How can you allot more time to strategy and larger picture items when you're leading a smaller PMM team (less than 3 total ppl)?

Leading a smaller PMM team means you're still in the weeds many times and it can get difficult to make time for strategical thinking—topics that need to be discussed and brought up with leadership. Any tips on how to balance that?

Answer

5 Answers

Building a Product Marketing Team

Amy Loh

Motive VP | Product and Brand Marketing • 3y

While leading a smaller team means you're often still in the weeds, it also means you're closer to the customer and metrics. That's a huge advantage to influencing the strategy! Here are a few suggestions: Connect with leadership and understand when strategy discussions or milestones are taking place. This could be annual or quarterly planning and carve out time to be an active contributor to those discussions. Take time to reflect on what you've learned. Develop larger themes and challenges ac ...Read More

1,850 Views
Sahil Sethi

Freshworks Vice President - Global Product Marketing | Formerly Klaviyo, Qualtrics, Microsoft, MckInsey • 3y

This is such a good question. I get it. Everything is moving fast. There just isn’t enough time to discuss strategy. But if you don’t discuss strategy, you run the risk of not doing the right thing. Worse - you may be disconnected from the company and leadership priorities - which often change in a fast growth environment Here are some helpful tips that can work in the situation you have described Don’t think of strategy and execution as anything different. Good execution isn’t about working the ...Read More

713 Views
Arianna Schatzki-Mcclain

Virta Health Director of Product Marketing • 3y

This is a challenge at all size organizations, but certainly hard on small PMM teams. Depending on the larger picture items you are talking about, you may need a lot of time or maybe it requires less. Regardless, this type of work requires focus. Here are some considerations I've found useful: Delegate - I would first take a hard look at what you are delegating. Is there anyone else that can take on that project you've working on? This is definitely something I had to check in with myself on re ...Read More

488 Views
Jennifer Kay Corridon

Midi Health Go To Market & Principal PMM | Formerly Homebase, Angi, The Knot • 3y

I really appreciate this question and to be candid, it's a challenge that scales up and down, whether your moving from an IC to having your first direct report all the way up to when you run a department and have several product marketers reporting to you. My best piece of advice here is to be highly structured in how you approach your work phases + set time aside for each phase of your work and to be absolutely ruthless about your calendar.

486 Views
Amanda Groves

Enable VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • 3y

Protect your calendar! Set aside Do Not Disturb (DND) time for strategic thinking and honor that time. Try to establish a "no meeting" day at your business where you have dedicated space to GSD and think strategically. Set the expectation that if you accept a meeting, there must be a clear agenda along with expected outcomes for your attendance. That helps to narrow down how to spend time so you can prioritize the most valuable/impactful sessions. I also run a lot so that helps to create space f ...Read More

1,002 Views
Rachel Cheyfitz

Visual Layer S.Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Lytx, Cisco, Snyk, Lightrun, Comeet,Coro • 3y

The only way to do this is by closely collaborating with your direct leadership and negotiating priorities with them.

Their priorities will always be based on their KPIs and/or personal goals for their profession and from their perspective for the company. You need to collaborate and coordinate with them to ensure that you're satisfying their expectations while also getting their buy-in for your bigger ideas.

Good luck!

269 Views