A Day In The Life Of A Group Manager Product Marketing At Cisco
A day for Stephanie, a Group Manager of Product Marketing at Cisco, involves extensive internal coordination, acting as "the glue" between product management, engineering, various marketing teams (email, social, web, etc.), and sales. This role centers on aligning messaging, ensuring teams have necessary information, and gathering field feedback to inform product launches and ongoing campaigns, highlighting the critical relationship-building aspect of the position.
Project Management, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, Marketing
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Stephanie Sosa
Group Manager, Product Marketing
Cisco
UCLA
N/A
Anthropology, Sociology
Technology
Communication and Marketing
Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. A Group Manager, Product Marketing at Cisco spends their day aligning internal teams towards common goals.
2. Collaboration is key; they work with product managers, cross-functional marketing partners (email, social media, web, integrated marketing, and demand generation), and sales teams.
3. A significant part of the role is internal planning, coordination, and ensuring everyone has the necessary information to successfully bring products to market, acting as a relationship builder and glue across the organization.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a product marketing group manager look like?
There are a lot of meetings. All jokes aside, my day really looks like, "How do I bring all of my internal teams together to align on a common goal?"
Honestly, what that looks like on a day-to-day basis is making sure my product managers are in line. Are they aligned with our messaging? What does the timing of that product look like? Is engineering on track?
I also have meetings with our other cross-functional marketing partners. When you're creating a marketing campaign to bring a product to market, we, as PMMs, are not always the people who execute. We have to lean on our marketing partners across email, social, web, integrated marketing, and demand gen.
A lot of my day consists of ensuring those teams have the information they need. What are their priorities? Do they understand the messaging and the positioning? Do they have questions as we think about ongoing evergreen campaigns? It's not always about a new launch. How can I provide them with that messaging, guidance, and product expertise?
The last group I interact with daily or weekly is sales. We get consistent feedback from the field about what's working and what's not. When you plan for big launches, a lot of it is internal planning, internal coordination, and ensuring everyone has the right information.
I always joke with my team that we are the relationship builders and the glue across the entire internal organization. So, lots of meetings and getting everybody on the same page.