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Founding PMMs

For the first PMM hire: building the function from scratch, proving value, working with limited resources, and establishing credibility.

22 articles
13 Questions You Must Ask Before Taking Your Next PMM Job

13 Questions You Must Ask Before Taking Your Next PMM Job

These aren't the questions recruiters expect. These are the questions that reveal whether you're joining a strategic PMM function or a content factory—before you accept the offer.

November 3, 2025 7 min read
Launch Readiness for Startups

Launch Readiness for Startups

Product is shipping next week and nothing's ready. Here's the launch readiness checklist that ensures you don't miss critical deliverables.

November 1, 2025 4 min read
Customer Advisory Boards for Startups

Customer Advisory Boards for Startups

You need customer input on strategy but can't afford an elaborate advisory program. Here's how to build a lightweight customer advisory board that drives real value.

September 8, 2025 4 min read
Building a Messaging Hierarchy from Scratch

Building a Messaging Hierarchy from Scratch

Every stakeholder describes your product differently. Here's how to create a messaging hierarchy that brings consistency without bureaucracy.

July 22, 2025 4 min read
Cross-Functional Collaboration at Startups

Cross-Functional Collaboration at Startups

You're the bridge between product, sales, and marketing with no formal authority. Here's how founding PMMs drive alignment across functions.

June 15, 2025 4 min read
Building Your PMM Toolkit on a Budget (and When to Consolidate)

Building Your PMM Toolkit on a Budget (and When to Consolidate)

I started with a $180/month patchwork of budget tools. Here's what worked, what broke, and how I knew it was time to consolidate into a proper PMM platform.

May 3, 2025 9 min read
Pricing Strategy for New Products

Pricing Strategy for New Products

You're launching a new product with no pricing precedent. Here's how to set initial pricing when you have zero market data.

March 30, 2025 4 min read
Win/Loss Analysis with Small Sample Sizes

Win/Loss Analysis with Small Sample Sizes

You're closing 5 deals per month and need win/loss insights. Here's how to extract meaningful patterns when sample sizes are tiny.

February 28, 2025 4 min read
Creating ICP Definitions Early

Creating ICP Definitions Early

Your startup is selling to anyone who'll buy. Here's how to define your ideal customer profile when you're desperate for revenue.

January 25, 2025 4 min read
Le premier PMM dans une startup européenne

Le premier PMM dans une startup européenne

J'étais le premier product marketer embauché dans une startup française de 32 personnes. Pas de processus PMM, pas de playbooks, et des attentes floues. Voici comment j'ai construit la fonction.

January 25, 2025 9 min read
Getting Buy-In for PMM Initiatives

Getting Buy-In for PMM Initiatives

Your strategic PMM initiatives keep getting deprioritized. Here's how to get stakeholder buy-in when you're the first PMM.

December 22, 2024 4 min read
Building Credibility as the First PMM

Building Credibility as the First PMM

Nobody knows what PMM does yet and you need to prove your value fast. Here's how to build credibility when you're the first product marketer.

November 18, 2024 4 min read
Metrics That Matter Pre-Product-Market Fit

Metrics That Matter Pre-Product-Market Fit

You're pre-PMF and stakeholders want metrics. Here's what to measure when traditional PMM metrics don't apply yet.

October 20, 2024 4 min read
Customer Discovery with Few Customers

Customer Discovery with Few Customers

You have 15 customers and need deep market insights. Here's how to run effective customer discovery when your customer base is tiny.

September 14, 2024 4 min read
Working with Technical Founders on Messaging

Working with Technical Founders on Messaging

Your technical founder wants to lead with architecture diagrams and technical specs. Prospects need business value. Here's how to bridge the gap.

August 8, 2024 4 min read
Competitive Intelligence for Early-Stage Companies

Competitive Intelligence for Early-Stage Companies

You're competing against established players with zero budget for competitive intelligence tools. Here's how to build a competitive intel system that actually helps win deals.

July 12, 2024 4 min read
Building Sales Enablement from Zero

Building Sales Enablement from Zero

Your sales team has inconsistent messaging, no battlecards, and a deck that hasn't been updated in months. Here's how to build enablement that actually helps close deals.

June 5, 2024 4 min read
Launch Planning on Startup Budgets

Launch Planning on Startup Budgets

No budget for agencies, events, or paid campaigns. Here's how to plan launches that drive adoption with resources you actually have.

May 10, 2024 4 min read
Creating Positioning with Limited Market Data

Creating Positioning with Limited Market Data

You need positioning but have 10 customers and zero budget for research. Here's how to build positioning that works with the data you have.

April 15, 2024 4 min read
Prioritization Frameworks for Solo Product Marketers

Prioritization Frameworks for Solo Product Marketers

When everything feels urgent and you're the only PMM, here's how to decide what actually matters.

March 18, 2024 4 min read
Your First 90 Days as a Founding Product Marketer

Your First 90 Days as a Founding Product Marketer

The founding PMM's first 90 days set the trajectory for everything that follows. Here's the day-by-day playbook.

February 12, 2024 4 min read
Building a Product Marketing Function from Scratch

Building a Product Marketing Function from Scratch

You're the first PMM at a startup. Here's how to build a sustainable function without a playbook or precedent.

January 15, 2024 4 min read

Explore More Topics

Strategy

Frameworks for positioning, competitive strategy, and market analysis that drive long-term GTM success.

Go-to-Market

Tactical playbooks for coordinating cross-functional launches, aligning teams, and executing GTM motions.

Product Launch

Launch planning, timing, and execution strategies that maximize impact and drive adoption.

Sales Enablement

Battlecards, training programs, and sales tools that turn reps into product experts.

Messaging & Positioning

Crafting value propositions and messaging that resonates with buyers and differentiates from competitors.

Pricing & Packaging

Pricing strategy, packaging decisions, and monetization models that optimize revenue.

AI Agent Optimization

Optimizing product content, documentation, and data for AI agents like ChatGPT and Claude that recommend products to buyers.

Win/Loss Analysis

Systematic approaches to understanding why deals are won or lost and feeding insights back to product and GTM.

Customer Research

Methods for gathering customer insights through interviews, surveys, and jobs-to-be-done research.

Demand Generation

Lead generation strategies, campaign planning, and lifecycle marketing that drives pipeline.

Content Marketing

Content strategy and distribution frameworks that drive qualified leads and revenue.

Product Analytics

Using product usage data to inform GTM decisions, identify expansion opportunities, and prevent churn.

Market Research

Primary and secondary research methodologies for understanding markets, competitors, and customer needs.

Partner & Channel Marketing

Co-marketing programs, partner enablement, and channel strategies that drive revenue through partnerships.

Product-Led Growth

Self-serve onboarding, free trial optimization, and PLG strategies that turn users into paying customers.

Customer Marketing

Retention programs, advocacy initiatives, and expansion campaigns that grow revenue from existing customers.

Competitive Intelligence

Building competitive monitoring systems, positioning frameworks, and battle cards that help you win against competitors.

Product Marketing Operations

Team structure, tech stack, processes, and KPIs that make product marketing teams more effective and efficient.

Developer & Technical Marketing

Marketing to developers and technical buyers through docs, community, advocacy, and technical content.

International GTM

Strategies for international expansion, localization, regional planning, and managing global product launches.

Platform & Ecosystem Marketing

App marketplaces, developer platforms, partner programs, and ecosystem growth strategies for multi-sided platforms.

Marketers at Scale-ups/Series A

Transitioning from startup to scale-up: building teams, standardizing processes, managing complexity, and driving systematic growth.

Product Marketing Frameworks

Proven frameworks, models, and methodologies that product marketers use to structure thinking, drive decisions, and execute consistently.

RevOps & PMM Alignment

Building partnerships with revenue operations to drive attribution, forecasting, pipeline management, and cross-functional GTM execution.

Event Marketing & Field PMM

Trade shows, conferences, webinars, and field marketing strategies that drive pipeline and build brand presence in target markets.

Product Adoption & Onboarding

Strategies to drive user activation, reduce time-to-value, increase feature adoption, and build product-led growth flywheels.

Executive Communication

Communicating with C-suite and board members through executive briefs, presentations, storytelling, and strategic influence.

PMM Visibility & Impact

Dashboard frameworks, attribution models, political navigation, and career strategies that help PMMs prove value and build executive influence.

Budget Season

Q4 planning strategies, budget defense tactics, and ROI frameworks for protecting PMM resources during annual planning cycles. Navigate finance scrutiny and prove necessity.

Pragmatic Framework

Practical guides for implementing the Pragmatic Institute framework, from market and focus to programs and readiness, helping PMMs get the most value from this popular methodology.

Future of PMM

How AI, product-led growth, and evolving buyer behaviors are reshaping product marketing. What skills, tools, and career paths will define PMMs in 2030.

Industry Marketing

Go-to-market strategies tailored for specific industries and verticals. How PMM approaches differ across SaaS, fintech, construction tech, healthcare, and other specialized markets.

Buyers Guides

Practical guides for choosing PMM tools and platforms. Evaluating competitive intelligence, messaging frameworks, and launch management solutions that consolidate workflows and save time.