Comprehensive 90-day Fractional CMO engagement playbook for $2M-$20M ARR B2B SaaS. Combines the full Foundation Phase (pre-engagement setup → day-one data collection → internal interviews + GTM survey → strategy workshop → customer validation → foundation lock) with the Execution and Handoff phases (Days 46-90: quick wins, marketing OKRs and quarterly cadence, dashboard, day-75 future-state conversation, succession plan). Every Phase Review is a concrete Phase Gate with named criteria, a deliverable-quality checklist, and an exit test. Two structured mentor sessions are embedded: after the strategy workshop (ICP + positioning deep review) and at foundation lock (full handoff to execution).
The setup phase before kickoff. Days minus-3 to 0. Five things have to be true before day one or the first two weeks of the engagement are spent waiting for credentials and chasing access. This phase establishes the working environment, the operating cadence, and the pod assignments. The Phase Review confirms all setup items are in place before kickoff happens with the client.
Organize your launch folder structure, notify your team, and confirm resource assignments
1.1.1 Set up the T2D3 folder structure
Create the standardized client folder structure on the shared drive so every subsequent artifact has a known home from day zero. The naming convention and folder hierarchy are deliberate: they make handoffs between T2D3 pod members frict...
1.1.2 Send the internal team kick-off email
Align the T2D3 pod on the engagement scope, the client context, the deliverables timeline, and the pod's individual responsibilities before any client communication goes out. The internal kick-off prevents the most common pod failure mod...
1.1.3 Confirm pod assignments via the resourcing and estimations sheet
Translate the engagement scope into committed hours per pod member per week, validated against current pod utilization. Without this step, two engagements end up sharing the same person without either PM knowing it, and the work that suf...
Review Phase 0 completion and secure stakeholder sign-off to proceed
1.Z.1 Phase 0 Review and sign-off
Phase 0 Gate — Pre-engagement setup is complete
Week 1 of the engagement. The day-one ask goes out before kickoff ends because customer interview scheduling has the longest lead time in the entire phase and has to start immediately. In parallel, the pod absorbs the product through a demo with someone who can talk about the why, audits existing content and channels, and pulls pricing and deal review notes. The output of Phase 1 is a complete situation snapshot: what the company has, what it does, who buys it today, and what the existing assets look like. The Phase Review confirms the snapshot is complete enough to inform internal interviews and the workshop.
Launch your engagement with templated emails that introduce your team and secure initial customer interviews
2.1.1 Send the day-one client kick-off email
Open the engagement with a single email that sets expectations, asks for the long-lead-time inputs, and confirms the operating cadence. The day-one email determines whether the first week is spent waiting for access or actually executing.
2.1.2 CEO sends the company-wide CMO introduction email
Establish the fractional CMO's authority across the client organization through a CEO-authored email. Without this email, the CMO has to introduce themselves to every department head individually and re-establish credibility in every mee...
2.1.3 CEO sends the customer interview invitation
Get customer interviews on the calendar as early as possible by having the CEO make the ask, not the fractional CMO. Customer response rates to a CEO ask are 2-3x the response rates to an unknown consultant. Scheduling lag is the single ...
Collect baseline marketing data, system access details, and competitive landscape using structured templates
2.2.1 Marketing audit questionnaire
Capture the client's self-reported state of marketing across 15 competencies as a baseline before the pod runs the external audit. The gap between what the client thinks is true and what the audit reveals is itself diagnostic — companies...
2.2.2 System access information template
Document every system the pod needs access to, who owns it client-side, what the access level should be, and confirmation that access has been granted. Without this single source of truth, two pod members request the same access on diffe...
2.2.3 Competitor research template
Document the competitive landscape as the client perceives it and as the market actually behaves. The output becomes input to the Best/Better/Only exercise in the workshop and the Anti-ICP definition. Most clients underestimate how many ...
Establish recurring 1-1 meetings to maintain alignment and drive execution momentum
2.3.1 1-1 meeting agenda template
Establish the recurring 1:1 cadence between the fractional CMO and each direct report or peer leader on the client side, with a standardized agenda that ensures every conversation is productive even when one party is rushed. The standard...
Validate Phase 1 completion and secure stakeholder approval to advance to Phase 2
2.Z.1 Phase 1 Review and sign-off
Phase 1 Gate — Day-one snapshot complete
Weeks 1 to 3 of the engagement. The pod listens to the client team before it talks to them. Internal 1:1 interviews surface individual conviction before group dynamics flatten it. The GTM Alignment Survey to all go-to-market employees gives anonymous data points that contradict or confirm the leadership narrative. The marketing audit synthesizes the external view (Compass) with the internal view (questionnaire) into a scored report card. Output of Phase 2 is a pre-read for the workshop showing the top contradictions and convergences across leadership. The Phase Review confirms the synthesis is clean and the pre-read is in client hands 48 hours before the workshop.
Capture exec perspectives on market position, customer wins, and GTM gaps through structured interviews
3.1.1 Executive interview questions and prompts
Run structured 1:1 interviews with every workshop participant plus the CRO, head of customer success, head of product, and two to three frontline reps from sales and CS. The 30 to 60 minutes per interview surfaces individual conviction, ...
Assess current marketing effectiveness and identify improvement areas with audit scorecard and findings
3.2.1 Marketing audit kickoff email
Frame the marketing audit for the client team so they understand it is a diagnostic, not an evaluation of their performance. The audit will surface gaps; the kickoff email determines whether those gaps land as useful insight or as critic...
3.2.2 Marketing audit report card
Score the client across the 15 T2D3 competencies on a 0-to-5 scale, combining the internal questionnaire responses, the Compass external assessment, and the pod's own observations from week 1-2. The report card becomes the diagnostic bas...
3.2.3 Audit presentation deck
Present the audit findings to client leadership in a format that makes the gaps visible without making the team defensive. The deck is the moment the pod earns the right to lead the workshop — if the audit lands well, the workshop will b...
Gather cross-functional input on GTM priorities before the planning workshop
3.3.1 Pre-workshop survey form
Run an anonymous survey to all GTM employees to collect data points that the workshop will use to ground discussions in the broader team's view rather than only the leadership view. Anonymity matters because the variance across roles and...
Validate Phase 2 completion and secure stakeholder approval to advance
3.Z.1 Phase 2 Review and sign-off
Phase 2 Gate — Internal interviews + audit synthesis complete
Week 3 or 4 of the engagement. One day on-site or two half-days virtual. The workshop converts pre-read insights into testable hypotheses across ICP, personas, value propositions, brand voice, and growth strategy. The morning diverges (generating candidates), the afternoon converges (selecting hypotheses to test). Output of Phase 3 is a set of working hypotheses, not conclusions — Phase 4 customer validation is the next gate. The Phase Review confirms the workshop output is captured in the right T2D3 OS modules and the customer validation interviews can begin.
Prepare invites and presentation materials to align your team for the strategy workshop
4.1.1 Workshop invite email
Lock the workshop date, the participants, the agenda, and the pre-read expectations in writing. The invite email is what ensures the workshop has the right people in the room with their pre-read read; without it, the workshop becomes ori...
4.1.2 GTM workshop deck
The deck is the operating script for the workshop day. It walks the room through the pre-read findings, runs each exercise (Best/Better/Only, ICP definition, persona drafting, brand voice exercise, Ansoff growth matrix), and captures the...
Run five collaborative exercises to define positioning, ICP, messaging, and growth strategy
4.2.1 Best/Better/Only template
Surface what the company is great at (table stakes), what it is better than competitors at (comparable claims), and what it is the only one to offer (uniquely-differentiated claims). The exercise is the foundation of every value proposit...
4.2.2 Positioning vector template
Translate the Best/Better/Only output into a positioning statement using the standard T2D3 positioning vector format: For [target customer], who [statement of need], [product name] is a [product category] that [statement of key benefit],...
4.2.3 ICP and personas template
Build the first formal draft of the Ideal Customer Profile and the buyer personas (P1, P2, P3, plus Anti-Persona). The workshop output is a hypothesis set, not a final ICP — Phase 4 customer validation is what confirms it. The most impor...
Confirm Phase 3 deliverables are complete and approved before moving forward
4.Z.1 Phase 3 Review and sign-off
Phase 3 Gate — Strategy workshop deliverables locked (mentor session 1)
Weeks 4 to 6 of the engagement. The workshop produced hypotheses; customer interviews validate or kill them. Eight to twelve interviews segmented across closed-won, closed-lost, churned, and expansion. Each segment teaches a different lesson. The interviews surface verbatim language for messaging, dollarized pain for ICP, and the gap between leadership's belief and the customer's experience. Output of Phase 4 is a validated ICP, persona set, and value prop hypothesis ready to be turned into the locked Foundation Document. The Phase Review confirms the persona set passes the Five-Test quality gate.
Use structured interview templates to capture customer pain points and validate your value proposition through recorded testimonials and case studies
5.1.1 T2D3 customer testimonial interview template
Run structured customer interviews using the standardized 24-question Pain-Claim-Gain script. The interview structure produces three things in parallel: validation or rejection of the workshop hypotheses, verbatim quotes for messaging, a...
5.1.2 Case study interview template
Run a deeper interview specifically with high-signal expansion accounts to produce a publishable case study and a deeper understanding of the expansion motion. Expansion accounts are the highest-signal predictor of where the next dollar ...
Confirm Phase 4 completion and validate that customer feedback substantiates your go-to-market positioning
5.Z.1 Phase 4 Review and sign-off
Phase 4 Gate — Customer validation complete
Weeks 6 to 8 of the engagement. The Foundation Document is locked, the messaging house is built across three layers (corporate narrative, persona-specific, channel-adapted), the activation sequence is defined using the asymmetric credibility play, and the next ninety days have explicit OKR targets. Output of Phase 5 is the complete Foundation Document, the activation runway, and the ninety-day OKRs that the engagement will execute against. The Phase Review marks the end of the Foundation Phase and the handoff to the execution phases.
Craft core messaging templates and press release framework to communicate your value proposition consistently
6.1.1 Messaging template
Build the complete messaging matrix as message cells per persona × pillar combination. Each cell carries the pain statement (in the buyer's language), the claim statement (what we promise), the gain statement (the outcome they get), proo...
6.1.2 Fictional press release template
Write the press release we would publish if we had to announce the company tomorrow, exactly as we believe it should sound. The exercise is the fastest sanity-check on whether the positioning is real — if the press release sounds like a ...
Build your marketing strategy deck, execution plan, and growth priorities to guide launch execution
6.2.1 Marketing strategy presentation
Present the complete marketing strategy to client leadership: validated ICP, personas, positioning, messaging house, brand voice, growth bets, and the activation sequence for the next ninety days. The presentation marks the end of the Fo...
6.2.2 Marketing plan spreadsheet
Translate the messaging house and the activation sequence into a quarterly marketing plan with channels, campaigns, content, owners, dates, and budget. The plan is the operational document that the marketing team executes against once th...
6.2.3 T2D3 growth priority spreadsheet
Lock the ARR projections, the lever assumptions (ARPU growth, churn reduction, customer growth), and the prioritized initiatives across acquire / retain / expand for the engagement period. The spreadsheet is the source for the Growth Cal...
Define marketing budget allocation and cascade OKRs to align team around measurable outcomes
6.3.1 Marketing budget template
Document the marketing budget for the next 90 to 180 days across categories (people, programs, tools, agencies, events) with explicit allocation per channel and per initiative. The budget grounds the marketing plan in financial reality a...
6.3.2 T2D3 ACMO Handbook engagement OKRs
Convert the marketing plan and growth projections into Objectives and Key Results for the next 90 days using the standardized T2D3 ACMO Handbook OKR structure. The OKRs are what the engagement will be measured against during the executio...
Review Phase 5 completeness and transition to active go-to-market engagement
6.Z.1 Phase 5 Review and engagement transition
Phase 5 Gate — Foundation locked + activation runway sequenced (mentor session 2)
Ship 3-5 visible wins. Stand up the operating cadence.
Ship the 3-5 wins from the diagnostic.
Run the Quick Wins with Single Owners
Each quick win has a single owner, due date, and success metric.
Track and Report Weekly
Each week, what shipped, what slipped, what we learned. Send to CEO + CRO.
Celebrate Wins Publicly
When something ships, post it in #general. Builds team confidence and CEO endorsement.
OKRs, weekly ops, monthly leadership review.
Stand Up Marketing OKRs
Top 3 OKRs for the quarter. Tied to revenue, not activity.
Run a Weekly 30-Min Marketing Ops Meeting
Status, blockers, decisions. Replaces ad-hoc Slack threads and one-off conversations.
Run a Monthly Leadership Review
CEO + CRO + you. 60 min. KPIs, top wins, top risks, asks.
Single source of truth dashboard the CEO trusts.
Build the Single Source of Truth Dashboard
Pipeline by source, MQL→Opp conversion, blended CAC payback, NRR, top 3 channel productivity.
Get the CEO to Use It
If the CEO doesn't open it weekly, you're still operating on competing dashboards.
Document the Definition of Each Metric
When the next CMO arrives, the metric definitions are documented and live.
Decide what comes next: full-time CMO, extended fractional, or graduation.
Full-time CMO, extended fractional, or wrap.
Run a Day-75 Future-State Conversation with CEO
Three options: hire full-time CMO, extend fractional, or wrap. Walk the math.
Make a Recommendation
You have unique context. Don't hide behind \"it's up to you.\"
Lock the Decision in Writing
CEO confirms in email. Avoids drift in days 80-90.
Document everything so the next person inherits a system.
Build a CMO Onboarding Doc
20 pages: strategy, team, budget, dashboards, calendar, key relationships, top risks.
Help Recruit the Permanent CMO
Your network. Your screening rigor. Your context. Cheapest CMO recruiting the company will ever do.
Plan the Overlap Period
2-4 weeks of overlap with the new CMO. You introduce them, transfer relationships, fade out.
Run a Final Retro with CEO
What worked, what didn't, what should the next leader know.
4.2.4 Asana brand words template
Run the inside-out brand voice exercise to capture leadership's intuitive sense of the brand voice as a starting point for the Brand Voice strategy. The exercise asks every participant to free-associate words that describe who we are, wh...
4.2.5 Ansoff growth matrix template
Force the leadership team to be explicit about which growth bets they are funding and in what order across the four Ansoff quadrants: market penetration (existing market, existing product), market development (new market, existing produc...
