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You won’t find many product marketers with advanced certifications in the technologies they market, but we found one. Our guest is Dena Bauckman, director of product marketing for email encryption provider Zix Corp. in Dallas. Dena has held similar titles at Sterling Commerce and BancTec, and got her start in IT marketing at HP, back in the days when that was a great place to work. Dena has worked at Zix for more than a decade, starting out in the product management area where she was motivated to get her CISSP security credential to help her better understand the underlying security technologies that are part of her products.

Not a typical career arc, and Bauckman’s perspective on the interplay between product marketers, corporate marketers and product managers is distinctive. She stresses how all parties need to understand where each other is coming from and be tuned in to their needs and schedules. For example, product managers are always worrying about what are the features that are going to be built into the next version. Which is great until the time comes to release and promote the current version.

We hear from Bauckman about why having technical savvy is an good asset in a marketing position, and how it helped her become a better communicator, especially with prospective customers. She also talks about what it is like to start a product marketing operation from scratch, even at an established company such as Zix.

About David Strom

David Strom is a former editor-in-chief of Network Computing and Tom's Hardware who has written two computer networking books and thousands of articles about B2B IT.

About Paul Gillin

Paul Gillin, host of FIR B2B, is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. Full bio