Product Marketing Manager, Students - India
Adobe Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Software Development · 10,001+ employees
About the role
The role involves owning the end-to-end direct-to-student growth strategy for Adobe's creative products in India, including positioning, research, and funnel management. You will also lead community engagement programs and collaborate with product teams to optimize the user onboarding and retention experience.
What they look for
Requirements
Candidates must have at least 8 years of experience in product or growth marketing, ideally within the education technology or freemium product space. Strong analytical skills, experience with growth funnels, and a deep understanding of Gen Z student behavior are essential for this position.
Full description
Why this role exists
A large share of Adobe's education MAU opportunity in India is about students finding Express, Firefly, or Creative Cloud on their own, signing up, and sticking around. That motion has its own strategy, its own funnel, and its own competitive set, and it needs an owner who thinks about it as a strategy problem, not just a set of campaigns to run.
This role owns direct-to-student growth end to end - strategy, research, positioning, and execution - for students in India, independent of any single segment.
What you'll own
- Strategy & positioning: Set the direct-to-student GTM strategy and positioning for Adobe Express, Acrobat Express, Firefly, and Creative Cloud - where the growth actually is, which channels and moments matter, and how the free-tier story needs to evolve.
- Customer research: Understand student segments, needs, and behavior through direct research and interviews to find the specific use cases and moments that convert a discovery into a sign-up and a sign-up into repeat use.
- Advisory panels & pilots: Stand up and run student advisory panels and pilot/alpha/beta testing programs, feeding real student input back into product priorities and messaging before broad launch - not a one-time focus group, an ongoing input.
- Growth funnel: Strategize the acquisition-to-activation-to-retention funnel for direct student sign-ups - organic discovery, in-product growth loops, referral mechanics.
- Direct engagement programs: Design and run programs that reach students directly and digitally - campus ambassador networks, online design challenges and hackathons, and creator-community building - as always-on growth channels.
- Competitive tracking: Maintain a live, working view of direct-to-student offers from competition - pricing, positioning, and product depth - and turn it into a point of view on how Adobe's offer needs to move.
- Content & campaigns: Create persuasive content for marketing channels aimed at individual students - social, creator/influencer-led, community-driven - distinct from institutional or sales-facing collateral.
- Product collaboration: Partner with product on the free-to-active onboarding flow for self-serve student sign-ups - flag drop-off points, propose fixes, and work with product to test them.
What we're looking for
- 8 years of experience in product marketing or growth marketing and/or education technology, ideally with exposure to a consumer, prosumer, or freemium/PLG product;
- Proven strategic and analytical problem-solving, hypothesis-driven approach - has taken a growth or GTM strategy from a hypothesis to a validated plan;
- Funnel and data fluency - comfortable owning activation and retention funnels and working with product/data teams on experiment design.
- Community/advisory-panel experience - has built or scaled a community, ambassador, or peer-led program, and can talk about what didn't work, not just what did.
- Exceptional project management, communication, and writing skills, with the ability to manage relationships across product, data, PR, and social teams.
- First-hand understanding of what drives Gen Z/student attention and behaviour on the platforms they actually use.
How success is measured
Primary: direct-to-student MAU growth and activation rate (sign-up → active use), independent of segment. Secondary: retention/repeat-use within self-serve student cohorts, and efficiency of acquisition channels (ambassador programs, campaigns, panels) relative to the MAU they generate. Advisory panels and pilot programs are judged on whether they changed a real strategy or product decision.
About Adobe
Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe’s industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.
Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We’re on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.
Let’s Adobe together
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