AMA: Clari VP, Corporate and Product Marketing, Julien Sauvage on Building a Product Marketing Team

I follow these 5 steps: 1. I hire the "crème de la crème" players 2. I think through the best PMM org design 3. I methodically stay aligned with our cross-functional partners 4. I communicate the team’s value and impact to the C-suite 5. I stay laser-focused on measuring success and impact, not volume and activity 6. I plan strategically

While I love this question, I also think that a PMM dashboard has to mirror the company business dashboard! PMM influences every aspect of the business. As such, the PMM OKRs have to map the big strategic initiatives of your company. Metrics I like to see on such a dash: * Category Awareness (DLs, views, mentions) * Pipe Influenced by PMM campaigns (assets, launches) * Win Rates (to competitor, status quo, conversion, velocity) * Revenue (ASP Growth, ACV from NPI, deal cycles) * Product Adoption (MAU, WAU, DAU, page views, clicks)

Same as everyone else. Do more or better with less. With that, we all have to stay extremely focused on: * Team and individual business impact (not activity) * Team's morale and keeping it fun * Tools, process and tech to help automate some of the tasks - e.g., AI.

Simple. By showing impact. And you would show impact in an always-on dashboard (online), or deck. Then, overcommunicate. Keep it fun and playful. Send a monthly newsletter to your stakeholders. Talk about what's next. And worked, what didn't. Be authentic and show focus, passion, accountability and commitment!

Great question! First off, it's mostly with the PM team, less so with Eng. The PM<>PMM relationship has to be symbotic. I typically like mapping a PMM to a Group PM (managing several individual PMs), and these "pods" then have a weekly cadence and do a global readout of activities, metrics, impact, lookback and lookahead each month. At Clari, we defined a pretty robust "13-week cadence" for the PM<>PMM interlock, made of recurring meetings like * PM<>PMM 1:1 (weekly) * Metrics read out (monthly) * External roadmap work (monthly) & refresh (quarterly) * Voice of the Market (monthly) * etc. Think about YOUR cadence. It works!

I typically assess my Product Marketers' impact and seniority based on a few dimensions. Some of them are function agnostic, others are pmm specific, like: * Positioning & Messaging * Presentation & Communication Skills * Cross-Functional Partnership * Launch & Execution * Research & Data Main difference between a mgr and sr mgr to me is the ability to think more holistically, find issues or challenges that apply to a broader scope, outside of their core function, and find solutions that also will help more broadly.

It depends. If the expected primary outcome of Competitive Intel is to enable the field, it should sit in Sales or in Ops. If it's to shape the product roadmap, it should sit in Product!

I don’t know what that is, so... no (?) 😂

Know your company's OKRs/ biggest bets and pains. Then align to that. Embark on a listening tour with Sales, CS, product, C-suite etc. And build your plan off that. The plan should contain things like: Vision, Values, Success metrics, Big Bets, where each pillar has a few programs underneath, Dependencies and obstacles, Out-of-scope, RACI, budget

At Clari, my team has a dual mapping: * by product line * by functional area (AR, market intel etc) Previous gigs I would align the team by function or by product line. Segment (upmarket., MM etc) can also be a good option!

People not understanding the function. I would overcome that by overcommunicating about our function, vision, ownership areas, scope, impact (not activity!) and plan. And then * Seek 3rd party validation (analyst mentions, etc.) * Seek shoutouts from other orgs * Raise your public profile * Show that you’re BFF with Sales or Product or CS

Things like ❌ Downmarket deal support ❌ Enablement strategy ❌ Design ❌ Content Strategy/Blogs ❌ Technical Product Documentation ❌ Release Notes ❌ Alpha & Beta Programs

Ask them what they need, what the challenges are, what the opportunities are - and what has gotten in the way so far. Also ask about the value customers are getting from the product today, and HOW that value is communicated today.

Develop as in... "grow"? Well, that Non negotiable: leaders help their team grow :) People learn and grow with new experiences. I like doing that by giving people stretch goals, have a quarterly growth check-in, and assign major/ minor projects (90/10). Plus do a monthly lunch n learn with the whole team.