How building a Marketing PMO turned cross-functional chaos into coordinated execution.
Overview
Industry: FinTech
Scope: 200-person marketing organization
My Role: Sr. Director, Marketing Operations
Focus Area: Strategic Planning & Execution Alignment
Context: As marketing scaled, work grew faster than the structure to support it. I established a dedicated PMO to bring visibility, coordination, and follow-through to high-value initiatives.
The Problem
As marketing scaled, work grew faster than the structure to support it. Every campaign and initiative relied on cross-functional partners — legal, product, tech, procurement, external agencies — but no one owned the delivery of the full picture.
Without dedicated project management, priorities overlapped, deadlines slipped, and high-value initiatives stalled in handoffs. The team was working hard, but not in sync.
This resulted in Marketing’s most important work struggled to launch on time and when it did, it came with burnout baked in.
The Solution
To bring order (and sanity) to the chaos, I established a Marketing Project Management Office (PMO), which was a first-of-its-kind function for the marketing team.
I built it from the ground up, aligning with the enterprise PMO team while tailoring the approach to fit the creative, collaborative nature of marketing.
Working cross-functionally, I:
Designed the project intake and prioritization process for all marketing initiatives.
Defined roles, workflows, and checkpoints for campaign planning, reviews, and launches.
Trained 200+ marketing leaders and contributors on the fundamentals of project management.
Introduced visibility dashboards and milestone tracking so teams could manage resources and risks proactively.
Partnered with finance, legal, and technology to streamline cross-departmental coordination.
The Results
→ Created Marketing’s first formal project and campaign management function.
→ Reduced project delays by introducing clear intake and prioritization criteria.
→ Improved cross-functional communication and accountability, especially with enterprise partners.
→ Increased delivery efficiency across contributors and stakeholders enterprise-wide.
When people know who’s doing what (and when), collaboration turns from chaos into progress.
Skills Applied
Portfolio management
Project and program management
Resource and capacity planning
Communication and stakeholder management
Workflow and process design
Leadership facilitation
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