Blueprint for a CMO’s First 100 Days

Prepare (Days −10 to 15)

The Prepare phase is all about assessing, or reassessing, cultural fit with the organization, understanding CEO expectations and developing a conversational fluency. Ensure that expectations are aligned and check for passion. Can you envision yourself as the single most passionate brand ambassador on the payroll?

Assess (Days 0 to 30)

Use the Assess phase to determine corporate goals and priorities, assess organizational structure and staffing, establish agency relationships and meet with customers. Use the first 30 days to conduct a maturity assessment and evaluate marketing spend. In this phase, it’s also important to share your process and time frame while keeping stakeholders apprised.

Act (Days 30 to 80)

In the Act phase, communicate and prove your strategic assertions, gain trust and gather operational feedback. By this time you’ll have a grounded point of view on what needs to get done and the discipline to contain your enthusiasm to a series of time- and resource-bound areas of focus. Kick off a test project from your marketing plan and meet daily with your test project team to detail the accomplishments from yesterday, priorities for today and any roadblocks to progress.

Measure (Days 45 to 100)

In the Measure phase, assess outcomes relative to your 100-day onboarding plan, identify new insights, showcase early wins, roll out new organizational refinements and update processes. Prepare a short presentation for stakeholders that tells the story of project outcomes and key findings in simple and summarized terms.

This article was updated from the original, published on September 4, 2018, to reflect new events, conditions or research.