Hiring Product Marketers: the Insider's Guide
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HIRING PRODUCT MARKETERS: THE INSIDER’S GUIDE 1 | Hiring product marketers: the insider’s guide THIS EBOOK IS DEVOTED TO THE ART AND SCIENCE OF HIRING STRATEGIC PRODUCT MARKETERS WHO CAN FLEXIBLY MOVE BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY AND COVERS THE ENTIRE, END-TO-END HIRING PROCESS. CONTENTS 03 About the book 12 Step 3. Conduct masterful interviews 04 Introduction: Defining product marketing 15 Step 4. Perform rigorous reference Checks 07 Step 1. Craft the right product marketing job description for your 19 Step 5. Make an offer they won’t want needs to refuse 09 Step 2. Read resumes the right way 20 Wild card suggestions 2 | Hiring product marketers: the insider’s guide ABOUT THE EBOOK “ REAL-WORLD ADVICE FROM TODAY’S LEADING PRODUCT MARKETERS & THE PEOPLE “ WHO RECRUIT THEM About Robert Walters About Owl Robert Walters and Owl have Robert Walters is a Global Search Owl is a product marketing consultancy collaborated to produce this Firm with offices across 28 countries. that helps companies strengthen their comprehensive guide to re- The California practice is based in go-to-market strategies. Unlike cruitment for hiring Product San Francisco and works with start- traditional demand generation-focused Marketers. ups and larger technology companies firms, Owl helps companies strengthen to help them find up-and-coming the strategic foundation for their FEATURING INSIDER ADVICE functional leaders at the director-VP offerings. Whether you need help with FROM: level. Our team has made multiple personas and positioning, or pricing successful placements at companies and product launches, Owl can help Michael Stapleton, such as Medium, Udemy, Atheer, you chart a path to market dominance. CEO, Branch, Sonder, Houzz, UserTesting, Owl and Coinbase (to name a few). Services include: We have a team of 20 consultants that ■ Competitive Analysis Julia Horiuchi, are split across the following functional Market Sizing Head of Go-to-Market specialist teams: ■ recruitment, Robert Walters ■ Segmentation & Targeting California ■ Go To Market (Marketing, BD & ■ Positioning Statement Sales) Development ■ Buyer Persona Development Maia Josebachvili, ■ Engineering Win-Loss Analysis VP of Marketing, Strategy and ■ Product Management ■ People at Greenhouse ■ Finance & Operations ■ Pricing & Packaging ■ Design ■ Go-to-Market Planning ■ Data ■ NPS Programs Renette Youssef, Founder, For more information, please visit For more information, visit The Four Marketing www.robertwalters.co www.owlconsulting.com Yvonne Chen, VP of Marketing, Udemy for Business Elain Szu, Executive in Residence at Accel Partners and former Product Marketing Lead at Twitter Barbara Martin Coppola, CMO, Grubhub 3 | Hiring product marketers: the insider’s guide INTRODUCTION: DEFINING PRODUCT MARKETING Ask any group of 20 CMOs how they define product marketing, and you’ll get at least 10 different definitions. A great product marketer can be a game-changer. Great product marketers don’t just add to go-to-market effectiveness; they multiply it. Imagine how much more successful your sales and product development teams can be when they have a clear understanding of your ideal target audience, know which points of value your audience is willing to pay more for and understand why your customers bought your product over the competition’s. Michael Stapleton, CEO - Owl It’s one of the most nebulous areas of Top-tier, strategic product marketers It covers the entire, end-to-end hiring marketing and means different things often work on the following areas: process. Read more to learn about: at different companies. Some ask product marketing to focus on sales ■ Market Analysis ■ How to craft a compelling product enablement. Other product marketing ■ Product Concept Testing marketer job description teams are thought leaders, publishing ■ Segmentation, Targeting and ■ How to evaluate product marketers’ whitepapers and analyzing market Positioning resumes trends. At some businesses, product ■ Pricing and Packaging ■ Tips for interviewing candidates marketers spend significant energy ■ Competitive Analysis and Intelligence ■ How to conduct a reference check optimizing pricing and packaging and ■ New Product Launches ■ Making a compelling offer setting a product vision based on ■ Sales Enablement ■ Wild card tips: off-the-wall ideas for market feedback. hiring top-notch product marketers Finding such creative strategists is no For our purposes, we’re going to define small task. That’s why this eBook is Plus, get insider tips throughout the product marketing according to its devoted to the art and science of hiring guide from marketing leaders aims. strategic product marketers who can interviewed exclusively for this eBook. flexibly move between the areas of Product marketing is the discipline responsibility outlined above. of maximizing the odds of success for a product in the market. It’s a broad definition, but it holds up under scrutiny, especially given the range of responsibilities associated with product marketing. Product marketers need to know that they have a seat at the table with the product management, marketing and sales leadership team. The right product marketing hire can seamlessly integrate these often disparate and sometimes combative functions Julia Horiuchi, Manager - Head of Go-to-Market recruitment, Robert Walters California 4 | Hiring product marketers: the insider’s guide Product marketers are at the epicenter of an organization. They have to take sales feedback and use that information help guide product development. They have to take product stories and package them in a way that supports sales. They have to take analyst feedback and use it to inform how the company talks about itself publicly. And those examples are just scratching the surface. Because their work impacts so many different areas of the business, product marketers must be exceptional at collaborating cross-functionally. Yvonne Chen, VP of Marketing, Udemy for Business 5 | Hiring product marketers: the insider’s guide Product marketers need to be able to take on and be good at a broad range of responsibilities: product launch intricacies, go-to-market strategy, product positioning and value messaging, internal and external communications related to product features and bugs, competitive intelligence, internal product training, and pricing and packaging. On top of all of this, they need to be product detectives and experts so that all teams know I consistently look for the same traits in great where to turn when they want product marketers: strong conceptual ability, to know how to talk about the collaborative skills, project management value of a specific product or experience, creativity, and goal-setting feature. capabilities. Yvonne Chen, Elain Szu, Executive in Residence at Accel VP of Marketing, Partners and former Product Marketing Lead Udemy for Business at Twitter 6 | Hiring product marketers: the insider’s guide STEP 1. CRAFT THE RIGHT PRODUCT MARKETING JOB DESCRIPTION FOR YOUR NEEDS Your search for the ideal product PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER marketer begins with the job [Company Name] is looking for a savvy Product Marketing Manager to help description. If well-crafted, it both defines what you’re really looking for in maximize the success of our products and help us continue to gain an edge in a candidate and attracts professionals the market. Reporting to the Director of Marketing, you’ll work hand-in-hand with whom you want to consider the the product team to ensure readiness for new offerings, optimize pricing and position. packaging, coordinate the launch of new offerings and ensure customer-facing The reality is there’s no one-size fits employees are able to sell and support our products. You’ll be an expert not just all product marketing job description. on our products but on our target audiences, understanding how and why they It should change based on a range buy, and what it takes to achieve product/market fit. of factors, including scope of role, seniority of the position, and the RESPONSIBILITIES REQUIREMENTS industry you’re hiring for. But, the best product marketers share some ■ Sales Enablement. Inspire, equip common traits that CMOs should look ■ 4-5 years of [industry name] product and train our Sales team to engage for, and the job description must reflect marketing experience and win new customers. those. ■ Strong cross-functional skills. Be ■ Success Enablement. Work with To the right is a Product Marketing able to work well with different Customer Success to ensure our Manager job description that can personalities and multiple products are used in the most be adjusted for different product stakeholders. effective ways to drive value for our marketing roles but includes the core customers. competencies exhibited by the best ■ Excellent verbal, written, visual/ product marketers. presentation skills ■ Competitive Intelligence. Be the expert on our competition and how The job description could easily be ■ Experience conducting market we can consistently win against tweaked to a Director or VP-Level research and analyzing both them. position by augmenting the strategic quantitative and qualitative data components of the job description ■ Product Collateral. Develop and adding more information about ■ Experience with [top 3 skills: sales product and sales materials that leadership responsibilities. enablement, pricing and packaging, maximize conversion at each step in product launch management] the sales funnel. At the same time, it could be altered for a Product