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Daniel J. Murphy

AMA: Privy Vice President of Marketing, Daniel J. Murphy on Establishing Product Marketing

June 8, 2022 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. How do you think about organizing your team (by vertical, persona, etc.)? How do you balance mapping to product versus GTM teams?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    So first of all, the biggest product marketing team I've built is two (and I was half of it). I'm really much more knowledgeable around establishing PMM within the org. But I'll take a crack at answer the question because I certainly have studied scaling PMM orgs (and been part of a few).  I think you really need to start with product ownership. If you're going from one to two, make sure that gives your PMMs more time to get deeper product ownership. That usually coincides nicely with how the pr ...Read More

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  2. How do you prepare yourself to become a Product Marketing Director and manage a team, without any experience managing anyone previously?

    I'm on my 5th year of product marketing in my career, with another 5 years before that in general demand gen at very small companies. I've had management experience in the past, but not in a Product Marketing role. Often times in smaller companies, there will be 1 or 2 PMMs, usually in a very flat hierarchy, or a single boss, with no room to really move up a proverbial ladder and into management experience. So what are ways that I can prepare myself now, so that if the time comes to apply for a Director position (either internally or at another company) that I can be considered even without recent people management experience? Are there any courses for this that are highly regarded in the management arena?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    I don't think courses or books will substitute real world management experience, ever. Courses and books are helpful, but in terms of interviewing for a Director role with people management responsibility, they are not a substitute.  I've hired first time managers a few times. Nothing against someone trying to get their first at bat managing or running a team. All depends on the situation, who they will be managing (and how many). Probably the best advice I can give here is just what I'd look fo ...Read More

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  3. How does your team divide up the responsibility between the PMM team and the Campaign team? How has that worked for the new products/new markets for existing products that company has wanted to go into, where the campaign team cannot just package up existing asset but needs to create a PoV?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    Interesting question. I'll say Demand Gen (a.k.a campaigns team) owns the offer and executive associated with the campaign the product marketing team owns the strategy and intel for that campaign. Depends on how the demand gen and product marketing team as staffed as well. Usually demand gen has more people to handle the execution and can own reporting too. 

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  4. What has worked well (or not) when positioning your product marketing team within a larger marketing org?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    Great question. Yes, been there & struggled there before. Think ultimately the more you can make product marketing a group of strategic thinkers and enablement gurus to marketing, the more clout your team will build. If demand gen wants to parnter with PMM to understand how to market features for a campaign, if content looks to product marketing for competitive intel or market insights to build content, those are all signs you've built a PMM with real value to the marketing org.

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    4 requests

  5. What's the earliest stage a startup should consider hiring a Product Marketing Manager?

    I'm curious if you've observed the impact of adding a PMM to smaller organizations or if you think they're most impactful in larger organizations?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    Earliest stage: soon as you have a product in customers hands, you could use product marketing. That's not always realistic... sales, engineering, product resources take priority. And there's always that question in leadership, why do you need PMM so early if you have product management? But the ealier you have someone learning, building a knowledge base of customer insights that'll help the GTM teams excel like bringing new features to your early adopters, establishing an understanding of where ...Read More

    648 Views
    1 request

  6. How do you successfully engage other teams (Design, Product Management, Engineering) in a Go To Market plan?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    I think this one's simple: you include them in the plan. No better way to get aligned with another team than planning with that team. The GTM plan doesn't work without product, design, and R&D, so make that clear to them and build a plan that aligns with the product roadmap. Successful engagement is when your both executing on a strategy in tandem that helps the business grow.

    498 Views
    4 requests

  7. How should Product Marketers work with Growth marketers in terms of KPIs, boundaries, north star metrics, activities?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    Good question. And admittedly it's been a minute since I've worked with a growth team so my answer might be 2-3 years outdated. But I think if you're in product marketing and you're lucky enough to have an adacent growth team, first of all, partner with them. Doubt it'll feel natural at first, but that team can be a major advantage to product marketing because it gives PMM the time to work elsewhere in the org on other problems (customer and prodcut fit, user and feature fit, etc). Also growth t ...Read More

    1,371 Views
    8 requests

  8. How can one know that their product marketing function is a strategically valuable program?

    Daniel J. Murphy
    Daniel J. Murphy

    Marketing Strategy Consultant • 4y

    Are you executing on intiatives that align with your leadership team's top priorities? Is product marketing asked to join to product roadmap planning conversations? Does demand gen and content marketing rely on product marketing for insights and knowledge to executive a campaign or the content strategy? If the answer is yes to the above, then you're PMM function is strategically valuable. 

    1,080 Views
    2 requests