Hi everyone! Below are the key points of my profile:
I have been working since 2015 where I was an early key employee at a digital entertainment company taking it from a small startup to India’s leading firm in that category. I led business development there. (would that count as product led? Is there a specific definition from Tech Nation on what they consider as product led company?)
Then switched to marketing for around 9 months. And did my MBA from 2019-2021.
And since then I have been in product marketing in big tech companies in USA in the GenAI and DevTools space.
My main question is - Should I go for exceptional promise or exceptional talent? Total marketing experience is less than 5 years and if the startup doesn’t count as product led, then total experience would be less than 5 years as well.
I am seeing mixed responses on the forum where someone got rejected because they applied for exceptional promise while having more than 5 years of experience while others applied for promise and still got talent.
Below is the list of evidence I am planning:
LOR 1: Head of product marketing at my company, previous CMO, also a limited partner at venture capital firm
LOR 2: Founder of a digital entertainment and a gaming streaming company
LOR 3: Founder of a developer blogging platform
MC:
High salary
Led the marketing of innovating GenAI and DevTools product at a product-led digital technology company, demonstrably enabling substantial revenue and/or customer growth or major commercial success
Evidence can include:
A. Screenshots of work done by me on marketing strategy of the product
B. Media coverage of the product (I work in big tech so it won’t have my name).
C. Use LOR1 as proof where my head of product marketing can confirm I led work on those products’ marketing
Media articles and thought leadership but they were published in March and I will apply in April. Would the recency be an issue? And if so, are the first two evidences enough?
OC1 Innovation:
Product feedback to build AI services by working with expert developers and service team (PMs, engineers) – evidence can be screenshot of slack conversation to show I led feedback sessions and letter of support from one such developer expert showcasing how that process led to innovative products. Can supplement that with customer or media coverage of those products talking about their innovation (but the media coverage won’t mention my name)
OR
Conceptualizing and leading a developer innovation day event for the first time at a big tech company and exceeding the goals – evidence letter of support from one of the speakers, screenshot of email to show work led by me and the results
Can not show any audited numbers or actual sales number since it is a big company. Are those mandatory? What do people do who work in companies where you can’t share confidential data?
OC2 A recognition of work outside of the immediate occupation:
Mentoring – can get letter of support from grad school counselor that I have been mentoring grad students. Can get letter of support from another mentoring platform that I have been mentoring since last year voluntarily to support professionals returning to work
Judging hackathons – judged a couple of hackathons this month and one last year. Would the timeline count?
Did couple of podcasts, two articles covering my work, and a thought leadership article. All in March – Would this not count? And if not, is mentoring and judging hackathons enough?
OC3 Impact:
Led a major product category for the biggest cloud event in the world handling hundreds of session strategies, launches, customer conversations etc – evidence can be letter of support from a senior level team member (do they need to have a big public profile for letter of support?), show press coverage of the event and announcements, and email/slack screenshots showing some of my conversations/work on the event
Hackathon judges
Doing an in-person panel in mid-April for a leading product marketing community. Planning on submitting the application right after. Would the recency count?
Can only count hackathon in either OC2 or OC3. Based on the above evidence, which OC should I go for along with OC1?
Have seen great feedback from you folks and really appreciate you helping everyone here. Would you be kind enough to go over my profile and provide feedback?
Tech Nation only counts the experience in Digital technology sector only.
Hackathon is usually a weak evidence. OC2 and oc3 are not much relevant. Someimtes you can put them in your CV or a small part of your MC.
My comments:
I think your application is still need revise. You should definitely need to read through the Tech Nation guideline more thoroughly (same link as above) as it is the only single source of truth anyway.
Regardless of your break, If your combined time working for a digital technology company is more than 5 years then apply for talent.
MC evidence 2, aside the reference letter, how do you prove that the work was done by you?
MC 3, recent articles close to the time of application are not sufficient.
Using Slack conversation is untidy, it is not structured and doesn’t prove innovation. Do you have patent on the product?
To add to all of this, mentoring in a school is not considered a good evidence.
Organizing a conference tend to be weak unless you can show how that creates an impact as a leader. Speaking at a conference tends to be stronger.
I will make sure that for each criteria, I get a letter of reference from people at the company proving I did the work and the impact it made along with email screenshots. And not treat recent media coverage or hackathons as major evidence.
In terms of recommendation letter, I have a specific question. Can it from a Chief product officer and board member in a decent sized startup in UK (more than 50 employees)? We have never worked together but he knows me from industry events and we are part of a large tech community. He has seen me contributing to marketing and growth discussions there plus advising early stage founders on Go-to-market strategies, helping some of these startups gain user traction.
Generic question is if it is better to get atleast one letter of recommendation from someone you have never worked with to show you know people in the industry outside of work? And if yes, can they talk about your overall work and impact that they have seen or have to give example of specific projects that you worked together on?
Thanks. Any idea on the kind of content in a recommendation letter from someone you didn’t work directly with? They obviously won’t be able to go into details about your key projects since they never worked with you. So, is it okay to talk about your work and impact on a general / surface level and that they know all this through common connections or seeing your work in community? For ex. - The referee introduced me to some of his founder friends that I advised without an official capacity. I helped those startups with their initial Go-to-market strategy and increased their product adoption.
Can he talk about such things or have to go into details about what those startups were and the exact result quantitatively?
Thank you for the feedback so far, @alexnk@LizzyOrji@Francisca_Chiedu. Based on the feedback, below is the application package I am looking to go with. Please let me know if you think these evidences work for Exceptional Promise category.
Going with Exceptional Promise rather Talent. I have 7.5 years of experience but more than 3 years of that was with a non-product led company (it was a video production company making videos for social media and for brands).
LOR 1: Head of product marketing at my company, previously CMO, also a limited partner at venture capital firm
LOR 2: Founder of two companies. One is India’s largest digital entertainment and the other is India’s largest e-streaming company
LOR 3: Founder of one of the biggest developer blogging platforms in the world
MC:
High salary - joining letter, equity, comparison of average salary on GlassDoor and conversion to British pounds.
Led the marketing of innovating GenAI and DevTools Product A at the biggest cloud company in the world, demonstrably enabling substantial revenue and/or customer growth or major commercial success
Evidence includes:
A. Screenshots of work done by me on marketing strategy of the product
B. Media coverage of the product (I work in big tech so it won’t have my name).
C. Letter of reference from sales head verifying my work and impact
D. Use LOR1 also as proof where my head of product marketing can confirm I led work on those products’ marketing
Led the marketing of product B to increase adoption of an innovative DevTool product amongst early stage startups in the world
Evidence:
A. Email screenshots of the work
B. Letter of reference by the Lead startup solution architect verifying my work and impact
Panelist at a big developer marketing event with a letter from the organizer verifying more than 100 attendees and the impact of my talk. Two media articles covering my work. But both the panel and articles are recent (published in March and April). Mentoring – Letter of support from the founder of a mentoring platform that I have been mentoring since last year to support professionals returning to work
OC1 Innovation:
Built and led feedback loops to build new AI services by working with expert developers and service team (PMs, engineers)
Evidence:
A. Screenshot of email and slack to show I led feedback sessions
B. Letter of reference from lead Developer advocate at the company verifying my work and impact
C. Media coverage of those products talking about their innovation (but the media coverage won’t mention my name)
Conceptualized and lead a marquee marketing moment via a developer innovation day event for the first time at a big tech company to improve Product awareness and adoption
Evidence:
A. Letter of reference from one of the speakers of the event
B. Screenshot of email to show work led by me and the results and global management of the big tech company praising my work and impact
OC3 Impact:
Led a major product category for the biggest cloud event in the world handling leading strategy, messaging of session strategies, launches, customer conversations etc
Evidence:
A. Letter of support from a senior level team member verifying my work and impact
B. Media coverage of the event and announcements
C. Email/slack screenshots clearly showing my work and impact
Led the product growth at Company B
Evidence:
A. Letter of reference from Director of product marketing at that company (he has also left the company since then)
B. Evidence of employment contract at company B with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings
You application is full of letters, what about the actual evidence. How do you demonstrate leadership recognition, innovation and impact?
Articles where you name is not mentioned doesn’t add value. Also don’t use any of your LOR to support your evidence. All evidence must be unique. I think for MC, you marketing strategy fits and the reference letter fits more into OC3. Aside the strategy how do you show it contributed to revenue growth?
For innovation, are you an founder or executive or an employee working in new digital field?
@Francisca_Chiedu - I am in product marketing at a big tech company (FAANG). I am showing work impact and leadership by detailing the big projects that I led that contributed to innovation and impact. For evidence, I am matching that with screenshots of my work and letter of reference of senior colleagues,
What other way is there to show proof? I can’t use financial statements of the company because of confidentiality.
As PMMs, we decide the marketing strategy but also lead the entire execution. So, I have detailed how how I started with strategy but also executed the actual strategy by making campaigns, doing sales enablement to prepare the sales team on how to sell, did positioning and messaging to make it clear on how the product stands out, Didi digital marketing and events etc
If you think that is better suited for OC3, then what kind of things should be mentioned in MC1? Should it be less about a certain project and more about the generic impact of your work?
MC should be more of your recognition as a leader, it should not be limited to your significant contribution at work but sector. Do you have conference speaking, award or publications?
As @Francisca_Chiedu said, you are better off putting your speaking engagement in the mandatory criteria. If possible put in all your best evidence in the mandatory criteria.
Optional criteria is designed to offer support to the mandatory criteria.
Mandatory criteria scores higher points in terms of evaluation.
Sadly, the bar is high for promise in as much as it is hight for talent.