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Sarah Din

AMA: Quickbase VP of Product Marketing, Sarah Din on Establishing Product Marketing

February 23, 2023 @ 10:00AM PT

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

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    • Do not hire more people until you have a clear charter for the team
    • Make sure you align with other cross-functional teams as you build your org design so that your team has clear partners across different functional - otherwise, this almost always fails
    • For smaller, newer PMM teams, avoid hiring people that have a very niche focus. You will benefit more from building and growing a full-stack PMM team
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  2. When building a team, how would you ideally split responsibilities? By product line? By PMM function (CI, enablement, GTM, etc)?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    PMM Org design really depends on a few different variables. You want to consider: the maturity of your product You GTM strategy How your cross-functional teams are structured What the biggest company objectives are for the next 12 months If you have multiple products or a complex, mature or sophisticated product/platform: you might consider aligning closely to the product org If you have dual GTM motions: Product-led and Sales-led: you might consider splitting responsibilities that way If you wo ...Read More

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  3. Whenever you are new to a PMM role, what are the top 3 things you look for in the work that has been done before you arrived? (e.g. personas, messaging templates)

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    Outside of the core PMM assets like messaging, or buyer personas, here are a few other things I'd look for:

    • Existing sales pitches or sales assets to understand how the product is positioned
    • Gong calls (or other recorded sales calls you can get your hands on)
    • Competitive analysis work to understand your unique position in the market
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  4. What is your 30-60-90 day plan when you go into an org with the intention of setting up Product Marketing function for the first time?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    your 30-60-90 day plan will really depend on where the company is focused for the next 12 months and where they really need the most help. But in general, you want to look at a few key areas: - Build strong cross-functional relationships - Build a PMM charter, establish your function and roles and responsibilities, and if you have been asked to build a team, figure our your org design - Establish key processes before you bring anyone on board. This can include things like product launches, inter ...Read More

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  5. How do you manage the transition from being the sole person responsible for product marketing activities to now having someone else who can share the burden?

    One of the biggest changes when managing people and a team is handing off the responsibility to others. This is tough to do when you're so used to handling everything yourself. Any tips or suggestions on how to best make that transition?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    The most important thing during this process is to clearly outline roles and responsibilities for both yourself and the new person on your team, I am a huge fan of RACI models for driving that clarity. Secondly, you want to clearly understand each of your strengths and key areas of growth for your new hire - so that you can make sure you are leveraging them for the right type of work where they can make a big impact while giving them the opportunity to work on projects where they can learn and g ...Read More

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  6. If you were the first PMM hire in a B2B company, what would be your approach to growing your PMM team? How would that be different between product-led-growth and enterprise B2B companies?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    As a first PMM at any company you first want to establish your charter and define key areas of responsibilities based on company priorities. Based on that, you'd want to identify where the gaps are and build a hiring plan. If you are B2b, you likely need to support both product and sales efforts - so you'd want to structure your org design accordingly, and there are several ways of doing that.  While this does not always apply, in general: For companies with an early-stage product, you likely wa ...Read More

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  7. How do you adjust product marketing frameworks to your company's organization and business activity?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    Good frameworks should be easy to personalize - so the most important thing is to first start with a good framework for anything you are working on.  For example: Product Launch Process There are fundamental workflows and deliverables that remain consistent no matter what company you work for. For instance, most launch frameworks will start with launch tiers - the concept remains true but how you define their tiers can shift based on your company, industry, product type, etc.  The same goes for ...Read More

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  8. What are the challenges one should be aware of when setting up a new PMM function inside the org? How can one overcome them -- any tips?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    One of the biggest challenges I always see is internal education. Most companies where PMM is new will not understand what PMM can and should do and how to work with them.  One of the most important things to do when establishing a new PMM function is defining a clear charter, goals, and even a defined list of deliverables and doing internal roadshows to educate different cross-functional teams on what you are responsible for, when to come to you and when to loop you in. The second most importan ...Read More

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  9. When establishing the PMM function in an org, how can you manage expectations and change perception if leadership (CEO, Founder, CMO) have a different interpretation of the role?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    It's important to understand what your C-suite wants and needs from PMM. Product Marketing is a versatile role and often looks different at every company, and you need to be somewhat flexible in what you focus on based on company goals.

    But with that said, it's important to establish the core charter early on - and one way to do that with the executive team is to use examples of how PMM works at other (similar companies) and highlight why you believe it should be that way.

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  10. How long do you think you should wait, as the very first Head of PMM, before you hire your first team member?

    Sarah Din
    Sarah Din

    Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 3y

    There is no generic rule of thumb for this, but i'd focus on company growth as an indicator. 

    If your company is growing fast and you realize that there are too many initiatives to support and that you cannot support the larger strategic company goals & objectives with just one person, then its likely time to bring another person in :)

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