AMA: Samsara Head Of Product Marketing, Suyog Deshpande on Building Product Marketing Team

June 30, 2022 @ 10:00AM PT

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?

Suyog Deshpande

Samsara Former Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • 4y

Why do you want to communicate updates and activities? If the goal is to communicate just the work the team has been doing, then I don't think that you should be communicating this to a large audience. This may be a good weekly summary email to your manager (Also, why would your manager need it?, the manager should already know it and it should be in your 1:1 doc), anyway, my point is communicating just WHAT you or your team is working on is waste of time for you and the reader. I would rather c ...Read More

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3 requests
We are growing our product marketing team, and I'm wondering how to structure the roles and work for a team of three.

i want to know who i need to hire to start my product marketing team. We are starting with product insights, product launches and sales enablement

Suyog Deshpande

Samsara Former Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • 4y

Refer to my answer for this other question here (link) For a team of 3, I can suggest some frameworks to use- Do you have multiple products and can 3 people own 3 product GTMs? Do you have a team where there are different strengths and are you able align people by functional expertise? For example: Could you have one person lead company messaging, positioning; one lead product launches and enablement and the other can own solutions or programs/pricing? Do you have different GTM motions - Enter ...Read More

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1 request
What are the biggest challenges in growing and scaling a team? What were your biggest obstacles and how did you overcome them?

Suyog Deshpande

Samsara Former Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • 4y

Change Management: As you grow the team, you will have to restructure and assign new responsibilities to individuals. This can be tough when you are going from a do-it-all mindset to functional expertise. While making such a change, it could feel like you are taking away the responsibilities from individuals. It is important that you are able to articulate the reasons and define a growth path for all roles as you make the change. Additionally, change management requires communication with stakeh ...Read More

1,299 Views

2 requests
When building a team, how would you ideally split responsibilities? By product line? By PMM function (CI, enablement, GTM, etc)?

Suyog Deshpande

Samsara Former Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • 4y

DO IT ALL -> FUNCTIONAL -> BY PRODUCT -> GRID It depends on the size of your team and the maturity of the company. Typically what I have seen is that - With 1-2 PMMs - it's "do it all" approach. These PMMs take on all responsibilities - Positioning, Messaging, Launches, Product GTM, Competitive, and Market Intel. However, that is doable at that size of the company beacuse PMM counterparts are doing the same. Sales will be a small team, the sales team won't wait for sales enablement to ...Read More

2,119 Views

1 request
When building a new PMM organization, what are the most important things to focus on when getting started?

Suyog Deshpande

Samsara Former Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • 4y

Two things: Build company narrative: If you are just starting the PMM function in the company, this would be one of the first things to focus on. Most likely the existing narrative was built out by the founding team but bringing expert perspective and start building out a differentiated narrative for your company. A good framework is a 3 Why funnel. I recall reading a blog about 3 Whys funnel (Apologies that I don't recall who wrote it). Why the problem you are solving is critical, Why they sho ...Read More

879 Views

2 requests
For a Product Marketer with mostly regional product experience, what are the best transferrable skills/experiences to stress when applying to a global Product Marketing team.

Often for Global Product Marketing roles, having prior "global" experience is a stated requirement.

Suyog Deshpande

Samsara Former Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • 4y

You must have crafted regional value props. Discuss how you approached building those. The same framework can be scaled to craft global value props You must have led a regional sales enablement program: This also scales well for global PMM teams. Your playbook will be similar just that the target audience will be larger Market Intel: You should highlight this as a strength. For a regional PMM, market intel (competitive landscape, customer insights, industry knowledge) is crucial for their succes ...Read More

609 Views

1 request

AMA: Samsara Head Of Product Marketing, Suyog Deshpande on Building Product Marketing Team

View AMA Answers

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

We are growing our product marketing team, and I'm wondering how to structure the roles and work for a team of three.

What are the biggest challenges in growing and scaling a team? What were your biggest obstacles and how did you overcome them?

When building a team, how would you ideally split responsibilities? By product line? By PMM function (CI, enablement, GTM, etc)?

When building a new PMM organization, what are the most important things to focus on when getting started?

For a Product Marketer with mostly regional product experience, what are the best transferrable skills/experiences to stress when applying to a global Product Marketing team.