Building the Product Marketing Function at Open ECX
Open ECX needed its first product marketer at exactly the moment its brand was being rebuilt. Here's how we found someone to lead the story, not just fill a seat.
RECRUITMENT BRIEF
COMPANY: Open ECX
SECTOR: B2B Technology: Fintech SaaS
POSITION: Product Marketing Manager
LOCATION: United Kingdom
ABOUT OPEN ECX
Open ECX takes the manual grind out of the three jobs that swallow up a finance team’s week: invoicing, purchase ordering and statement reconciliation. Their software is built for clients with high-volume supply chains and invoices, including construction, building materials, engineering, food & beverage, manufacturing, logistics, medical and pharmaceutical, automating processes that used to take hours - and with the UK government's mandatory B2B e-invoicing deadline looming, Open ECX is helping clients get ahead of the curve!
THE CHALLENGE
Open ECX came to us at an important moment. They were in the middle of a full rebrand: a new website, new tone of voice, and a clear goal to ensure their messaging spoke clearly to both finance leaders and operational leaders across the industries they serve. The old corporate, passive language was on its way out, replaced by something more direct and more human.
What made this hire hard wasn't just finding a good marketer; it was finding someone who understood B2B SaaS product marketing with a genuine fintech fluency and could write with personality instead of jargon, a combination that's rare on its own. Being the first hire into a brand-new function and sitting at the intersection of Product, Sales, Customer Success and Marketing, there was no playbook to hand over and no room to get it wrong.
OUR RECRUITMENT APPROACH
Working with high-growth SaaS clients daily, we understand what "first on the ground" demands, both in terms of skill set and mindset.
To address the skill set gap, we built a targeted search focused on B2B SaaS product marketers with genuine financial sector fluency, then went further, screening specifically for storytelling ability. We wanted evidence, not just claims, that a candidate could take something complex and turn it into copy with edge and personality.
To address the relationship risk, we prioritised candidates who'd shown they could build trust quickly across departments, since anyone who couldn't wouldn't thrive at the intersection of Product, Sales, Customer Success and Marketing.
A SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME
We placed Jocelyn Thurlow as Open ECX's Product Marketing Manager, giving them the founding voice of their product marketing function at exactly the moment they needed it most. As Open ECX continues to scale, Jocelyn is now central to how the business tells its story, shapes its go-to-market strategy, and supports Sales with the collateral and messaging needed.
“Armstrong Lloyd understood exactly what we needed: someone to help lead the story we're about to tell, not just fill a seat. Jocelyn has settled into the team brilliantly and is already getting stuck into shaping our product messaging. We're only at the start of this journey, but she's brought an energy and a voice to this business we didn't have before.”
— Kieran, Head of Marketing, Open ECX
Hiring your first product marketer isn't like hiring your fifth. There's no playbook to hand over, no established voice to slot into! The person you hire is the playbook. Getting those wrong costs a growth-stage business months of drift. Getting it right, as Open ECX found, gives you a founding voice that can carry a rebrand.
