July 1, 2025 | Playbook
Assess Your Execution Readiness

What’s inside:
This playbook is your step-by-step guide for evaluating what kind of scalable model is best fit for your team to reduce time-to-market, scale impact, and relieve pressure on internal team members without losing control.
Walk away with:
- A holistic execution assessment: A comprehensive evaluation of your current execution landscape across in-house, outsourced, and AI-supported functions, with a deeper understanding of how these parts are working together, or against each other.
- Optimized team focus: Identified areas where your current resources are adding complexity versus driving impact, with actionable insights for how to shift bandwidth to high-value work.
- Model modernization map: Your execution readiness mapped to industry benchmarks.
- Identify resource optimization opportunities: Functions and process that can deliver faster results or cost savings through alternative models pinpointed with next steps.
Why now: The strategic imperative
Today’s B2B CMOs are asked to do more with less, yet many focus only on program and tech budgets, overlooking the people budget that drives true execution readiness. Forward-thinking CMOs are evolving beyond the in-house vs. outsourced binary, embracing hybrid and modular outsourcing models that keep strategic control in-house while offloading execution to specialized partners who operate seamlessly within their workflows.
This approach takes more than cost savings into account. It positions organizations to thrive in a market that demands both speed and precision. As competitive pressures mount and internal bandwidth strains, hybrid execution becomes the lever that lets you meet demand, scale impact, and ensure your team’s focus stays where it delivers the greatest ROI.
How to use this playbook
Fill your answers in to get your final Execution Readiness Score.
What you need to get started:
- Understanding of your current delivery model: Across execution areas (in-house vs outsourced vs AI-enabled, by function)
- Team structure insights: Where resources are allocated today (seniority level, functional groups, and deliverables)
- Key performance metrics: time-to-market, campaign velocity, and flexibility
- Awareness of your current challenges: Bandwidth bottlenecks, budget pressures, performance plateaus, and tech usage
Helpful Considerations:
- High-level budget data by function and channel
- Project management systems used for execution tracking
No need for detailed financial reports, this tool is designed to guide big picture thinking first.
Step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Workload distribution
Evaluate how your team’s workload is structured and identify tasks that are misaligned with skill levels or bandwidth.
Questions:
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Are senior team members still involved in manual or executional tasks?
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Do you have clarity on what work should remain in-house versus be shifted elsewhere?
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Are you confident your current structure supports growth at a fixed or lower cost?
Step 2: Execution Scalability
Assess how well your current processes and workflows can scale to meet demand without sacrificing quality or speed.
Questions:
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Does campaign execution rely on repeatable playbooks and templates?
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Are execution timelines consistent across teams or regions?
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Is your current delivery model speeding you up?
Step 3: AI integration and enablement
Assess how well AI has been integrated into your execution processes and whether it’s driving measurable impact.
Questions:
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Have you deployed AI to reduce manual work in areas like content, reporting, or segmentation?
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Is AI embedded into your standard workflows?
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Are you tracking measurable impact (time saved, output improved, cost reduced) from AI adoption?
Step 4: Partner and cost optimization
Examine how effectively your outsourced or agency partners are driving efficiency and whether your delivery model is optimized for cost and output.
Questions:
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Are your outsourced or agency partners reducing internal workload?
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Do you understand the true cost-to-execute across internal and external delivery?
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Are you actively evaluating your delivery mix (people, AI, partners) for efficiency gains?
Discuss your score
Book a quick call with us to walk through your assessment results and identify where smarter execution can free up resources.