Executive Comms & Board Influence

The framework — strategy first

Executive Comms & Board Influence — the strategic foundation.

MARKETING THE MARKETING FUNCTION IS THE HIGHEST-ROI MARKETING NOBODY RUNS.

Most Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) do brilliant external work and zero internal marketing. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) doesn't know what marketing did this quarter. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) defends the budget on instinct. The board sees only the slide the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) compiled. The result: a marketing function that ships work nobody upstream sees — and gets cut when the budget conversation comes around.

This work fixes that. It's the operating cadence for everything the CMO communicates upward (to CEO, CFO, board) and sideways (to the Executive Leadership Team, or ELT, and the rest of the company). Not external thought leadership — that's PR & Comms. This is the artifact you publish to your CEO every Monday, the brief you drop in the ELT Slack every month, and the 2-page snapshot inside your CEO's board deck every quarter.

Four directions, four audiences

The CMO communicates in four directions. Most teams only do one or two well. The discipline below names what each audience needs, on what cadence, in what format.

THE FOUR DIRECTIONS OF EXECUTIVE COMMS

Upward to CEO — weekly 5-bullet update. The CEO reads it on the way to a 1:1 with the board chair or an investor. ≤300 words. What shipped, what moved, what's blocked, what they need from the CEO.

Upward to CFO — quarterly Return on Investment (ROI) defense with the math exposed. Pulls from Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) output. The artifact that defends next year's budget before the conversation starts.

Upward to board — 2-page marketing snapshot inside the CEO's quarterly board deck. Pipeline contribution, brand-vs-performance split, competitive position, the single biggest bet for next quarter.

Sideways to ELT and inward to the company — monthly ELT brief + a quarterly internal campaign that markets marketing to the rest of the company. Sales, product, CS, ops, finance — they all need to know what marketing shipped and what it returned. Otherwise budget gets cut and marketing reports to product.

Why this matters now

Two shifts make this work higher-leverage than it was five years ago. First, AI gave marketing a bigger budget conversation — every team is being asked to justify the spend on agents, tools, and AI infrastructure. The CFO has more reason to scrutinize, not less. Second, the CMO tenure is shorter than it has ever been — the operator who can publish the artifacts that survive a transition is the operator the next role inherits.

The marketing work that doesn't get marketed upward gets cut downward.

Three audiences, applied to executive comms

EXEC COMMS ARTIFACTS, MAPPED TO THE THREE AUDIENCES

CEO / CFO / Board — the upward audience. Weekly CEO update, monthly CFO check-in, quarterly board snapshot, annual strategy doc.

ELT and the rest of the company — the sideways/inward audience. Monthly ELT brief, quarterly internal "what marketing did" campaign, all-hands marketing moment, internal Slack post on every shipped agent.

Agents — the Executive Brief Agent below reads from /operator-brief.md, /mmm-context.md, /competitive-context.md, and CRM, and drafts the weekly CEO update + monthly ELT brief automatically. Pulls the math from the systems the CFO already trusts.

The Weekly ELT Dashboard — the single artifact that protects the CMO seat.

If you do nothing else here, ship a weekly ELT dashboard. It's the single highest-leverage piece of communication a CMO produces. The dashboard is what makes you visible — and visibility is what makes marketing structural to the company rather than expendable. The CMOs who get cut in budget reviews are the CMOs whose CEO and CFO can't recite what marketing shipped last week. The dashboard prevents that.

The "marketing as black box" trap, in one line

When marketing becomes a black box to the ELT — work goes in, output goes out, leadership has no idea what's happening between — the function gets cut at the first budget tightening. The fix is not more meetings. The fix is one artifact, every week, in everyone's inbox, that closes the box.

Weekly ELT Dashboard — format and discipline

Sent every Monday morning at 8am ET. Same email subject prefix every week so it gets filed/searched. Treat it like a newsletter — you're building subscribers inside your own company. The CMOs who do this best send it from their personal email, not a shared address, so it lands like a note from a peer rather than a corporate report.

WEEKLY ELT DASHBOARD — TEMPLATE

Subject line: "Marketing Dashboard · Week of [DATE] · [SUNNY / PARTLY CLOUDY / RAINY]"
Section 1 · Weather Forecast (1 sentence). Sunny = ahead of plan and pipeline coverage is solid. Partly cloudy = on plan with one specific risk named. Rainy = behind plan, here's the action and what I need from the team.
Section 2 · The Numbers (1 table, 4 rows). Quarter-to-date marketing-sourced pipeline vs goal. Quarter-to-date marketing-influenced pipeline. Net-new opportunities created this week. Net-new logos closed this week (named if you can say them).
Section 3 · Leading Indicators (3 bullets). MQL count this week. Top 3 accounts engaged at a depth that suggests near-term opportunity. Channel that surprised you this week (good or bad).
Section 4 · Pipeline Conversion of the Week (1 quote, 1 link if you have it). A customer or prospect quote that frames the next bet. Add a Gong link or recording if you can. This is the section that earns you peer trust — it shows you're listening to the buyer, not just measuring them.
Section 5 · Risks Documented (1–2 sentences if applicable). The risks you're tracking, in writing. The artifact that protects you when something misses — "I called this out on April 14" matters.
Section 6 · Asks of the team (1–3 bullets). What you need from sales / CS / product / the CEO this week. Specific names, specific asks, specific deadlines.

The dashboard is short — under 500 words. The discipline is brevity plus consistency. If it gets longer than one screen on a phone, nobody reads it. If it's late, the discipline is broken and the artifact loses its weight. Same time, every week. No excuses.

Monthly State of Union — the deeper read

Once a month, send a longer state-of-the-marketing-function. Audience: full ELT, plus the board chair as a CC if your CEO is comfortable with it. Length: 1500–2000 words. Goal: zoom out from "this week" to "this quarter," and frame what's next.

MONTHLY STATE OF UNION — STRUCTURE

The headline — one sentence: "we're ahead of plan on pipeline, behind on bookings, here's why and what we're doing about it."
Pipeline math — month-over-month pipeline by source, with the channel attribution split signed off by sales. Show your math.
What worked, what didn't — 2–3 specific wins (with dollar values) and 1–2 specific misses (with the lesson). Misses build credibility; nobody believes a CMO who only reports wins.
The next big bet — what you're going to do differently next month. Single bet, named clearly. Not a list of 11 things.
Asks — what you need from the rest of the executive team to make the bet land.
Documented risks — the risks you're tracking. In writing.

The board snapshot — 2 pages, every quarter

Your CEO will have a board deck. You will have 2 pages inside it. Those 2 pages need to do three things: prove pipeline contribution with the math exposed, frame the strategic narrative of where marketing is heading, and surface the single biggest decision the board needs to make on marketing this quarter (usually a budget question).

BOARD SNAPSHOT — TWO-PAGE STRUCTURE

Page 1 — The numbers, the story: marketing-sourced + influenced pipeline contribution, attribution-by-channel chart, CAC + payback math, one customer story with a named logo + dollar outcome, the brand-vs-performance allocation split.

Page 2 — The strategic narrative: the single biggest bet for the next quarter, the competitive context (top 1–2 moves from competitors), the question the board needs to answer (usually: keep, increase, or rebalance the marketing investment).

The board snapshot is where most CMOs over-deliver on visuals and under-deliver on opinion. Boards don't want a recap — they want a recommendation. Frame your snapshot as "here's what I would do if it were my call, and here's why I'd do it." That's the artifact that gets you invited to the next board meeting.

ELT relationships — the seat is earned weekly

Three executives matter more than any other for the CMO. Each gets a different relationship rhythm:

RELATIONSHIP	CADENCE	WHAT YOU PRODUCE	WHAT YOU NEED
CEO	Weekly 1:1 (30 min) + dashboard + ad-hoc	Forecast confidence, alignment on top bet, board prep	Air cover for big bets; access to the board narrative
Head of Sales / CRO	Weekly Pipeline Call + monthly council	Pipeline coverage, MQL quality, deal velocity by source	Attribution alignment, BDR follow-up discipline, joint accountability
CFO	Monthly check-in + quarterly ROI defense	CAC + payback, channel ROI, budget reforecast	Signed-off attribution methodology, defendable allocations, advance notice of cuts

Three additional relationships matter on a longer cadence: the Chief Product Officer, or CPO (monthly product-marketing alignment), the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) or head of Customer Success — CS (monthly retention and expansion alignment), and the head of HR (quarterly for talent planning and headcount). Map your relationships to a cadence; the gaps are the risks.

Your Exec Comms Cadence

The artifacts you actually produce, on what cadence, to whom. Saves to your Brief — every board-prep, exec-comms, and CFO-conversation prompt will use this.

Weekly ELT Dashboard — send day & time, recipients

Monthly State of Union — send date, recipients

Board snapshot — pages in CEO's deck, lead time, owner

Your CEO 1:1 — cadence, format, focus

Your CFO check-in — cadence, format, focus

The single biggest stated risk you're tracking this quarter

Saved as [WEEKLY ELT DASHBOARD], [MONTHLY STATE OF UNION], [BOARD SNAPSHOT], [CEO ONE ON ONE], [CFO CHECK-IN], [STATED RISK] across the site.

The prompt pack

Paste-ready prompts for Executive Comms & Board Influence.

Each prompt is a named, named-by-what-it-does deliverable. Click any card to expand the paste-able body. Run against your Operator Brief.

Five copy-paste prompts. Open ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Paste a prompt. Run it. The output of one prompt feeds into the next.

READ THIS ONCE BEFORE ANY PROMPT IN THIS BOOK

These prompts assume you've populated your Operator Brief (the worksheet that lives in /Operator-Brief-Worksheet.docx). When a prompt asks for OPERATOR BRIEF, paste the relevant Brief sections rather than typing context from scratch.

Your output then arrives in your voice, against your buyers, using your differentiators. Not [BRACKETED] generics. The Brief is the difference between an LLM helper and a tool that sounds like you.

Prompt 1

Weekly CEO Update (5 bullets, ≤300 words)

The Monday-morning artifact every CEO reads. Five bullets, under 300 words, in your voice. Standardized format so the CEO doesn't have to re-learn how to scan it.

Generate this week's CEO update. LAST 7 DAYS — WHAT SHIPPED: [3–5 specific items with the outcome] PIPELINE: [current quarter $, % to target, week-over-week delta] BLOCKERS / WHAT I NEED FROM YOU: [specific ask, or 'none'] NEXT 7 DAYS — WHAT'S PLANNED: [2–3 specific items] OPERATOR BRIEF — paste Section 3.1 KPIs (so the update is anchored to the right metrics) MMM CONTEXT — paste /mmm-context.md headline if available (optional) Output a 5-bullet update, ≤300 words total. Format: 1. WHAT SHIPPED — one bullet, named items, outcome attached. 2. WHAT MOVED — one bullet, the single most important metric delta this week + why. 3. WHAT'S BLOCKED — one bullet. "Nothing" is an acceptable answer; never invent blockers. 4. WHAT I NEED FROM YOU — one bullet. Specific. "Nothing" if true. 5. NEXT WEEK — one bullet, 2–3 items, no more. RULES - Voice: operator-direct, in our brand voice from Brief Sections 2.11–1.13 (voice DOs, DON'Ts, forbidden). - Numbers over adjectives. "Pipeline $4.2M, +12% WoW" beats "pipeline is trending well." - Never invent a metric. If a number isn't trackable, say so. - ≤300 words total. The CEO is reading this in 90 seconds.

Prompt 2

Monthly ELT Brief (1 page)

The brief you drop in the executive leadership team Slack channel each month. Sales, product, CS, ops, finance all read it. What marketing shipped this month, what it returned, what's coming, and where another function needs to step up.

Generate this month's ELT brief. MONTH: [] MARKETING SHIPPED THIS MONTH: [list specific assets / campaigns / agents launched] MEASURABLE OUTCOMES: [list with $ values where available] PIPELINE: [month total, MTD vs. target, vs. last month] CHANNELS — WHAT WORKED: [top 2] WHAT DIDN'T: [bottom 1] WHAT WE'RE BUILDING NEXT MONTH: [list 2–3] WHERE WE NEED ANOTHER FUNCTION: [Sales/Product/CS/Ops — specific ask] OPERATOR BRIEF — paste Section 3.1 KPIs Output a 1-page brief with these sections: ## What we shipped (3 bullets, with outcomes) ## What it returned (the math — pipeline, leads, customer engagement) ## What's next month (2–3 bullets) ## Where we need you (specific asks by function — Sales / Product / CS / Ops / Finance) ## One thing the company should know (the internal-marketing moment — e.g., "the new ICP Council agent is live and stress-tested 12 drafts this month — 4 ship-ready, 6 revised, 2 killed") RULES - Tone: operator-direct, peer-to-peer (not subordinate). You're talking to your peers, not asking for permission. - Numbers over adjectives. Cite source for every number. - The "where we need you" section is the heart of the brief. Be specific. Name names. - ≤1 page when printed. Sales reps and product managers don't read longer.

Prompt 3

Quarterly Board Snapshot (2 pages, CFO-defensible)

The 2-page marketing portion of the CEO's quarterly board deck. Board-defensible math. Pipeline contribution, brand-vs-performance split, competitive position, single biggest bet for next quarter.

Generate the quarterly board snapshot for the marketing portion of the board deck. QUARTER: [] OPERATOR BRIEF — paste Section 3.1 KPIs, Section 3.3 CAC payback target / channel inventory MMM CONTEXT — paste /mmm-context.md output (or the Marketing Mix Modeling Prompt 5 output if MMM is in flight) COMPETITIVE CONTEXT — paste /competitive-context.md (Product Marketing & Competitive Intel output) PIPELINE: [Q $ generated, % to target, channel breakdown] ANNUAL TARGET: [$ for the year, % progress YTD] Output a 2-page snapshot — designed to live inside the CEO's deck, not stand alone. Page 1 — The headline (the CFO and board chair read only this page): - One-line headline: "Marketing generated $X pipeline in Q[N], [Y]% of target. Marketing ROI: [ratio]." - Brand vs. performance split (from MMM). Defend the brand line. - Top 3 channels by incremental revenue. Per-channel ROI. - Competitive position — one line: "Won [N] competitive deals against [top competitor], lost [M]. Position [strengthened/held/eroded] this quarter." - Single biggest bet for next quarter — the move that, if it works, changes the trajectory. Page 2 — The math and the asks (the curious board member reads this): - Pipeline waterfall (MQL → SQL → Opp → Closed, with conversion rates). - Saturation alerts (from MMM) — what we'd reallocate next quarter. - Investment ask — if any. "$X for [specific capability], expected return: $Y in pipeline by Q[N+2]." - The single risk we're watching — and the leading indicator we're using to track it. RULES - CFO-defensible: every number cites a source. Show the math; don't hide caveats. - Operator voice. "Pipeline ROI 4.2:1" not "pipeline returns are healthy." - Never claim a number you can't trace. If a stat is from an estimate, label it as such. - 2 pages max. Board members read 30+ pages of deck — yours is competing for attention.

Prompt 4

Annual Marketing Strategy Doc (6–8 pages)

The flag-in-the-ground document. Annual planning artifact. What marketing will do this year, with the budget, the bets, and the success criteria. Board-signed-off. Inherits-able if the CMO transitions mid-year.

Generate the annual marketing strategy doc. YEAR: [] REVENUE TARGET: $[] (top-line) PIPELINE TARGET: $[] (marketing-sourced + marketing-influenced) BUDGET: $[] OPERATOR BRIEF — paste the full populated Brief (all sections) COMPETITIVE CONTEXT — paste /competitive-context.md headline MMM CONTEXT — paste /mmm-context.md (if available) Output a 6–8 page doc with these sections: 1. The year in one paragraph — what we're betting on, why now. 2. The strategic thesis — pull from Brand & Positioning conviction + ICP & Audience ICP + Product Marketing & Competitive Intel competitive. What we believe about the market this year that competitors don't. 3. Three bets (not five, not seven) — what specifically we're investing in. For each: hypothesis, owner, budget, success criterion, kill criterion. 4. The channel mix and the math — how the budget breaks down by channel. Reference MMM scenarios if available. CFO-defensible. 5. The team — what the team needs to deliver this plan (hires, skills, tooling, agents). 6. The risks — three risks named, with the leading indicators we'll watch and the trigger conditions for changing the plan. 7. The cadence — how we'll report against this plan (weekly CEO update, monthly ELT brief, quarterly board snapshot — references Executive Comms & Board Influence prompts 1–3). 8. Appendix — the Operator Brief sections most relevant to the plan. RULES - 6–8 pages. Not 20. The plan should be readable in a single 15-minute sitting. - Operator-direct voice. "We will win [vertical] by [mechanism]" — not "we believe there may be opportunities in [vertical]." - Kill criteria are not optional. Every bet has the condition under which we stop investing. - The plan must be inheritable. A successor walking in mid-year reads this doc and knows what to keep, what to kill, what to change.

Prompt 5

Internal "What Marketing Did This Quarter" Campaign

Actively marketing marketing to the rest of the company. The campaign that makes the function visible to sales, product, CS, ops, finance, and the broader team. Quarterly cadence.

Generate the internal marketing campaign for the quarter just ended. QUARTER: [] MARKETING SHIPPED THIS QUARTER: [list assets, campaigns, agents] MEASURABLE OUTCOMES: [pipeline, brand metrics, customer engagement, internal capability built] OPERATOR BRIEF — paste Section 2.1 Company name, Section 2.10 Pillars Output a 3-channel internal campaign: 1. ALL-HANDS SLIDE (1 slide) — the marketing moment in the CEO's monthly all-hands. Visual: the single number that defines the quarter (e.g., "$4.2M pipeline, 38% from agents we shipped this quarter"). One-sentence narrative. One named customer story if available. 2. SLACK POST (to #general or company-wide) — 150 words. "What marketing shipped last quarter and what it meant." Operator-direct. Name the team. End with: "What's coming next quarter — and where we need help from [function]." 3. INTERNAL EMAIL (to ELT + senior managers) — 300 words. Slightly more depth than the Slack post. Three bullets: shipped, returned, next. Specific asks for cross-functional support next quarter. RULES - Internal marketing is marketing. Same voice rules apply (Brief Sections 2.11–1.13). - Never overclaim. If pipeline came from multiple sources, say so. - Name the team members who shipped it. Internal marketing without internal recognition is a missed opportunity to retain talent. - The "where we need help" line in each channel is non-negotiable. Specific function, specific ask. "Sales — we need 15 minutes at next quarter's kickoff to walk through the new battlecards."

The agent spec

The agent for Executive Comms & Board Influence.

How to install this agent

Five steps from spec to running agent.

System prompt — copy the system prompt block below into your AI tool's system prompt field (Claude Project instructions, Cowork Skill instructions, custom GPT config, or your agent platform's equivalent).
Inputs — wire the inputs as the agent's reference files. The Operator Brief is always input #1; the other inputs vary by agent.
Outputs — the output schema tells you what the agent produces. Use it as a structured-output instruction in the system prompt, or as the format you expect to see back.
Evals — before publishing any output, score it against the eval criteria. Don't ship anything that doesn't pass.
Cadence — set the run cadence on your calendar (or your agent platform's scheduler). Log every run in your wins log.

Executive Comms Agent

Drafts board-deck narratives, investor updates, internal all-hands, and CEO/CFO/board memos in the executive’s voice. Pulls from every other agent’s output to build the ‘state of marketing’ story the board reads.

Who is this agent

Identity card

NameExecutive Comms Agent

RoleBoard + investor + internal exec communications drafting — the ‘tell the story up’ layer

OwnerVP Marketing (with CEO partnership)

Reports toVP Marketing + CEO

Versionv0.5 (supervised)

SurfaceClaude Project + Postgres (exec voice corpus + prior board materials)

Output target/exec-comms/board-decks/, /exec-comms/investor-updates/, /exec-comms/all-hands/, /exec-comms/memos/

Review cadencePer-deliverable (board prep cycle, monthly investor update, quarterly all-hands); annual voice corpus refresh

Mission

Draft the up-narrative. Synthesize every other agent’s output (Pipeline Math, MMM, AOS, Win/Loss themes, PR coverage, customer-story portfolio) into the ‘state of marketing’ story the board reads. Match the CEO’s + CFO’s + VP Marketing’s voices. Anchor on the numbers that matter; defend the gaps honestly. Be the agent that turns ‘wait, what do I tell the board?’ into a 2-hour edit cycle instead of a 2-day scramble.

Goals & KPIs the agent moves

Leading indicators — the agent controls these

Voice fidelity score per exec on the first draft (Brand Voice Agent + manual)≥ 4.3 / 5

Stat-sourcing audit on every draft — every cited stat traces to a sourced number with no unsourced figures escaping to the CEO inbox100%

Lagging indicators — downstream outcomes with review triggers

CEO + CFO use rate of agent drafts (% of board / investor / all-hands deliverables that ship using the agent draft as the base). Trigger: 2 consecutive quarters below 60% pages the VP Marketing for voice + utility review.≥ 75%

Edit cycles per deliverable (draft → CEO sign-off). Trigger: median above 3 substantive rounds for 2 consecutive months pages the VP Marketing for prompt + style-guide review.≤ 2 substantive edit rounds

What it does

Task list

Per board meeting Pull the cycle’s headline data from Pipeline Math + AOS + Revenue Attribution Engine. Draft the marketing section narrative.
Per board meeting Cross-reference draft against prior board narrative — what’s the trajectory? Don’t restart the story.
Per board meeting Pressure-test the draft against Critical Thinking Council lenses (anti-narrative, contrarian, etc.).
Per board meeting Compile chart appendix: every cited stat with source link + methodology note.
Monthly investor update Draft the monthly investor letter: highlights, lowlights, asks, next-month focus.
Quarterly all-hands Draft the marketing section for the all-hands. Internal-voice, named callouts, what’s changing for whom.
Ad-hoc memos Draft exec memos on-request: launch retros, postmortems, strategy shifts, hiring rationale.
Weekly Watch the upstream-agent stream for material developments worth surfacing to executives outside the formal cadence.
Annually Voice corpus refresh: capture the CEO’s + CFO’s + VP Marketing’s recent speeches, podcasts, earnings calls. Tune voice samples.
Event When AOS surfaces a top-3 gap requiring board awareness, draft a 1-page exec memo within 7 days.
Event When a crisis event lands, draft the internal + external comms within the timeline PR Comms Agent sets.

Schedule grid

Task	Frequency	Duration	Output goes to
Per-board-meeting draft cycle	Per board (typically quarterly)	~2 days (drafts) + 5 days (edit cycles)	CEO + CFO + Board
Monthly investor letter	Monthly 1st	~4 hours	CEO + investors
Quarterly all-hands marketing section	Quarterly	~3 hours	VP Marketing + all employees
Weekly upstream-stream watch	Weekly Fri 16:00	~30 min	VP Marketing (flag-worthy items)
Annual voice corpus refresh	Annually	~2 days	Internal corpus

Triggers

Scheduled (cron-style):

Schedule	What it runs
`0 9 1 * *`	Monthly investor letter drafting
`0 16 * * 5`	Weekly upstream-stream watch

Event-driven:

Event	What it runs
Board meeting T-7 days	Begin board-section drafting
Quarterly all-hands T-5 days	Draft marketing section
AOS top-3 gap surfaced	Draft 1-page exec memo within 7 days
Crisis event landed	Draft internal + external comms within PR Comms Agent timeline
Material development from upstream agent stream	Surface to VP Marketing same business day

Who it works with

Inputs

Source	Type	Cadence	Required?
Operator Brief (Sections 4, 6, 7, 8)	Markdown	Read every run	Required
Pipeline Math Agent quarterly projection	Markdown	Quarterly	Required — core data
MMM Agent monthly refresh	Markdown	Monthly	Required
Best-in-Class Assessment Agent quarterly assessment	Markdown	Quarterly	Required
Revenue Attribution Engine quarterly output	Markdown	Quarterly	Required
Win/Loss Agent quarterly synthesis	Markdown	Quarterly	Required
PR Comms Agent quarterly portfolio + LLM citation data	Markdown	Quarterly	Required
Customer Story Agent quarterly portfolio	Markdown	Quarterly	Required
Exec voice corpus (per named executive)	Text	Annual refresh	Required
Prior board materials archive	Markdown / PDF	Per board cycle	Required for trajectory continuity
Brand Voice Agent scoring API	Inline call	Per-draft	Required

Outputs

Output	Format	Target path	Audience
Board-deck marketing section	Markdown + slides	/exec-comms/board-decks/Q<n>.md	CEO + CFO + Board
Monthly investor letter (marketing section)	Markdown	/exec-comms/investor-updates/YYYY-MM.md	CEO + investors
Quarterly all-hands marketing section	Markdown + slides	/exec-comms/all-hands/Q<n>.md	VP Marketing + all employees
Exec memos (ad-hoc)	Markdown	/exec-comms/memos/<topic>-<date>.md	Named exec audience
Stat sourcing appendix	Markdown + linked sources	/exec-comms/sources/Q<n>-appendix.md	Internal audit
Weekly upstream watchlist	Markdown + Slack message	/exec-comms/upstream-watch/YYYY-WW.md	VP Marketing

↑ Upstream — agents/sources that feed this one

Operator Brief (human-maintained). Voice + RtW + KPIs anchor every deliverable.
Pipeline Math Agent. Pipeline narrative + quarterly projection.
MMM Agent. Channel mix story + saturation context.
Best-in-Class Assessment Agent. AOS narrative + gap remediation context.
Revenue Attribution Engine. Pipeline-trace numbers for board narrative.
Win/Loss Agent. Themes that explain pipeline movement.
PR Comms Agent. Earned media + analyst placement context.
Customer Story Agent. Customer narrative for board story.
Brand Voice Agent. Scores every draft.

↓ Downstream — agents/humans that consume its output

CEO (human). Final sign-off on board materials + investor letter.
CFO (human). Cross-checks board financial narrative.
VP Marketing (human). Owns the marketing section across deliverables.
Board (human). Receives the polished narrative.
Investors (humans). Receive monthly investor letter.
All employees (humans). Receive quarterly all-hands marketing section.

Human escalation paths

Trigger condition	Escalate to	Within
Board draft cycle exceeds 5 business days	VP Marketing + CEO	Immediate
Stat in draft doesn’t trace to source	VP Marketing + draft author	Before next edit cycle
Voice fidelity score < 4.0 on exec draft	Head of Brand + VP Marketing	Voice-calibration session
Crisis comms missed PR Comms Agent timeline	CEO + Head of Comms + VP Marketing	Immediate
Material upstream development not surfaced > 7 days	VP Marketing	Same week (process gap)

How to build it

System prompt

You are the Executive Comms Agent for [COMPANY]. YOUR JOB Draft the up-narrative. Synthesize every upstream agent's output into the "state of marketing" story executives + board read. Match the CEO's + CFO's + VP Marketing's voices. Defend the gaps honestly. INPUTS (always read in this order) 1. /operator-brief.md (Sections 4, 6, 7, 8) 2. /exec-comms/voice-corpus/<person>/* - their actual recent speeches, podcasts, earnings calls 3. /pipeline-math/quarterly/Q<n>-projection.md 4. /mmm/monthly-refresh/YYYY-MM.md 5. /aos/quarterly-assessment/Q<n>.md 6. /win-loss/quarterly-synthesis/Q<n>.md 7. /pr/portfolio/Q<n>.md 8. /exec-comms/prior-board-deck/Q<n-1>.md (trajectory continuity) OUTPUTS - /exec-comms/board-decks/Q<n>.md (per-board) - /exec-comms/investor-updates/YYYY-MM.md (monthly) - /exec-comms/all-hands/Q<n>.md (quarterly) - /exec-comms/memos/<topic>-<date>.md (ad-hoc) - /exec-comms/sources/Q<n>-appendix.md (audit trail) RULES 1. Every cited stat traces to a source artifact + date. Zero unsourced. 2. Match the executive's voice from corpus - not generic exec-speak. 3. Board narrative carries trajectory from prior cycle. Don't restart story. 4. Pressure-test every draft against Critical Thinking Council lenses. 5. Defend gaps honestly. Sunshine narratives erode board trust. 6. Brand Voice Agent scores every draft BEFORE exec review. 7. Acknowledgment + plan beats apology + plan. ESCALATION - Board cycle >5 days: page VPM + CEO immediately. - Unsourced stat in draft: pull before next edit cycle. - Voice fidelity <4.0: page Head Brand + VPM for calibration.

Tools & integrations

Platform / tool	Used for	Required?
Claude Project + Postgres	Voice corpus + prior-material archive + reasoning surface	Required
Brand Voice Agent API	Per-draft scoring	Required
Interview transcription (Otter / Fireflies / Granola)	Voice corpus refresh	Required for annual
Slide tool integration (Google Slides / PowerPoint / Keynote / Pitch)	Board deck assembly	Optional
Salesforce / HubSpot API	Cross-verify revenue narrative	Required
Slack API	Weekly upstream watchlist + drafts delivery	Required

Guardrails — what it must not do

Never publish externally without CEO + CFO + VP Marketing approval (per surface).
Never cite a stat without source link in the appendix.
Never present a sunshine narrative when the math says otherwise. Honest framing builds trust.
Honor materiality + Regulation FD — treat investor letter content as if public market disclosures apply.
Never include named-customer references without consent flags from Proof Library Agent.
Never use board content for individual performance management.
Never share voice corpus or board archive outside the exec-comms scope.

Evals + hallucination defense

Evals — output quality checks:

Cycle time. Per board: business days from draft to CEO sign-off. Target ≤ 5.
Voice fidelity. Per deliverable: Brand Voice Agent score per named executive. Target ≥ 4.3.
Sourcing rigor. Per board: % of cited stats with source traceable in appendix. Target 100%.
Edit cycle count. Per deliverable: substantive edit rounds to acceptance. Target ≤ 2.

Hallucination defense — specific checkpoints:

Stats must cite the source agent + output file + date.
Customer stories must trace to Proof Library Agent with consent flag.
Trajectory claims must cite prior-cycle board content.
Channel performance claims must trace to Revenue Attribution Engine or MMM.
When facts are uncertain, surface uncertainty rather than overstate.

Maturity curve + first-run checklist

v0.1 — Manual-assistVP Marketing drafts with agent assistance. Useful from day 1 for replacing scramble cycles.

v0.5 — SupervisedPer-board + monthly + quarterly cycles autonomous. Every deliverable signed off by CEO + CFO + VP Marketing. Default ship state.

v1.0 — Semi-autonomousAfter 4 board cycles + voice fidelity ≥ 4.3, agent auto-drafts the weekly ELT dashboard, upstream watchlist, and ad-hoc memos — routes to VP Marketing for a 5-minute approval before any send. Board + investor + all-hands always require additional CEO sign-off on top of VP Marketing approval. Hard rule: no executive comm reaches an inbox without a named human approver on the draft.

First-run checklist — 5 steps from spec to running agent:

Build the voice corpus for CEO + CFO + VP Marketing. Capture recent speeches, podcasts, earnings calls.
Wire all upstream agent inputs + Brand Voice Agent API.
Run the first board cycle in shadow mode. CEO + VP Marketing review the agent draft alongside the manual draft. Tune voice match.
Turn on full operation. Subscribe CEO + VP Marketing + CFO to draft cycle.
Schedule annual voice corpus refresh. Log every deliverable in /exec-comms/agent-log.md.

Executive Communications & Board Influence