How do you think about organizing your team (by vertical, persona, etc.)? How do you balance mapping to product versus GTM teams?

I like operating under a “full-stack” product marketing model, where PMMs work across the entire product lifecycle. In this approach, product marketing is involved from the very start of product development, all the way to launch and beyond. Organizing and aligning teams by product works well with the full-stack approach, so that tends to be my preference. I especially enjoy this configuration in product-led companies, where a PMM can deeply embed themselves within the product teams they’re partnering with. 

That being said, my answer to this will also vary based on the company. There are two things in particular I consider: 

1. What the company is focusing its GTM efforts on — what segments and/or strategies they’re prioritizing. Consider your company strategy right now: are you focusing heavily on distinct customer segments? If so, consider mapping the product marketing team to those to maximize effectiveness.

2. How big the product marketing team is. When the product marketing team is just starting out, it’s simply not big enough for hard lines between roles. You can carve out general focus areas for your team where it makes sense — by product, solution, company size, industry/vertical — but don’t set them in stone. 

Keep it fluid, especially in a startup environment. Team structure can and should change as the company evolves.

The short answer is this is highly dependent and should be greatly influenced by the product and the company that you are part of. This is the dilemma of all things product marketing, there is no one size fits all nor silver bullet answer. I've had equal success with pod models, where a product marketer is embedded with a cross functional teams to work on a particular product or vertical as I have had with creating teams solely focused on bringing products to market. I advocate begining by assessing the individual strengths and professional interests of your team. I'd also work with your partners on product to understand the same and work together to map resources towards goals.

At the end of the day a successful product marketing team is going to be comprised of individuals who are excited and engaged by the work they do and the team they work with.

So first of all, the biggest product marketing team I've built is two (and I was half of it). I'm really much more knowledgeable around establishing PMM within the org. But I'll take a crack at answer the question because I certainly have studied scaling PMM orgs (and been part of a few). 

I think you really need to start with product ownership. If you're going from one to two, make sure that gives your PMMs more time to get deeper product ownership. That usually coincides nicely with how the product management team is being built out. So PMM has one or maybe two direct partners in product and there's alignment between the two orgs. Scale your PMM org from there until product(s) are fully owned and you're at a 1:3 PMM to PM ratio. 

From there, if you're growing PMM one idea I'd consider is sales enablement sometimes known as solutions marketing. A different wing of product marketing but if your selling enterprise (long sales cycle, multiple buying personas, etc) you'll want a team of enablers & learners to be close to sales helping knock down doors and take sales conversation insights back into the marketing and prodcut orgs. Can't understate how important (and often missed by PMM) those insights are. Hire 1-2 solutions marketers, probably align with your sales motion (smb, mid market, enterprise).