The career path from product marketing to Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is quickly growing in popularity. However, there is no defined playbook for making that transition.
Associate Partner, Jason Goodwin, recently sat down with experienced marketing leaders who have made the journey themselves:
- Nicole Lindenbaum, Marketing Consultant
- Ben Kaplan, CMO at Nexxen
Our product marketing community in NYC had the opportunity to learn about their careers and field their own questions about long-term growth. In this article, we recount the key takeaways around:
- Why do PMMs make good CMOs?
- The skills you need to develop to become a marketing leader
Keep reading to learn more.
Why do Product Marketing Managers (PMM) make good CMOs?
Ask a room full of marketing leaders how to become a CMO and you'll get a variety of answers. Some come up through demand generation; others build their careers in brand, communications, or growth.
Increasingly, product marketing jobs provide a strong foundation for leadership because it sits at the heart of tech businesses. The nature of the role itself equips those professionals with the attributes required to go on and lead marketing within an organization.
The cross-functional nature
For Nicole Lindenbaum, one of the biggest advantages of product marketing is the role's inherently cross-functional nature. Product marketing is one of the most cross-functional teams in any business. They're constantly working across product management, sales, customer success, and marketing teams, developing a broad understanding of how different functions contribute to business success.
As Nicole explained, "In product marketing you have to build relationships across the business, and you also have to understand the other parts of the business and how they work. That cross-functional view, is so valuable for a leader."
That exposure becomes increasingly valuable as careers progress. While many marketing roles focus on a specific discipline, product marketers are often required to understand the entire go-to-market motion, from product development through to customer adoption. The result is a broader commercial perspective and a stronger appreciation for how decisions made in one area impact another.
Becoming the bridge between product and market
Ben Kaplan offered perhaps the clearest explanation of why product marketers are well positioned to move into leadership roles. Rather than defining product marketing purely around launches, messaging, or enablement, he described it as a bridge connecting different parts of the organization.
"I would define product marketing as being this two-way bridge. On the one side having product, engineering and partnerships, and on the other side having commercial teams, customers and prospects."
Importantly, that bridge works in both directions. Product marketers are responsible for bringing new products and ideas to market, but also with gathering feedback from customers, prospects, sales teams, and the wider market before translating those insights back into the business.
That balancing act develops skills that are critical for senior leadership. Future CMOs need to align competing priorities, synthesize large amounts of information, and ensure different teams are moving toward the same goals. Product marketers practice those behaviors every day.
Influence without authority
Another recurring theme throughout the conversation was influence.
Product marketers frequently need to drive action despite not directly managing those executing the work. Success depends on building relationships, earning trust, and persuading others to act.
While informal influence may not appear on a job description, it's one of the most valuable leadership skills a marketer can develop. By the time many step into product marketing leadership roles, they've already spent years aligning stakeholders, managing competing priorities, and creating momentum across teams without relying on reporting lines.
How product marketers can prepare for a CMO role
While a product marketing career provides an excellent foundation for leadership, both panelists were clear that moving into a CMO role requires expanding beyond traditional responsibilities.
One of the most common misconceptions about career progression is that leadership begins when you reach a certain point in your career. However, the leadership skills required at CMO level are often developed long before a formal title appears on a business card.
Below are some of the attributes our speakers suggested investing in.
Develop commercial fluency
For Nicole, one of the most important steps aspiring CMOs can take is building a stronger understanding of company commercials. Ultimately, product marketers spend their time developing positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategies, but CMOs are held accountable for growth. That means:
- Understanding how revenue is generated
- How pipeline is measured
- How marketing contributes to business performance
For product marketers, this might mean working closer with demand generation teams, taking the time to learn how they operate, understand their metrics, and spend time with revenue-focused colleagues to develop a broader commercial perspective.
Build strong relationships with sales
Equally, as marketers progress toward leadership positions, the relationship between marketing and sales becomes increasingly important. Future CMOs must understand the realities of customer conversations, buying behavior, and commercial performance. Sales teams provide one of the most valuable windows into that world.
Nicole was unequivocal on the importance of the relationship, stating, "It is the most important relationship you'll have as a marketing leader."
This means more than simply supporting sales requests. It means:
- Understanding how marketing can help drive revenue
- Learning how sales teams measure success
- Collaborating closely enough to understand what is helping or hindering commercial performance
Focus on business outcomes
A mindset shift is also required, moving away from activity and towards impact.
Many marketers naturally focus on outputs. As Ben summarized, "How many decks did I create? How many press releases did we have? How many events did we do? And that doesn't mean anything."
As careers progress, those outputs become less important than the results they generate. Instead, aspiring CMOs should focus on demonstrating measurable outcomes. Whether that means pipeline generated, revenue influenced, product adoption increased, or customer engagement improved, future marketing leaders need to be able to connect their work directly to business performance.
Ben summarized the importance of being commercially focused by saying, "If you don't define your impact, someone else is going to define it for you."
Ready to progress your career in product marketing?
We want to extend a huge thank you to our panelists for joining us in this discussion. If you’re looking for further career development support, get in touch with our specialist product marketing recruiters. With years of experience in the sector, they’re well-equipped to find you your next opportunity.
