Team · updated 2026-09-21

Marketing Lead: Suggested First 90 Days

Last updated: 2026-09-21 For: Michelle. This is a draft to argue with, not a mandate. Revise it in the first week and bring the revised version to Sheila. Companion to jd-marketing-lead.md.

The constraint that shapes everything

20 hours a month is about 60 hours across 90 days, or five hours a week. That is enough to build two or three things properly. It is not enough to touch nineteen revenue lines.

So this plan does three things:

1. Get the front door working. The quiz and the lead magnets have to reliably turn attention into email addresses and app sign-ups.
2. Ship one agentic workflow. One workflow that saves hours every month, documented, so month four is cheaper than month one.
3. Start the founder's earned media engine. The press kit and the story, so pitching can begin.

Everything else waits. Say no on purpose, and write down what you said no to.

Days 1 to 30: see the board, then fix the front door

Hours: about 20. Split roughly 8 on setup and audit, 12 on the quiz and the funnel.

Setup and audit (week 1)

• Get access: the app and its analytics, email and CRM, Stripe, GA4, LinkedIn, design tools, the podcast host, ClickUp, the agentic platforms
• Write down today's baselines: list size, app sign-ups, sales to date by product, LinkedIn followers, traffic. Everything after this is measured against that
• Read the brand guide, the product docs in WTF-DESIGN/GTM/, and the lead magnets. Note where the messaging contradicts itself
• Send Sheila a one-page read on what you found, what is working, and the three things you'd fix first

The front door (weeks 2 to 4)

• Take the "Are you prepared for the AI economy?" quiz from idea to live: questions, scoring, the result page, and the email capture
• Write the follow-up email sequence that runs after the quiz, ending with the first $29 playbook
• Fix the top of the funnel where it leaks: the landing page, the sign-up flow, the confirmation email
• Set a LinkedIn posting cadence you can actually hold at five hours a week. Two posts a week beats seven for a month and then silence

By day 30 you have: baselines written down, the quiz live and capturing emails, one nurture sequence running, and a LinkedIn cadence in motion.

Days 31 to 60: build the machine that does the work

Hours: about 20. Split roughly 10 on agentic ops, 10 on content and the first launch.

Agentic marketing ops

• Pick the one workflow that eats the most of your hours. Content repurposing is the usual answer: one piece becomes a LinkedIn post, an email, a push notification, and a short video script
• Map the steps before building. Scope the platform, the tools, and the APIs. Sheila supports the build; you own the design and the prompting
• Ship it, run it for two weeks, and document it so someone else could run it
• Measure it honestly: hours saved per month, and whether quality held

Content and the first launch

• Run the first monthly content sprint: a month of social, email, and push planned and produced in one sitting
• Write the sales page and product description for the next playbook, Cut Your Website Costs
• Launch it to the list with a discount code for waitlist members
• Start the press kit: bio, headshots, story pillars, and a one-pager on the founder

By day 60 you have: one workflow live and documented, one playbook launched with real sales data, and a press kit in draft.

Days 61 to 90: sell, pitch, and plan the next quarter

Hours: about 20. Split roughly 8 on sales support, 7 on PR, 5 on reporting and planning.

Sales support

• Build the B2B pitch materials for HR and people leaders: a one-pager, a short deck, and the outreach messaging. Sheila runs the LinkedIn outbound, you own the message
• Draft the affiliate plan with Sheila: commission, terms, and the assets a partner gets on day one. Sheila brings the first partners from her network

PR

• Finish the press kit
• Build the target list: the outlets, podcasts, and stages worth ten pitches, split across healthcare, AI and future of work, and small business
• Send the first pitches. Prep Sheila with talking points before anything is booked

Reporting and planning

• Stand up the weekly report: what shipped, what the numbers say, what is next, where you are blocked
• Run the quarterly planning session with Sheila: what worked, what to kill, and what the next 90 days are for

By day 90 you have: B2B and affiliate materials ready, first pitches out, a weekly reporting habit, and a plan for the next quarter that you wrote.

What is deliberately not in the first 90 days

Name these out loud so nobody is surprised by the silence:

• The tools and prompts library, and the premium prompt-builders (Next phase)
• The professional marketplace
• Radiowaves, the podcast and newsletter, which deserve real hours and won't get them yet
• Workforce development contracts and grant proposals
• Paid events and workshops
• Everything marked Post-$2M in the JD: agency licenses, Office Hours, enterprise licensing, merch
• Paid ads, which don't start until $2M in gross sales and even then are considered, not promised

How to revise this

Bring back a version that answers three questions:

1. What did I get wrong about the current state? You'll know more after week one than this plan does.
2. Which of the three priorities is actually the highest leverage? If it isn't the quiz, say so and say why.
3. What would you cut to protect the hours? Something here is optional. Find it.