AMA: Lyra Health Group Product Marketing Manager, Arianna Schatzki-McClain on Scaling a Product Marketing Team

Top questions depend a bit on the role since I always try to make sure each question is evaluating a specific competency tied to that job. (More on this below). That being said - here are a few questions I find useful a lot of time when hiring PMMs.   What can product marketing contribute to an organization? of What's the role of product marketing? Tells me about how they view product marketing's role and value and their general understanding of the role. I'm listening to see if them talk about ...Read More

As a PMM, Sales is a main stakeholder that we help support. You can think of them as a "buyer" or consumer of your work so many of the same tactics and best practices that you use to roll out communications externally can be used internally. I'll also note that I have worked with many amazing enablement teams that make this part of the PMM job so much easier, but have also been the one and only PMM in an org. that didn't have an enablement team yet so I'll try to share ideas that are helpful for ...Read More

It depends on a few different factors:  How big is the PMM team?  How are other teams (sales and product) organized? What are the most important business needs and priorities? What are your team members good at (if they have already been hired)? Something else to consider is how you want to balance the type of work individuals on the team are doing. For example, many people enjoy having one or two areas of "expertise" where they are owning a project or program and can demonstrate progress over t ...Read More

This is a challenge at all size organizations, but certainly hard on small PMM teams. Depending on the larger picture items you are talking about, you may need a lot of time or maybe it requires less. Regardless, this type of work requires focus. Here are some considerations I've found useful:  Delegate - I would first take a hard look at what you are delegating. Is there anyone else that can take on that project you've working on? This is definitely something I had to check in with myself on re ...Read More

If you don't have the opportunity to manage an entire new product launch, you'll have to get creative. See if there is an opportunity to own a specific piece of a launch someone else is managing or even manage a smaller feature launch. I'd also look for opportunities work with the product team, even if it's not on a specific launch. Big bonus points if you work with the product team on research or roadmap prioritization elements.  Let's say none of those opportunities are available - you can sti ...Read More

Congrats on growing the team! In a two person team, you have to look at the top priorities, where you can have the biggest impact (where you are uniquely needed the most), and where each of you are strong and excited to grow. You are in the fortunate position to consider what elements of PMM you enjoy most and which ones you would be happy to delegate so don't forget it.  If you're really not sure, try doing a quick exercise of listing out all the PMM functions you support today, new functions y ...Read More