Free GTM Skills / Operate / Playbook 16
Team, hiring and handoff
The right next role, hired against a written scorecard, ramped on a 30-60-90 plan with dates, and handed a function documented well enough that it runs without the person who built it.
Why it matters
The usual sequence is marketing person number one (a senior generalist or a fractional lead) sets the foundations, then an operator is hired to run them. Hiring the operator before the foundations exist produces activity without direction; hiring the senior person to run execution wastes them. Everything the role needs is written down before day one.
Order of operations
- Inventory the work: what gets done each week, by whom, written down or not, judgement or execution.
- Decide the role from the inventory: operator, senior generalist, or a contractor for one specialty.
- Write the role scorecard, then the job post from it.
- Screen every candidate against the scorecard with a short task; tell everyone the outcome.
- Build the 30-60-90 plan with a review at each boundary; one segment and one process first.
- Prepare the handoff package with an index and a gap list; record walkthroughs of anything with steps.
- Overlap for two weeks if possible, then review at 90 days.
Skills in this playbook
- Play1