OPERATING PARTNER, DIVERSIS CAPITAL · 3X VP OF MARKETING
The parts of marketing the job never taught us.
I write Open Folders, a weekly newsletter: one idea at a time, where it came from, and how to use it.
Open Folders · Brand science · Measurement science · Buyer psychology · Category intelligence · Positioning · Jobs to be done · Product marketing · Brand marketing · The CMO Crisis
You own the number and can barely influence the rest.
Someone asked why revenue was still down and I didn't have an answer,
but I had a dashboard.
Tools
Free tools built from the marketing research, with the source named on every card. Two are my own.
Category Demand Calculator
See who's in-market as your category grows.
Built on Dawes's 95:5, extended by Dale HarrisonCategory Entry Point Audit
Map the moments buyers enter your category.
Built on Jenni Romaniuk's 7W frameworkMarketing Constraint Diagnostic
Find which of five constraints blocks growth.
Built on my 5M frameworkPricing Research Quiz
Pick the pricing research method that fits.
Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger, conjointThree-Line Spec
Which line of your job would your CFO cut?
From my 2026 CMO seriesWhere's Your Wall?
Does the buyer's situation survive into what you ship?
Built on Bob Moesta's Wall
Writing
Four to start with. Every issue is free to read on Substack.
- Why first-time CMOs lose the arguments they're right aboutRoughly 70% of S&P 500 CMOs are doing the job for the first time. Congratulations! Now go explain brand equity to a CFO.
- If I gave you $50K, what would you do with it?Marketing trained the CFO to ask exactly that question. We were never ready to answer it.
- How markets actually growWhy company growth gets harder when you manage visible demand as if it were the whole market.
- CEOs like their CMOs. Not their marketingI read 14 of this year's leadership reports to find out how both are true.
The CMO Crisis: Marketing got smaller without feeling smaller.
For ten years the trade press has been announcing the end of the chief marketing officer. It keeps pointing at the people, and their careers are fine. I think the title came loose because the job underneath it got small first. I've had three VP roles and never the title on the cover of this book. It's for whoever runs marketing, whatever the title.
About the bookThey like the marketer. Not the marketing.
About
I'm a 3x VP of Marketing who came up in performance and grew into go-to-market strategy. I write for whoever's coming up the way I did, so it arrives sooner.
Led marketing four times, three as VP · Five companies I worked at were acquired, one by Microsoft
See the track record →Open Folders
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