What kinds of ongoing, cross-functional meetings do you think are important to have? Which teams are involved, and what agenda items do you recommend?
This question is completely contingent on your company's business priorities and problems. No one should meet for the sake of meeting! So if the most pressing XFN problem at your company is pricing, you should implement or get PMM into the room for that meeting. If the most pressing XFN problem is opening up a new market, you should get a cadence on the calendar for that. At Ironclad, we have a regular cadence with Product, Sales, and Marketing on topics like Market/Compete, Win/Loss, and all GTM initiatives.
Ah yes, the meeting trap!
Unfortunately, my answer is that it depends -- on how mature your PMM team is, what your priorities and key projects are, and how you're structured. That said, a couple of guiding principles:
- Keep it light. I try to let most meetings be ad-hoc or project-based, with only a few standing meetings. The standing ones are mainly just weekly 1:1s with our Product counterparts (at the team lead & IC level), and then quarterly project-based ones (like QBRs or roadmap reviews).
- Stay flexible. We generally spin up x-functional status check-ins for major launches, then eliminate the meeting once the launch is over. I also try (not always successfully ;)) to prune any standing meetings once a quarter.
- Align to priorities. At certain times, like if you're repairing a relationship or establishing closer communication with a particular team, you might need to spend extra time together. Again, I'd take a quarterly lens, so maybe add a standing weekly meeting just for one quarter (vs. indefinitely).
- Know when to reevaluate. If you're struggling every week to figure out the agenda, or if people consistently don't speak up, these may be signs that the meeting isn't working -- it's duplicative, the audience is too big, the right people aren't included, etc.
PMMs here in general have regular meetings with Product, CS, and Sales to support ongoing product launches, facilitate internal training, and gather customer feedback. However, it’s important to shift what meetings you attend, which teams/individuals you meet with, and the frequency of your meetings based on your and the business’ current priorities. Otherwise, given the nature of PMM’s work, meetings can quickly add up. There are a few questions that can help determine whether it’s important to have certain meetings and what the agenda should be.
- What is the goal of the meeting, and what priorities does this help drive?
- Are there other ways to accomplish the goal that’ll help reduce the meeting frequency?
- What are the deliverables? Keep in mind not all meetings need to have set deliverables, but it’s good practice to think through.
- What is my role in this meeting?
- Are we discussing similar things in different meetings? Is there a way to consolidate the meetings?
- Are there materials we can share ahead of the meeting to make the actual meeting more efficient?
It’s also helpful to periodically audit your meetings and make time for new initiatives that might require a different set of meetings with different individuals.
Here's what I have done in the past, but your mileage may vary based on your company.
Quarterly: Meet with leadership in your go-to-market teams, product teams, and marketing teams. Understand goals, dependencies, and expectations and make sure you set up instrumentation for tracking success.
Monthly: Meet with go-to-market peers to make sure execution is on track, whether you're launching or landing a product. Review metrics. Understand risks, shifts in strategy, shifts in market. Use this as an opportunity to get the data required to do any readouts to leadership.
Weekly or more: Meet with peers who are helping you get things done. These could be demand generation teammates figuring out a campaign, product managers to finalize launch materials, sales to review messaging feedback, etc. I'd also recommend meeting any agencies weekly if you are running a tight timeline because it keeps things on track.
These meetings rarely happen to beautifully in real life, but hopefully this shares a bit of a framework!
Different meetings are needed at different stages of a company and products maturity but some meetings that I think are crucial at any stage are the following:
Monthly product release meetings: PMM to present upcoming monthly releases to marketing, sales and CS teams. This allows them to ask questions, get a demo, and hear about upcoming releases and how they are being marketed.
Bi-weekly product development meetings: Discuss in-flight products being worked on, their timeline and any roadblocks. This typically includes PMM, product, engineering, design and PMO.
Bi-weekly GTM meetings: This includes leads from sales, PMM, product, and CS to discuss key metrics were tracking against, any major projects or releases and open discussion time.
Maintaining alignment with all stakeholders can be a challenge in a large enterprise. Regular meetings serve as crucial platforms for discussion, feedback, and decision-making. However, without careful control, these meetings can expand with the wrong audience or become unproductive.
To prevent this, it's essential to have a meeting owner who manages the discussions, tracks talking points, shares agendas in advance, records actions, and follows up on them. If this skill is lacking, consider hiring a project manager or executive assistant to enhance your effectiveness.
Stakeholder Meetings:
Business Development: This team is a fantastic resource within large organizations, pooling together sales info to highlight trends and provide top-level guidance. They're a great go-to for insights into what's working and what's not in sales strategies, and for feedback from the field.
Sales Teams: Chatting with sales teams is one of the best ways to gather customer feedback. Building a relationship with them is all about follow-through—delivering on what you promise. Their feedback can really help shape your strategy and create content that benefits everyone in sales.
Product & Engineering: Working hand-in-hand with these teams, you can map out a plan for product and feature releases. Product Marketing can play a vital role here, providing feedback on what's working and what's not.
Product Marketing Leadership: Regular catch-ups ensure everyone's on the same page about strategic direction, upcoming launches, events, and initiatives. These calls are an opportunity to connect with leadership and have live discussions and decisions.
General Leadership: It’s beneficial for PMM’s to meet leaders from all teams regularly. Sharing agendas before meetings and sending notes/actions afterward is key. These calls can be a treasure trove of value, but it's important to keep them focused to get the most out of them.
Customers: A direct line to customers can reveal heaps of useful insights. It's important to have the sales team's trust and agree on a strategic direction for the account. User group meetings can be a perfect chance to update key customers on your plans and gain their feedback.
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