[Endorsed] Product Marketing Manager - Exceptional Promise Experience

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Hi all!

I received an endorsement for Exceptional Promise a few weeks ago and wanted to share my non-technical business POV since when I was building my application I found these summary posts so helpful.

My first application was rejected for MC and OC1 but was approved for OC3. You can read the way I structured that unsuccessful application in this post.

My second application which was successfully endorsed was structured like this:

LoR: Dean of an Ivy League School of Public Health (met through Company 1)
LoR: Former VP of a trading tech company (met in the industry)
LoR: COO of Company 2

MC

  1. Reference Letter: from my CMO and boss

  2. Proof of High Earnings: Included my Company 1 and 2 equity grants, and my current Company 2 salary compared to a Glassdoor average PMM salary (with dollar-to-pound conversions underneath!)

  3. Industry Award: Showed the email and website announcement indicating I was a finalist for a tech product marketing award

  4. Industry Recognition: Showed screenshots of the announcement of a panel I was on due to my experience at Company 1 in health tech, a letter from the organizer, and an explanation of what other companies participated in the event (to prove it was about digital tech).

OC1

  1. Reference Letter: from CPO and boss at Company 1

  2. Product Innovation: This one is the most complex piece of evidence I had. I walked through Innovation in Development by succinctly explaining why the company was first-of-its-kind and included screenshots from the backend of how I researched and mapped out some of the machine-learning capabilities. My next page (‘Innovation and Impact in Health Tech’) included screenshots from the research I was able to generate with our functional product, and the final page showed proof of the product in market. I also included a quote from Evidence 5 to remind reviewers that this has all been confirmed by the CPO.

  3. Recognition for Innovations: I showed screenshots of presenting the research mentioned in Evidence 6 and a quote from a LoR that confirmed I was in a lead role and my work spurred new research. Finally, I showed screenshots of articles in Forbes and Yahoo Finance about the company’s Series A raise that describe the product I contributed to as “innovative”

OC3 (Untouched from first application, where it already met the criteria)

  1. Reference letter: from the CEO of Company 2

  2. Marketing Metrics: Showed increases in Company 2 SEO and page views from pieces I wrote or campaigns I ran

  3. Quantifiable Impact: This included Company 2 product launch metrics, influenced revenue, and influenced customers (customers who had interacted with the materials I created)

I (think) I got 2 edits total. They were about 2 days apart and then the acceptance was two days after that.

Some advice I learned from the first time around:

  1. Leave nothing up to interpretation. My first reviewers were confused about the language of my panel talk (‘health care entrepreneurship’ rather than ‘health-tech’), the seniority of my role at my first start-up, and what I actually contributed to vs innovated.

  2. Neat and aesthetic documents really do help. The second time around, I used Canva to have nicely colored backgrounds, drew clean boxes around the important parts of screenshots, and used clearly explained sentences/paragraphs with arrows to indicate the relevant information on a screenshot. I also titled every page within each page of evidence so the reviewer would know exactly what part of the criteria I was addressing. And of course - spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck!

  3. Back up everything with a reference letter. I used multiple letters of reference to corroborate the story I was telling and it added more weight to the screenshots of evidence I had. Showing a metric is one thing, but the CEO of a company saying how much it impacted the product’s success is another.

  4. Be specific. Be specific in exactly what you are saying about your own pieces of evidence, but also in how you interpret the guide. I constantly used the guide’s own language and sent the Tech Nation explanations to people who wrote my LoRs and reference letters so they could understand exactly the goal of what they were trying to write. For example, the reference letter my former CPO provided really emphasized the innovations and why they were both difficult and important, while my CEO wrote specifically referenced pieces of my OC3 evidence to highlight their significance.

  5. Remember, if you are applying for promise, you are trying to prove one OC statement, not several. The last time I applied I tried to give multiple examples for OC1 across different companies rather than very clearly building an argument that proved I specifically contributed to innovation for one product in multiple ways (product level, research level, industry impact/first-of-its-kind tech). Focus less on putting in too much unconnected evidence and more on building a powerful argument about specific accomplishments or companies.

  6. Learn from your mistakes! Carefully looking at rejection and appeal feedback can get you the endorsement! My first round rejection (and appeal rejection) gave me exactly what I needed to successfully obtain the Global Talent visa.

Wishing everyone a very happy end to 2023! Happy to answer any questions - this is a hard endeavor and if you put your mind to it you will get there in the end!

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Congratulations :star_struck: can definitely see the improvement in the successful application

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hey! congrats. were your LoR referrals the same as the ones in your evidence? or are they all different people.

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Different! I had a total of 7 letters from 7 people - 3 for LoR, 3 in evidences (one for MC, OC1, and OC3) and a letter at the end of one of my evidences confirming panel attendance and my expertise.

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@ellagna - Hi Ella! Congrats on the endorsement. For your reference letter, I saw one of them was by a friend/mentor that you didn’t directly work with. I was advised to only include those that there had been a direct work relationship with.

What kind of content did you put in for that letter of recommendation to prove that referee knew your work well?

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@anubhav_rao Hi! I’m not sure which letter you’re referring to, but assuming you are speaking about my LoR from a top professional in FinTech.

I actually did work with her at a consulting firm, but we both moved on to similar crypto companies and ended up collaborating through our work there. So she wasn’t just a mentor - she did know my work intimately, as is required by Tech Nation.

Another LoR was from a distinguished mentor my first company had, who worked with me on research and facilitated some of my industry presentations. So again, knew my work intimately but was not necessarily a part of the company.

I think it is important to not have letters of recommendations solely from people who managed you or are at your company. Your job is to show your reviewer that you are recognized in digital technology industry, so only having letters from companies you have worked at may not illustrate this. I hope this helps!

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That makes sense. For people outside your company, should the focus be on the impact of your work or they have to show that they know you did that work and how you did it?

Also, were all the letters on a letterhead or the more important thing is to have a digital signature?

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The focus for mine was on the impact of my work in the industry and how I am an exceptional talent, but it was framed in the context of actual work I did and why it was important. All letters but two were on a letterhead, and I had the recommenders insert a digital signature in their computer Preview or photo app, then they sent it to me, then I had them DocuSign it next to their original signatures and attached the certificates for each letter.

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Hi Ellagna! @ellagna

Thanks for sharing your story here; it was an absolute influence and motivation for me. I am currently working as a Product Manager at a Crypto AI company and preparing for my application. I would love your opinion on my pieces of evidence. Can I reach out to you directly from any channel? (Email/telegram/linkedin etc)

I will also share my application on the forum. However, I’d appreciate any personal feedback since I can’t share the documents here.

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Hey!! @batuhanaktas Sorry, I’m not able to look at your specific documents right now, but happy to take a look at your list of evidences and give you any feedback!! Just point me towards where that info is :slight_smile:

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Hey @ellagna, thanks a lot for your response, it means a lot :slight_smile:

I put my list under this topic : Product Manager - Exceptional Promise Experience, Looking for Feedbacks and Suggestions

Appreciate any feedback from you!

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I’ve replied with feedback!! Hope it’s helpful, but feel free to message if you have more questions.