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Leah Brite

AMA: Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Employers, Leah Brite on Establishing Product Marketing

May 1, 2024 @ 10:00AM PT

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Leah Brite

Head of Product Marketing, Benefits · Gusto

👋 Hi! I'm Leah Brite based out of Denver.

💼 I work at Gusto where I lead product marketing for our employee benefits portfolio.

👀 Top of mind topics: keeping up with all things AI (platforms, use cases, best practices, etc), KPIs and attribution frameworks, and driving expansion/attach products.

🤝 PM+PMM relationship, cross-functional influence, and scalable GTM process

🍦Variety is the spice of life! Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey Ice Cream is a perennial favorite.

  1. What does your product marketing team org structure look like?

    Do you simply have Product Marketers by product/portfolio? Do you have a release communications manager? Someone in sales enablement? What other roles exist in your product marketing teams today?

    Leah Brite
    Leah Brite

    Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits • 2y

    The PMM org structure is highly variable based on the company – and also shifts and changes through a company’s lifecycle to best meet company needs.  There are four primary structures Product lines (i.e. Software, service, etc) Customer segments (i.e., small business, mid-market, enterprise, accountant), Functional (i.e. insights, product strategy, GTM, monetization, sales enablement) - Not my favorite as I think PMMs do their best work when they are deep on the customer problem and product sol ...Read More

    6,084 Views
    2 requests

  2. What are the top 3 potholes to AVOID when establishing or building out the Product Marketing function at a company?

    Leah Brite
    Leah Brite

    Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits • 2y

    Top three things to avoid when establishing or scaling PMM: Working in a silo. PMM is a highly cross functional role, so make sure you are in continual communication with xfn partners and that you are in lock step on priorities and plans. Err on the side of overcommunicating and providing as much transparency and visibility as possible to establish trust.  Too much ambiguity for roles and responsibilities. A bit of gray area is totally fine – and it is also good to be nimble and evolve the PMM r ...Read More

    2,129 Views
    2 requests

  3. You're the new PMM for a B2B SaaS company that has 40 people and is starting to scale. What should you aim to do in your first month and your first quarter?

    Leah Brite
    Leah Brite

    Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits • 2y

    First 30 days:  Onboard and get all the context! Learn about your customers (firmographic info, top segments, their pain points, where they spend time, how they enter the buying process, who influences their decision, ICP, JTBD, etc. Consume all the research that has been done if anything exists), your company (org chart, how decisions get made, unwritten rules, values, how to get things done, etc.), market (trends, competitors, sizing), your product (how it works, top competitive solutions, gap ...Read More

    3,945 Views
    2 requests

  4. When do you know you’re ready for your first PMM hire? How do you think about setting that hire up for success?

    Leah Brite
    Leah Brite

    Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits • 2y

    You know you are ready when you’ve got at least one FT PM and your biz needs someone to stand up / drive any/all of the following: Market Strategy & Customer Insights. Analyzing market data, honing competitive intelligence, and drawing on prospect & customer insights to define PMF (product market fit) and inform product roadmap decisions, including, industry and market trends analysis, competitive research, target segmentation, and prospect and customer insights Positioning, messaging, p ...Read More

    2,048 Views
    2 requests

  5. How do you communicate product marketing achievements upwards and build visibility?

    It can sometimes be a struggle for those on the executive team, or in higher leadership roles, to see the value that product marketing is bringing to the business - especially if they do not have regular interaction. How do you build visibility for you and/or your team, and clearly communicate the achievements and activities throughout the year?

    Leah Brite
    Leah Brite

    Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits • 2y

    Internal comms are so key given the highly xfn role of PMM. I’ve also found them crucial given that some of the outcomes PMMs drive are less tangible than some functions like Demand Gen.  The best channels to communicate updates depend on size of company, tier of update, and goal of the comms. For a moderately scaled org and tier 2 update, here is an example by stage of product dev. Kickoff. Host a kick off call for everyone that will be involved in the GTM (e.g. channel partners, product, sales ...Read More

    2,918 Views
    2 requests