I break up my 30-60-90 day plan into 4 phases of success for Product Marketing – it also includes focus for after your first 90 days, all outlined below.
You may not get to everything in each phase, or you may move through things faster – I use this as a guide and checklist to keep myself accountable. Following this has helped me identify what wins I can crush every 30 days. You can tailor it to your needs at your company and the level you are entering at.
The key is to actively listen in interviews and cross-functional meetings and if anyone is working on something that syncs with your superpowers – speak up, ask questions about what they are doing and trying to achieve, schedule a 1:1 with them and volunteer to collaborate with them or take it off their plate. When you ask lots of questions and get to a point they don’t have an answer – that’s the signal to raise your hand and offer your help. Don’t go in guns blazing, it needs to be natural and collaborative. Show humbleness and mastery. PMMs are the strategic glue between product, marketing and your customers, we are not the main show and final end point.
I also treat all internal stakeholders as one of my personas – get to know their pain points, what brings them value and how to speak to them. Also, during my 1:1 interviews with them, I’ll also ask if they have worked with a PMM before. If yes, I asked what worked well, what could’ve been better and discuss how we can work together to show the value I bring. If they’ve never worked with a PMM, I share with them what value I can bring and discuss how we can collaborate together. Tips here on how to approach all your stakeholders.
PMM Phases of Success
The first 3 phases include execution (your wins) and they ramp up. See here for examples on quick wins.
30 DAYS: DISCOVERY
- Listen, Ask Questions
- 1:1 interviews with cross functional partners
- Customer Interviews, ICP, personas, map customer journey
- Product training, roadmap, launches to date
- Analyze existing content, strategy, data
- Research competitors
70% Discovery + 20% Strategy + 10% Execute
60 DAYS: STRATEGY
- Think, Create, Iterate
- Buy off on business plan: vision, headcount and OKRs, and PMM roadmap
- Create PMM playbooks:
- Messaging and positioning framework defined
- GTM and product launch strategy defined
- Pricing and packaging roadmap
- Competitive intelligence framework / Amplification
60% Strategy + 30% Execute + 10% Iterate
90 DAYS: EXECUTION
- Produce, Operationalize
- Roll out PMM playbooks and frameworks
- Have or identify how to get a team in place to fully execute
- Uplevel existing team
- Iterate and create efficiencies
- Cadence established for customer interviews, GTM meetings, PMM standups, Working sessions, 1:1
80% Execute + 10% Strategy + 10% Iterate
91+ DAYS: SCALE
- Refine, Scale, Expand
- Focus on refining and tailoring playbooks and frameworks
- Team in place is able to scale so we gain efficiencies
- Ready to expand scope
- Deep partnerships with cross-functional partners
- Uplevel areas of development
30% Scale + 50% Execute + 10% Strategy + 10% Iterate