Introduction

Welcome to another episode of GTM Spotlight. In this episode, we have Alex joining us. Alex is a Fractional Product Marketing Leader with over 12 years of experience working in the B2B space across diverse sectors like healthcare, technology, SaaS, startups, education, and HR.

Alex started her career in marketing and demand generation, but about four or five years in, she discovered her passion for product marketing. She began her product marketing journey at EverFi, an EdTech company, and has since built teams from the ground up, served as a solo PMM, and now works as a fractional product marketer.

Key Product Marketing KPIs for Success

When asked about the most important metrics for product marketers, Alex emphasized that PMMs need to understand the business-level KPIs driving the company. "Product marketers really need to understand what's driving the business, where executives are focused during board meetings, leadership meetings, and all-hands, and align themselves to those metrics," she explained.

While product marketers might not directly own metrics like pipeline acceleration or churn reduction, they significantly impact these numbers through their work. Alex has owned various metrics throughout her career, including:

• Internal enablement success across sales and customer success teams
• Conversion improvements on demo pages by updating narratives and positioning
• Product information optimization on key pages

"Really strong product marketers get the business impact they need to make and understand those top-line business metrics that their founders and VPs care about," Alex noted.

Navigating Unclear Metrics as a Leader

For product marketing leaders joining companies with vague or undefined goals, Alex recommends asking direct, sometimes uncomfortable questions during the interview process. Once in the role, she suggests:

1. Meeting with stakeholders to understand their positions
2. Reviewing board slides and leadership presentations
3. Examining sales data in CRMs like Salesforce
4. Developing and sharing your point of view
5. Coming to an agreement with leadership on what KPIs you'll own, influence, and impact

"There are a lot of things that can become distractions. It's really important to align at the top level and then have your own point of view from what you've done in discovery," she advised.

Prioritizing as a Founding PMM

Being a solo product marketer presents unique challenges, as you become your own sounding board and must make tough decisions with limited time. Alex recommends:

• Aligning with company KPIs
• Understanding what product and sales teams are doing
• Participating in sales calls
• Getting deeply familiar with the product
• Identifying gaps you can fill
• Understanding routine timelines for launches and marketing moments

The approach varies based on the company stage and industry. "Working in MarTech and early-stage companies, they're going to want to move fast, experiment, and try and fail fast," Alex explained. "Maybe a larger, slower-moving org, you're going to be part of a system with more red tape."

Transitioning to Fractional Product Marketing

After leaving her role as Director of Product Marketing at Metadata, Alex decided to pursue fractional product marketing. While setting up her own business processes presented challenges, the transition has allowed her to gain exposure to different industries, teams, and problems.

"About 80% of the work that I do is messaging and positioning," she shared. "That's a huge topic that comes up and a real pain point for a lot of teams because, over the past couple of years, marketing teams have shrunk and become more fractional versus in-house."

Advice for New Fractional Product Marketing Professionals

For those considering fractional product marketing work, Alex offers this advice:

• Avoid hourly pay arrangements when possible
• Don't take on projects outside your expertise or passion
• Set up flexible systems that can adapt to different client needs
• Be open to experimentation, as older playbooks aren't working as well
• Develop a growth mindset similar to demand generation professionals
• Templatize work and leverage AI where appropriate

Favorite Campaign

Alex recently worked with a fitness tech company that had a great product but struggled with their messaging. The company couldn't decide whether to focus on segments, fitness modalities, or different customer types (solo practitioners, small businesses, franchises).

Her team rewrote the messaging, which the client implemented on their website. They then built a go-to-market playbook that helped the company justify hiring a full-time product marketer. "As a fractional person, that's my ultimate goal—to help companies see the value of product marketing and hopefully get somebody in-seat that can continue the work," Alex explained.

Vintage Glass Business

Outside of her fractional product marketing work, Alex runs a vintage glass business with her twin sister Jordan. What started as a COVID hobby selling pieces from their personal collection evolved into a brick-and-mortar shop in their Maryland hometown.

The business taps into Alex's passion for sustainability and provides a welcome break from computer work. "It's been really nice to have something that is not on the computer, that taps into my creative side and something I'm passionate about. And to be able to do that with my sister is super fun," she shared.

Closing Advice

As final advice, Alex encouraged product marketers to develop systems around AI integration, focusing on what can be automated versus what requires human creativity.

"My advice is not to be afraid to experiment and get a system going with a clear point of view. In the next couple of years, some stuff is going to get automated that maybe is marketers' bread and butter, but creativity, upscaling your thinking, and bringing real ideas to the table is going to be so much more important."
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This interview has been edited for clarity and length. For more insights on product marketing and go-to-market strategies, follow GTM Spotlight.