How open would your company be to hire someone with category management experience for a PMM role? Lets say the person has worked on product development, GTM, sales enablement and campaigns for their category?

I hope I understand your question correctly, but some of the most successful PMMs I've hired include some that came from more traditional, non-tech companies before. There are many transferable skills, like the ones you outlined above. That said, it can be difficult to find a Product Marketing leader open to hiring someone from a different background. My advice is to network aggressively so you can find a leader that will invest in your development.

I’m not sure what you mean by “category management”, but many of the experiences you list are key experiences that any PMM should have. Having said that, many hiring managers (including myself) look for PMMs with traditional product marketing experience. Many PMMs who’ve made the leap from non-traditional backgrounds do that within the company they’re already working in (and therefore have established credibility) or know someone personally at the company who can vouch for them.

I imagine any company would be open to hiring people for PMM roles with this range of experiences. There are multiple paths to product marketing and all of these functions cover part of the responsibility of the role. PMMs are, at least in my experience in enterprise software, a true hub role - with connections and visibility into seemingly every part of the business from strategy to product to customer success. Category Management, or Brand Management, at a CPG company might not always immediately translate to an enterprise PMM role, particularly if it's a senior role and requires experience working with Gartner/Forrester/IDC, etc and building sales plays, but in my experience any of these functions would be a valuable onramp.

I'm not certain if you mean category management in the retail/B2C space or the category management specific to sourcing and procurement.

Either way, I don't think I'd rule someone out on this alone, but they are very different skillsets. While great PMMs come from all walks of life and all backgrounds (for me that's History major -> UX design -> Planning and Finance -> Vertical Marketing -> PMM), there are a few things that are always critical:

- Structured thinking

- Deep product and customer curiosity

- Strong writing and communication skills

If you're coming in from outside of PMM (Industry or Core), I'd recommend really focusing on your messaging and storytelling acumen. What did you bring to the GTM that accelerated growth or credibility with a specific customer type?