You’ve been a solo PMM for (what feels like) forever.
And you finally got approval to make your first hire.
Let’s goo!! 🙌 Where can I find a job description?
STOP 🛑
Here’s a mistake I’ve made as a founding PMM and I see many others make as well.
You get approval to make your first first hire 👍
You then rush to grab the nearest generic PMM job description 👎
You barely change it 👎👎
The big problem here is that you haven’t taken the time to actually think about what you want, or need this new team member to do.
It sounds pretty obvious, but I think the general confusion around “what product marketing does” leads to hiring managers opting for a generic description of the role, followed by a generic interview process.
They then have to figure it out once the new PMM joins the company.
And what happens?
That new PMM just starts getting slammed with “requests” from everyone else.
So when you get approval for that new hire.
STOP 🛑
And think about what you want them to do:
What can they take off your plate?
↳ What are some of the things that you spend a lot of your time on today?
↳ What keeps you from focusing on other important or strategic projects?
What are your skill gaps?
↳ What are you missing that a new product marketer can bring to the table?
What are you NOT doing that you should be?
↳ Need more research?
↳ Low sales confidence?
↳ Poor customer adoption?
Where's the business headed?
↳ What key projects are coming up?
↳ Upcoming launches?
↳ Expanding into new verticals?
↳ Repositioning the company?
Taking that initial step back to assess your PMM function will help you:
✅ Create a more specific job description
✅ Attract the right candidates
✅ Run a more focused hiring process
✅ Make the best hire
✅ Set them up for success
It will also make it easier for you to look beyond traditional PMMs because you’ll have a better sense of the skills and experience you actually need.
What did I miss? Let me know.
#ProductMarketing #FoundingPMM #Hiring