Which are the mandatory questions you should ask the company founders when you're empowered to create the Product Marketing function from zero?

I will face this challenge very son and my thoughts are: - which are the company objectives? - which are the marketing and product marketing specific objectives? - the resources in place to achieve the objectives (human, financial, tools) - where is the product on the lifecycle? - top three priorities - how are sales/marketing/product teams organised?

Answer

8 Answers

Consumer Product Marketing Platform and Solutions Product Marketing Self-Serve Product Marketing

Alex Chahin

Uber Director, Global Head of Rider Product Marketing | Formerly Lyft, Hims & Hers, American Express • 3y

What an exciting opportunity this is for you! I’m thrilled that you’ve earned this chance. When I joined Hims & Hers, I was in this exact position where I got to build out the Product Marketing team from scratch. It was one of the most valuable learning experiences of my career so far. Your list of questions is great. If you’re able to get through all of these in the time you have allotted with the founders, that’s fantastic. You might find that the answers to these can be substantive, thoug ...Read More

1,754 Views
Lindsay (Saran) Gatta

Moloco Product Marketing Director • 2y

I would ask about a few things:-What types of marketing decisions do the founders want to be involved with? What types of decisions are they comfortable giving you autonomy to run? -What is your budgeting process? Are the founders involved in that? -Has the founder worked with a product marketer before? What did and didn't go well in their working relationship? Can you talk to that person? -How does your founder(s) define product marketing? -(If more than 1 founder), what types of approvals and ...Read More

1,796 Views
Jack Wei

Sendbird fmr Head of Marketing | Formerly SmartRecruiters, Mixpanel, Deloitte, Beardwood&Co • 3y
- How are products currently released and who's involved?
- What does pricing/packaging optimize for and how was it developed?
- What's the company's ICP and why?
- Who's the target persona and has this/will this evolve?
- What type of marketer was the company's 1st marketing hire and why?
- What's the founders' ideal ratio of PMM:PM?
1,040 Views
Sahil Sethi

Freshworks Vice President - Global Product Marketing | Formerly Klaviyo, Qualtrics, Microsoft, MckInsey • 3y

1. What is your mandate for product marketing ? Note: Open ended question. Really important to hear the founders vision behind this function. Always a best practice to start with open ended questions 2. 12 months from now, how will I know that I am doing an amazing job ? Note: This is a take on the common question - what does success look like ? I suggest keeping a defined timeline of say 6 or 12 months. Also, the words “amazing job” or “knocking it out of the park” is a way to demonstrate that ...Read More

433 Views
Linda Sonne-Harrison

Giant Stride Marketing Group President • 3y

I wouldn't look at asking "mandatory" questions but rather asking them what their vision is for the product marketing function and coming to a mutual understanding of what product marketing does and doesn't do. I'd guide the discussion with a visual and/ or data (a couple of useful links below). Agree on a 30-60-90 day plan and success metrics. Agreeing on positioning and messaging should be a top priority. Leave with a process and hopefully time set up for your first discussion. Gartner eBook ...Read More

379 Views
Rachel Cheyfitz

Visual Layer S.Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Lytx, Cisco, Snyk, Lightrun, Comeet,Coro • 3y

This feels to me like a loaded question and I'd love to hear more background in order to answer better. Are you "interviewing" leadership before joining the company or are you asking about how to approach them on a day-to-day while building the function or something else? The answer is different at every stage.

353 Views
Julien Sauvage

Clari VP, Brand, Content and Product Marketing • 2y

Ask them what they need, what the challenges are, what the opportunities are - and what has gotten in the way so far. Also ask about the value customers are getting from the product today, and HOW that value is communicated today.

553 Views