How To Organize Product Marketing Teams - Article

How is your product marketing team organized?
Look — the traditional organizational model is on its way out. It’s no longer effective for even the largest of organizations. The top-down, command and control model doesn’t suit the knowledge workers of today. It’s too rigid to enable the speed of communication and decisions to stay competitive.
I’ve read How Google Works, Work Rules, Team of Teams, Creativity Inc., articles on organization design, etc. which all touch on leadership principles and changing org structures. While valuable to varying degrees, none of these books or articles spoke specifically to the nuances of product marketing.
There are generally five organizational designs for product marketing teams. I’ve tried a few of these models. As you’d expect, each structure has its own benefits and drawbacks. After speaking with senior product marketing leaders and CMOs in SaaS/tech and reflecting on my own experiences, here’s what I’ve learned.