AMA: Unbabel Former VP of Product Marketing, Sarah Din on Building a Product Marketing Team

I love this question because in my experience I have hired PMMs from a variety of backgrounds, including people that have had no direct PMM experience, but they all had the right aptitude for the role. Depends on the level of seniority you are looking for OR the kind of product you have, you might have specific technical skills you require. In my opinion, technical skills can often be learned on the job, but there are a few more “softer skills” that cannot. Here is what I always look for: The ab ...Read More

This is a question I get a LOT. Everyone wants to know whats the idea PMM team structure. The short answer is there isn't one. Firstly, the role of a PMM looks different in every company. Secondly, the role of a PMM is not static. The role should evolve based on business priorities. So while you may structure the team a particular way today, know that you might need to change that structure a year from now if your priorities shift, especially at a start-up where things change quickly. Here are a ...Read More

Does not matter if you are a junior PMM or a seasoned PMM leader - owning/coordinating launches and copywriting will always be part of your job in one way or another so embrace those, be the best at it, and use the experience to hone your craft. But you also don’t want to be pigeonholed into JUST being a project manager or copywriter - that’s when you need to make sure that you are working on a variety of projects in your role, and there are multiple ways to make that happen. Have an open discus ...Read More

Internal comms is sometimes undervalued, but in my opinion, it is one of the most important parts of a PMM's role, especially because product marketing is one of the very few roles that are extremely cross-functional and sits between multiple teams. Here are few ways I've seen it work best: For major XF projects, have regular update emails so that you can make sure you are bringing everyone along the journey and it does not feel like you are working in a black box. Internal newsletters (whatever ...Read More

To scale any team you want to do it thoughtfully, and have a clear plan in place before you go on a hiring binge.  Have the right foundation in place before you bring on more PMMs. For instance, have the basic tools or processes in place because once you scale your team, it's much harder to define those. For instance, a GTM process, a basic messaging framework, etc. You also want to make sure that the role of PMM in your org is clearly defined and communicated throughout. It's important to first ...Read More

It is so important to have some foundational processes in place before you scale a team. Here are a few I always like to establish right away GTM, product launch process - this is a huge part of the role, and not having a clear process can cause confusion and misunderstanding. This is also a very cross-functional effort so it's extremely important to be clear on the role everyone plays in the process, what deliverables are expected and how to communicate as a group. Messaging framework - When yo ...Read More

There are always going to be a million things that you feel need to be done. PMMs by nature want to take on everything, but the fact is, even though things might seem critical, not everything needs to be done right away. Especially in the absence of a senior marketing leader who can help triage projects, this can get complicated. So it's REALLY important to first determine the most critical priorities and then phase out things, especially with a small team and low resources. Some ways to do this ...Read More

This really depends on your current PMM team, and how they are structured.  If you have PMMs that are very specialized in certain areas and are you trying to grow the team, think about what gaps you have and focus on that in your hiring process. If your team is full of marketing generalists that are doing a little bit of everything, then again, identify the gaps - are you missing specific PMM skills on your team? then focus on hiring for that. This also depends on the level of seniority you are ...Read More