Do You Need A Product Marketing Coach?

Everything you ever wanted to know about PMM coaching from one of the best in the industry

Product marketing can be a lonely business. It’s a function that’s often under-hired, with the ‘founding PMM’ (one person trying to do everything) a common role. Even at director level and above, you’re often treading unfamiliar water, given how nascent the discipline still is. So there’s always an opportunity to learn, and a need for some friendly support.

No surprise, then, that PMM coaching is on the rise.

Coaching isn’t a core part of my business, so for this week’s post I got in touch with one of the world’s leading coaches to get a definitive guide to how it all works.

Over the past four years, Yi Lin Pei has coached more than 300 product marketers and leaders. But her path into PMM, and later into coaching, wasn’t exactly planned. In our conversation, Yi Lin shared how she built her coaching practice, what makes great coaching work, and what PMMs should look for when choosing a coach.

For me, her advice to do your homework and check your coach’s credentials before making a commitment really stood out. Make sure your coach has the right experience for what you want to develop in. It’s a big investment, so you need to do your research. Let me know if I can be of any help with your search.

Read on for the full conversation with Yi Lin.

How did you get into product marketing?

I stumbled into it, like many of us do. My background was completely different. I was an engineer by training with an undergrad and master’s in civil engineering. After six years at a top consulting firm, working on multimillion dollar deals and on track to partner, I just hated it. I felt completely stuck.

So I quit and got my MBA at UC Berkeley. In my first marketing class (Marketing 101) I completely fell in love. Marketing perfectly combines the creative side with the analytical and business strategy side. It’s the perfect intersection of strategy, storytelling, data, and execution.

I landed a summer brand management position at Nestlé, which taught me the rigour of marketing. But I wanted to be in tech. The only role I could find was a content marketing manager position at Autodesk. Within six months, I leveraged my product marketing skills to literally position myself into a PMM role, creating messaging about why they should hire me. From there, I led three product teams, and became a PMM Director within three years.

But I don’t think accidents really happen by accident. We create those opportunities by taking risks. If I hadn’t recognised what I enjoyed most in my previous roles and acted on it, I never would have made the pivot.

What made you shift from doing PMM to coaching others?

As I grew in seniority, people naturally gravitated toward me for advice. During Covid, a marketer at my company came to me distressed. She was struggling with her manager, felt psychologically unsafe, and had nobody to talk to. I coached her through it. When I left the company, she sent me a note saying I’d changed the trajectory of her career. That was powerful. It validated this was one of my superpowers.

Being bored during lockdown, I started coaching as a side hustle. Within two years, it gave me even more energy than my day job as a director of PMM.

The lesson is finding a profession that combines your superpowers with a market need. If it’s just your superpower but there’s no market need, it’s not sustainable. If it’s just market need but you don’t enjoy it, that’s not great either. I’ve learned through trial and error that what I’m really good at is coaching and advising heads of PMM.

What can a good coach help a PMM achieve that they might struggle with alone?

Coaches help you cut through the noise because they see more clearly and they’ve been there before. It’s not that ‘coachees’ know nothing - they’re usually hardworking, smart, and knowledgeable. But they have blind spots. They might overthink, second-guess, or try to do everything.

A good coach helps with clarity, seeing the bigger picture, focusing on the right things, and providing accountability and structure. They push you to do things you might avoid and help you avoid things you shouldn’t do.

The outcomes are twofold: doing your job better and faster (or finding a different job), and transformation in mindset; feeling more confident. Many people who come to me have imposter syndrome, even at the VP level. A coach helps you take ownership, leverage imposter syndrome to achieve great things while diminishing its negative impact.

I achieve this through three key things in my coaching:

Structure.

Proven frameworks and systems that serve as the backbone. For instance, my job search system (free guide here) helps PMMs go from stuck to hired within three months, by focusing on targeting the right role, creating positioning for yourself, structured outreach to hiring managers, and my PSAR framework for answering questions. For clients starting a new role, I have a 90-day playbook I use to help them get more wins without burnout. Structure reduces clutter and helps you focus on what’s important.

Tactical solutions.

This is where coaching differs from courses. It’s tailored advice specifically for your business, team, and context. I dig deep here. Sometimes we’ll spend an hour going line-by-line through a messaging doc. “Why did you use this word and not that word? Is this a capability or a benefit?” That level of depth is what managers without specialised experience generally can’t provide.

Partnership and empathy.

For senior leaders especially, they don’t need me to teach them PMM - they need someone to bounce ideas off. Someone outside the company to give a fresh perspective. And there’s an element of creating a safe space. I’ve had clients break down in tears about being overwhelmed at work. As a coach, I need to create that space while staying professional and focused on work.

If a PMM is looking for a coach, what should they look for?

Let’s break this into must-haves and personal preferences. These are based on criteria I would use if I were to look for my own coach.

Must-haves:

Relevant background. Look for someone whose experience aligns with your stage and goals. My own spans consulting, large companies like Autodesk, and startups from 50 to 5,000 people, but I know I’m strongest coaching at small-to-mid stage companies.

Testimonials and reputation. Seek verified testimonials that describe real before-and-after impact from clients who have faced similar challenges as you.

Focus. Coaching works best when it’s not a side activity. Coaches who dedicate themselves full-time to one type of clients tend to develop mastery.

Approach clarity. A good coach should explain exactly how they’ll work with you and provide a customised and clear plan during your discovery call.

Realistic promises. A good coach should set the right expectations grounded in reality. I often hear from people who want to transition into PMM but sometimes it’s not immediately feasible given their background, but that doesn’t mean the door is closed. Instead, I’ll map out a longer-term path and concrete next steps.

Personal preferences:

Communication style. You need psychological safety, trust, and energy alignment. Some people want direct feedback; others want more nurturing validation. Jump on a discovery call to see if the style fits.

Challenge vs. cheerleading. They should challenge you, not just cheer you on. Growth often comes with discomfort. I tell clients upfront that there will be moments when I share hard truths or ask you to do things outside your comfort zone, and that’s where the real progress happens.

How is coaching different from mentoring?

That’s another common question I get. Mentorship is “let me tell you what worked for me.” Usually someone senior sharing their personal experience, and you infer how it applies to you. Coaching is “let me help you figure out what will work for you” - much more focused on your situation.

Mentorship is unstructured; you meet organically when it works for both parties. That’s why momentum can get lost if not nurtured over time. Coaching is structured - with timelines and accountability.

I truly believe there is a need and place for both mentorship and coaching. You seek coaching at key inflection or transitional points in your career, whereas you can seek and keep mentors throughout your life. To me, they are complementary and not a replacement.

What mistakes do people make when starting with a coach?

I think the biggest mistake I see is not being clear on goals. As a coach, I probe new clients before we start: what does success look like six months from now? A new job? More clarity? Less pressure? Those are very different things.

Beyond that, treating it as a one-time quick fix instead of a process. Anything worthwhile takes time. Even if the first session is super helpful, resolving everything takes practice and forming new habits. This means, as a coach, I need to set the right expectation and encourage my clients to make consistent progress and not just think about the end result.

Finally, as mentioned, I believe coaching delivers the best results when it’s focused on a dedicated period and a clear milestone - whether that’s landing a job, excelling in a new role, or preparing for a promotion. I don’t believe it should be something that goes on for a very long time (unlike therapy, for instance).

Clients take what they’ve learned, apply it, and return when they’re ready for the next stage. For example, I’ve worked with one PMM over the course of three years but only during key inflection points in his career: first supporting his job search, then his onboarding, and now, after a two-year gap, partnering with him again on building AI strategy and workflows.

One piece of advice for PMMs considering coaching for the first time?

Begin before you need it. Don’t wait for crisis mode. For instance, people might reach out when they’re already three months into a job and realise they are not doing well and have to turn things around

Another piece of advice is to be committed to uncomfortable work. Be clear on your questions or problems before signing up. That’s where growth happens.

I’ve been fortunate to have coaches throughout my life who helped me grow as a person and accelerate my career. Being able to help over 300 PMMs do the same has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. Whether coaching is right for you depends on where you are, but done right, it’s transformative. If you feel coaching might be right for you, reach out to me at any time. I am rooting for you.

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Yi Lin Pei is a product marketing coach based in NYC who has worked with over 300 PMMs and leaders across startups and enterprise businesses. Previously, she was the Director of Product Marketing at Teachable and received her MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.