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Marketing programs require alignment at 20 percent strategy and 80 percent execution

Krithika Shankarraman · Growth tactics from OpenAI and Stripe’s first marketer | Krithika Shankarraman · May 25, 2025 · at 35:21

Former Stripe and OpenAI marketer Krithika Shankarraman describes her framework for running project reviews without hindering startup execution.

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“I would say there are probably two checkpoints in a program that are really important to get aligned at. One is the 20% review. A 20% review is a strategy review. What are we trying to accomplish? Who are we trying to do it for? And what is the rough approach that we're going to take? If everyone feels comfortable with that, you come back at the 80% mark where you've done a lot of the work on the artifacts, the different types of teams that have to be involved, and how do you take something to market in the first place? And the reason that I say 80% is sort of critical because if you come in at the 99% mark and you're just looking for a rubber stamp of approval, you don't really have the slack in the system to be able to make any changes. Then that review was worthless.”

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