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A free tool · Product marketing

The product marketing competency framework.

Product marketing gets judged on launches, which tells you almost nothing about whether the underlying craft is there. This scores fourteen competencies, from positioning and pricing through go-to-market execution to the leadership side, with five written levels each.

It is the same ladder used for product and design, so if you sit across those functions the scores are comparable rather than three different scales.

Free, and it stays free. No sign-up, no email, no paywall halfway through. It runs in your browser and nothing leaves this page unless you choose to share it.

Customer and market understanding: 3 (role asks for 4)Data gathering and analysis: 4 (role asks for 5)Business acumen: 3 (role asks for 4)Leadership: 2 (role asks for 3)Collaboration: 4 (role asks for 5)Building relationships: 3 (role asks for 4)Effective communication: 4 (role asks for 5)Positioning and pricing: 2 (role asks for 3)GTM strategy and execution: 3 (role asks for 4)Domain expertise: 4 (role asks for 5)Deliver on commitments: 3 (role asks for 4)Own the results: 2 (role asks for 3)Lean delivery: 4 (role asks for 5)Developing others: 3 (role asks for 4)

Fourteen petals, one per competency. The pale outline is the role you are aiming at.

What it covers

14 competencies, each with five written levels, so you are picking the paragraph that sounds like your week rather than guessing at a number.

  • Positioning and pricing
  • GTM strategy and execution
  • Lean delivery
  • Customer and market understanding
  • Data gathering and analysis
  • Business acumen
  • Domain expertise
  • Leadership
  • Collaboration
  • Building relationships
  • Effective communication
  • Deliver on commitments
  • Own the results
  • Developing others

What you measure against

Your scores get held against the real profile of each role, so the gap you see is the gap to a job rather than to an average.

  • Junior Product Marketing Manager
  • Product Marketing Manager
  • Senior Product Marketing Manager
  • Manager, Product Marketing
  • Director, Product Marketing

Who it is for

PMMs who keep being measured on launches rather than on craft

Marketers moving from campaigns into product marketing properly

Leaders working out whether they need a senior PMM or two junior ones

Anyone whose positioning work keeps getting overruled and wants to know why

What you walk away with

A ranked read of the gaps between you and the role above

A shared scale with product and design, so cross-functional reviews line up

Level descriptions you can quote in a promotion case

A direct handover into the development plan

Who made this

I spent twenty years building product teams, most recently as VP Product at the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisor, and I now work with businesses and people on product, AI and careers from Vancouver. These are the levels I used to run real development conversations, refined over years of using them, not a framework I found in a book.

Fill it in and send it to me if you want a second read. I read them myself and reply.

Next in the same garden

The 6 Week AI Challenge for marketersSix weeks of small experiments, each one a different way of using AI in marketing work.Individual development planPick the gaps that are actually blocking you and sequence the moves.Product manager competency frameworkThe same ladder for your product counterparts.

Know exactly where you stand.

It takes about the length of a cup of tea, and nothing is stored anywhere.

Gourdanen · Vancouver, Canada · Back to the garden · Privacy