Define the work before the role

Before deciding on a job title, identify the work that would make progress possible.

“We need more marketing” can include customer research, positioning, distribution, campaign delivery and measurement. These require different skills and different support from the founder.

For an illustrative developer-tool team, the immediate need might be to turn a verified integration problem into a runnable tutorial and one distribution test. If the customer problem remains uncertain, the first work may instead be founder conversations and research.

Use the First Marketing Hire tool to explore your situation. Treat its recommendation as a starting point for a decision, supported by your actual constraints.

Today, write the current obstacle, the work needed, what successful delivery would look like, and what the founder must supply. Add what falls outside the scope.

Keep this brief. You will use it to compare support options before asking candidates to fit an undefined role.

Jon