AMA: Tremendous Head of Product and Corporate Marketing, Ambika Aggarwal on Establishing Product Marketing

As the Head of PMM for a startup that didn't have Product Marketing, you have three goals as your onboarding 1) Build a solid understanding of your industry, product, and target market 2) Get to know your stakeholders and their priorities 3) Establish the role of PMM in supporting the company's strategy and goals. Build a solid understanding of your industry, product and target marketAs a PMM you need to bring a strong perspective on your industry, your customers needs, and quickly translate tha ...Read More

Product Marketing org structure varies depending on the size, stage of growth, and nature of your product (i.e multiple product, persona, ICP). Ultimately you want to make sure you have enough coverage and the right skillset to cover the key pillars of Product Marketing (product launches, pipe gen, sales enablement, competitive intel, pricing and packaging). Here's a model that I've seen work really well: 1. Core PMMs - These are product marketing managers who align very closely with Product Man ...Read More

Here's what I like to do when establishing (or reestablishing) the PMM function Conduct a listening tour with cross functional stakeholders Ask them the following types of questions1. What are your top priorities? 2. What's working well with PMM (if a team exists?) 3. What are opportunities or gaps ? 4. Where do you think PMM could make the biggest impact today? Establish your PMM charter or mission Based on what you learn, establish and educate the company on the role of Product Marketing and t ...Read More

This is a really good question as PMM can sometimes be seen as the "last mile" release arm when really that is such a small fraction of the role. Establish and socialize the PMM charter & missionYour stakeholders might all have differing opinions on what PMM is, and it is up to you to establish the function as a strategic one. You'll want to showcase the value of PMM by highlighting the core pillars of the team and how your PMM's work supports KPIs across the business. Build credibility with ...Read More

For smaller companies and start-ups PMMs will inevitably wear lots of hats and play more of a full stack role. Once the company grows and scales the role becomes more specialized. However, if your product serves a number of different audiences & use cases (as Tremendous does) you'll want to ensure even if you're a small company that you structure your Product Marketing team by Ideal customer profile (ICP) so that PMMs can go deep and craft compelling GTM strategies for their particular segme ...Read More

I think the best way to do this is to try and get PMM experience and exposure at your current company. I've seen really successful content marketers and solutions engineers and sellers pivot into PMM and you have an advantage because you already understand your target market, business model, and the product. Here's what I'd recommend Familiarize yourself with general PMM concepts & frameworks through Sharebird, PMA etc. Take a course so you can start speaking the same language as your PMM te ...Read More

Being able to craft a compelling narrative for your product or solution that is targeted, differentiated, and drives urgency is one of the core skillsets of a PMM at any level. As you get more senior the scope of that narrative changes. Instead of covering one solution area or one particular audience, you might be covering multiple areas and audiences. At the director and above level you are likely covering the entire platform narrative and ensuring cohesion with the solutions/ICP level narrativ ...Read More

If you are the first PMM hire in a B2B company, you need to very quickly establish your charter/mission and socialize your team's priorities and the corresponding KPIs that support the company's strategy. From there, you'll want to align with your leadership team on the gaps where you either need a new hire or a new skillset (i.e content) and come up with a hiring plan accordingly. For enterprise B2B companies, you need to work across product, marketing and sales so you need someone who has expe ...Read More

Building your GTM plan is all about ensuring alignment and commitment across many different teams (Product, Design, Marketing, Sales, Enablement, CS, etc). Based on where you are in the GTM process, different teams play a heavier role in bringing the product to market. 1. I would start with ensuring the company is educated on what a successful GTM process & launch looks like. This is critical because you need the various teams to understand their role and responsibilities based on the produc ...Read More