I had just started a new job as a Product Marketing Manager (PMM) in a company that had never had one before. Thankfully, I had some help from my manager at the time to get started, but there was still a lot I had to learn, figure out, and then teach my organization. 

As we all know, one of the great challenges of being a first PMM is to explain what you’re supposed to be doing to your own company. 

So, I signed up for the Pro+ membership primarily to acquire knowledge and best practices, as well as benefit from the many templates available, so I didn’t have to build it all from scratch by myself. 

I was also interested in having a network of peers I could speak with if I needed some advice or some help.

What I’ve enjoyed most since joining the Pro+ membership 

I have to say, the certifications have been the most useful part of this membership for me. I felt so lost and anxious in the beginning. I had so much to learn and so much pressure to perform very quickly. 

These certifications gave me some security at first, and later, more confidence and the ability to hold my own in meetings and with my leadership. My successive managers and my colleagues from other teams all saw my growth over the months and how my work improved as time went on.

As for sheer enjoyment? My favorite was the PMM Summit in Paris. I attended at the tail end of 2 years of membership, and it was an opportunity for me to connect peer-to-peer with other PMMs. I didn’t feel like a newbie; I felt part of their community. It’s also the event that made me realize that I needed more, I needed to get to the next level.

The type of presentations I found the most insightful and useful

The conferences at the PMM Summit in Paris were the most useful for me in my career. In fact, one of these presentations ended up being very important to me, as the person delivering it is now my boss! 

This allowed us to have a connection before I even applied to the job and gave me great insight into how she saw product marketing management.

The type of resources I found the most helpful 

Templates and frameworks were the most helpful to me. I didn’t always use them as they were, but they really helped me start from somewhere instead of having to build everything. 

They were a great starting point, which I then adapted to my business’s ways of working, priorities, and context when I was first PMM. 

How the Pro+ membership has helped me to network

I didn’t use the Slack channels much, I must admit. Mostly out of time constraints and too many things to look at already. But the PMM Summit in Paris was great for me. 

It really helped me understand the shortcomings of my current organization and what I needed to work on and advocate for to improve the quality of my work. 

I also had the chance to keep the discussions going as we went to grab some drinks with a few of the other attendees. And, as I said above, it was also the occasion for me to meet and hear from the person who would become my boss just a couple of months later, though I didn’t know that at the time.

How this membership has impacted my professional growth

Thanks to the certifications and resources from PMA, I was able to feel a lot more confident and legitimate in the role of PMM, despite initiating the job with little to no experience in it. 

In just a couple of years of membership, I’ve gone from a newbie to the role to a trusted professional who was able to land a great job in a company known in France for its maturity in product marketing management. 

I now feel like I’ve gotten what I was looking for out of the membership, but I’m forever grateful for what it brought me and allowed me to do.

When this membership helped me overcome a professional challenge

Launching your very first product is nerve-wracking when you have almost no idea what to do, in what order, and a leadership that doesn’t know either and just asks you to handle it. 

It took months to try and figure out the best way to handle GTMs in my previous company, and it still wasn’t fully figured out when I left, but it probably would have been much more difficult had I not had GTM templates and best practices to organize my work and my ideas. 

In the end, the launch was a success, and our clients were very happy with the product.

Advice for fellow PMMs considering joining a PMA membership

I would say that the PMA membership is great for newcomers to the field, regardless of how much experience in other fields you’ve had (marketing, client success, design, etc.). 

Product marketing is definitely its own beast with its own challenges, especially for first and solo PMMs. 

Now that I’m in a company that is very well organized and where PMM’s place is fully understood by leadership, I feel less of a need for this membership but I will be staying in the public Slack channel in case I need advice at some point, and of course maintain the network I was able to build thanks to it.

A little about me

After 4 ½ years working in digital lead generation and media buying at GroupM, managing millions of dollars of advertising spend, I decided to move on to customer success.

I started as a Project Manager for CrossKnowledge for two years before becoming the first CSM of the business and helping create the role, and then becoming the first (and only) PMM of the business, again creating the role. 

Now strong with 10 years of professional experience, 3 of which as a PMM, I’m building a career for myself at Skello, in this job I fell in love with.

Become a Pro+ member

Our Pro+ membership plan is the ultimate certifications and membership subscription for PMMs looking to fast-track their learning journey and soar to success.

With expert-led training, cutting-edge resources, and a supportive community of like-minded PMMs, you'll have everything you need to launch your career and tackle everyday PMM challenges with confidence.

What’s in the membership?

🔖 20+ certifications. Cutting-edge curriculums created with leading PMM experts. Positioning, pricing, storytelling, PMM leadership skills, and much more.

🛠 100+ templates. Save time, and work off industry-standard frameworks. Battle-tested and community-vetted templates.

🎟️ In-person events. A free ticket (RRP $1,295) to a Product Marketing Summit of your choice - the #1 way to stay up-to-date with the latest product marketing trends and grow your network overnight.

🔥 #1 PMM community. Solve challenges by leaning on the largest PMM community in the world. Share best practices, make life-long connections, and bounce ideas around with 50,000+ of your peers.

… And a whole lot more. 

So, what are you waiting for? 

Become a Pro+ member