Zoom — Power Map

Zoom Opal 2026 Stage: Proposal Value: $250K Close: 2026-03-31 (27 days) Updated: 2026-03-04
Champion
Economic Buyer
Technical / Influencer
Blocker / Skeptic
Unknown / Gap
Exec Bridge
Optimizely
Tier 1 — Executive & Signature Authority
Economic Buyer
Vi Chau
Senior Executive · Primary Budget Holder
Reviewed maturity assessment recording and gave Pragya feedback — first confirmed direct EB engagement with experimentation content. Still not responding to Alex's email. Needs pilot data + case studies + ROI assessment to approve a meeting. Budget scrutiny environment — "a lot of optimizations happening" at Zoom. Likely signatory at $250K, not confirmed.
Exec Influencer
Kim CMO
CMO · Part of Executive Triangle
Receives business case alongside Vi. Connected to Alex Atzberger. CMO summit in Austin mid-March. Zero direct intelligence on priorities, objections, or management style.
Exec Bridge (Optimizely)
Alex Atzberger
Optimizely CEO
Regular communication with Kim. Attending CMO summit mid-March together. Highest-leverage relationship in the deal. If Alex introduces Opal to Kim, creates top-down demand before Pragya's business case arrives.
Tier 2 — Champions (Actively Selling Internally)
Primary Champion
Pragya Singh
Technical Owner, Online Team · AI Champions Member
Owns Optimizely overall (experimentation, personalization, CMS, Opal). Organized onsite workshop. Building executive case. Driving FY27 experimentation roadmap restructure with TK and Brandon. Non-responsive on paper process — flagged as high risk. Bandwidth increasingly strained. Single point of failure — bandwidth-constrained across experimentation dysfunction and Opal pilot. Must validate all three agents.
Marketing Advocate
Siobhan Corley-Richards
Content Strategist, ZoomCX Marketing
Only person on marketing team who has fully adopted CMP. Hands-on, technically curious, immediately interested in competitive scanning agent. Out all next week. Marketing validation timeline flexing to week of March 9. Risk: defers to Marla on decisions. Limited organizational pull.
Tier 3 — Influencers (Shape Evaluation & Adoption)
Marketing Leadership
Marla Davies
Marketing Leadership
Agreed marketing should join pilot. Pushed back on timeline: "make the right decision, not a quick one." Questioned benchmark relevance. Left meeting early. CMP implementation paused (bandwidth, not interest). Patrick running CMP-focused call March 5 as diagnostic. Conor sending separate low-pressure follow-up. Practical buyer — wants to see it working, not projections.
Content / SEO — Key Evaluator
David Tice
Online Team (SEO/Content)
Confirmed as sole evaluator for Content Audit and GEO agents per Pragya's direction. Explicitly pushed back on tool consolidation: "I would not want to remove Ahrefs." Frames Opal as value-add not cost reduction. Has built custom tools on Railway. Content Audit is top priority over GEO. His subjective assessment is the gate for 2 of 3 POC agents.
Primary AE
Patrick Jones
Account Executive (Optimizely)
Owns the Zoom account. Built rudimentary agent for Siobhan. Key orchestrator and informal information broker. Assessed deal as at risk. Trust bridge — Brandon, marketing, and Pragya all communicate through Patrick.
Analytics / Ops
Murali Pendyala
Online Team (Analytics/Ops)
Focused on proving improvement over time (delta tracking for page speed, GEO scores). Wants operational rigor. Suggested Content Square integration. Pushing for immediate code audit review. Azure App Insights showing no measurable improvement at 95th percentile. "Show me the data" mentality.
Experimentation
TK Marks
Experimentation Analyst
Experimentation trust "very fractured." Feels he and Brandon are "on an island." Independently envisioned agent chaining workflow. Committed to prioritizing evaluation this week. Focused on quick wins, building stakeholder appetite, then scaling complexity. Concerned about creative control and risk management on high-revenue pages. Self-rated 6 on AI.
Tier 4 — Technical (Building the Solution)
FDE
Franz
Forward Deployed Engineer
Assigned to build all three agents. Content audit agent ~85% complete. Met David Tice for first time 2/27.
Solutions Architect
James Stout
SA (Solutions Architect)
Led onsite workshop. Pre-built high-fidelity Zoom Content Audit Agent. Remote participant.
Tier 5 — Blockers & Skeptics
Experimentation Friction
Brandon Renoe
Web Experimentation Team
Open friction with Pragya. Described having "both hands tied behind his back." Built his own experimentation agent — not anti-Opal, anti-Pragya's leadership on experimentation. Pragya invited Patrick to review FY27 experimentation roadmap with TK and Brandon next week. Do not go direct on Opal positioning. Trusts Patrick Jones.
Experimentation Skeptic
Michael Lam
Leadership (Experimentation Oversight)
Exploring analytics as replacement for experimentation entirely. Asked ChatGPT what they can do instead of experimenting. Risk: if skepticism extends to AI tooling broadly, could surface as exec-level blocker. Do not engage directly. Monitor through Patrick.
Tier 6 — Procurement
Procurement
Andrew Grabell
Procurement Signatory
Procurement signatory from October renewal. Two-email strategy: order form to Pragya, separate email to Andrew to pre-stage procurement. Not yet directly engaged.

Signature Path

1
Pilot Validation
Pragya Singh
All three agents must validate before business case goes up. Target: March 6.
2
Business Case
Pragya Singh
Internal iterations required before Vi sees it. March 9-12 window.
3
Exec Readout
Kim → Vi Chau
Target March 13. Kim/Vi readout, not just Vi.
4
Budget Approval
Vi Chau
Budget scrutiny environment. Approval threshold unknown at $250K.
5
IT / Security
Not identified
Vendor questionnaires agreed in parallel. No contacts identified.
6
Legal Review
Not identified
Existing MSA product supplement likely contains AI language. If confirmed, deal reduces to agreeing a number, not negotiating AI terms.
7
Procurement
Andrew Grabell
Andrew Grabell identified as signatory from October renewal. Two-email strategy to pre-stage.
8
Signature
Unknown LIKELY VI
Likely Vi Chau or above. Approval threshold unknown.

Informal Influence Network

Alex Atzberger → direct relationship → Kim (CMO). Regular communication. CMO summit in Austin mid-March together. Highest-leverage relationship — top-down air cover before Pragya's bottom-up case arrives.
Pragya Singh → builds case for → Kim & Vi Chau. AI Champions member (WISE team). Outsized influence on this purchase, but bandwidth-constrained. Single point of failure for the entire deal.
Siobhan Corley-Richards → defers to → Marla Davies on all decisions. Only CMP adopter on marketing team. Advocacy necessary but not sufficient for marketing participation.
Marla Davies has a weekly CMP cadence with Patrick Jones. CMP implementation paused by bandwidth. Patrick running CMP diagnostic call March 5. Marketing alignment is a prerequisite for the combined ELT readout.
Patrick Jones is the trust bridge. Brandon shares frustrations with Patrick. Marketing communicates through Patrick. Informal information broker for the entire deal.
David Tice → sole evaluator for → Content Audit + GEO agents. His subjective assessment is the gate. Contradicts P0 tool consolidation value driver — explicitly frames Opal as value-add, not cost reduction. 2 of 3 POC agents depend on one person's judgment with no defined success criteria.
TK Marks → experimentation evaluator → trust in experimentation "very fractured" at leadership level. Vi never experienced the $9–10M testing era. Experimentation agents face headwinds from organizational skepticism, not just technical validation.

Internal Politics & Dynamics

Pragya vs. Brandon friction on experimentation: Brandon feels Pragya won't advocate for experimentation with leadership. Pragya denies deprioritization. Patrick: "so much bigger than the tool." Pragya now inviting Patrick to review FY27 experimentation roadmap with TK and Brandon. Could spill into executive conversations if experimentation comes up during readout.
Michael Lam's experimentation skepticism: Exploring analytics as full replacement for experimentation. If this view gains traction at exec level, could undermine the web experimentation bundle component of the $250K deal.
Marketing CMP adoption struggles: CMP implementation paused by marketing (bandwidth, not interest). Adding Opal may feel like too much change. Marla wants to "make the right decision, not a quick one" — timeline preference conflicts with March 31 close.
Zoom's build-internally philosophy: Pragya explicitly stated third-party implementation partners are not viable at Zoom. David Tice has built custom tools on Railway. Limits post-sale scaling. Zoom's team must become self-sufficient faster.

Map Gaps

Who signs the contract?
Cannot close without signature authority. Could be Vi, could be above Vi.
Ask Pragya: "Who literally signs contracts at this dollar amount?"
Budget threshold at $250K?
Determines whether Vi can approve autonomously or needs additional sign-off (board, CFO, etc.).
Ask Pragya: "What's the approval process for a $250K software purchase at Zoom?"
Legal contact
Paper process cannot start without legal. Existing MSA product supplement may contain AI language — if so, reduces legal friction significantly.
Verify MSA AI language. If confirmed, legal review becomes amendment not new negotiation.
David Tice's evaluation criteria
Sole evaluator for Content Audit and GEO agents. Assessment is entirely subjective — no defined success criteria.
Franz to align agent tuning with David's stated priorities. Content Audit first, GEO second.
Vi's email non-responsiveness
Vi is not responding to Alex's email. First EB signal (maturity assessment review) is positive but indirect channel remains cold.
Monitor. Do not escalate outreach. Let maturity assessment engagement develop organically.
Compliance requirements
Vendor questionnaires agreed to start in parallel but no one is driving them.
Push Pragya for specific questionnaire requirements and contacts.
Kim's disposition toward Opal
Kim is in the signature path but we have zero direct intelligence on her priorities or objections.
Alex-Kim CMO summit mid-March is primary discovery channel. Ask Pragya what Kim cares about.
Vi's management style
Vi is the economic buyer but we have had no direct interaction.
Ask Pragya: "When Vi evaluates a purchase like this, what does she focus on? What kills deals?"
Marketing pilot scope
Siobhan out all next week. Marketing validation flexing to week of March 9.
Schedule FDE tuning session with marketing POC (Siobhan) week of March 9.
Michael Lam's sphere of influence
If experimentation skepticism reaches the executive level, it could contaminate the Opal conversation.
Monitor through Patrick. Do not engage Michael directly.

Recommended Actions

This Week (March 4-7)
  1. Patrick CMP call with Marla March 5 — diagnostic on CMP implementation pause. Surface whether bandwidth constraint is temporary or signals deeper resistance.
  2. Conor low-pressure email to Marla — separate from Patrick's call. Zero-lift agent review positioning. Remove pressure, create curiosity.
  3. Franz finalize Content Audit Agent tuning — per David Tice's priorities. Content Audit is top priority over GEO. Align agent output to David's subjective standards.
  4. Push Pragya on paper process — non-responsive. Escalate urgency. Andrew Grabell identified for procurement; need Pragya to confirm MSA AI language and legal path.
Next Week (March 9-13)
  1. Marketing validation may flex to week of March 9 — Siobhan out this week. Schedule FDE tuning session with Siobhan upon return.
  2. Iterate on executive summary with Pragya — multiple internal review checkpoints before Vi sees it. Conor available for rapid iteration.
  3. Prepare for Vi readout March 13 — reframe value narrative from tool consolidation to productivity/value-add per David Tice's framing.
Executive Readout (March 13+)
  1. Target Vi readout March 13 — Pragya presents pilot results + quantified business case + executive summary.
  2. Leverage Alex-Kim channel at CMO summit — if Alex introduces Opal to Kim, creates top-down air cover. Coordinate with Alex's team.
  3. Immediately start paper process post-approval — every day of delay after March 13 compresses the March 31 close.
Ongoing
  1. Push Pragya on paper process — non-responsive on legal/procurement/compliance contacts. Every day without progress is a day lost from 27-day window.
  2. Monitor experimentation politics — TK and Brandon "on an island." Patrick invited to FY27 roadmap review. Insulate Opal from experimentation friction.
Contingency Plans
  • If March 31 close slips: Deal does not die — Zoom's FY27 started Feb 1, budget available. Position pricing as "2026 pricing" to create forecastable deadline without artificial compression.
  • If marketing does not join initial purchase: Focus on Pragya's online team as primary buyer. Marketing can do a true POC later (Patrick's suggestion). Reduces combined value story but removes coordination bottleneck.
  • If experimentation bundle draws executive scrutiny: Decouple experimentation from core Opal pitch. Lead with content audit + GEO + brand voice QA. Web experimentation as retention item, not strategic investment.
  • If David Tice rejects tool consolidation framing: Reframe entire business case around productivity/value-add. Do not position Opal as Ahrefs replacement. Position as complementary layer that amplifies existing tooling.
Zoom Power Map — Generated 2026-03-04 — Deal: Zoom Opal 2026 — INTERNAL USE ONLY