 I'm Jacob Schulman and I have been a product marketing manager for nearly a decade at companies like Spotify, Shopify, and DoorDash. Over the course of my career, I've had the opportunity to work on everything from personalized playlists to social and sharing integrations to thinking about new benefits that we can introduce on delivery subscription services. I've had the opportunity to work on B2B products like ShopPay, which is an accelerated checkout for merchants as well as consumer-facing products that hopefully you're familiar with like OnRepeat and YourSummerRewind at Spotify. I'm super excited to be working with ProductSchool to be teaching the first-ever product marketing manager certification and sharing a little bit more about my background with people that want to break into the field. Product marketing management is a super exciting field and it's growing really, really quickly. What is product marketing management actually? I like to think of product marketing as being on a spectrum where you get to work with product teams to help influence and execute what gets built, but then you also carry it through with go-to-market plans and launching those products. Unlike a lot of other marketing fields or functions, product marketing really specializes in being the voice of the customer. You need to take everything that you learn from insights and data and research and translate it into actionable recommendations for product teams so that they build products that actually meet user needs. A lot of people that aren't familiar with product marketing as a function have pretty basic assumptions on what product marketing is and what product marketers do. The most common misconception that I hear when it comes to product marketing is that you just can't help us get press or post a tweet about a new product that we've launched. Yes, that's part of what product marketing is about, but it's only a small part of what product marketing is about. Product marketing is a much larger strategic function that can bring a lot of value even before it comes time for the product to launch. Being able to work up funnel and help influence on the product side are things that aren't super well known among product marketing newbies, but things that really, really help set apart what product marketers do from what other kinds of marketers do. Same thing goes on the marketing side. How do you partner with revenue and enablement teams to build out really compelling sales documents that help sales organizations close deals? How do you partner with other kinds of channel owners in the marketing organization to really build impactful customer lifecycle marketing, even if you're not a lifecycle marketer? Product marketing is one of those functions that is definitely still a little bit misunderstood, but growing in its value and recognition as being a really important value add to any kind of business. I like to think about product marketing as sort of being the glue that sits in between product teams and marketing teams and passing that knowledge really effectively between both of them. When I think about the core functions that product marketers do, I like to think about it into two real buckets. The first one is really helping to influence and ideate the products that get built. And then the second part is executing go to markets and growth marketing programs that help drive adoption with those products and features. Product marketing is a really exciting field, but it also can be pretty challenging. You need to really be able to flex that customer empathy, but also translated into ways that really resonate with the stakeholders that you're trying to influence. At some point in your career of being a product marketing manager, and I have definitely seen this, you will disagree with a product manager on what is an MVP. But being a really great product marketing manager is also about understanding how to use the tools in your toolbox to influence in those kinds of situations. Being able to take insights and research and data to prove why a subjective opinion is actually much more of an objective observation that is backed by data. Being able to do that really effectively is super unique in product marketing versus any other kind of marketing field. And I think that it's something that really sets product marketers part. Product marketing is still a relatively new marketing discipline, but it's growing very, very quickly. There are lots of companies that already understand and recognize the value that product marketing brings to an organization. So it's not uncommon to find pretty extensive product marketing organizations in more mature companies. Product marketing also isn't a function that's particularly confined to being in tech companies. The things that you learn and have to do as a product marketer are relevant across a number of different industries. Everything from D to C brands to non-technology companies to hardware services all could benefit from the skills that product marketers can bring to the table. Product marketing is only growing more and more relevant in these companies and it's super exciting time to break into the field. So one of the questions that I get a lot is how do I become a product marketing manager or what kind of skills are really required to become a product marketing manager? I think that anybody can be a product marketing manager, but you kind of need to want to. I think product marketing really is about bringing together a bunch of complementary skillsets that many other functions only have mastery of one or two of. To be a product marketing manager, you really need to be able to empathize with customers. You need to be able to put yourself into their shoes and really understand their pain points so that you can help solve them. You also need to be a really great communicator and influencer because ultimately you need to convince product teams and other marketers that your recommendations are the right ways to help meet customer needs. You also need to be able to think strategically as well as be action oriented. Product marketers don't often get told exactly what to do, so they need to be able to synthesize business strategy and identify opportunities that other kinds of marketers maybe wouldn't. Plus, you need to be able to be biased for action so that you can actually follow through on the recommendations that you're making. Since product marketers often aren't told exactly what needs to be done, they need to be able to spot those opportunities, make recommendations for how to fill them, and then actually execute campaigns to drive business impact. It's a super interesting mix of skills that isn't for everyone, but I think that anybody can actually break into it if they know the tools and frameworks to think through those problems. I also think it's really important for product marketers to have a really strong marketing foundation. At the end of the day, you are a marketer. You might work very closely with the product team and sometimes you might actually report into the product team. But most of the time, what sets you apart from product managers is that you actually are a marketer and most of your responsibilities fall on the marketing side of things. Product marketing is really about spotting user needs and working with product teams to build new products to fill those needs or working with marketing teams to build new marketing programs that help better popularize and drive awareness and engagement with those products. I think that the best way for people to break into product marketing as a function is to do the exact same thing within an organization. If you can spot opportunities that exist in between product and marketing teams, that's often the best way to show that you do have what it takes to become a product marketing manager. When I started doing product marketing, nobody told me that we needed to build more personalized playlists on Spotify. I just saw an opportunity because the product team had a bunch of really cool ideas that they didn't really know how to bring to market. So it was one of those situations where I sort of just got involved and started doing things. And I think that it's very much that can-do attitude that separates product marketers from other kinds of marketers that might exist in an organization. Being a product marketer is about having a really, really strong mix of soft and hard skills. On the hard-skilled side, you need to be able to understand how to synthesize data and insights to make real recommendations. You need to be able to understand how to harness customer research. You need to be able to understand how to think in terms of testable opportunities so that you can influence the teams that you're working with. And you need to be able to understand how to measure the impact of the campaigns that you're actually going to be bringing to market. It all starts with really being able to understand and identify opportunities that exist for a customer base. So how can you analyze data from your product to uncover new opportunities? How can you use qualitative and quantitative research like surveys and customer interviews to uncover those pain points and begin to think about ways to fill them, either with new products or with new marketing campaigns? What are the most important metrics that you should be thinking about as a product marketer to quantify your impact? How do those things vary based on the kind of business that you're in, whether it's B2B or B2C? And how do you think about selecting the best metrics that also help you look really good as a product marketer? It's also super important for product marketers to be familiar with things like positioning and messaging. Being able to really contextualize your product or service in the minds of your potential customers and being able to define who those potential customers really are. Of course, product marketing is also really, really focused on launching products. So you need to learn how to build a really strong go-to-market campaign, activate through a bunch of different channels, build compelling creatives, and do things that are really going to resonate with your target audience to drive business impact. But a product launch is just a moment in time, and the product lifecycle doesn't end there. So what do you think about when it comes to growing products? How do you work with product teams to change features or add new ones when performance is maybe not where you want it to be? And how do you think about adding fuel to the flames when products are already doing really well, but might be doing better with the addition of some paid marketing or some other marketing tactics that you haven't experimented with? Speaking of experiments, how do you think about experimentation and being able to prove your perspectives to product teams and to other marketers by constructing really thoughtful A-B tests that allow you to show why a particular version of something is the right way to do it? All of these skills kind of come together to be this magical set of capabilities that product marketers need to be able to demonstrate. But that's only half of the story. You also need to be able to influence cross-functionally even if you don't have people that are reporting to you. Most product marketers aren't in control of the channels that they are reliant upon to actually drive product adoption. So you need to convince people like the social team and the CRM team and the PR or communications team to help you tell those stories and build those narratives about your products so that customers know that they exist and know how to use them. It's this really unique blend of skills that spans a bunch of different functional areas. That is what makes product marketing really unique and really exciting, but also really challenging to master. But once you can get a grasp on all of those components, you can become a really, really impactful addition to any organization no matter what kind of product they're offering. On the soft skill side, product marketing is one of those situations and roles where you're kind of responsible for everything but not actually in charge of anything. Product marketers need to work super cross-functionally to make sure that they're getting other people to do the work for them. Whether that means getting the CRM team to send an email about your product or getting the social team to help build a campaign to popularize and drive awareness with your product, it's about really driving influence even if sometimes you don't have authority. Being able to kind of bring those skills together is really what separates okay product marketers from great product marketers. And it's that amazing mix of skill sets that can really help you drive impact to a business and help up level your career. Product marketing and product management sound very similar but they're actually quite different in terms of the roles that they play within an organization. I think it's really important for product marketers to understand what product managers do and vice versa but there also needs to be a really strong respect for the differing levels of expertise that both of those functions bring. I think that the best product marketers could be product managers if they wanted to pursue that field and vice versa. But I also think that product managers are very much the kind of folks that want to pursue a marketing discipline more than being a product manager. But again, being a product marketer allows you to really work very closely with product managers. I also think that the skills that product marketers gain and really demonstrate are things that can help product managers up level their career. So being able to really think through the positioning of products how to message products how to synthesize customer needs and connect that to business strategy are all critical, critical pieces of contribution for product marketers that product managers would also really benefit from knowing. So it's not always the case that product marketers want to be product managers or vice versa but I think that there's a lot that we can learn from each other and from learning more about the fields the respective fields to make sure that you're building a really broad understanding of what the other function brings to the table so that you can continue to round out your own expertise. Lots of people want to break into marketing because it's such an exciting field and it's growing really, really quickly but how do you break in to get your first role? I think that it's really about being able to position yourself as a product marketer even if you don't have product marketing experience. Nobody was a product marketer before they were a product marketer but everybody that's a product marketer figured out a way to reposition their skills and experience in a way that made sense to become a product marketer. Before I moved into product marketing management I actually was more of a partner marketing manager but as I started working with more and more product companies and launching some of our product partnerships the opportunity to work more closely with product naturally presented itself and I found that it was something that I was pretty good at and enjoyed doing. So for me the way that I moved into product marketing was kind of by accident but I was able to take the skills within the role that I had currently and translate it into the opportunities and areas that were important to demonstrate as a PMM. I think that whether you're in a customer support role or a sales role or another marketing role there's lots of ways for you to think about repositioning your own experience to break into product marketing. So if you're in sales role and you're talking to customers all day how can you begin to synthesize that feedback and package it in a way that helps tell really compelling narratives to product teams and helps them build new features or make new adjustments? If you're in a customer service role and you're getting a lot of negative sentiment from users that are testing a new feature how can you package that up in a way that helps product teams understand what changes they might want to make to de-risk a launch and maximize the impact once a product is ready? If you're a different kind of marketer how can you identify other opportunities to tell product stories? If you're on the social team do you have ideas for campaigns that might help drive awareness or engagement with a particular product or feature? Being able to translate your experience from whatever you're doing now into something that is super relevant in the product marketing field is the best way to break in. Even if you aren't tasked with it even if it's not part of your job description at the end of the day if you're bringing really valuable insights and making strong recommendations that can be tested and that can be proven you're already starting off on a really great foot to getting your first role as a product marketing manager and that's something that we're going to tackle in the product marketing manager certification. Towards the end of the course after you've learned all the foundational components and skills that you need to become a PMM we're going to turn those around and actually apply them to ourselves. We're going to think about how to reposition our own experience how to write a self positioning statement and then how to reframe some of the bullet points of our own resumes into things that will resonate with product marketing hiring managers. It's this blend of really really practical skills with all the foundational components that you need to become a PMM that are really meant to be what sets product marketing manager certification apart. We're also going to do it with some really exciting and fun case studies from products that you're familiar with. We're going to talk about products that have been really successful as well as analyzing why some products weren't successful. And by the end of the course you're also going to produce a really really amazing final project that you can use to actually try and reach out to prospective hiring managers. You'll also learn other practical skills like how to write a great cold email how to interview for a product marketing role and how to think strategically through quantifying your impact as a PMM or translating it into product marketing metrics even if you're not in a product marketing role now. So product marketing manager certification is going to be something really really special and unique versus anything else in the market. And we're so excited to bring you along for this ride with us.