Whenever you are new to a PMM role, what are the top 3 things you look for in the work that has been done before you arrived? (e.g. personas, messaging templates)

1. Positioning
2. Messaging
3. Personas / Competitors

Always focus on the top 2 first, as this will impact how everyone talks and writes about your company – which ultimately brings in users and wallet share. Good templates for positioning and messaging are here. And these are different, PMMs control positioning through our messaing. Positioning creates an image of our product in the mind of customers. Messaging uses words that help customer understand our value, brand promise and desire for our product. 

Then dive deep into your personas and competitors -- use this data to iterate on your positioning and messaging. Sometimes if you are a first mover, you may not have many competitors yet, then look at Personas 3rd. Or, if you are in a crowded space, knowing the competitors become more important, that’s why I put these both as #3. Depends on what you are walking into. Also, you need a base level understanding of these both in order to do your initial positioning and messaging. 

Beyond these top 3, knowing your ICP, TAM, SAM is important too and impacts all of the above. Each step here creates more iteration of your top 2.

As I mentioned in the question regarding your first 90 days, the first 30 days are all about establishing a baseline and assessing the current product marketing status. The first 3 things that I look for when onboarding are:

1) Audience strategy and research. Here I want to understand what’s known about the customer and their jobs-to-be-done. Specifically, personas and segmentation as well as any research related to acquisition and why customers purchase the product. This may also include any prior win/loss interviews and doing your own quick interviews with sales.

2) Current messaging. Look at as much of the customer-facing messaging as possible. This includes highly trafficked landing pages, sales collateral, recent campaigns, and messaging hierarchy templates.

3) Funnel and Lifecycle Performance Data. Here I am looking to understand what the major drop-off points are and the shape of the customer lifecycle. This helps identify areas for potential quick wins and gives you an early perspective on the typical sales or conversion cycle.

Outside of the core PMM assets like messaging, or buyer personas, here are a few other things I'd look for:

• Existing sales pitches or sales assets to understand how the product is positioned
• Gong calls (or other recorded sales calls you can get your hands on)
• Competitive analysis work to understand your unique position in the market

1. Ideal customer profile (ICP), buyer personas, use cases/sales plays (what problems do you solve for customers and how), and customer journey (what path do these folks take through the funnel to buy from your business

2. Positioning (brand down to features). This includes website copy, pitch decks, one pagers, messaging frameworks, vision/mission, marketecture (platform/product positioning), competitive positioning (battle cards, VS landing pages, one pagers etc)

3. Partnership with product (is there a tiered product launch strategy? Is there a product release process? How do we enable our internal teams and customers about new products and features? Is PMM part of the product development process or just get things "thrown over the fence" at the end? Is there a customer facing product roadmap? Is there an internal roadmap/kanban or Jira board?

When you are new to a PMM role, take the time to understand the product, business, people, and customers. For the first 30 days just take the time to do a listening tour from your key stakeholders to your customers. Be diligent about it and this will be the biggest foundation of your role. Gather your notes, and when you go through them, you will learn everything about your target market and how you can serve them better.

Once you have that foundation, dive into the messaging. You have a fresh perspective, and don't be afraid to use it. But take the time to understand the rationale behind the messaging before jumping into changing everything. There is nothing that would alienate you further from your new team like when you suggest changing everything.

This would depend on the business and where the gaps are. But generally, I’d look at:

1. Messaging and positioning consistency

I always start by reviewing the core messaging and positioning. I want to see if the product’s value proposition is clearly defined and if that messaging is consistent across all channels—whether it’s the website, sales materials, sales calls, or customer communications. If there are inconsistencies or a lack of clarity, that’s typically one of the first areas I work to address. Solid, consistent messaging is the foundation of successful product marketing. But if there’s an opportunity to tweak and enhance the overall messaging, then that’s another area of focus. 

2. Sales enablement materials

I look at the tools and resources that have been created to support the sales team. This includes pitch decks, battle cards, case studies, and objection-handling docs. I’m particularly interested in whether these materials are up-to-date, relevant, and actually being used by sales. Effective sales enablement is critical for driving revenue, so I want to ensure there’s alignment between product marketing and the sales team.

3. GTM strategy and execution

Lastly, I review the GTM strategies for previous launches. I’m looking for insights into how launches have been planned and executed—what worked, what didn’t, and how success was measured. This helps me understand how well the team has collaborated across functions like Product, Marketing, and Sales, and it gives me a sense of where we can improve or optimize future GTM efforts.

These three areas—messaging consistency, sales enablement, and GTM strategy—typically give me a clear sense of the current state of product marketing and where I can make an immediate impact.

- Retros on strategic projects, especially those with cross-functional teams so you can identify previous learnings and opps for improvement, and quickly get up to speed on legacy experiences 

- Centralization of customer feedback; can you do some quick analysis and theming of it to start to form an objective opinion on customer experiences based on data 

- Pricing history; what has happened in the world of monetization before you to understand if there's revenue opportunities on the table as early wins