I started with diagnosis before prescription. Using the AARRR framework as a diagnostic lens, I mapped the entire customer journey to identify where growth was breaking down—from organic traffic decline through every conversion point to paying customer. The data revealed bottlenecks at multiple stages, but more importantly, it showed that siloed teams were optimizing pieces without understanding the whole.

The first move was restructuring the team around the customer journey. I created three specialized teams: Demand Generation (driving traffic and conversion), Product & Content Marketing (positioning and education), and Lifecycle Marketing (nurturing). But here’s what made it work: I organized them into two cross-functional working groups using AARRR—one focused on Acquisition and Activation (the AA team), another on Revenue, Retention, and Referral (the RRR team). This dual structure meant everyone had functional depth but worked together on integrated campaigns. The groups met bi-weekly for performance review and planning, ensuring continuous alignment and rapid problem-solving.

Next came strategic foundation. I developed a comprehensive Marketing Strategy 2026-2029 with five pillars—Product Marketing & Go-to-Market, Brand Building & External Presence, Customer Acquisition & Growth, Customer Marketing & Advocacy, and Marketing Operations & Analytics. This became the operating system that was going to align marketing with sales and product around shared revenue goals.

For the organic traffic problem, I established a systematic SEO and Content process connecting keywords to buyer intent and AARRR stages. But I tackled content strategy holistically. I implemented the STDC framework (See, See+, Think, Do, Care) as the foundation—mapping our content library to identify customer journey gaps and creating a systematic approach to filling them. The strategy was set and ready for execution: owned channels (website, email) for lead capture and relationship building, shared channels (YouTube, LinkedIn, paid) for audience growth with clear paths back to owned platforms. Each channel had defined purpose mapped to STDC stages—LinkedIn for thought leadership in See+ and Think stages, YouTube for education in Think and Do stages, paid for amplifying high-performing content.

For positioning, I started to shift Zebra BI from product features to thought leadership using STDC. The goal: own the category of standards-based BI and actionable reporting rather than compete as another Power BI visual vendor. The thought leadership strategy was in place and beginning to reshape how the market saw Zebra BI.

On paid performance, we identified massive investment potential. As we systematically improved landing pages, messaging, and targeting, CPL costs dropped month over month. I built the business case for aggressive paid scaling based on improving unit economics.

For lifecycle marketing, I developed dual-track programs matching our hybrid GTM motion—one nurture path for self-service PLG users, another for sales-assisted accounts. Critical to this was defining Product Qualified Lead (PQL) criteria to identify which trial users showed genuine buying intent. This PQL definition was designed to transform our trial-to-customer nurturing, allowing lifecycle marketing to focus resources on high-intent users while automating light-touch nurture for others.

For conversion optimization, I built systematic CRO processes—bi-weekly analysis, hypothesis-driven experiments, rapid testing across the full funnel. We treated the website as a product requiring continuous iteration.

Finally, I established cross-functional collaboration frameworks connecting Marketing, Sales, Product, and RevOps. Shared dashboards tracking session to revenue. Unified success metrics where everyone optimized for pipeline and revenue, not departmental vanity metrics. Marketing became a revenue driver.

The transformation took months of systematic work—restructuring teams, building processes, establishing measurement, running experiments, creating alignment—but the foundation was built to scale and sustain growth long-term.