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I am moving into a new product marketing leadership role and working adjacent to product managers/directors for the first time. I will also be responsible for managing one direct report. I imagine I will lead the GTM strategy side of things and my DR will focus on tactical execution, but I am curious if there are recommended best practices for structuring PMM roles and responsibilities.

In over 12 years of B2B mktg exp, I've only worked on corporate marketing teams reporting to General Management, so the switch to a product management structure is new for me.
2 Answers
Kavya Nath
Kavya Nath
Meta Product Marketing, Reality LabsMarch 25

This to me depends on your company and the products you sell and will vary based on the composition of your solution set.

A larger platform solution might have a VP or Director that’s overseeing platform level messaging and responsibilities related to the solution set as a whole while having a team that is aligned to specific product areas within the platform. A single point solution might have roles mapped to features that support the one product, etc.

The most important thing especially in smaller teams is for leaders to be both a player and a coach with a balance between both manager and DR in handling strategy and tactical execution. This helps leaders stay in touch with tactical skills while also allowing directs to gain the skills to grow as product marketers and understand how to take on more strategic initiatives.

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Julien Sauvage
Julien Sauvage
Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product MarketingDecember 7

Great question. I would challenge that a bit, and think that good strategic needs to be based on flawless execution and vice-versa. Maybe you can own 80% of the strategy but execute on 205 of the stuff, to keep a pulse of the market? And vice versa for your DR.

Or divide and conquer by the functional needs: you take top of funnel, your PMM take enablement and pricing. That type of thing!

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