The Product Marketing Function
The product marketing function, built and handed over.
All six stages, every output delivered, and a person on your team trained to run it.
Quoted after a call · Typically 3 months · GTM Foundations is credited against it
01
Research
COVERED
02
Competition
COVERED
03
Segment, position & price
COVERED
04
Message
COVERED
05
Launch & enable
COVERED
06
Measure & maintain
COVERED
ALL SIX. THAT IS WHAT MAKES IT A FUNCTION AND NOT A PROJECT
WHAT THE FUNCTION BUILD COVERS
All six stages, and the person to run them after I leave.
Who this is for
Who this is for, and who it isn't.
This is for you if
- One or two people doing product marketing across several products, and nobody owns the story
- You have customers and a sales motion, even a small one
- Someone will own this after I leave
- You want the function to outlast the engagement
- You want someone in your timezone
This isn't for you if
- You need one launch or one market sorted, not a whole function, which is GTM Foundations
- Nobody internally will own it afterwards
- You want a retainer, or you want me to stay indefinitely
- You want execution. I don't run campaigns, write the blog or manage the agency; I build the system they work against
- Pre-product, with nobody to interview
- Your constraint is retention, customer advocacy, product roadmap, demand generation or brand. Those sit outside the six stages, and I'd be the wrong person.
What runs without you
Four of the six stages run without a person.
01
Research
RUNS ITSELF · CONTINUOUS
02
Competition
RUNS ITSELF · EVERY 90 DAYS
03
Segment, position & price
NEEDS A PERSON · ON CHANGE
04
Message
RUNS ITSELF · MONTHLY
05
Launch & enable
NEEDS A PERSON · PER RELEASE
06
Measure & maintain
RUNS ITSELF · WEEKLY
SOLID RUNS ITSELF · HALF-FILLED NEEDS A PERSON
WHAT RUNS WITHOUT YOU
Four of the six run without you.
The other two need a person. By handover that person works for you, not me.
What you get
What you're holding at the end.
Six documents, populated with your market rather than a template. Every one of them is something a person on your team opens and uses.
2 PAGES PER PRODUCT
Spec, metrics, limitations, packaging, and who it's for and who it isn't for. The single source of truth that stops four teams describing the product four ways.
1 SHEET · EVERY ASSET YOU OWN
Every asset mapped to its owner, its destination and its refresh cadence, so you know when each one goes stale and where it lives.
1 SHEET · 3 CHECKLISTS · 27 ACTIVITIES
Every release scored 1, 2 or 3, each tier triggering a fixed activity checklist, owners and critical path. Without it, every launch gets negotiated from scratch.
1 SHEET · 50 QUESTIONS × 6 COMPANIES
Fifty questions across market, product, positioning, marketing, sales and company, filled for you and up to five competitors. Every cell sourced with a URL and a date, or marked unknown. No silent blanks.
1 DASHBOARD · 5 OKRS
OKRs measuring research coverage, sales confidence and cross-functional trust.
1 SHEET · PER BUYER, PER STAGE
For each person, at each stage, every line tied to a proof point, so claims can be checked rather than repeated.
All twenty-six outputs, full size on the demo →
ALL SIX ARE YOURS. NO LICENCE, NO PLATFORM, NO DEPENDENCY ON ME.
How it works
How it works.
Typically three months. More products and more markets take longer.
01 · Find out
Stages 01–02
02 · Decide
Stages 03–04
03 · Sell it and hand it over
Stages 05–06
Kickoff and audit
Product, roadmap, and every customer touchpoint you already have.
Your decision
You meet without me and choose a direction.
Positioning, messaging, pricing, launches or enablement. One is the bottleneck.
Automation wired
Four of the six stages start maintaining themselves.
What's still running after handover
What I need from you
- Four workshops
- Introductions to five customers
- Access to your existing material
- A named owner, from day one
Proof
Where I've done this before.
One vessel-tracking feed, four commercial products, defined by workflow rather than by feature.
Read it →
Three positional networks merged into one verified feed, with a narrative five buyers recognise.
Read it →
Eleven products and a services arm, unified into one commercial model. Built the function from zero to eight.
Read it →
What it costs
What it costs.
Price
Quoted after a call
Invoiced in
EUR
Duration
Typically 3 months
Credited
GTM Foundations is credited against it
ADD-ON
The Maintenance Retainer
Four of the six stages keep running after handover. Keeping them pointed at the right things is optional, monthly, and quoted with the build.
What moves it: how many products, how many markets, and whether there's a team already.
If you run sales
Your reps stop writing their own decks.
Product marketing that never reaches a sales call is a documentation project. Four of the six stages produce something a rep uses in front of a customer.
Battlecards
PER COMPETITORClaim-to-response pairs, traps and landmines, and a thirty-second talk track. Built from the competitive grid, so every rebuttal carries a source and a date rather than an opinion.
Objection handling
RANKED BY FREQUENCYThe objections your team actually hears, with the real root cause behind each, the reframe, and the question that surfaces it early enough to matter.
The sales playbook
ONE DOCUMENTMarket opportunity, buyer types, positioning, pricing, competitive advantage. The thing a new rep reads in week one instead of shadowing someone for a month.
Launch Tiers
PER RELEASEEvery release scored 1, 2 or 3, each tier triggering a fixed checklist with owners. Sales stops finding out about launches from the changelog.
I've built this for a maritime data company selling into commodity traders and shipowners, where the competitive claims were technical and the buyers were sceptical. The same structure works wherever the product is hard to explain in one sentence.
34
outputs
6
stages
4
that keep running after I've gone
Straight answers
Straight answers.
When is the right time for this?
When you are within about six months of wanting your first marketing hire, or when marketing is being done by founders and salespeople and nobody owns the story. If you only need one launch or one market sorted, start with GTM Foundations instead.
Should I just hire a full-time PMM instead?
Eventually, yes. The build ends with a hiring brief and a working function, so your first hire walks into a system instead of a blank page. Most companies also find the first hire can be more junior than they planned, because the function already exists.
How long does it take?
Typically three months, in three phases. Thirty days gets you documents. Sixty gets you documents nobody uses. The last phase is where your team learns to run it, which decides whether any of it survives. More products and more markets take longer, which is why the price is scoped rather than published.
What do you need from us?
Four workshops, introductions to five customers, access to your existing material, and a named owner from day one. I do the work between sessions.
Who owns it afterwards?
Whoever you nominate on day one. If that person doesn't exist yet, say so before we start, because it changes what I build.
How do I choose between Foundations and the Product Marketing Function?
By what you're missing. Foundations answers "how do we take this one thing to market" and suits one product in one market. The system answers "who owns product marketing here and how does it keep running", which only becomes urgent once you have customers, a sales motion and repeat objections.
Can we start with Foundations and upgrade later?
Yes, and several people should. Foundations covers stages 01 to 04, so the build picks up from there rather than repeating it. Foundations is credited against the build if you start within three months.
How do I know which size of build we are?
Count your products and your markets. One product sold into one or two markets is the smallest build. Tell me what you sell and to whom and I'll tell you where you'd land.
Do you work with our existing agency or freelancers?
Yes. I build the strategy and the frameworks they execute against. Most of the time that makes them more useful, because they stop guessing what the story is.
What if the positioning we land on is wrong?
Then we find out in month two rather than month twelve, which is the point of doing research before messaging. Positioning is a bet, and I'll show you the alternatives I rejected and why.