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How do you break up responsibilities when you're the first and only PMM and now you are hiring a new PMM to work under you? In a fast growing SAAS startup?

Amanda Groves
Amanda Groves
Enable VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, AppsemblerSeptember 7

I tend to coalesce early-ish stage PMM teams by product pillar/functionality. For example, if you group certain features into capabilities, split roadmap ownership betwee you and your PMM. Bucket those product capabilities and divide and conquer (full PMM GTM lifecycle responsibilities). Once you've achieved product market fit, you can consider organizing the team by relevant personas and begin to hire specializations like: core PMM, customer marketing, lifecycle marketing, competitive intel, etc.

But definitely index on hiring generalists that have a platforms & systems mindset. These folks can scale and that's what you need when it's a small but mighty team. 

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Arianna Schatzki-Mcclain
Arianna Schatzki-Mcclain
Virta Health Director of Product MarketingNovember 30

Congrats on growing the team! In a two person team, you have to look at the top priorities, where you can have the biggest impact (where you are uniquely needed the most), and where each of you are strong and excited to grow. You are in the fortunate position to consider what elements of PMM you enjoy most and which ones you would be happy to delegate so don't forget it. 

If you're really not sure, try doing a quick exercise of listing out all the PMM functions you support today, new functions you may need to support in the coming months/year, and rate them by size, impact, priority, and list out internal stakeholders/collaborators. From here you can start to see patterns and how it might make sense to break up work. 

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Sean Lauer
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing | Formerly Mural, Twitter, Anheuser-Busch InBevJune 27

It's important to note that the answer to this question will vary from company to company. First, you should have a good understanding of the current situation in order to identify the most pressing needs. Where are the biggest fires? Where can your effort make the biggest impact? It's also crucial to be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. I strongly believe in hiring to complement your weaknesses. You don't have to excel at everything. Instead, hire someone who can take on tasks and free up your time to focus on areas where you are stronger. Consider this new hire as your deputy or partner. In a rapidly growing SaaS startup, spending a lot of time training a new hire may not be feasible. Bring on someone who has prior experience and is capable of solving problems. Similarly, focus on hiring someone motivated by the "messiness" of a fast-growing startup.

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