Resource Allocation for PMM: Prioritizing Projects When Everything is Urgent

Every PMM team faces the same problem: infinite requests, finite capacity.

Product wants positioning for every feature. Sales wants battle cards for every competitor. Marketing wants content for every campaign. Executives want analysis for every market opportunity. And everything is "high priority" and "needed ASAP."

Most PMMs respond by saying yes to everything, working nights and weekends, and still disappointing stakeholders because nothing gets done well.

The alternative is ruthless prioritization guided by a clear framework. Not political intuition or who yells loudest, but systematic resource allocation based on business impact.

Here's how to decide what deserves PMM resources and what doesn't.

The Resource Allocation Framework

Every request should be evaluated on three dimensions:

1. Business Impact (Revenue/Risk)

High Impact:

• Blocks major launch affecting $5M+ ARR
• Addresses competitive threat causing lost deals
• Enables expansion into high-value segment
• Reduces churn for key customer cohort

Medium Impact:

• Improves win rate for specific segment
• Enhances enablement for growing product line
• Supports important but not critical launch

Low Impact:

• Nice-to-have content updates
• Small feature announcements
• Process improvements with minimal outcome change

2. Urgency (Time Sensitivity)

Urgent:

• Launch date confirmed, can't move
• Competitive response needed in active deals
• Customer commitment made, must deliver
• Regulatory deadline approaching

Time-Sensitive:

• Planned launch in 4-8 weeks
• Opportunity closes in specific timeframe
• Seasonal or event-driven timing

Flexible:

• No hard deadline
• Can be done anytime in quarter
• Strategic but not time-bound

3. Effort Required (PMM Hours)

High Effort (40+ hours):

• New product positioning from scratch
• Comprehensive competitive analysis
• Major sales enablement program
• Customer research and synthesis

Medium Effort (10-40 hours):

• Updating existing positioning
• Refreshing battle cards
• Creating industry-specific content
• Tier 2 launch execution

Low Effort (< 10 hours):

• Updating slides or one-pagers
• Quick sales questions
• Minor content edits
• Simple research requests

The Priority Matrix

Plot every request on Impact vs. Effort:

High Impact + Low Effort = Do Now These are your quick wins. Prioritize immediately.

Examples:

• Update battle card with competitor's new pricing
• Create one-pager for high-value segment
• Answer strategic sales question with existing research

High Impact + High Effort = Plan and Resource These are strategic projects. Schedule deliberately with proper resources.

Examples:

• Major product repositioning
• New market entry positioning
• Comprehensive sales enablement overhaul

Low Impact + Low Effort = Batch or Delegate These are fine to do when time allows, but don't let them crowd out higher priorities.

Examples:

• Minor slide updates
• Simple content refreshes
• Quick internal questions

Low Impact + High Effort = Decline or Defer These are the dangerous time sinks. Say no or push to next quarter.

Examples:

• Comprehensive analysis that nobody will act on
• Perfect documentation for edge cases
• Content for tiny market segments

Capacity Planning

Calculate available capacity:

PMMs typically have:

• 40 hours per week
• Minus 10 hours for meetings, email, Slack
• Minus 5 hours for reactive work/support
• = 25 productive hours per week

For a 3-person PMM team:

• 75 productive hours per week
• 300 hours per month
• ~900 hours per quarter

Now allocate capacity by type:

50% to Planned Strategic Work (450 hours/quarter)

• Major launches
• Repositioning initiatives
• Customer research programs
• Competitive intelligence refresh

30% to Tactical Enablement (270 hours/quarter)

• Sales content and training
• Battle card updates
• Campaign support
• Product education

20% to Reactive Requests (180 hours/quarter)

• Executive asks
• Urgent sales needs
• Unexpected competitive responses
• Support for other teams

If you're spending <40% on strategic work, you're too reactive. If you're spending <20% on enablement, sales isn't getting enough support.

Track actual time weekly to see where capacity really goes.

The Intake and Triage System

Stop accepting ad-hoc requests in Slack or email.

Create a request intake process:

Request Form Fields:

1. What do you need? (one sentence)
2. Business justification (revenue/customer impact)
3. When do you need it? (hard deadline or preferred timing)
4. What happens if we can't do it? (understand true urgency)
5. Requestor name and team
6. Executive sponsor (for large requests)

Weekly Triage Meeting (30 minutes):

PMM team reviews new requests and decides:

• Do Now: High impact, urgent, assign to someone
• Queue: High impact, not urgent, schedule for later
• Defer: Medium/low impact, push to next quarter
• Decline: Low impact, not doing

Communicate decisions back to requestors same day.

Escalation Path:

If requestor disagrees with prioritization, they can escalate to PMM leader or executive sponsor. This is fine. Just make tradeoffs visible: "To do X, we'll need to push Y by two weeks."

Saying No Without Burning Bridges

Bad response: "We don't have time for that."

Good response: "I understand this is important to you. Based on our current roadmap, we can either:

1. Add this to the queue for Q3
2. Do this now but push [other project] by 3 weeks
3. Create a simplified version in 5 hours instead of 20 hours Which would you prefer?"

Give options. Make tradeoffs explicit. Let requestor help prioritize.

For truly low-value requests:

"I don't think this will have the impact you're hoping for. Here's why: [explain]. If we did this, we'd be choosing not to do [higher-value work]. Still want us to proceed?"

Sometimes people drop requests when they understand the opportunity cost.

Quarterly Planning Process

Every quarter, allocate resources to major initiatives:

Q2 Example Resource Plan:

Strategic Projects (50% / 450 hours):

• Enterprise repositioning: 120 hours (Mike + Sarah)
• Competitive refresh for top 3 competitors: 80 hours (Lisa)
• Tier 1 platform launch: 150 hours (Mike + Lisa)
• Customer research program: 100 hours (Sarah)

Tactical Enablement (30% / 270 hours):

• Sales training updates: 60 hours (rotating)
• Battle card maintenance: 40 hours (Lisa)
• Industry content: 80 hours (Sarah)
• Campaign support: 90 hours (rotating)

Reactive Buffer (20% / 180 hours):

• Reserved for unexpected needs

Communicate this plan to stakeholders at quarter start:

"Here's what we're committed to delivering this quarter. If you need us to take on additional work, we'll need to deprioritize something on this list."

Resource Allocation Antipatterns

Antipattern 1: First Come, First Served

Whoever asks first gets resources, regardless of impact. This rewards whoever emails earliest, not what's most important.

Fix: Weekly triage based on impact, not arrival time.

Antipattern 2: Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Whoever complains loudest gets resources. This rewards persistence over impact.

Fix: Objective scoring criteria that anyone can see.

Antipattern 3: Spreading Too Thin

Say yes to everything, make incremental progress on nothing. Everything takes 3x longer because of context switching.

Fix: Focus on 3-5 major projects per quarter. Finish things before starting new ones.

Antipattern 4: Always Reactive

Spending 80%+ of time on urgent requests, no time for strategic work.

Fix: Protect 50% of capacity for planned strategic projects. Make reactive work compete for remaining time.

Antipattern 5: No Measurement

No idea where time actually goes or whether work drove results.

Fix: Track hours by project type weekly. Review ROI monthly.

When to Add Resources vs. Prioritize Harder

Signs you need more PMM headcount:

• Consistently working 60+ hour weeks
• Strategic projects getting delayed quarter after quarter
• Missing revenue opportunities due to lack of PMM support
• Win rates declining due to inadequate enablement
• Multiple products/segments with zero PMM coverage

Cost of a new PMM hire:

• Fully loaded cost: $150-200K
• Ramp time: 3 months to productivity
• Management overhead: 3-4 hours per week

Before hiring, try:

• Declining low-impact work
• Automating repetitive tasks
• Delegating to other teams (marketing creates content, sales updates battle cards)
• Simplifying deliverables (one-pagers instead of full decks)

Add headcount when you're confident you can fill their time with high-impact work for 12+ months.

Tools for Resource Management

Project Management:

Track all requests and projects in one place:

• Asana, Monday, or ClickUp for task/project tracking
• Tag with: Impact, Effort, Status, Owner
• Filter views by priority

Time Tracking:

Use simple time tracking for 1 month per quarter:

• How many hours on each project?
• How much time spent by type (strategic, tactical, reactive)?
• Where's the biggest time sink?

Toggl, Harvest, or simple spreadsheet work fine.

Capacity Planning:

Create a simple capacity model:

• Team size x 25 productive hours/week
• Allocated to major projects
• Track actual vs. planned weekly

Communicating Resource Constraints

Monthly email to stakeholders:

"PMM Resource Update:

Completed this month:

• Enterprise positioning refresh
• Competitor X battle card update
• Product Y launch enablement

In progress (on track):

• Tier 1 platform launch (launching Mar 15)
• Customer research synthesis (presenting Mar 20)

Deferred to next quarter:

• Industry vertical content (lower priority than launches)
• Sales playbook expansion (resource constrained)

Need from you: If priorities have changed or you see gaps, let's discuss in our next planning sync."

This keeps everyone aligned and surfaces misalignment early.

The Ultimate Resource Allocation Question

Before committing to any request, ask:

"If we do this, what will we NOT do?"

Every yes is a no to something else. Make those tradeoffs explicit and intentional.

Resource allocation isn't about working harder. It's about working on the right things.