There are two universal truths in the CMO universe:
- You will build a deck that dies a quiet death in the boardroom.
- You will spend more time than you’d like to admit refreshing a dashboard to confirm that yes, performance dipped slightly between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. in Singapore.
Welcome to the dark side of marketing performance obsession—where we worship at the altar of “real-time data” and end up too distracted to do, you know, actual strategy.
If Your Deck Has 83 Slides, You Don’t Have a Strategy—You Have a Panic Attack Your board doesn’t want to scroll. They want a story.
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter deck.” — Every CMO Ever
Make your reports tighter, bolder, and ruthlessly clear:
Slide 1: Strategy
Slide 2: What worked
Slide 3: What didn’t
Slide 4: What’s next
If you have to explain it out loud, your deck isn’t doing its job.
Dashboards Are a Drug (and You’re Probably Hooked) We love dashboards. But they can also be the enemy of focus. Just because you can track 58 metrics doesn’t mean you should.
“In God we trust. All others bring clean dashboards.” — Probably a CFO
Build a hierarchy:
- Level 1: Strategic KPIs (revenue, CAC, pipeline influence)
- Level 2: Tactical metrics (CTR, CVR, email open rates)
- Level 3: Vanity metrics (Likes, comments, TikTok duets)
Don’t let Level 3 run your life.
You Don’t Need a Report for Everything. Sometimes You Just Need a Decision. There is no magical dashboard that will decide whether you should cut paid search or double down on organic. That takes judgment.
As a CMO, your greatest asset is not your Tableau license—it’s your ability to connect dots across noise.
“Data tells you what. Strategy tells you why. Leadership tells you what to do next.”
Burn the Deck (Sometimes) Try this once a quarter: run a meeting without slides.
Speak to outcomes.
Show up with one idea that changes the game.
Challenge assumptions. Not just explain performance.
Your team doesn’t need another chart. They need clarity.
Measure What You Can Actually Move CMOs sometimes track things they have little control over.
You don’t own macroeconomic sentiment.
You can’t fix product bugs with TikTok ads.
You can’t pivot around shipping delays with influencer reels.
Own your lane. Align metrics to levers you control.
Clarity > Clutter Being data-driven doesn’t mean being data-drowned. The best CMOs know when to zoom out, simplify the story, and make the call.
So yes, build your dashboards. Refine your decks. But don’t forget that the point of all of it is to lead, not just report.
And if no one reads your 124-slide deck?
Congratulations > You’re finally free.