90-Day Growth Playbook — AAJ

A compact, action-first 90-day growth program for founders who need to see traction this quarter, not next year.

This playbook compresses AAJ's Diagnose-Design-Execute framework into a 12-week sprint. It is built for founders and early-stage marketing teams that are past initial product-market fit but stuck on repeatability. By the end of the 90 days, the team has a documented funnel, two validated channels, a working dashboard, and a set of SOPs the team can run without the founder in the room.

Who this playbook is for

• Founder-led startups between $500K and $5M ARR.
• Teams with at least one paying customer cohort to learn from.
• Companies whose growth has plateaued or become founder-dependent.
• Marketing teams of one to three people who need a forcing function.

The three phases

The 90 days are split into three 30-day phases. Each phase has a single goal, two or three deliverables, and a checkpoint review at the end.

Phase 1 — Diagnose (Days 1–30)

Audit the current funnel, channel mix, and customer journey. Interview five recent buyers and five lost prospects. Map every touchpoint and tag every leak.

• Funnel audit with conversion rates at every stage.
• 10 customer and lost-deal interviews synthesized into themes.
• Channel performance review with CAC by source.
• One-page diagnostic report with the three biggest leaks identified.

Phase 2 — Design (Days 31–60)

Sharpen positioning, redesign the highest-leverage funnel stage, and design two channel experiments with explicit go/no-go criteria.

• Updated positioning and value proposition.
• Redesigned top-converting funnel page or sequence.
• Two channel experiments with budgets and success criteria.
• One-page dashboard tracking pipeline, CAC, conversion, and one leading indicator.

Phase 3 — Execute (Days 61–90)

Ship the experiments, instrument measurement, and convert what worked into SOPs.

• Both experiments shipped and measured.
• Stop/start/scale decisions documented in a brief.
• SOPs written for the two winning workflows.
• Quarterly operating cadence installed: weekly review, monthly performance meeting.

What you'll have at the end

• A documented funnel with measured conversion rates.
• Two validated growth channels with known CAC.
• A live dashboard the team checks every Monday.
• SOPs the team can run without daily founder input.
• A clear next-90-day plan built on actual evidence.

How AAJ helps

AAJ runs this playbook as a hands-on advisory engagement, with Saroj Jha embedded in the team's weekly cadence. See pricing or book a free strategy call to scope the engagement.

Related: Foundations Playbook (B2B) — Demand Gen Playbook — ← All Playbooks

Why this playbook exists

Most teams approach 90 day growth playbook as a series of disconnected projects: a sprint here, a campaign there, a tool evaluation in between. The result is motion without compounding progress. This playbook exists to replace that pattern with a documented operating system — a sequence of phases, deliverables, and review checkpoints that produce the same outcomes regardless of who is running the work. AAJ built it from repeated engagements with founder-led companies that needed senior strategy but could not afford the overhead of a full agency or a permanent VP.

The playbook is intentionally lean. Every phase has a single primary goal, two to three concrete deliverables, and a measurable checkpoint. Teams that follow it end up with assets they can reuse — a tested positioning statement, a working dashboard, a documented funnel, a creative library — rather than a slide deck that becomes obsolete the moment market conditions shift.

Outcomes teams report

• Clearer prioritization of where to spend the next dollar and the next week of team capacity.
• Faster decision cycles because the measurement system and operating rhythm are explicit.
• Fewer abandoned experiments and tools because every initiative has a named owner and a defined success criterion.
• A documented system that survives team turnover, leadership change, and rapid hiring.
• Stronger alignment between marketing and sales, product, or customer success because the shared metrics are defined up front.

How AAJ helps teams run this playbook

AAJ engages with teams in three modes. The first is a sprint — $3,500, delivered in 10 business days — that runs the Diagnose phase and produces the prioritized plan. The second is a fixed-fee Project, which executes a specific phase of the playbook end to end — a launch, a measurement build, or a positioning refresh. The third is an ongoing Retainer where AAJ acts as a fractional strategic partner, holding the operating rhythm and reporting cadence while the in-house team or freelancers execute.

Pricing is transparent and posted publicly on the pricing page. Engagements typically begin with a free discovery conversation booked through the contact page.

Frequently asked questions

Can a team run this playbook without outside help?

Yes. The playbook is published in full and is designed to be self-serve. AAJ publishes it because most teams need a framework more than they need a vendor. Outside support accelerates the work and adds an experienced operating partner, but the playbook itself is the deliverable.

How does this playbook fit with the other AAJ playbooks?

Each playbook is independent but designed to interlock. Most engagements start with the Foundations Playbook, then layer in Analytics & Attribution, and pick the execution playbooks — demand gen, CRO, launches, retention — that match the current priority.

What does success look like at the end?

A documented system, a clear next 90-day plan, and at least one measurable outcome — pipeline lift, conversion improvement, CAC reduction, or retention gain — that justifies continued investment.

Related playbooks and resources

• All AAJ playbooks
• Marketing blog — long-form articles on the strategy and tactics inside this playbook.
• Case studies — worked examples of the Diagnose, Design, Execute framework.
• Marketing consulting services — engagement formats that complement the playbook.