PMMs are typically tasked with a broad scope, balancing both strategic & tactical work and serving as the X-functional glue across multiple teams. How do you combat burnout for your team?

I completely agree that PMMs are highly cross-functional and often broadly scoped. The common trap I’ve seen us fall into is that of “peanut-buttering”, spreading ourselves thin over a broad range of projects. This is the slippery slope that leads to burnout quickly. The 3 things I do to combat this are: 1. Increase delegation: Especially at companies in earlier stages of growth, it is typical for product marketing to take on more than they should because other areas of marketing may not have th ...Read More

There are a few things that I believe help PMMs to prioritize and manage expectations across the organization. Creating quarterly and annual plans. These plans should include the top priorities for you and your team, your OKRs, and key projects. Once these plans are set I share them with my key stakeholders (product, marketing, sales, exec) to ensure there's visibility and alignment on what PMM is working on. As new projects or requests come in you can stack rank them against your currently plan ...Read More

Set boundaries and clear expectations with the various stakeholders you work with. Don't commit to crazy timelines. If a crazy timeline is unavoidable, communicate what you will have to trade off.  Create a culture of trust with your team by being your authentic self, being a good listener, and always having your team's back. Build frameworks and processes and communicate them across the org. Follow your process. Build systems for yourself so you don't reinvent the wheel too often. Understand ea ...Read More

What a great question. One thing I do in almost all my teams is run them in agile sprints - they can be two weeks, three weeks, or monthly depending on the speed of business. As part of this, one thing I ask my teams to do (and they have the autonomy to also not do this if it's a busy time) is to build in "whitespace" - basically planning for the unplanned. This allows them to have some cushion room in their plans to absorb changes as it's impossible to plan for everything in the world. Addition ...Read More

As PMMs we typically see ourselves as the glue, at the center of the Venn diagram between sales, marketing and product. But this is perhaps what causes us to burnout. We constantly try to "herd the cats" and to be everything to everyone. Instead, we should see ourselves as part of an ecosystem, where every team has a role to play, and every team has a responsibility to "connect the dots". Busy is easy. Focus is hard. Rather than trying to do everything right, focus on the 1-2 strategic projects ...Read More