Visual management

Marketing go-see protocol

Marketing go-see protocol is licensed CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com).

1 · What it is

What it is

A marketing go-see walk is a gemba walk with real technique behind it, pointed at commercial data instead of a shop floor — the same work instruction shape (major step, key point, reason) the core go-see protocol already applies to observation. Describe the walk roughly, and real steps get drafted: which numbers to re-check directly at the source system, how to sample real records rather than trust the dashboard, and why each technique matters.

2 · When to use it

When to use it — and when not to

Use it when

You want to verify that a visibility board or marketing KPI tree reflects what's actually true in the CRM or ERP, not just what a sync job reported.
A data-sync issue has happened before and you want a real, repeatable check rather than trusting it's stayed fixed.
You want to catch channel-attribution drift or reporting gaps before they shape a budget decision.

Not when

The check is genuinely a one-off, not a repeatable practice — a work instruction adds structure a single check doesn't need.
You'd be walking the data to catch someone doing something wrong rather than to verify the numbers themselves — that's not what a go-see walk is for.

3 · How to fill it in

How to fill it in

Purpose: What does this walk verify, and what would go unnoticed without it?
Steps, key points & reasons: Drafted from your description of the walk — major steps, each with zero or more key points and, for every key point, the reason it matters.
Narrative: Drafted from the steps actually built.

4 · What good looks like

What good looks like

The example below checks Beacon Analytics' visibility board and marketing KPI tree against the real CRM and ERP records — three of four steps have a real key point tracing back to a genuine sync-job finding, and the fourth, channel misattribution, is honestly left flagged rather than padded.

Same example, as a downloadable xlsx workbook.

Download .xlsx

Work instruction

Go-see walk — marketing ops and commercial data sync

Marketing ops — Beacon Analytics

Priya Anand, RevOps · 2026-04-24

Purpose

Verifies that the visibility board and marketing KPI tree's numbers are actually true at the source systems, not just true on the dashboard — the CRM/ERP sync job that's already failed silently once is exactly the kind of drift a dashboard-only check would miss.

Steps, key points & reasons

4 steps · 3 key points

1. Pull the marketing KPI tree's driver-metric numbers straight from the CRM, not the dashboard

Re-run the MQL-to-SQL conversion query directly in the CRM's own report builder — The visibility board is built from a CRM/ERP sync job that has already failed silently once — a dashboard number can look current while quietly reflecting a stale sync.

2. Check a sample of closed-won bookings against the ERP contract master

Pick five closed-won deals from the last week and confirm each one landed in the ERP within 24 hours — Sync completeness is the marketing KPI tree's own driver metric for keeping the board trustworthy — this is how you verify it's actually holding, not just assumed fixed since the last countermeasure.

3. Ask the marketing ops analyst what they're seeing that the board doesn't show

Ask open questions about what's slow or manual right now, not leading ones about the sync specifically — A leading question about the known sync issue gets confirmation of what you already suspect, not a real, fresh answer.

4. Note any channel claiming credit for pipeline another channel likely sourcedNo key point yet

Narrative

Three of four steps have a real key point grounding the technique in a specific reason, each one tracing back to the same real finding: the visibility board's countermeasure register already shows a sync-script fix that closed on time but didn't fully hold. The fourth step, noting channel misattribution, is deliberately left without a key point yet — the same honest gap the marketing KPI tree's third goal flags, and not something a go-see walk alone can resolve without a real attribution model behind it.

5 · Common mistakes

Common mistakes

Re-reading the dashboard more carefully instead of checking the source system it's built from.
A dashboard built from a broken sync can look internally consistent while being wrong — only checking the CRM or ERP directly catches that class of drift.
Asking the marketing ops analyst leading questions about the known sync issue instead of open ones.
A leading question gets confirmation of what you already suspect, not a real, fresh answer about what's actually slow or manual right now.

6 · What it connects to

What it connects to

upstream

Marketing KPI tree
A driver metric named there (like sync-data completeness) is exactly what this walk exists to verify at the source, not just trust as fixed.
Visibility board
A go-see walk exists to verify the board's own numbers against reality, the same relationship the core go-see protocol has with a visual board.

downstream

7 · Where AI helps

Where AI helps

Judgement — stays yours

Deciding whether a step genuinely needs a key point or is simple enough not to
Deciding what a drifted number actually means for the team

Analysis — AI helps

Drafting major steps, key points, and reasons from a description of the walk
Drafting the narrative from the steps actually built

Drudgery — automated

Counting steps and key points
Identifying which steps still have no key point
Exporting to xlsx in the house format

9 · Rate this kata