30/60/90 Day Plan for an Interim CMO: Template and Outputs

The short answer: an interim CMO's 90 days work best as three gates, each ending in a written deliverable that a named person signs off. Day 30 is a diagnostic report, a baseline of the numbers and three quick wins, signed off by the CEO. Day 60 is a marketing plan, a budget and a KPI set, signed off by the CEO and CFO, and day 90 is results against the baseline plus a handover document, signed off by the CEO and whoever inherits the work.

Disclosure: I sell interim and fractional CMO work, so I am not a neutral party here. This is a method I recommend, not a record of one engagement, and any number in an example is an assumption. It is written for the interim CMO who has to deliver it and the CEO who has to sign it. Everything is meant to be copied: the deliverable outlines, the sign-off table, the starting KPIs and the contents of the handover document.

Why 90 days, and what an interim changes

The idea of a structured first 90 days is best known from Michael D. Watkins's book The First 90 Days (Harvard Business Review Press, updated edition 2013). The publisher's description says: "Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success." It adds that the book shows how to secure early wins.

Watkins wrote for leaders starting a permanent role. An interim has a fixed term, so I change one thing: the plan has to end with an exit. Each gate produces something the next person can use, and the last gate produces the handover.

Before day 1: agree the mandate in writing

Do this in week zero with the CEO. One page, signed:

• Decision rights. What the interim can change without asking (budget moves, hires, agency and tool contracts) and what goes to the CEO.
• Exit condition. What must exist when the engagement ends, as a list of things: a plan, a dashboard, a hired head of growth, a handover document.
• Who inherits. A named person or role.
• Sign-off. Who approves each gate, and by which date.
• Access. The CRM, analytics, ad accounts, budget actuals and contracts the interim needs by the end of week one.

The first three are covered in how to write the brief.

The plan at a glance

Days 1 to 30: diagnose

The order of work:

1. Week 1: access, and interviews booked. Get read access to the CRM, analytics, ad accounts, budget actuals, and the tool and agency contracts. Put every interview in the calendar before you hold the first one.
2. Weeks 1 and 2: interviews. Talk to the CEO, the CFO, the head of sales, the heads of product and customer success, and each person in the marketing team one to one. If you can, add five recent customers or lost deals. Ask everyone the same five questions so the answers can be compared: What is marketing for here? What is working? What is wasted? What would you stop? Which decision is waiting for someone to make it?
3. Weeks 2 and 3: audit the numbers. Funnel counts from first touch to closed-won for the last 12 months. Spend by channel and what each channel is credited with. Whether conversions are tracked, and whether the CRM and analytics agree on source. How fast leads are contacted and who owns them. The tool list with renewal dates, and the agency scopes and fees.
4. Week 4: write and present. Produce the four deliverables below and walk the CEO through them.

Deliverables at day 30

• Diagnostic report, up to ten pages. Use this outline: (1) what the business needs from marketing, in the CEO's words; (2) the current state in numbers; (3) what works, with evidence; (4) what does not, with evidence; (5) the three biggest constraints; (6) quick wins, each with an owner, a date and a metric; (7) the stop list; (8) decisions needed from the CEO, with dates; (9) open questions and risks.
• Baseline sheet. Eight to twelve numbers, each with a definition, a source system, an owner and its value at day 30. A number without a definition is not a baseline. The CFO confirms them.
• Three quick wins. A quick win can be undone, finishes within three weeks, needs no new budget, is measured with a number the CFO already trusts and has an owner who stays after the interim leaves. Candidates include fixing broken conversion tracking, agreeing a response-time rule for new leads and removing tools nobody uses at the next renewal. Choose them from the diagnostic, not from a list.
• First stop list. The activities, reports and tools that stop now. Stopping frees capacity for the plan.

Days 31 to 60: design

1. Strategy on a page. Who the company serves and why they buy, the three priorities for the next 12 months, and what is out of scope. For each priority, a testable hypothesis: if X is done, metric Y should move within N months.
2. Budget. A 12-month budget by channel and program, each line with the metric it should move and a review date. Keep a defined share unallocated for experiments, and write that share into the plan.
3. KPI set. Five to eight numbers, agreed with finance and sales (table below).
4. Dashboard v1. One page, built in whatever the finance team already uses. A spreadsheet is fine. Every number shows its definition and source. For the layout, see the CMO dashboard KPI framework.
5. People and vendors. Which roles are missing, which agency scopes stay and what stops. If hiring a permanent team is part of the exit condition, start in this window so that the person is in place before the handover.
6. Sign-off. The CEO and CFO sign the budget and the KPI definitions. The head of sales signs what counts as a lead and as an opportunity. If these are not signed by day 60, stop adding work and escalate. A plan nobody has agreed to cannot be run.

The first KPIs

Pick five to eight, give each one owner and write the definition down before anyone looks at a result. This starting set suits a B2B company with a sales team. Treat the definitions as a starting point and keep them fixed once agreed.

For e-commerce or other consumer businesses, replace pipeline with revenue by channel, contribution margin and repeat purchase rate.

Revenue lags, so agree what counts at day 90. Suppose a typical opportunity takes 120 days from creation to close (an assumption for this example). An opportunity created on day 30 then closes around day 150, after a 90-day engagement has ended. Agree with the CFO, in writing, which leading indicators count as success at day 90 (tracking coverage, response time, opportunity creation, spend against plan) and which lagging ones the successor will review.

Days 61 to 90: run and hand over

1. Run the plan with a weekly one-page status. KPIs against the baseline, decisions needed, risks. The same format every week.
2. Turn recurring work into playbooks. List what the function repeats: monthly reporting, campaign launch, agency brief, budget reforecast, lead handoff. Write one page for each, with purpose, steps, owner, tools and where the files are. Then ask someone who has never done the task to run it from the page alone, and fix the page where they get stuck.
3. Transfer ownership in steps. For each recurring task, the interim does it, then they do it together with the team member leading, then the team member does it alone. The method is in coaching a marketing team to self-sufficiency.
4. Write the handover document (contents below) and walk the successor through it in two or three sessions.
5. Sign-off. The CEO and the person who inherits the work sign the handover. If nobody is named by day 75, ask the CEO to name an owner. A handover with no recipient is only a report.

What the handover document contains

1. The mandate as signed in week zero, and what changed since.
2. Strategy on a page and the 12-month plan, with the status of each priority.
3. The KPI sheet: definitions, source systems, owners, baseline, current value and targets.
4. Dashboard access, and who refreshes it.
5. Budget: plan, actuals, commitments and what can still be moved.
6. Agencies and freelancers: scope, fee, contract end date and notice period, owner and an honest view of performance.
7. The tool stack: each tool with its owner, cost, renewal date and integrations.
8. The team: roles, strengths, development plans, open vacancies and the hiring pipeline. Handle personal data under your HR policy.
9. The campaign and content calendar for the next quarter.
10. The experiment log: what was tested, the result and the decision.
11. Open decisions, risks and promises made to other departments.
12. A stakeholder map: who cares about what, and what was agreed with each.
13. An access register: who holds admin rights in each system.
14. A recommended first 30 days for the successor.

Adjust the plan to the mandate

Watkins's book sorts transitions into five situations that he calls STARS: start-up, turnaround, accelerated growth, realignment and sustaining success. The mapping below is my reading of how each one changes an interim's plan, not Watkins's advice.

When not to use this plan

• The mandate is one deliverable. A launch plan or a stack decision does not need three gates. Write a one-page brief with a deadline instead.
• Nobody can sign. The gates only work if a named person has the authority and the time to approve them. Fix the mandate first.
• The role is one or two days a week. Keep the gates and the deliverables and move the dates. With fewer days, each window takes longer in calendar time. That is a rule of thumb, not a measured ratio.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should an interim CMO deliver in the first 30 days?

A diagnostic report of up to ten pages, a baseline sheet of eight to twelve defined numbers, three quick wins with owners and dates, and a first stop list. The CEO signs off the report, and the CFO confirms the baseline numbers.

Who should sign off the plan?

The CEO signs every gate. The CFO signs the budget and the KPI definitions at day 60, because those are the numbers they will be asked about. The head of sales agrees what counts as a lead and as an opportunity. At day 90 the person who inherits the work signs the handover, so that it has a recipient.

What KPIs should an interim CMO agree first?

Five to eight, each with one owner and a written definition. A starting set is marketing-sourced pipeline, opportunities by source, cost per opportunity, CAC payback, lead response time, tracking coverage and spend against plan. Revenue lags, so agree in writing which leading indicators count at day 90.

What goes in the handover document?

Fourteen items, listed above. The core is the signed mandate, the strategy and plan, the KPI sheet with its baseline, the budget and commitments, agency and tool contracts with renewal dates, the team and its vacancies, open decisions and risks, and a recommended first 30 days for the successor.

How is this different from the plan Watkins describes for a permanent leader?

A permanent leader's plan is about settling in and leading for years. An interim's plan ends with an exit, so every gate produces something the next person can use, and the last gate is the handover.

References

[1] Watkins, M. D. (2013). The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter. Harvard Business Review Press. https://store.hbr.org/product/the-first-90-days-updated-and-expanded-proven-strategies-for-getting-up-to-speed-faster-and-smarter/11323