We were seeing a lot of issues in the hiring funnel. Some times, we felt there was an issue with the quality of candidates we sourced. Sometimes, it was our hiring process. We created this when we felt that candidate sourcing was now on point - but we needed to get our interviewing and evaluation process sorted. Added to the fact that we need to hire many more product marketers!


These criteria were purely derived from the goals we have defined for product marketing + the key activities that must be done by product marketers every day. Keeping all of that in mind + by consulting with other stakeholders - we arrived at these criteria. This took around a week for me to put together and get buy-in from stakeholders.


There are, of course, candidates who favor a particular criterion as compared to others, and we are often tempted to hire them. But in the end, the final hires have always been the ones who stick to this weightage of criteria. We have found this to work the best, keeping in mind all the activities product marketers carry out at Beaconstac.


Candidates struggle the most with the assignment round. Most of our elimination happens at the assignment round and the 1st round with me (PMM). If the candidate clears these 2, there is a very high chance they might get selected.


Each criterion has been divided between the different interview rounds. There are some overlaps - but 'behavior' is something that is supposed to be evaluated by all interviewers. We found that's the best way to get a reading on this particular criterion.


Shireesh Gupta

This document sets the process of evaluating and hiring a product marketing specialist.

These criteria were purely derived from the goal

There are, of course, candidates who favor

 - Questions on 1. Product Activation 2. Landing page wire framing 3. Open-ended opinion-based questions

 - Product marketing manager (Hiring Manager)

Document formatting and information organization 

Information presented is contextual, useful, and not an internet mish-mash 

Customer centricity in solutions presented 

Opinionated and able to elucidate on the opinion? 

 characteristics and determine their ultimate well–roundedness/team fitment.

 - Do they understand various growth models? Can they see patterns in how revenue flows/funnel organization happens in their current org and extrapolate it to Beaconstac and other SaaS? 

 - Can they clearly and thoroughly talk about their product? Do they know competitors and differentiators? Are they deliberate on how they talk about the positioning and messaging of that product? 

 - How do they conduct and use it to generate valuable insights? 

Walk through a page they have created/or assignment wireframe and understand the thought process behind it + copy that goes into it + design skills 

 - Can they explain their work, are critical about it, and can effectively convey a point without being vociferous? 

 - Are they personable, friendly, conversational, and open to feedback? 

Interview 2 - Director, Inbound marketing

: Question the process they follow for copywriting and landing page creation. What do they think they lack here? 

Walk through an instance where they could identify a point during research and how they did they get it implemented OR ask how they outlined the questions to be asked during a user interview 

 - Walkthrough their understanding of Beaconstac after doing the assignment. 

 - Provide harsh and negative feedback - and check how they defend their position. 

- Are they grammatically correct when speaking? Are they talking forever to get to the point? 

Interview 3 - Director, Product management

Ask them opinions on what can be done more on Beaconstac? What do they think are issues with the product/its positioning and messaging? Ask them to compare two popular SaaS like Canva and Figma. 

Present them with a scenario for creating a landing page creation SaaS. How do they approach the market and user research for it? 

 - Do they know what other teams in their org are doing? Ask them about collaboration instances and how they have managed differing opinions in the past. 

 - Check what they think would be the headlines and sub-headlines on a PRD doc, evaluating the aptness of launching a notion docs-like feature on Figma. 

- Point out issues in their reason for leaving their current company. How do they defend themselves? 

Ask them to share instances of projects where their copywriting load was high. How did they organize themselves? How did they get reviews and incorporate them? How did you measure its success? Walk through their assignment and observe how they respond to your suggestions on copy improvements - can they incorporate it? 

Ask them how they break down large projects and how they set milestones. What pros and cons do they think they possess in their documentation skills? 

 - Do you see them as easy to work with peers? Ask them to point out an issue with their current manager and how they deal with it. 

Product Marketing Specialist Candidate Evaluation at Beaconstac

Characteristics we should evaluate product marketers on

Structure -

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