FROM THE CRO COLLECTIVE
The CRO Welcome Kit
Twenty actions for your first 30 days. Expand any item for why, how, traps, and what done looks like.
No login. No course. Use it this week.
Congratulations
You got the CRO job. That is a real achievement. Own it for a minute. There are not many of these seats. Someone bet on you to run how the company grows.
Why we sent this
We want CROs to win. Not as a slogan. As the point of our work.
The first two weeks are lonely. Everyone watches. Almost nobody helps. The job is more political than the interview made it sound. CRO tenures are short. A lot of first-time CROs are gone inside 18 months. That is usually not because they are stupid. It is because the company put them in a broken setup and expected miracles.
The checklist is the kit. Open any action for the playbook behind it. Define your seat when you want focus items personalized — optional, same actions either way.
START HERE
The 30-day checklist
This is the work. Twenty actions across four weeks. Open any row for first steps, traps, and — where it helps — a worksheet you can fill in and save.
Week 1
Orient. No conclusions yet.
Write down the job you actually have, not the one that was posted
Ask your CEO what has to be true twelve months from now
Run the AARR check: authority, autonomy, resources, runway
Ask the five 1:1 questions of every direct report
Map who else decides — the people outside your org chart
Week 2
Diagnose from your own data.
Rebuild the forecast yourself instead of inheriting it
Reconcile how sales, marketing and finance each count revenue
Sit in on five customer calls without leading them
Write the one-page read on where revenue actually breaks
Test that read with two people who disagree with each other
Week 3
Choose. Say it out loud.
Give the CEO the diagnosis before you give it to the org
Pick the first system you will fix and name who owns it
Flag one resource gap while it is still cheap to fix
Decide what you are explicitly not doing this quarter
Deal with the inherited hire you already have doubts about
Week 4
Commit and set the cadence.
Present the 90-day plan: one diagnosis, three moves, one number
Give each direct report a written definition of what they own
Set the operating cadence: forecast, pipeline review, exec update
Run the day-30 self-check against the red-flag list
Book the conversation you know you will need in week eight
TAKE IT WITH YOU
Checklist as a PDF
Printable checklist with done-means for each action. Everything on this page stays free and open. The PDF is the only thing we ask for an email in exchange for.
One email with the PDF. No sequence, no newsletter.
LENS — OPTIONAL
What is your actual scope?
Scope and authority — not the title. Include what they told you the job is, and what they are actually incentivizing. We name your seat and highlight focus items on the same checklist above.
Does Sales report to you?
Solid-line reporting: you hire, manage, and exit sales leaders.
Does Marketing report to you?
Demand gen, brand, product marketing as they exist in this company.
Does Customer Success (or post-sale account management) report to you?
Retention, expansion, and the post-sale motion.
Does RevOps (or revenue systems / ops) report to you?
The people who own process, tooling, and revenue data quality.
Are you accountable for the full company revenue number — not only sales bookings?
IP: Scope Without Authority starts when the number is yours but the levers are not.
Can you change pricing or packaging without a multi-person steering committee?
Identity / Authority test from the CRO Identity Framework.
How are you compensated (incentivized)? Select all that apply.
Comp reveals the real job. New-logo pay with retention accountability is a classic mismatch. Select every material component. Tap again to deselect.
Do you present directly to the Board?
External representation is an Identity Framework signal — board presence vs CEO-only filter.
What did they tell you they hired you to do?
The story in the interview and offer — run the inherited machine vs redesign how revenue works.
What are they actually incentivizing you to accomplish?
Ignore the speech. Look at variable pay, scorecard, and what gets celebrated. Stated job and paid job often disagree — that gap is the real diagnosis.
Want help with your first 30 days?
This kit is free. If you want a human expert practitioner who has done the job to walk through your situation, book 30 minutes. Straight read on risk. Honest take on whether working with us is worth it.
Useful to bring: what you own, what you only influence, how long until someone judges results. Not required.
Optional. The kit stands on its own.