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Other marketing roles have clear KPIs; PMM is the only role where we have multiple KPIs. Is there one or two that is critical for PMMs?

2 Answers
Grant Shirk
Grant Shirk
Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Cisco Campus Network ExperiencesJuly 7

I am a huge proponent of shared KPIs. Like Product Managers, Product Marketers often have to work through and influence other teams in order to reach their goals -- and, more aspirationally, to help their customers reach their goals.

Shared metrics have superpowers. They drive alignment, accountability, and accuracy overall. They're quantitative and qualitative. Bit of a broken record here, but I really like Qualified Pipeline Generation ($), Average Deal Size, and Meetings Set/Opportunity creation.

Other great shared metrics can be Trials Created/Converted, Win Rates, New Customer/Segment acquisition. New Product Introduction is a great time to dig in on shared metrics, too. Not just pipeline and influence, but Attach Rates (% or Count of current customers adopting the new product or service.

The counter example to this is the MQL. This is my least favorite marketing metric of all time. It's 100% subjective (what magic score means "qualified?". It's 100% internal (owned, managed, and measured my marketing, usually inside a marketing specific tool like Marketo). And it changes over time.

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Christine Sotelo-Dag
Christine Sotelo-Dag
ThoughtSpot Senior Director of Product MarketingAugust 3

We have multiple KPI's and I'd argue that the bigger challenge is they are often shared metrics. Shared with our marketing, sales and product counterparts - which makes attribution often very very hard.

That said, as mentioned in earlier questions / answers - focus on the KPIs that you have the most influence over as a team. In my past, personally, we've focused a lot on product adoption - especially as it pertains to new features and releases as PMM was the driver in building out our GTM plan. Of course adoption also depends on the in-product experience of a user and how easy a feature is to find and use, but with PMM support in this area we can connect how a user engages with our marketing tactics (email, in product messaging and tours, content, etc) and how they then adopted the product / feature.

This also extends to new customer acquisition - specifically via new product and feature releases. You have likely built a plan around how to attract new customers with a new product or feature - and although there can be marketing spend attributed to these releases that contributes to the acquisition - as the PMM you are likely driving the GTM plan and how / where / when to attract these new customers.

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