A presentation from Diana Smith, Head of Product Marketing, Segment
Diana covers the evolution of the product marketing team at Segment as it grew from 10 to 400 people.
Diana shares how she built out the team, changed their focus, added team members, and delineated their responsibilities over time.
Presented to the product marketing community at the Product Marketing Summit New York 2019
10. 1. What work isn’t getting done?
2. What are your top challenges
as an organization?
Find the gap
TOP CONSIDERATIONS
11. Our growth path
TEAMS BY THE NUMBERS
Situation Series A Series B Series C
Gap Product Content Sales enablement
Key Challenge Scale Signups Educate the market Sell new products
and move up market
Marketing Team Size 1 - 3 3 - 10 - 5 5 - 20
Product Team Size 0 - 0.5 1 - 5 5 - 12
Sales Team Size 1 - 10 10 - 30 30 - 100
Total Team Size 0 - 50 50 - 150 150 - 400
14. Know thy customer
BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE
This will help you
● Build resonant messaging
● Influence the product roadmap
● Develop effective campaigns
TOOLS AT YOUR DISPOSAL
1. Customer interviews
2. Market and customer surveys
3. Win/loss analysis
4. Salesforce product requests
5. Competitive analysis
6. Top requests from sales and
success leads
15. Synthesize!
HELP YOUR TEAM IDENTIFY WHAT TO DO NEXT
Sample syntheses
● Top requested product
features by customer segment
● Top concerns to address from
NPS feedback
● Top competitive gaps where
we lose deals
● Top objections to train sales
on handling
IF EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT, NOTHING IS
IMPORTANT.
18. Some things will grow faster than others
ALL YOU CAN DO IS YOUR BEST TO COVER THE HIGHEST PRIORITY ITEMS
SERIES A
#ALLOFTHETHINGS
MARKETER 1
● Messaging
● Demand Gen
● Product Launches
● Case Studies
Orphans
● Anything that’s not
completely on fire
SERIES B
LIGHT SPECIALIZATION
PMM 1
● Features 2 & 3
● Competitive Intel
PMM 2
● Features 1 & 4
● Sales Content Needs
Orphans
● Features 5 & 6
● PR & AR
SERIES C
ALMOST TO A MATRIX
PMM 1
● Product Area A
● Customer Persona 1
PMM 2
● Product Area B
● Industry Campaign
PMM 3
● Product Area C
● Conference Content
Orphans
● Customer Persona 2
19. ● You can never do all of the things that
would be high-impact. That’s the burden
and joy of high-growth.
● Document the orphans for planning out
your team and next hires.
● DO NOT compromise on quality in hiring
to fill a burning gap. Pink flags turn into
red flags later.
Lessons learned the hard way
YOU WON’T ALWAYS HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL. THAT’S OKAY.
DO ALL THE THINGS
YOU CAN NEVER DO
ALL THE THINGS
20. Focus where there
are gaps in
company, then
communicate your
focus.
Know your
customer better
than anything else.
This is how you
add value.
Some areas will
grow faster than
others. You’ll never
cover it all. That’s
why this is fun.
Adapt or die
@DianaHSmithSCALING PMM AT A HIGH-GROWTH STARTUP
21. Thank you!
Diana Smith
Product Marketing
diana@segment.com
@DianaHSmith
Scaling PMM at a
High-Growth
Startup
THIS HAS BEEN AN EPISODE OF