How to build a MarComm team from scratch in a growing organisation
First hire, first workflow, first ritual. How to structure a marketing communications function that delivers before it is fully staffed.
The most common mistake in a growing organisation is hiring a marketing generalist and hoping structure appears afterwards. Structure does not appear. It gets designed, usually by whoever is most overloaded, and it shows.
Design the operating model before the org chart
Start with the four or five outcomes the function owns this year. Demand, narrative, reputation, product marketing, internal comms. Then decide which are built in-house, which are bought from partners, and which are simply not being done yet. A small team that has explicitly chosen what it will not do outperforms a bigger one that has not.
The first three roles
- An owner who can hold the narrative and say no
- A builder who ships content and campaigns end to end
- A specialist bought in, not hired, for the deep craft you need occasionally
None of these hires work without a written narrative to execute against. If that is still unsettled, fix message architecture first, then hire.
Rituals beat tools
A weekly editorial decision meeting, a monthly narrative review, and a quarterly capability check will do more for output than any new platform. Tools amplify a rhythm; they do not create one.
Where AI actually earns its place
Used well, AI platforms compress research, first drafts, repurposing and reporting, which is where small teams lose most of their week. Used badly, they flood the market with generic copy that dilutes the very narrative you just built. The discipline is the same as with any hire: give the machine the architecture, the language rules and the proof, and review its output like an editor.
Structure holds only if the people in it keep getting sharper. That is the argument for coaching MarComm leaders, and you can see how these three practices connect on the services overview.
MarComm by Design
Building and restructuring marketing communications functions, operating models, and AI-enabled workflows.
Most early-stage brands buy an identity before they own an idea. Here is the order that actually holds: narrative spine, message architecture, then design.
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