AMA: SurveyMonkey Director of Product Marketing, Mike Greenberg on Building a Product Marketing Team

When it comes to understanding product pipeline, the most effective thing I've done as a PMM leader is to nurture great relationships with our Product Management leads. We have a ratio of 1 PMM to every 3-4 PMs, with varying levels of experience in these functions collaborating, so at the leadership level we need to be able to partner well and have open conversations about what's working and what's not so that we can consolidate product schedules and remove roadblocks that might prevent us from ...Read More

Product Marketing is great for growth because there are always new problem spaces to learn and GTM strategies to challenge us. I love building teams that are curious and eager to try something new. Here's how I do my best to facilitate growth: Hire well and bring on PMMs of different skill levels and experiences to round out your team Create a culture of mentorship where your more senior PMMs are teaching and delegating to junior team members; don't allow silos to form on your team Align work wi ...Read More

Great question. I’ve worked in and led PMM teams with a number of different structures throughout my career (and in different functional organizations: Product vs. Marketing). At the end of the day, the best team structure is the one that’s aligned with your product and business goals. If you have one or few products that appeal to many buyers, or are trying to expand your business by attracting customers in new or specific verticals, it might make sense to organize at least part of your team by ...Read More

Vulnerable moment: I have never built a product marketing function from scratch! But I love this question, and as an experienced PMM who believes deeply in the value we add, I have thoughts on how I'd approach this. Bottom line: even if you don't have a PMM function, somebody in the company is probably doing Product Marketing (in tech, it’s often Product). The trick is structuring your internal pitch around the tangible benefits of centralizing those activities under a PMM function, and the tang ...Read More

We have 9 product marketers split across two teams that collaborate closely. Broadly, my team of 5 (including me) is responsible for new product and feature GTM targeting a general audience, as well as competitive intelligence. Our peer team of 4, led by another awesome PMM Director, is responsible for persona-specific GTM and international GTM strategy. For broader context on our product and space, SurveyMonkey offers both self-serve (Freemium) and Enterprise feedback products targeting teams a ...Read More

At a high level I would expect somebody in a PMM role to have a few years of relevant experience and be able to act as the internal product / domain expert for the marketing team in their area(s) of responsibility. They should know or be able to learn the core technologies, problem space, and target market/buyers very well. They should be able to interface with the product team, develop messaging, and lead a cross-functional go-to-market motion with a moderate amount of guidance or partnership f ...Read More

Congratulations on growing your Product Marketing team! Even with a team of two, there are a number of different ways you can consider structuring the team. The ‘north star’ question that will guide you is, “Why am I hiring?” And the answer will likely influence the profile of the people you choose to hire and how you divide up the work. Here are a few examples: If you are hiring just to get help, for example to keep up with an accelerated pace of product innovation in a fast-growing company — a ...Read More