Learner of the month, April 2023 | Kripa Sitaraman, VMware

Following the achievements of March’s learner of the month, Minesh Patel, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Vertex, Inc., we’re thrilled to announce that Kripa Sitaraman, Market Competitive Analyst, Product Marketing at VMware, is our learner of the month for April.

A self-declared advocate of holistic education, Kripa developed her product marketing knowledge and credentials following the completion of Product Marketing Certified: Core.

During our discussion with Kripa, she revealed:

• How she got into product marketing
• Which parts of the Product Marketing Certified: Core she found most useful
• How she’s implementing her learnings in her day-to-day responsibilities
• Advice for would-be students
• Plans for her product marketing career

Tell us a bit about your career to date and how you got into product marketing

I come from a corporate marketing and digital marketing background where I spent four years doing social media and community management work.

I realized, working at a tech company that I wanted to be closer to the product itself. I went back to grad school and started a new role about 10 months ago as a competitive intelligence analyst on the product marketing team at VMware.

I've always loved the creativity of marketing and the customer-facing work of community management.

In my new role, I can continue to do that while applying my economics undergraduate background and grad school degree to help understand the analytical side of product marketing and bring trends and relevant competitive information back to my executives, product, and sales teams through managing our win/loss program.

What did you find most useful from the course(s)?

The win/loss module. It was directly applicable to my new role and supplemented what I was learning on the job. It gave me some concrete parameters to consider and work with and I was building out a relatively new program within our organization. I was able to apply what I was learning immediately and directly to my role.

Do you have any examples of how you've implemented what you've learned into your day-to-day role?

One of the best points of information that was mentioned was "in order for win/loss trend identification to be valuable, you need to have at least 10 interviews as your sample size."

I started using this as a metric to decide interviews and then start to identify trends that I've been reporting back to audiences of over 200 in the past two months.

What advice would you give to others thinking about enrolling in a course?

Look through the learning objectives of the courses you are interested in and see if they match your career goals. Find the course(s) that meet your needs and goals and go in with an open mind and willingness to learn and you'll be surprised at how much you'll pick up.

What's next for you in your product marketing career?

Expanding my area of expertise past win/loss and using the knowledge that I've acquired thanks to Product Marketing Alliance to strengthen my skill set

Join Kripa and get Product Marketing Certified

Trusted by the world’s biggest brands, Product Marketing Certified: Core's the industry standard, the catalyst to your success, and the only companion you need for personal and professional growth.

From research to optimization, Product Marketing Core explores the A to Z of product marketing, and with Product Marketing Core in your pocket, you’ll have a richer understanding of the what, why, and how of every product marketing principle. And that’s a promise.

From pricing strategies, market research, OKRs and KPIs, to personas, messaging and positioning, and Go-to-Market strategies, Product Marketing Core has it all. If you’re a current or aspiring product marketing manager, this course will show you how to successfully promote and sell your product to give you that competitive product edge.

You’ll learn how to truly embody the voice of the customer. You’ll master the art of getting products to market - and keeping them there. You’ll understand how to roll out, test, and iterate everything you do. You’ll walk away with career-enhancing hacks and skills. You’ll get all this and so much more. All on your watch.

Unlock the cutting-edge information and frameworks you need to succeed within the fast-evolving world of product marketing with our fully comprehensive and revised certification.