CleverTap Integration - Lifecycle Communications
Owned the integration of CleverTap as a lifecycle marketing platform. Estimated 1 month, expanded to 3 when real-time event-based targeting requirements surfaced. Earned back stakeholder trust by reworking the business case and delivering 2x the original ARPU impact.
Context
Skillz’s communications strategy was limited to CSV-based, non-real-time targeting. The Marketing team needed event-driven, real-time lifecycle automation to support full user journeys. Initial scope was estimated at one month. During implementation it became clear real-time event-based targeting required building an event-tracking framework from scratch, expanding the timeline to nearly three months.
Approach
- Built an event-tracking framework from scratch: standardized events across the app and created a centralized data dictionary.
- Acknowledged the estimation miss transparently to leadership and communicated the revised timeline.
- Reworked the business case with Marketing, increasing the projected ARPU impact from 3% to 6% by accounting for richer personalization and real-time lifecycle use cases.
- Restructured the PRD into phased deliveries with clear outcomes and aligned stakeholders individually on trade-offs.
- Highlighted that standardized events would enable funnel creation and uncover previously hidden drop-off points.
Result
- 6% net revenue uplift through personalized, rich-media lifecycle communications.
- 2 new product opportunities identified via funnel analysis enabled by the event tracking framework.
- Established a shared data foundation and restored stakeholder trust despite the initial miss.
What I learned
Earning trust back from an estimation miss is not about apologizing. It is about clearly raising the value bar, taking ownership of the new plan, and over-delivering on the revised commitment.