In early February, Sharebird released it’s Top 50 Product Marketing Mentors based on its own proprietary algorithms (Pro Tip: If you’re an MBA Student interested in product marketing, make sure to check out Sharebird)
As we’ve written about previously, Product Marketing is a growing field for MBA students, and many of our MBASchooled community members have successfully pivoted to careers in product marketing at top tech companies (Ex: Ben,) The list of Top 50 Product Marketing Mentors illustrates just how aligned an MBA can be with a career within product marketing.
The list of top 50 mentors illustrates just how critical an MBA is to a PMM Career. Out of the 50, almost half (24) of our research went and got an MBA. Here are some of the top pieces of advice from the MBA Alum who were featured in their list (and congratulations to all that were nominated!)
The Top Career Advice For Product Marketers
Senior Director, Product Marketing, Salesforce
School: UNC Kenan-Flagler
Make sure you’re recruiting a job, don’t let a job recruit you. When a job recruits you, the company is filling a need. When you recruit a job, you’re filling a career need. It will make a huge difference in the long run toward accomplishing your career goals.
Our interview with Jason: Here
SVP, Product and Solutions Marketing, New Relic
MBA Program: Fuqua School of Business
“One thing I wish I’d known years ago and is an amazing source of customer insights and messaging research (especially with enterprise software) is the simple act of reading RFPs your company receives from customers and prospects. RFPs are magic – they’re jammed packed with nuggets about how prospects describe their challenges, what they’re looking for in terms of solutions and how they think about the market and space. It’s good and good for you – eat your vegetables, read your RFPs.”
Director, Go To Market, Qualia
MBA Program: Wharton
“When you’re looking for a new role (in PMM or frankly, any function), look for two things: 1) a company that’s super high growth (or a business unit within a larger company that’s really high growth) and 2) a manager who is well-respected, on their way up, and willing to pull you up along with them on that growth trajectory. Growth solves all problems because it always creates more opportunity.”
Our interview with Priyanka: here
Dana Barrett
Head of Product Marketing, Asana
MBA Program: Wharton
Spend less time worrying about getting to the next promotion and how you are progressing versus your peers. Instead, focus on learning and picking up as many skills and experiences as possible. And be less worried about making mistakes. Take more risks and push yourself to try new things that help you to build more skills.
Anna Wiggins
Senior Director, Bluevine
MBA Program: NYU Stern
“Invest in understanding how your business works and which levers drive revenue. This will empower you to be an active contributor to strategic decisions, make you more impactful in getting engineering or budget resources, and help you prioritize what’s important while still delivering on the best customer experience.”
Sunny Manivannan
Vice President & GM, Global SMB at Braze
MBA Program: Harvard Business School
“Work with ambitious, disciplined people, and set big goals for yourself.”
Savita Kini
Director of Product Management, Cisco
MBA Program: Cornell (Johnson)
“Product Marketing and Product Management are two sides of the same coin. The key thing here is to remember that both roles are dedicated towards making the product successful. It is very important early on for product marketers to really understand the customer problem, put oneself in the customer’s shoes, understand how the product is solving the customers problem, then provide the right perspective to message and position it.
Both roles will differ from one industry or technology to another. So based on your skill set and passion, how deep you want to go into marketing versus strategic direction for the product/technology, you can choose to pursue career growth in either direction. Both are absolutely doable. Know thyself first and then go for it.”
Director, The Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College at Davidson College
MBA Program: Ross
“I always say that empathy is currency. Make sure you’re talking to customers or potential customers every week, if not daily.”
Steve Feyer
Director of Product Marketing, Eightfold.ai
MBA Program: Tepper School of Business
Have a good understanding of what matters in your company, and be comfortable saying no to requests that aren’t aligned with your team’s goals and your KPIs. As a product marketer, you will have many sales people, commercial operations specialists, and even other marketers ask you to complete tasks for them. They ask you because you have strong general skills, product knowledge, and the ability to deliver. If you say yes all the time, however, these low-value one-offs will suck up all of your time. They aren’t what your manager or your executive team care about. You’ll probably find that you are seen as more valuable the more often you say no. I will say yes to such requests only if they can help me with a larger objective, for example, learning more about a customer’s problems, giving me a chance to talk to my buyer persona, or gaining a favor I will use later. These days I say no 80% of the time.
Director of Product Marketing, Google
MBA Program: MIT Sloan
“Take an outside-in view and always ask yourself “so what?” from the perspective of your customer. I see product marketers often over-rotate on the “product” part of product marketing instead of being the voice of the market. You will differentiate yourself and be more valuable if you can help the organization understand what’s happening outside its walls.”
Loren Elia
Director of Product Marketing at HoneyBook
MBA Program: UCLA Anderson
“Nobody is good at everything. Rather than focusing on improving your weak spots, focus on roles where you can leverage your strengths and partner with people who can complement your weaknesses.”
Div Manickam
Director, WW Services Marketing and Portfolio Management, Lenovo
MBA Program: California State University: East Bay
As a product marketer, your career path is unique to you. Learn to artfully say No with diligence. It’s easy to get pulled in many directions, and setting the right discipline and boundaries is key to protect your sacred time. Less is More always and focus on what truly matters.
Henrique Saboia
Head of Growth Marketing, Medium
MBA Program: Kellogg School of Management
As you begin to advance in your career in Product Marketing, you’ll naturally build your expertise and autonomy within the Marketing function. But don’t forget to invest in your general business acumen. That includes finance, operations, technology, etc. Your ability to make good marketing decisions within the broader business context is what will set you up for success in/with the executive suite. If you don’t know where to begin, ask the following question about any project you’re working on: Why does the business care if I succeed or fail? Your answer will likely uncover how much of a priority this project should be, and what XFN teams you have an opportunity to learn from.
CEO, Pipedreams Ventures
School: Stanford Graduate School of Business
“When choosing a product or company to work for, if possible choose one where the ceiling of a good outcome is especially high. If success of the product changes the trajectory of the company it’ll be easier to shoehorn resources and the upside will be more impactful to your career than crushing it on a product that only has an incremental improvement on the business.”
VP, Product Marketing, SalesLoft
MBA Program: UC Berkeley-Haas
Some key qualities that I look for in a great product marketer include: 1) Smart, 2) Empathetic, 3) Skilled Communicator, 4) Problem Solver, 5) Analytical, and 6) Project Management. Look for opportunities and projects that help you build, develop and demonstrate these skills. If you are particularly strong in one area, look for opportunities to mentor others on this skill. If you need to work on one, sign up for a project to collaborate with someone who’s great at it and learn from them.
VP, Salesforce
MBA Program: UT-McCombs
“At Salesforce I’ve worked for 8 different executives in just under 7 years. Each of these leaders had a different mixture of leadership characteristics, and what I try to always look for is their ‘killer app’ – the differentiated leadership behaviors, and skills that I can absorb into my personal leadership toolkit.”
Product Marketing Lead, Square
School: UC-Berkeley Haas
When evaluating career opportunities or new roles, check in with your personal values. What’s important to you? What do you value in your relationships? It’s a lot easier to stick it through the tough times, make hard decisions, or take risks in a professional environment when you can rely on what drives you on a personal level, as a compass.
Head of Product Marketing, Tray.io
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
“Messaging is one of the most important product marketing skills, and one of the hardest to do really well. Look for opportunities to work with companies and product marketing leaders that create incredible messaging. It’s the best learning experience you can have.”
Head of Global Product Marketing, Uber Eats for Merchants, Uber for Business
MBA Program: HHL Leipiz
“Whatever you do in your career or regular day job, always find ways to add an extra degree of effort. Overtime, it accumulates and you will have built a stellar reputation around you. I once read that water at 211 degrees is really hot, but at 212 degrees it creates steam that can power and move a train. One extra degree (of effort) can move your career forward.”
VP, Product Marketing, Okta
MBA Program: Kellogg School of Management
Great PMMs have three common traits: they love identifying patterns in customer needs and are active in early customer adoption, win/loss analysis and ICP development; they are masters of the products they are assigned to and geek out through their partnership with PM; and they have a passion for storytelling that answers three questions: why should a customer do anything, why now, and why you!
Teresa Haun
Director of Product Marketing, Zendesk
MBA Program: Haas
“Have a bias for action and take ownership. These principles are particularly impactful in large cross-functional work streams where there isn’t clear ownership or a path forward. These are the perfect times for PMM to step up and do what we do best.”
Head of Product Marketing, mParticle
MBA Program: Cornell (Johnson)
“Almost all Product Marketing initiatives have a cross-functional impact. Build relationships early on with key stakeholders and develop empathy for their teams. You will find that projects have a much higher chance of completion when you are aligned and you develop muscle memory to respond to future needs quickly. Product marketers working in a silo spin wheels on projects that never end because expectations keep changing.”
Director of Industry Marketing, Talkdesk
MBA Program: UC-Irvine, The Paul Merage School of Business
“Networking doesn’t start when you are looking for a new job. Networking starts years before you are looking for that job. My top recommendation for everyone is to connect with 3-5 relevant others every week. It sounds hard but LinkedIn makes it easy. Get going today.”