Stop Hiring Headcount for "Spiky" Work

Look at your marketing roadmap. Do you need a product launch strategy every week or after every sprint review? Do you need a complete messaging overhaul every Tuesday at 9 AM? No. Product Marketing is "spiky" work. It happens in intense bursts—around launches, funding rounds, or pivots—followed by weeks of maintenance. Hiring a full-time, six-figure employee for spiky work is bad unit economics. The modern alternative isn't an agency; it's Fractional Product Intelligence powered by LLMs.

What is Fractional Intelligence?

Fractional Intelligence is the strategic use of AI models and specialized workflows to perform high-level cognitive tasks—like market positioning, competitive analysis, and persona development—on an on-demand basis. Unlike a 1099 consultant who charges and requires 40 hrs per week, Fractional Intelligence is always on, instantly scalable, and literal costs a fraction of a fully burdened employee.

The "Rent vs. Buy" Calculus for Product Marketing Brainpower

Most B2B founders think they have two choices:

  1. The Junior Hire ($60k): Cheap, but lacks the experience to build strategy. You spend 20 hours a week managing them.

  2. The Senior Hire ($160k+): Great strategy, but bored by execution. Expensive overhead during "quiet" periods.  Wants to manage, not do.

The Third Option: The AI-Augmented Stack.
 By leveraging LLMs for the heavy lifting of research and drafting, you can operate with a lean execution team that punches above its weight class. You aren't paying for downtime. You are paying for output / outcomes.

 3 Strategic Outputs You Can Now Automate (That Used to Cost $90k)

1 - The "Competitor Tear-Down":

    • Old Way: Pay a consultant to interview customers and read G2 reviews (2 weeks).

    • New Way: Feed 500 competitor reviews and their pricing page into an LLM. Ask for a SWOT analysis and a "Kill Sheet" for your sales team. (Time: 60 minutes).

2 - The "Persona Interrogation":

    • Old Way: Guess what your buyer cares about during a brainstorming session.

    • New Way: Create a synthetic persona in an LLM (e.g., "Act as a cynical CIO"). Pitch your product to it and ask it to list 10 reasons why it would refuse to buy.

3 - The "Messaging Pivot":

    • Old Way: A 3-month rebranding exercise.

    • New Way: A/B test 50 different value propositions generated by AI against your current customer data to see what actually sticks.

When to Finally Hire an Employee Leader

We aren't saying employees are obsolete. We are saying the timing has changed. You hire the full-time Head of PMM when:

  • You have multiple product lines requiring simultaneous orchestration.

  • The "human" element of relationship building (analyst relations, partner marketing) outweighs the content production needs.

  • Until then? Scale with silicon, and fractional quarterly OPEX spend -> not salary+benefits+bonus+equity