AMA: Asana Head of Global Product Marketing, Eric Bensley on Building a Product Marketing Team

30 days - learn the business 60 days - first big win/deliverable (ie Webinar, enablement session, campaign, etc) 90 days - create a plan moving forward for product or solution area

The key here is aligned metrics. Pipeline is the only one that spans all stakeholders and therefore is a higher priority. More detail here: 1) PMM WITH SALES KR = Pipe. Created and influenced. Deliverable = Selling content, sales plays, sales programs, sales enablement 2) PMM WITH CSM KR = RETENTION AND EXPANSION. COMPANIES MEASURE THESE DIFFERENTLY. Deliverable = Content (decks, one pagers), enablement 3) PMM WITH MARKETING KR = impressions, leads, pipe Deliverable = key messaging, campaign content 4) PMM WITH PRODUCT KR = market penetration, impressions on key product news, pipe Deliverable = business/customer insight to drive roadmap, product launches, product GTM assets/pdfs

Ability to get stuff done while also driving strategy. To me, a PMM leader still needs to roll up their sleeves and driving a keynote deck, create foundational messaging for a team, get in front of customers. The messaging/positioning muscle atrophies fast. When interviewing potential leaders, I always probe into recent projects to understand how hands on they are, what they actually did vs directed, and if they have passion for the discipline. Good PMM leaders will always need to get hands on for key projects and not all of them are great at jumping in.

When it relates to global teams, it's very important to understand the differences between each region. The biggest challenge supporting global teams is usually that they want something very different than what you have available in HQ. And the key question to ask your global team leads is this: do you want content/programs bespoke for your region or do you want to leverage the key programs we're driving from HQ? In my experience, if it's a small team, you have to leverage what's being done in HQ. If you have a larger team, you can start to build out more bespoke regional content.

what works? -knowing the customer/buyer better than any other mktg function -aligning each team member to one of the following: 1) buyer persona, 2) product, 3) channel. -getting feedback on goals and team structure early and often from other marketing leaders -aligning teams/people to key stakeholders: Sales, Product what doesn't work? -talking generically about messaging and positioning -saying you partner closely with other functions but not clearly outlining ownership areas -thinking everyone understands PMM, it's still different at most companies so start simple explaining it

Such a good question and there's lots of ways I could answer. But I'll stick with my tried and true, find the executive stakeholders that need it most, and solve for their pain points fast. In my experience, here they are: -Sales leader - AEs do well 1:1 but they don't scale. The question to answer here is how good product marketing helps drive more quality pipeline and how good product marketing can help them scale their team up with a consistent narrative. -Product leader - Know the product super well and the space but are almost always underwhelmed with how much coverage their product gets in the market. The question to answer here is how you can amplify what they're doing in news, campaigns, sales pitch decks, etc. -CMO - There are so many things going on across a marketing org, it's really hard to calibrate what's working and how to have more impact. The question to answer here is how you could have more impact as an org with consistent and integration marketing programs. And the great thing is over time, you can start to scale your team out to support these different stakeholders. For instance, alignment to sales leadership is often called GTM PMM and alignment to product leadership is often called core PMM. Get wins with these stakeholders and then ask for more people to support it as you grow.

I've found aligning to key stakeholders is the most bullet proof option. There are many different variations but here are the ones that I've seen work most often: Core PMM -> Product GTM PMM -> Sales Corp Mktg -> Exec Partner PMM -> Business Development Make sure every team and person is aligned to a key stakeholder in the company.

Be transparent with your team. I share notes from almost every meeting I'm in throughout the day. I've never gotten feedback about oversharing so my disposition is to take the team along as we make changes. No surprises. My experience is people are always open to roll with changes if they understand when and why they are happening.

Listen more than you talk. Don't ever pretend you know another geo market better than the folks living and breathing it.

I'll list out things I always look for and example questions that help me answer: -Key partner alignment - who are your most important stakeholders in your current role? How do you manage the relationship? -Content quality - what work are you most proud of in your career? Can you send me a link to it after our conversation and walk me though why you're so proud of the work? -Collaborative disposition - [insert question you're currently thinking through in your day to day] See what it's like to talk through a challenge with the candidate.