AMA: Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing, Mary (Shirley) Sheehan on Product Marketing Career Path

* Building a strong foundation of product marketing skills to become a "full stack" product marketer has been key for me. Understand how to manage product positioning, messaging, how to launch a product, and all the different aspects that go into building a successful product offering. * Raising my hand for projects where I felt uncomfortable and needed experience - like pricing , researching competitive offerings, and creating customer journey maps - has been an invaluable experience. * Learning how to work cross-functionally with product managers, UX designers, and developers / engineers to deliver a successful product launch was also important for me to grow. * Regularly attending webinars, seminars or conferences related to the field of product marketing kept me up-to-date on the industry. * Taking risks - sometimes that means going to a growth area of your business or jumping to a smaller company. When I moved from Google to AdRoll (then a 500 person company) - that's when I got my first management opportunity and managed an entire product marketing team. * Making sure to set realistic expectations - both for yourself and your teammates, has also been important. You can't build a product overnight yet as a Head of Product Marketing you want to be able to push and inspire the team while being realistic about what resources are available. * Finally, it's really important to build relationships with people both inside and outside of the company is important in order to be able to share

I think a cover letter and portfolio are both important when applying for PMM roles, as well as referrals if possible. A cover letter gives you the opportunity to explain why you're the best person for the job and detail your qualifications, while a portfolio allows employers to get a better sense of your personal vision, style and work ethic. Here are some specifics: * Your cover letter should be tailored to the specific job you're applying for and emphasize how you meet the role's requirements. * Additionally, it's always a good idea to keep your resume up-to-date and have tailored versions for various roles you are applying for. * For your portfolio, choose projects that demonstrate your ability to lead a product strategy, implement successful tactics and measure results. * A more important thing might be getting referrals: When you ask someone to refer you - have a ready-to-go blurb that they can add in or send to a recruiter. * Make sure to follow up no matter which way you go and keep in touch with those that you are networking with. * Finally, research the company thoroughly - review their current products/services, get familiar with the competition in the space, and understand what they are looking for in terms of product goals and objectives. Show that you can be an instrumental addition to their team. In short, having a stellar cover letter and portfolio, referrals from other professionals in the space, an up-to-date resume, and knowledge of the company all play important roles when applying for PMM roles. Good luck!

Thinking back to the best PMMs I’ve worked with over the years – here are some things that make a stellar PMM: * Super organized with project management experience * Scrappy and able to try new things with a limited budget * Great collaborators * Able to lead and influence without “authority” * Curious and shown that they have learned skills outside of their core role * Nail the job specific tasks: positioning, messaging, content development, go-to market planning

Tell them about one! Just like any interview question, break it down into its components and relate your story. Start by explaining the product you launched, its purpose, and how it fulfilled a need in the market. Describe the process of planning and executing this launch - from ideation to execution. Talk about any challenges that arose during the process and how you overcame them. Finally, share some of the results that you achieved during the launch such as increased sales. Also mention any feedback from customers or stakeholders who were involved in the process. Most of all, be confident and provide as much detail as possible about your experience – this will help give the interviewer a full understanding of what kind of PMM you are. Good luck!

What an exciting opportunity! Growing a marketing team at a product-led-growth B2B startup is no easy feat, but it can be incredibly rewarding. Here are some tips that can be helpful: * When building out the marketing team, I would start with hiring for specialized roles such as Product Marketers and Content Managers first. This will ensure that you have a strong foundation to build upon and hire additional team members later on. * For PMMs at smaller companies, it's best to hire "jack of all trades" / full stack PMMs vs specialists until you get bigger. This way they can develop both the strategic and tactical skills needed to grow a team from scratch. * Setting clear goals and expectations - both for yourself and your teammates, has been extremely important in my experience. Everyone needs to understand what is being asked of them and how it fits into the overall vision of the company. Make sure you're hiring for people that have the capacity to grow if you are at a startup that's growing quickly. It's important to focus on finding people who can learn and understand the company culture, while simultaneously being able to keep up with its fast-paced environment. Best of luck in your journey!

* Practice some basic questions you will get using the STAR method (The STAR method is a structured manner of responding to a behavioral-based interview question by discussing the specific situation, task, action, and result of the situation you are describing) * Do you have a product marketing philosophy? * What’s the biggest project you’ve led? What worked/ didn’t? * Challenge: If you had $5k to spend in any way you wanted, how would you spend it and why? * Will this be the same type of role you’ve done before or something different? * Have you been promoted in your previous role? * How did you manage success in your last role? * What new skill have you learned lately? (personal or professional) * What metrics are important to manage as a product marketer? * For case studies, here are some common ones I've seen to be prepared for: * Fill out a messaging & positioning doc for a product of their choice. * Create a mini go-to-market strategy for a product they like and present it to the team * Dissect a launch, and to tell you who they think it was positioned to (and why), the highs and lows, and what they would have done differently * Yasmeen Turayhi wrote a great book I'd recommend * I wrote a blog post for hiring managers a while ago where you can see the other side of the coin: https://www.productlaunch.pro/blog/zjinmm6iorhoxmpi7tp5dizallpbdo