AMA: Pendo.io Director of Product Marketing, Marcus Andrews on Product Marketing Soft and Hard Skills

It certainly depends but I'd say it's more important to have the right soft skills. Specifically for product marketing teams. What PMMs do can really vary company to company. So while it's likely your hard skills will at least "sort of" transfer, there is no gaurentee. So, communication, flexibility, hunger, transpartnecy, honesty, curiousity, etc. Those are the skills you'll be leaning on for a while till you figure out how to apply your hard skills. Also the more senior you get the more I like it flips. If you're brand new to PMM you have to be really strong on soft skills, more sr. stronger in hard skills. 

Here are the biggest 2 - communication and teamwork. PMMs are one of the most cross functional roles in marketing / most companies. You have to be able to bring teams together and create momentum where none exists. This is hard to do if you're not a good collaborater / teammate. Skills like empathy, low ego, enthusiasm, transparency, and more come in real handy here. The other big one is communication. Maybe it's controversial but PMM is a communications job. A huge part of our value is taking product updates and packaging and positioing them so they are easier to understand and sell or market. You have to be a great communicator. That includes hard skills like writing, and presenting. But also just interpersonally your ability to connect with others and communicate clearly and directly with them is huge. Empathy, clear thinking, EQ, storytelling technices are your friend here. 

The big one is thinking they are smarter or better equiped to make roadmap decsions than the product team. Don't do that. Don't make it your crusade to get something on the roadmap. You have to give your Product team the space to make the right calls. If you don't trust them why will they trust you? Be a good partner, don't tell them what to build, just give them insights that help them. 

I think to be a great PMM leader, it's really important to have done the work. So to have owned massive product lauches, designed narratives, led sales trainings, etc. PMM can be an ambigous job so a leader that hasn't been there done that usually isn't succesful. The hard skill then left to learn is management. Coaching, support, leadership, alignment. That's a hard skill that you can't overlook. Just becuase someone is a great PMM doesn't mean they will become a great PMM leader. It takes knowledge, practice, and time to acheive that just like anything else. 

This is my version of the "T-Shaped marketer". It's how I coach PMMs to develop their skills. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NhRmE4pf96M--bih_MSoT-7YpKW3p51i9_-yBhKhIZo/edit#slide=id.p I think starting by developing a great generalist base of knowledge is key. From there getting good at a set of skills more particular to PMM (writing, sales enablement, market research, creativity, product knowleged, presenting, etc) Those are the things we should be really good at. Then finally there are few things unique to PMM , Positioning, product launches, Narrative design, cross-functional collaboration. Other teams do these but not like us. These are the things to get great at. It's likely these will always be a work in progress.

Not sure if these are "technical skills" Product Marketing isn't a technical job, it's a communications job. But the three biggest hard skills that will help you succeed in PMM and that I interview for are. Creative Generalist: Does the candidate bring a strong generalist marketing background. Do they understand the basics of demand gend, design, brand, video, etc. PMM is one place having a broad set of experiences is truly helpful. Excellent Storyteller: Can the candidate tell a persuavie product driven story? Can they clearly communicate a complicated technical product? Can they write? Can they help product effectivley position a new product? These skills are a must for PMM to master. A great PMM can learn a lot of this, but having a passion and some expertise here is huge. Cross-functional momentum maker: Can the candidate unite teams, pull people together, and insprie sales, marketing, and leadership in the name of the product? PMMs need to pull teeams together, there are a lot of ways to do this, but when PMMs are leading the charge comapnies tell a great marketing story but also become product-driven, a tough combo to get right. Those are my 3