying no does not mean rudely telling your boss you won’t do work, but it means smartly delegating, reducing, or postponing certain tasks. After getting burned out in my first year as a PMM, I now religiously prioritize my time every week this way: Each Monday, I start by writing out all the tasks/commitments I have in front of me, and ask myself the following questions: Does this task move me closer to my most important goal (from lesson #1)? How much effort does it require to do this task? I then lay out all my tasks in a 2x2 matrix as shown below that maps effort against impact (source: ProductPlan): Quick wins - this is where you spend a good amount of time here. Major project - this may be a longer-term strategic project. This could present a great collaboration opportunity. Fill-ins - these can be delegated or reduced in scope if possible Thankless tasks - these should be eliminated Over the years, sticking to this principle has allowed me to excel in product marketing without burnout, producing more results while working less. Lesson #3: Collaborate to create win-win situations Growing up in a hyper-competitive environment, I was told to be successful, I had to be better than everyone else. But the flaw of this statement is it assumes life is a zero-sum game - that there is only a finite amount of “pie”, and my win comes from someone else’s loss. When we live life as a zero-sum game, we are always hyper-competitive and stressed out. That is no way to live. In fact, life is more like a positive sum game - your gain can be someone else’s gain as well. And I have fortunately benefited so much in my career by collaborating with others to create win-wins. When we collaborate with others, we: Benefit from each other’s talents and get the project done faster and better Gain additional perspective and empathy from others’ POV Gain constructive feedback that helps us improve Enjoy our work more and feel a sense of camaraderie As a product marketer, your most likely collaborators are other product marketers, other marketers (demand gen, brand, content marketers), product managers, or customer success managers. These individuals/teams have natural synergies with you, are equally aligned on the same goals, and have complementary skill sets. In the sales enablement example above, I didn’t do it alone. I partnered with my PMM peer who provided valuable feedback on my sales decks - we even tagged team to sit in on sales calls. The collaboration allowed us to deliver our project in record time and helped establish the value of the product marketing team as a whole. So, what project can you get help on, and what can you help someone else with? Lesson #4: Ask with intention So you delivered impact and accomplished some really important goals for your company. What’s next? Just delivering results and hoping you will get recognized is unlikely to get you promoted. You have to ask for it. In fact, this is the best advice I have received in my career. Since then, almost all of my promotions or raises are because I proactively asked for them. But how do you ask for something effectively? And how do you avoid the fear of being told no? Here are a few tips I recommend: Make your intentions clear - Promotions don’t happen overnight, and can sometimes take months to build a case. So plan to have a conversation with your manager at least 6 months before you want to get promoted. Layout your intention to move to the next level, and get clarity on what is required for you to achieve that. Ask for it in the right way - When you have demonstrated progress towards achieving the requirements, it’s time to make the ask. Share specific examples of how you have met or exceeded the requirement, and the IMPACT that had on the company as a whole. Have a low emotional attachment to the outcome - Instead of just focusing on yes or no at the moment, be open to alternative possibilities, timing, and feedback. It also shows your willingness to grow and compromise. Lesson #5: Build career portfolios, not career ladders Hopefully, by following Lessons 1-4, you are well on your way to getting promoted and climbing the proverbial career ladder. However, in recent years, more people have discovered that the best careers are not always straight lines. Rather, they are non-linear “squiggly careers” ( source: HBR). Indeed, our careers (and life) are more than just a series of promotions. Getting promoted is not the end in itself, but a means for you to stretch yourself, learn more, and grow through new types of experiences. So instead of being overly focused on a title, or salary, focus more on what new skills will you get to learn, and what new exciting challenges will present themselves. And when you let go a little from the chains of the career ladder, you will open yourself up to explore more career possibilities - whether it is to take on a side hustle, build a passion project, or take a career break - to build a truly fulfilling career portfolio. When I look at my own career path, I see two distinct periods. The first was when I was a transportation consultant when I fixated on just getting promoted and earning more money. The second was when I decided to quit my job and make a dramatic pivot to doing something different. Though the path was way more squiggly (and I have had many challenges and countless failures), it was the most exhilarating part of my career. Best of all, by not fixating only on getting promoted, I ended up getting promoted faster. Thanks for reading. Whenever you are ready, I can help you: Accelerate your career growth Overcome impost syndrome Master product marketing fundamentals Transition into a new role with confidence

Insights on the Current Job Market for Product Marketers 2022 was a year of constant change with drastic shifts in the tech labor market (and massive layoffs). With such uncertainty, it's natural to wonder what 2023 will be like for product marketing. An Interview with Rebecca Tan, Senior Recruiter at Creative People So back in December, I laid out my top 7 predictions for product marketing in 2023 in my LinkedIn post, where I mentioned that while more pressure will be put on product marketers, the roles will be even more critical this year. However, I thought it could be even more insightful to hear the perspective on the labor market from a recruiter directly. This is why I am excited to interview Rebecca Tan, Senior Recruiter from Creative People in today's issue. Navigating Job Opportunities and Career Growth for Product Marketers Below, she shares her perspectives on the job market for product marketers and practical tips to help you navigate the landscape, whether you are a job seeker or hiring manager. So let’s begin. Yi Lin: I am so excited you are here Rebecca! Could you introduce yourself to everyone? Rebecca: Hi! I’m a Senior Agent at Creative People, a people-first boutique recruiting agency that focuses on helping innovative start-ups grow their product, brand, and marketing teams. I oversee all of our Product Marketing and Communication searches. Yi Lin: Thank you! The year 2022 has been interesting. Could you share what the hiring market was like in the past year from your experience? Rebecca: Last year, I saw an explosion of product marketing roles earlier in the year - this is everything from MAANGs to smaller orgs creating product marketing departments for the first time. A lot of organizations began to recognize the strategic need for product marketing and the role it can play in growth. In Q4, we began to see a slowdown in the market with the layoffs in tech due to the rapid growth companies experienced at the height of the pandemic. It was difficult to see and not easy for the candidates that were impacted. On the other hand, I’m optimistic as we’ve continued to see opportunities arise in the market, but there is a shift in the way companies approach hiring to be more strategic. Y: Thank you for sharing that. I have observed similar patterns as a hiring manager and coach. I’d love to understand what you see as the shift. R: I truly believe Product Marketing will remain a critical and strategic role. The difference is that we won’t be seeing the “hyper-growth” that many organizations experienced during the pandemic. I fully agree with the perspective that you shared in your LinkedIn post, which is that companies are going to be more thoughtful and strategic in how they build their teams and allocate resources. Similarly, I also believe we’re going to see more emphasis on “retention” - how we can keep customers and maximize their value. PMMs can play a critical role in this as the voice of the customer. I think this retention mentality will also extend to the companies as they think about how they can retain and nurture existing talent. Y: I love that last point you made about retention and investing more in employees. But what will that mean for people looking for new jobs? R: You should 100% be looking for new jobs and companies will continue to hire, as new roles will pop up (even as there could be fewer backfills). I always recommend candidates have a pulse on the market and take those first chats to learn more even if the timing isn’t right. Take your time and network so you understand what’s out there and when the right thing comes along, you’ll know. Y: Fully agreed! It’s always better to be prepared. I also see more startups and companies add new product marketing roles and teams (even as they shed other functions) given the importance of this role in helping with business strategy and growth. Overall, would you say you are bullish or bearish on the market for product marketers? R: I am bullish. With anything, there will always be highs, lows, and changes. There is just a shift in the way companies are approaching hiring and growing teams during this time. I know it can feel uneasy with the number of layoffs we’ve seen, but at the same time, I’ve continued to see opportunities with companies hiring especially in startups. Y: Thanks for sharing that, and it's reassuring. I want to switch gears a bit and talk about how candidates should job search in today’s economic climate. What are some things you recommend candidates do to stand out and best prepare? R: First I highly recommend LinkedIn. We always talk about “geeking out” in your market and being an expert. Connect with your “dream companies” and leaders within your industry (like Yi Lin!). Do not be afraid to reach out to people and hiring managers to ask for informational interviews and make connections. Getting the perspective of others in your space can help change how you approach searches or represent yourself, and then make yourself top of mind to those target companies. I also recommend refreshing your LinkedIn profile to express your personality, interests, and projects you’re proud of. For many hiring managers and recruiters, your LI profile is the 1st reference point before your resume. Y: I am so glad LinkedIn is the first thing you brought up. It’s how I landed my first internship offer earlier in my career. Submitting your resume online or just counting on your friends to refer you is not enough in today’s market. I also recommend job seekers create cold referral opportunities through networking. R: Yes totally! So the second thing I recommend is tailoring your experience and story to the job description: talking about yourself and distilling your experience can be one of the most difficult things. But think of yourself as similar to the products that you work with every day. How are you developing and storytelling about yourself? If you find this difficult to do (as it can be to do it for yourself), this is where I recommend you work with someone like Yi Lin who is an expert in this area and specializes in product marketing. By talking to someone else you can vocalize things out loud and get a fresh perspective that helps you frame your experiences in a much more compelling way. Lastly, I also recommend using a recruiting agency. Recruiters have a pulse on the market and what hiring managers are looking for. We like to call ourselves “agents'' because we try to present multiple opportunities to our candidates. It’s like being a matchmaker. We pair our companies and candidates up to allow for personal career development and company growth. Y: I love that last point you brought up as many have not thought about using recruiting agencies. How can a candidate get agency representation from you? We absolutely represent candidates from diverse backgrounds as the needs of hiring managers can vary. I love making connections with candidates, even if I don’t have a role that’s a close fit at the time. So you can just reach out to me! YL: Amazing! What about companies - what mistakes do typical startups make when hiring PMMs? What should hiring managers do differently? Great question! Product Marketing can be interpreted in different ways. But at its foundation, product marketers are the voice of the customer and should be able to speak the different “languages” of cross-functional teams (typically sales, product, and marketing) to drive strategy. I’ve seen companies make mistakes when they’re making their first PMM hire. I’ve seen over-leveling, where it’s positioned as a senior role, but the needs of the company are creating assets/collateral to support the sales team. The opposite can be true too, where they are looking for someone to act as a director but only giving them a manager title/salary. As a hiring manager, I would take a step back and assess what the short and long-term needs are for the team and how that aligns with existing resources. From there, identify where the gaps are to hone in on the profile you’re hiring for. I would also consult specialists who can help advise an org if a hiring manager isn’t as familiar with the PMM landscape. Y: Yeah I have seen this as well. This unfortunately happens due to the immaturity of the function. I generally tell candidates to target two levels of title, and also focus more on the responsibilities and scope, and less on the title itself. Anyways, this has been so insightful. To wrap up, are you currently taking on more companies to represent? Absolutely! For hiring managers in product marketing, please reach out to me if you are interested in expanding your team! We can help paint a landscape of the industry, conduct salary analysis, develop JDs, and more. Reach out even if it’s to make the connection and say hello! Yi Lin: Fantastic. Thank you so much for the wonderful insights!

Some of you may know that I started my career as a civil engineer, working for a consulting company for six years before making a major pivot into tech and product marketing. So when I started my first product marketing role, I tried to absorb everything I could. I was fortunate to be among a team of product marketers with a strong leader who taught me a lot of the fundamentals of product marketing and empowered me to get promoted within one year on the job. The Unique Challenges of Being a First-Time Product Marketing Leader Feeling more confident and wanting to grow, I decided to join a Series A startup, where I was the only product marketer. While it was exciting to have full ownership of the function, that excitement soon turned into stress and imposter syndrome. The truth is, I was woefully underprepared for the role as a first product marketing hire or head of PMM, which came with its unique set of challenges: No one understands product marketing, or misunderstands it - The role of product marketing is still relatively new, and in most cases, poorly understood. Even though you may be hired to work on “strategy”, you could easily be reduced to a glorified content creator or launch machine. This unique challenge means you need not only to do excellent work but also do the RIGHT kind of work. Taking on too much too quickly - Because of the lack of understanding of product marketing, or the fact you may be only a team of one, there is a tendency to take on too much too quickly in an effort to prove yourself. This not only leads to burnout but also does not deliver the best results due to a lack of focus. Not spending enough time on building relationships - This burnout means you can deliver tunnel vision quickly to deliver more and more results, instead of doing the necessary relationship-building work. The reality of being the de facto head of a function means you have to spend as much time evangelizing your role as actually doing it. Luckily, I was able to recognize these challenges in time, and turned my learnings into a framework that provided me with clarity and helped me to succeed, where I was then promoted to Director of Product Marketing within 1 year of joining the company. Turning Product Marketing Leader Challenges Into Opportunities The Maturity Journey Framework Today, after building the product marketing team at Teachable from the ground up, my team was recently awarded one of the Best Places to Work for Product Marketers in 2022, largely thanks to sticking to and applying this framework. So, I am super excited to introduce the Maturity Journey Framework for first-time Heads of PMMs or solo PMMs. I hope it will allow you to deliver value quicker and better while minimizing stress. This framework essentially breaks down growing a product marketing function into three stages, each with its unique objectives. Just like achieving any goal, success is not built in one day, and by breaking down key milestones into stages you will reduce stress and have more success. So let’s dive into more detail. The Three Stages of Growing a Product Marketing Function 1. Crawl Stage: Generate quick wins (1-6 months) When you are new on your job, the most important thing is to clearly understand the biggest gaps and most obvious opportunities the company faces. I recommend going on a listening tour in your first few weeks and speaking to your key stakeholders around the company. This will allow you to then create a gap analysis and identify initiatives to close the gap. One of the common mistakes to avoid here is trying to do too many things too quickly (like attempting to build out every single functional area of product marketing). Once you have identified the initiatives, I recommend prioritizing them into quick wins or major projects depending on how much effort is required to complete them. While some projects are extremely important to tackle (e.g. a complete positioning exercise), it may take a long time to deliver results, so it’s important to also work on one or two quick win projects. At the end of the day, the faster you can generate value the quicker you can build trust. When I first arrived at Teachable, I realized the GTM launch process was broken. Knowing there was a major feature that needed to be launched immediately, I worked with the Product Manager side-by-side to test out a new process that I introduced. It was significantly better than what existed before and helped us deliver results quickly. This success bought my trust in my work and I was then able to implement more programs that took longer to generate results, such as spending 2 months talking to customers to improve our positioning. Finally, as you are delivering value, don’t forget to also evangelize the function by regularly sharing with other teams what product marketing is, what you are working on, and how you can help these other teams deliver value. 2. Walk Stage: Build the foundation (6-12 months) Once you have delivered quick wins and established some trust in your abilities, you can start setting the foundation of product marketing by building out processes. If that first product launch you did was a success, now it’s time to build out a more formalized process for all product launches going forward - you will have more confidence this will work and you will also have an easier time getting buy-in. At this stage, I also highly recommend setting up a regular research process where you devote at least 20% of your time to conducting critical research each quarter, whether it’s customer, market, or competitive research. Research is the foundation of all great product marketing and the insights you get from your research powers strategy and avoids you from becoming a tactical machine. If your team has a budget, I also recommend working with consultants to deliver larger research studies (e.g. quantitative buyer personas) faster. Additional product marketing areas that are important to tackle include building out the enablement process (sales, customer success, or marketing team enablement) and/or more advanced areas such as pricing and packaging. 3. Run Stage: Scale for success (12 - 18 months) With more built-out processes that are working well and wins under your belt, it’s now time to scale the PMM function for success. This could mean adding more head counts, hiring additional agencies, or adding more automation (e.g. competitive intelligence tools) to help you deliver even more value and insights faster. While you could be adding these resources as early as the crawling stage, a common mistake I see new Heads of Product Marketing make is asking for too many head counts too quickly - it’s hard to know who to hire and what to hire for when you have not built the foundation and understood the true needs of the business through hands-on learning. If this also happens to be the end of the year, then I recommend conducting resource planning so the budget can be allocated for the next fiscal year. For resource planning, this is the process I recommend: Summarize the team’s key accomplishment in the previous fiscal ear tied to the goal of the company. For instance, what impact did the personas project help achieve? Higher conversion rate across the funnel? Better retention? Understand the goal of the company in the next fiscal year. Usually, these are either acquisition, retention, or monetization. Also, understand what is the actual KPI that the company is tracking towards . e.g. grow subscribers by 30% next year. Then from there, list out ALL of the activities you are doing now already to help reach the goal. These could be things like GTM launches, research, etc, which should continue. Brainstorm additional things you need to do to hit the goal that you are not doing today. Most importantly, in order to accomplish those things, what additional resources are needed? This could also be expansions of existing activities. Share your plan with your manager and make sure you include how much of those initiatives you can accomplish with your existing resources, and with the new resources, The goal is to get them to prioritize for you and understand what you CAN NOT do if you are not given the resources. This is not an exercise to make demands or blindly ask for things. In summary, establishing yourself as the first PMM or the head of PMM takes time and patience. With the right expectations and a methodical approach, you will achieve success while minimizing stress. I have also created the table below to show the success patterns and anti-patterns to watch for as you go through your journey. As you go through this process as a new leader, you also don’t have to do it alone. I have coached nearly a dozen product marketers and leaders in the past year and helped them get more clarity, reduce stress, and deliver results faster. As you approach the end of the year, now is the best time to reflect on 2022, build your vision and strategy for 2023 so you can take control of your career, and start the new year with a bang. So Let me know how I can help you on this journey through my 1-1 coaching programs. My leadership coach programs can also be reimbursed through your department's L&D budget.

Breaking Down the Role of a Product Marketing Manager There is no denying that product marketing is in demand today. In 2022 the role was consistently ranked as one of the best 50 jobs in the United States, surpassing even popular roles like Product Design and Program Management, according to Glassdoor. Despite its surging popularity, many job seekers are struggling to pivot or land a role in product marketing. Every week, candidates come to me with questions such as: I have no tech experience, can I still become a PMM? I have been prepping for months, but struggle to even land an interview. What can I do? I keep getting passed over by more experienced candidates, am I not cut out for this? I know you can transition into product marketing without tech or marketing experience. After transitioning from being a transportation engineer to a product marketing manager myself AND coaching nearly 100 professionals to land their product marketing roles even during the pandemic, I know you can do it too. In this article, I share with you the key steps you can take to pivot into product marketing, typical mistakes candidates make, and how you can avoid them to pursue your dream role with confidence. What Product Marketing is (and what it’s not) To find and land a product marketing job, you need to first understand what product marketing is. Too often the role of product marketing is reduced to product launches, generating collaterals, or supporting the sales teams. While these are the activities a product marketer does, it is not the purpose of product marketing. The purpose of product marketing is to tell the story of the product and use marketing strategies to reach product adoption and business goals. My LinkedIn post below summarizes product marketing in a nutshell. Another common misconception is about the relationship between product management and product marketing. Many people think product marketing is a supporting function to product management or is a “backup” career to product management. This couldn’t be further from the truth because the two roles are actually distinct and both are necessary to help drive adoption and business goals. In simple terms, product management puts products on the shelf, and product marketing gets products off the shelf. You need both functions to build and sell a successful product, and great product marketers are highly respected peers of product managers. This article by the 280 Group provides excellent insight into this. How to pivot into product marketing without experience Many articles out there offer advice on how to find a product marketing job if you are already in tech or have access to product marketers at your company (this Hubspot article is a great one). But the reality is this process is 10x harder for career switchers in non-tech or non-marketing roles. My goal with this section is to provide you with a proven strategy for pivoting into product marketing regardless of your experience - and focusing specifically on the job search phase. Five steps to getting your dream product marketing role even without direct experience Step 1: Assess your current skills It’s impossible to reach your goal if you don’t know where you need to go. The first step is to map out the key skills required to be a product marketer and how you measure up today. Product marketing does not require a laundry list of skills. In fact, what is required can be broken down into two main buckets: Core competencies - these include research/data analysis, storytelling, product launch, and enablement skills. Soft skills - these include influencing without authority, a bias for action, writing/verbal communication skills, and emotional intelligence. While candidates generally understand that soft skills are transferable, many think they do not possess any of the hard skills. But the reality is even the hard skills can be transferable - after all, the principles of research are the same whether you are a product marketer or not. The key is to correctly identify what past experiences can be translated into product marketing, which can be hard to do on your own. As a result, this is usually where I start helping new clients when we begin working together. What if, after mapping your past experience to product marketing skills, you find that you have huge skills gaps? That is definitely possible but the surprising fact is that 90% of all my clients match at least 70% of product marketing skill requirements, even without any tech or marketing experience. This could be explained by the fact that product marketing by definition is a highly diverse role with very transferable skills. Step 2 - Target the RIGHT companies Once you have matched your skills, the next step is to determine what companies you should be targeting as not all opportunities are created equal. Identify your key strengths and prioritize opportunities that you are passionate about AND have a competitive advantage (I will talk more about this later). One of the most common mistakes candidates make is using the “spray and pray” method, where they apply to as many jobs as they can. When that does not work, they apply to more jobs only to have the same thing happen again. This creates a vicious cycle as shown below. This approach to targeting companies will not only waste your time but will also yield sub-optimal results. Instead, the best approach for career switchers is to narrow your focus by targeting companies where you have a competitive advantage. To uncover your competitive advantages, start by listing out all types of customers, industries, transferable skills, and products that you have had experience with within your previous roles. Then find companies where your competitive advantage will be a key requirement for the role. For instance, as a former transportation engineer, I was the exact target customer of Autodesk’s AutoCAD product. My in-depth knowledge of the customer and their needs differentiated me from all other candidates and helped me land the role. When evaluating these opportunities, don’t forget to also evaluate the company culture, and whether you are a fit. This will not only help you land the interview (as culture fit is also a competitive advantage) but also help you thrive in the role once you land it. When I work with clients, we create a specific rating system for determining and scoring each job opportunity that best aligns with their skills and passions. Step 3 - Craft your personal story Once you have determined which companies to target, it’s time to create your personal story. Your personal story is NOT just your resume - it’s your entire brand from your resume/cover letter to how you introduce yourself in LinkedIn messages to hiring managers. Despite its importance, typical personal stories for candidates generally resemble a laundry list, which is ineffective and uninteresting. The reality is that you can’t expect the employer to connect the dots for you through your experience - you need to tie your background to why you are naturally the best candidate for the job, despite your lack of direct experience. To craft the best personal story during interviews, start with your most important skillsets that directly tie to the jobs you are targeting, and highlight 1-2 key accomplishments to support your skills before wrapping up with why you are interested in the role. My client Ayushi has a really unique background as a software engineer which she thought was not relevant. However, we completely reworked her story to make her engineering background a central part of her skills and rationale for her ability to grasp technical concepts quickly. She was able to use her story to land a great role at a B2B SaaS startup, where she is marketing a complex technical product. Step 4 - Apply the right way Now that you have a great personal story and thoughtfully crafted resume, it is time to apply. The last thing you want to do is to submit your resume online, where it will sit with hundreds of other resumes. What you need to do is to get referrals as much as possible. This is because getting a referral is 15x more effective than submitting online (Jobvite). For most companies, when you get a referral you bypass the online application pool, so the resume goes straight to the recruiter or hiring manager to be reviewed. So what if you don’t have any warm leads? Then you need to get a cold referral. This means reaching out directly to the hiring manager on LinkedIn in your target companies, with a thoughtful message that directly ties your background to why you are a great fit for the role. In addition, you can also play the long game by following your target companies or hiring managers on LinkedIn and interacting with their posts (thoughtfully). My client Tanner was able to land an interview (that turned into an offer) by thoughtfully commenting on the hiring manager’s posts. One of the most common questions I get is whether you should include a cover letter with your application. While there is a lot of advice that says cover letters are unnecessary, I believe they are crucial for your job search success. These are the reasons why: It signals high intent. Out of 100 applications, only 5-10% of candidates will write a cover letter. If someone puts the effort to write a cover letter, it immediately signals they are more serious about the job. It highlights your most important competitive advantages that are not apparent in the resume, which is especially true for career switchers. It shows your writing and storytelling skills, which are key skills for any great product marketer. All this is to say, your chances of landing an interview are significantly higher when you write a cover letter and include that no matter how you apply. Step 5 - Ace interviews and assignments The most critical part of the job search process is preparing for the interviews. Before we dive into the strategy, let’s look at what a typical interview process looks like for product marketing in the table below. Analyzing what each interviewer is looking for is the first step to acing interviews. Then when it comes to preparing for each interview, be sure to prepare thorough examples using the STAR method while highlighting your key strengths through your responses. But just using the STAR method is not enough. One of the most important ways to prepare for product marketing interviews is by using frameworks. Frameworks allow you to structure your thinking and present a cohesive plan that can be more easily understood and communicated internally. Frameworks can include Go-To-Market, Market Research, Positioning/Messaging, Enablement, and more. I spend a significant amount of time with each client practicing product marketing frameworks. This is not only crucial for acing interviews but for learning how to be a great product marketer. For instance, my client Mara used the GTM framework we went through to land two offers while learning how to build the best GTM strategy in the process. The assignment stage is where a lot of candidates trip up. In general, there are presentation assignments and writing assignments - both of which require strategic thinking and communication skills. The key to doing them well is by avoiding the temptation of jumping in to solve them right away but instead smartly outlining the thought process first. Bonus Step - Make yourself the irresistible hire After going through all the hard work of the previous steps, you should be getting offer letters. However, if you just don’t seem to be able to close the deal, I suggest reading this bonus section. When you get rejected in the final stage of interviews, it’s generally not because you lack experience (otherwise you would not have been moved forward). Here are the typical reasons why you may not be landing the role: You didn’t show enough interest As a hiring manager, I want to hire candidates who demonstrate they are highly interested in the job. This could simply be reiterating your interest after interviews and following up promptly. Or you may have to go above and beyond to show your commitment to the role. For the role you really want, I recommend going above and beyond by creating a 30-60-90-day plan, sending in sample collateral, or something else that is unexpected. You didn’t address your weaknesses While no candidate is perfect, you want to understand exactly what the hiring managers are looking for in terms of key skill sets, and promptly diagnose if you have a skill gap. Developing a great relationship with the recruiter to get feedback after interviews can help you tremendously in gauging your candidacy, and allow you to address your weaknesses in subsequent interviews. My client Simeon promptly sent in a product positioning deck to show he can actually do positioning - and got the job immediately. You are not targeting the right companies If you’re convinced you have demonstrated all your skills, you have gone above and beyond but you still did not get the role, then your underlying issue might be not targeting the right companies. As I mentioned before, you have the highest chance of success in jobs where you have the best alignment in terms of domain experience and passion. If you are targeting jobs where you have little to no competitive advantage, you will likely lose out to candidates who have that slight edge, all else being equal. What’s Next? Pursuing a product marketing career without prior experience is possible with persistence and the right strategy. The world of product marketing is all the better because of the diverse backgrounds of people who make up the field. Reflecting on your WHY and what makes you unique is the first step to your success. Additional resources: To gain real-life advice on finding, landing, and growing a career in product marketing, follow my LinkedIn posts, released weekly. Learn the best product marketing frameworks by reading LOVED: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products by Martina Launchengo, Silicon Valley Product Group To understand my path to coaching and my coaching philosophy, listen to my podcast episode with Product Marketing Life, hosted by the Product Marketing Alliance

In today’s issue, I want to share the top early-career mistakes made by four marketing leaders who I admire, and the lessons they learned in the process. I truly believe in life, there are no mistakes or failures, just lessons learned. Hopefully, by reading this, you will learn important lessons that will help you in your career. Ok, let’s dive right in. Mistakes and Lessons from Marketing Leaders 1. Emilia Korczynska - Head of Marketing at Userpilot What is your biggest early career mistake? My biggest career mistake was not getting into marketing earlier and thinking I need to go to school or get certifications to do that. I started out my career as a journalist. I love languages and have a degree in Linguistics. But I am introverted and just didn’t see myself moving on to marketing or feeling I have what it takes to do marketing. How did you learn it was a mistake? I was working at a translation agency when clients started asking me to produce content. That was when I realized I like content marketing and could do it, as it’s the perfect marriage between my interest in languages and journalism, which involves doing a lot of research. So I embraced that and moved to work for tech startups which allowed me to dive deep into the topic and allowed me to do really interesting work. I started building out entire marketing functions using my strong background in content marketing. As a matter of fact, today at Userpilot our marketing is 100% inbound and focused on organic SEO, which has been working well for us. Knowing your mistake, what would you/have you done differently? I would focus more on what I am good at, and not chase fads or try to do everything. This extends both to my own career and business. For instance, I was trying to learn Google Ads but had absolutely no interest in it, so I hired someone to do that while I focused on what I am naturally good at - content marketing. ​ 2. Alex Henthorn-Iwane - VP of Marketing at Firstbase What is your biggest early career mistake? My biggest mistake stemmed from not paying attention to the first-team/second-team principle. This concept is from the popular book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The first team consists of your peers, such as other marketing leaders while the second team consists of people who report to you. I got so focused on taking care of the team that reported to me that I didn’t spend the time and focus needed to build enough connection and communication with my peers. How did you learn it was a mistake? This led to a situation where my team’s results were outstanding, but my peers didn’t understand the value we were bringing. That led to a lot of needless friction and (for me) heartache. It’s a lesson that definitely got burned into my psyche. Knowing your mistake, what would you/have you done differently? I would focus on the first team as much as the second team. Sometimes that means having difficult conversations. It’s important to not shy away from engaging those peers who may have a particular agenda. Engage them with the best intention and goal to help the company. This way your motivations are clear and clean and aligned with the company. Do not let the situation devolve into turf wars simply because you don’t want to communicate with your first team. 3. Anand Patel - Director of Product Marketing at Appcues What is your biggest early career mistake? My biggest early career mistake is not taking into consideration how important a role my manager plays. In the first 4-5 years of my career, my focus was just on finding a job, any job. Part of that is due to graduating during a downturn. It was not until I joined Paysafe that I realized how pivotal a great manager is to your career success. Having a manager who cares and supports your growth is one of the great accelerants you can have. How did you learn it was a mistake? Partially, it was a positive feeling I had after finally getting a manager who 100% supported my growth. But what really brought it home was when I got a promotion after a year. A big reason for this promotion was my manager advocating for me and being my champion. I didn’t realize this was possible in any of my previous roles. What would you have done differently, or what have you done differently as a result? I would’ve done a better job of evaluating my manager before taking my early jobs, which is something I definitely do now. Now, when looking at opportunities, three of the top priories are whether I will enjoy the work and learn from it, the type of people I will work with every day, and the kind of manager I will have. That last one has started to positively impact my career trajectory. 4. Brian Lee - Product Marketing Lead at JPMorgan Chase What is your biggest early career mistake? My biggest early career mistake was not tailoring my approach to the interviewer. I was interviewing for an internal promotion, and as a part of the process, I met with potential future team members and cross-functional partners. I asked pointed questions about what was working, what wasn’t, and how they would improve things. This helped me formulate what I would do if I was hired for the role. I made it to the final rounds and was interviewing with the big wig regional manager. During our discussion, I brought up that I spoke with her team and that based on their feedback, there are some items I heard as areas of opportunity. I even offered suggestions and I thought she would appreciate my directness. How did you learn it was a mistake? I thought I was a shoo-in for the role after the interview process especially since I was already doing a lot of what the role would require. Unfortunately, I didn’t get this role. The HR representative told me afterward that some of what I said was taken as rather harsh and that it’s important to consider your audience/who you’re talking to and their perspective. Knowing your mistake, what would you/have you done differently? Looking back, I could have been more tactful in approach/tone and possibly also solicited the manager’s perspective. I also could have brought up the great things about the team and what I perceived as operating well. This is now something I consider when giving feedback in general - it’s important to give ALL feedback, the bad AND the good. Reflecting on the Wisdom of Marketing Leaders That's all folks, thanks for reading! Which of these spoke the most to you? ​