Thread by @mattnhodges

“Matt, I need to hire a product marketer. What should I look for?”. I'm asked this all the time. Spoiler, it’s not a simple answer.

In a role that’s expected to wear many hats + be a jack of all trades, don’t fall into the trap of hiring masters of none.

A #productmarketing 🧵

Having been both a PMM + PMM leader, I’ve built high-performing teams at 3 x 🦄s. I made some great hires + some not-so-great hires along the way. 😅

With some wins + many mistakes under my belt, here are the top 10 traits that consistently separate the best PMMs from the rest.

1️⃣ They are exceptional communicators - written, verbal, and visual - internally and externally. If you can't get a message across effectively, you'll struggle to progress in your career.

2️⃣ They are genuinely curious about the product, the customer, and the market. They always have their finger on the pulse. This gives them intimate knowledge of the key ingredients to crafting compelling narratives and developing winning strategies (both product and marketing).

3️⃣ They are a trusted partner to product. Their opinions are desired vs. required. This puts them in a position to not just simply influence product strategy, but actually help develop it.

4️⃣ They are incredible storytellers. The best PMMs think creatively and maintain a level of clarity that results in stories that both command attention and motivate action. Whether the market is crowded or nascent, the best PMMs own their product's position in it.

5️⃣ They are natural collaborators. There are few roles more cross-functional in nature than product marketing. Knowing how to work well with others, but more importantly with whom and when is key to being successful and building trust.

6️⃣ They are analytically savvy. They might not know how to write SQL, but they can read and pull out insights from data, develop hypotheses and ask the right questions to validate or invalidate.

7️⃣ They think full-funnel. They care about the entire customer journey and have a deep understanding of what levers can be pulled to optimize each stage.

8️⃣ They crave outcomes over output. They know that less can be more, know how and when to say no, and hold themselves and others accountable to measurable results.

9️⃣ They have deep empathy for the customer. They understand their wants, separate those from their needs, and always have an eye toward improving the customer experience whether that be through marketing or product.

🔟 They ensure your build what you sell and sell what you build, which requires the marriage of both great product and marketing strategy.

These are my own opinions based on what I've learned building #productmarketing teams at @Atlassian + @Intercom + @Loom. There are many flavours of PMMs based on the needs/stage of the product/business. But, I strongly believe these are universally true of all the best.

WDYT?