How can you develop the skills of a product marketer or manager?

Product marketing absolutely involves positioning, promoting, and launching a product, understanding customer needs, the competitive landscape, and crafting compelling messaging to generate demand. However, in my experience, an aspect of product marketing I would double down on is upskilling marketing skills (read: growth/demand/brand/customer marketing skills). If a product marketer can't align with revenue, pipeline influence, and business outcomes, focusing solely on strategy is risky in today's "do more with less" environment.

Product marketing looks different at every company, but the most straightforward way I like to describe it is this: product marketing is responsible for getting the right product to the right people at the right time with the right story.

One of the key positioning exercises that you can do for product marketing is to write the executive summary for a basic commercial proposal for the product. In this executive summary, you must be able to succinctly state (1) the problem (or pain) is for the customer or the target Industry, (2) what the ideal solution to the problem (pain) looks like, (3) how your product matches up well to this ideal solution, and finally (4), what is the key next step that the customer must take. An objectively, well thought Executive summary will take no more than one page (300 words), and as a result, will tell you and your review team how compelling your offering is. Its sets up a clear understanding of product gaps and what the target market needs

I mean - you could always "study product marketing" to develop skills, but often what you learn is laced in legacy and outdated skills. The most efficient way to learn something is to dive in. Surround yourself with people that do the thing you want to do, absorb their knowledge, ask questions, be curious, learn learn learn!

At the most fundamental level, product marketing is about strategically communicating products to customers /prospects. Product marketing and product management are two halves of the same coin, with the PM focusing more on getting things built.

Product management is about defining the "what" are we building and the "why" we are doing it. Product marketing is about how we communicate that product. Every company and industry is different, but typically a PM focuses on working across designers, business, and engineering while a PMM works between marketing, customer success and sales. PM and PMM form a powerful strategic partnership that can be compared to the driver and passenger seat of a car. The PM takes the lead during early product development, while the PMM sits in the passenger seat, and then roles swap as a product enters launch and goes to market.

My advice: > Look for opportunities to showcase and develop critical skills like research, analysis, storytelling, teaching, marketing chops, number crunching, and planning. > Take any chance to play “quarterback” on an initiative or to own something from concept to reality. > Strengthen your business acumen. “What are the biggest business challenges?” is a good question to keep in the back of your mind regardless of where you are on your path to becoming a PMM. > Work on your EQ. Customer AND colleague empathy is critical. > Build an appetite for curiosity, asking questions, and active listening. I always ask myself, “what else?” as a check to ensure I see a product’s full scope from the market, the story, and the landscape POV.

In my experience, super critical skills I see overlooked are: > Clear Communication: The ability to convey ideas clearly and listen actively especially regarding roadmap changes, product vision, and strategy. >Relationship Building: Fostering strong connections with teams and stakeholders to effectively launch products, enable teams, and collect feedback. >Process Optimization: Identifying and improving inefficiencies in feedback/release processes for data driven feature prioritization. >Business Acumen (Outcome Alignment): Aligning product goals/feature prioritization with broader business objectives. These skills are foundational for effective product management, enabling better communication, collaboration, and decision-making.

Build a product. Market it. Sell it. Make money. Everything we believed about building and selling software products has changed in the last few years. With the emergence of no-code tools and abstraction of complex tech into API calls, there's no better time to build products. Learning about product management and product marketing in context of a product you build is invaluable.

Product marketing requires a wide range of competencies, so no single background or skill set alone is a must. So what can you do right now? Look for opportunities to showcase and develop key skills that product marketers need - research, analysis, storytelling, teaching, and planning. Product Marketing sits at the intersection of many parts of an organization, so take any chance to play “quarterback” or bring something from concept to reality. Read! Great product marketers understand business fundamentals as well as the market landscape. I recommend reading everything from HBR to industry trades to the "product marketing classics."

An important way to get a real experience is, take any business, app etc whatever you like. Now try to solve the problems for that and find opportunities, priorities and validate your solution.

Since both roles have a ton of responsibility and the potential to be very visible and work on strategic initiatives, having core values for yourself is super important. As a product marketer mine are: ?? Share the credit There is no "i" in product marketing. Giving kudos, sharing praise, and highlighting great work across the GTM team are vital. ?? Say it with your chest You have a perspective. Don't be afraid to say hard truths, ask tough questions, or share insights. ?? Embrace curiosity Stay open-minded. Resist biases and complacency to stay open and vigilant for a better way, a needed pivot, an emerging perspective. ?? Act like an owner Celebrate wins, be accountable for misses, build consensus, and keep building.

There's a drastic shift in multiple industries in favour of the Product Marketing Manager role. Companies like Air BnB are hiring PMMs to satify the role of a Product Manager as well as Product Marketer. The idea is simple - those who build should be able to sell!

Product Management helps in bridging the gap between Development, Design and the Business. Hence, I feel it is important for Product Management to have detailed information on Product Application, Required Standards or in cases where one is on forefront in the market should be able to set relevant standards, Problem Solvers (Solution Provider).,