The Product Marketing 101 class I taught at Station Houston.
I’ve served as a product marketing mentor over the five years. I advise domestic and international start-ups on digital content and marketing strategy. After many face-to-face sit-downs with budding entrepreneurs, I’ve learned a valuable career lesson: mentoring is mutually beneficial for the mentee and mentor. The mentee obtains the knowledge needed to improve a product and/or service; the mentor receives first-hand insight into “on the ground problems.” As a practitioner, I encourage all to mentor — even if just a handful of times a year. You’ll find that the interaction jump starts productivity and improves your quality of work.
I am reading Bill Aulet’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Start-Up. To be candid, when I picked it up, I thought, “Ah, another start-up ‘help’ book.” I was hooked halfway through the first chapter. Aulet’s observations fit my experiences as a mentor and entrepreneur. Step into a bustling incubator and feel positive feedback loop energy. I learn from them; they learn from me. Most importantly, what I don’t know, I look up later and file away in my brain.
A valuable mentor observes, facilitates, and participates in the positive feedback loop. And, mentors (arguably) get better at the “instructors have to improve” step in the process. The questions my mentees ask are focused and poignant. I feel as though I help and I walk away with homework. I research their company’s software products and new marketing platforms in beta. The 1x1 conversations drive my decision to learn and stay relevant.
When I spoke with a colleague about the mentorship homework I receive, he asked, “Did not knowing about a new software make you feel inadequate?” No, quite the contrary. Information flows quickly every day; it is impossible to keep up with new developments. And, anyone who claims to know EVERYTHING is probably dumb. Mentoring helps me keep a pulse of what’s happening in a burgeoning tech community, and, it makes me a better professional for it.