AMA: Observable Head of Growth Marketing, Erika Barbosa on Demand Generation 30 / 60 / 90 Day Plan

I recommend structuring a 30-60-90 day plan with clear timelines and goals. This will look different at an established org versus a start-up. This may also look different depending on the full scope of the role. That being said, let’s dive in: * 30 days: The first 30 days are about getting to know your customers, colleagues, and processes. “Drink from the firehose” as they say and so do with curiosity. This time is all about deeply understanding the mission, business, and customers. You don’t know what you don’t know. Ask questions and be a sponge. * 60 days: Start crafting and solidifying your plan, timelines, and the associated desired outcomes and targets. As a growth marketer in demand gen, I take the lens of experimentation. Start defining opportunities for experimentation and documenting what this plan would look like. Start digging into metrics critically. You’ll want to get a lay of the land with dashboards and reporting within your first 30 days, but they most likely won’t start to make sense until you have your footing. Be sure to start formulating your hypothesis, have several conversations cross-functionally, and identify any gaps in tracking and reporting. * 90 days: Start formulating the impact you are going to drive either as an individual contributor or as a leader. I recommend having a bottoms up perspective and how your plan will ladder up to company goals. Start executing experiments and defining what scale looks like. Be sure to communicate with stakeholders and be transparent throughout the process. While the fundamentals stay sound, I can speak from experience that my 30-60-90 day plan has looked different at every org I have been with. This shouldn’t be formulated from a cookie cutter approach. The plan must be tailored based on all of the variables of the org and the role. Lastly, I recommend that you start thinking about this early in the process. Approach it with an open mind with a bias towards action.

During your one-on-ones with your cross-functional teams, you want to get a solid understanding of who to go to for what. I also recommend getting to know folks on an individual level - you are going to be spending a lot of time together! Here are 7 example questions that will vary depending on the audience, but will help you get started: 1. What is the biggest challenge you currently face that I can help with in my role? 2. What feedback do you consistently hear from customers that we have not been able to address yet as an org? 3. What is the biggest untapped opportunity that you see to help grow the business and better serve our customers? 4. How would you like to see us work together? 5. What does partnership between our roles look like for you? 6. What metrics and reporting do you pay close attention to and why? 7. What question am I not asking that I should ask? Try to tailor your questions based on the partnership you will have. Seek out answers on how you can best work together. How can you accelerate growth together in partnership, faster? You’ll find your questions will be met with open arms when approached from the perspective of, how can I help you in your role?

In order to prioritize needs/deliverables you first have to understand the associated goal(s). Based on this, you can work backwards to better understand what will drive the desired outcome. It’s easy to quickly become overwhelmed as the one demand generation manager. Prioritization is key. Ask questions about deadlines. Be sure to have a solid understanding of scope while also managing scope creep. Lastly, it’s important to clearly articulate blockers, dependencies, and set realistic expectations.

From my perspective, the most effective way to scale a demand generation team is by being able to define the following: * What roles will help you move faster and what would be the associated impact? * How will you gauge success for this role including associated metrics? * What is your vision for the first 90 days of this role? Essentially, you have to be able to tell the story of the value each role will add, the impact the role will make on the business including KPIs, and how the different roles will function as a unit. You’ll see this is largely about being able to articulate the desired outcome and impact as the team continues to scale. The larger the team becomes the more likely you will have specialized roles as well so you’ll want to futureproof the team with this in mind.

When you first start in a demand generation role you are going to be “drinking from the fire hose”, but typically right around the 90 day mark details start to click. There will be some areas that are obvious elements to plan and some that are “quick wins”. From my perspective, below you’ll find 3 examples that usually are a given across industries, the size of the organization, and the level of the role. * Gaps in tracking. I will consistently find some form of a gap in tracking and reporting. This may take the form of reporting enhancements too. * Audit campaigns. For campaigns currently running, obvious gaps will become apparent to fix (e.g., targeting the globe versus targeting the location that you are focused on). * Clarity. Clarity and documentation around roles, processes, and expectations. This may take a different form depending on your role, but clarity is necessary. The main takeaway is for you to trust there will always be quick wins in any new role. The idea of a fresh set of eyes isn’t to poke holes in a strategy, but to give a new perspective. You’ll find oftentimes it is fairly straightforward to provide some quick wins.

In your first month you should aim to soak up as much knowledge as you can. Develop a deep understanding of your customers and the business. Start capturing the ideas that will naturally come to mind. Sometimes you may have a starter project during the first month too. In your first quarter you should aim to ship something meaningful that will impact the bottom line. Be able to report on the outcome and desired impact. I see the first month as building the foundation to hit the ground running within the first 90 days.

When coming in as the Head of Demand Generation in a startup, your 30/60/90 day plan will most likely include a few additional elements such as: * Tracking and reporting infrastructure. You may need to do some infrastructure work such as setting up additional tracking and reporting. This is something I would absolutely start to tackle in your first quarter as it most likely will extend past the first 90 days. * Education and addressing questions. You may have to have more educational conversations with your colleagues if there haven’t been previous demand gen managers. Be prepared for this and approach it from a thoughtful frame of mind. * Documentation. You may find you have to document processes more in the absence of already established documentation. It’s helpful to start as you are going through the motions yourself. This is an exciting position to be in because you can be a part of the foundational work that needs to happen. Building a function is very rewarding and will make a huge impact on the business.

I recommend thinking about the 30/60/90 plan as your roadmap or blueprint for success in your first 90 days. You are building a meaningful and purposeful plan to execute with measurable outcomes. This is your opportunity to demonstrate how you will fill the gap that you were hired for. This may mean as a net new role or as a backfill role that most likely evolved as part of the process. You’ll also find that the 30/60/90 day plan helps keep you focused. When you start a new role and you are still getting your footing, this plan keeps you dialed in on the areas that matter. There is rarely a shortage of work but there will always be a shortage of time. These first 90 days are critical and need to be intentional. See this as your opportunity to drive impact in a short amount of time. You’ll of course continue planning sessions throughout your tenure, but this initial plan will help you get settled in your new role.

I’ve included 6 different resources for you to use as a starting point below (in no particular order). This covers everything from building a demand gen plan for a startup up to an enterprise. I wanted to provide a variety of resources so that you can mix and match what makes the most sense for you. I’ve also included some of my responses from my AMA on 30-60-90 day plans. You can go visit my AMA page for all of my responses or check out the top responses below. 30-60-90 day AMA responses: * What's the most effective way to scale a Demand Generation team beyond the first Demand Generation manager? * What do you think about your first 30/60/90 day goals when coming in as the Head of demand generation in a startup that didn't have demand gen managers before? * What's a good way to think about, contextualize, and approach a 30/60/90 plan if you've never done one before, when you're new to demand generation? Additional resources: * https://www.usebroca.com/blog/startup-head-of-marketing-30-60-90-days * https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/30-60-90-day-plan * https://www.coursera.org/articles/30-60-90-day-plan * https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/starting-new-job/30-60-90-day-plan * https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/30-60-90-day-plan/ * https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/30-60-90-day-plan/

My recommendation for this type of 30-60-90 day plan is to take a blended approach based on my responses below. The foundational work does not change. What does change is the hiring needs to support your plan, associated costs, the ability to clearly articulate how you would like to structure and build your team, along with the desired outcomes. I’ve worked in various demand generation team structures. What structure do you need to support your goals? * What do you think about your first 30/60/90 day goals when coming in as the Head of demand generation in a startup that didn't have demand gen managers before? * What are some examples of "quick wins" you should aim for in the first 90 days? * What's your best demand generation 30-60-90 day plan to make a big impact at a new company?