Building an AI Search Tiger Team in a Mid-Market Organization

How VP Growth leaders deliver GEO outcomes without turning it into a committee

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Executive Summary

GEO work stalls in mid-market companies for one reason: it pulls in too many teams. Content needs new page patterns. Web needs template and indexing changes. Product marketing needs tighter entity and product claim language. Sales wants proof pages. Legal worries about what you can say. Data wants clean measurement. Everyone nods. No one runs the whole thing.

A tiger team fixes that. It’s a small cross-functional group with decision rights, a fixed window of time, and a backlog that gets finished. Use it to run tight tests, turn what works into standards, and get the rest of the org using them.

A focused tiger team speeds up GEO progress and keeps cross-functional work moving.

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Why a Tiger Team Works for GEO

GEO and AEO change how discovery works for your brand. AI assistants synthesize answers and cite sources:

• ChatGPT Search (Source)

• Perplexity Citations (Source)

• Google AI features (AI Overviews / AI Mode): (Source)

So, this is no longer “just SEO.” It’s a coordinated marketing system across:

• content (answer units, proof pages, category narratives)

• web (templates, performance, indexing rules)

• data (visibility checks, conversion and pipeline signals, test design)

• product / PMM (entities, claims, packaging clarity)

• legal / security (risk lanes for regulated or sensitive topics)

• sales / CS (real buyer questions and objections)

This work has a learning curve. You need faster feedback loops:

• run small experiments

• check AI visibility and on-site behavior

• codify what works

• roll it out inside a defined scope

Without a tiger team, mid-market orgs usually do the opposite and stall out in endless debate, scattered fixes, fuzzy measurement, then momentum dies quietly.

Define Your Team Charter

A tiger team without a charter turns into a task force, then a recurring meeting. Write down the goal and give it a time window for your team.

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Charter Template

• Mission: Build repeatable GEO and AEO capability that improves AI search discovery and conversion for [Product/Category].

• Time window: 6 months (fixed).

• Scope: One product line or one category hub + its top 20–40 pages.

• Success metrics (90-day leading / 180-day lagging):

• Leading: AI presence rate on priority query set, citation-to-canonical rate, proof-page consumption rate

• Lagging: organic conversion rate, pipeline influenced, reduced sales friction on top objections ([Internal metric])

• Deliverables:

  • “Reference object” content standard + templates

  • Technical baseline (indexing rules, performance guardrails, schema where appropriate)

  • Measurement scoreboard + review cadence

  • Rules for claims and updates

• End state: Tiger team folds into a standard operating model owned by [function].

  Scope rule that keeps this in-check and doable:
  Don’t start with “the entire website.” Pick one lane you and your team can win, then expand.

Roles and Responsibilities

This works when the team is small, senior enough to decide, and close enough to execution to get work live.

Recommended team size (7 people)

Core (5)

1. Tiger Team Lead (VP Growth sponsor or Program Lead)
   Owns outcomes, keeps pace, breaks ties.

2. SEO / AI Search Strategy Lead
   Owns the query set, content rules, visibility checks.

3. Content Lead (editorial + IA)
   Owns templates, rewrites, refresh rules, and the “reference object” pattern.

4. Web Engineering Manager / Tech Lead
   Owns templates, technical fixes, performance guardrails, indexing rules.

5. Analytics / Experimentation Lead
   Owns dashboards, event tracking, and test design.

Rotate team members in as needed:

1. Product Marketing (entities + claims)

Owns definitions, packaging clarity, “what we do and don’t do.”

1. Legal / Compliance
   Reviews higher-risk claims and regulated topics.

2. Security (trust pages)
   Owns accuracy and review cadence for security content.

Sales / CS rep
Brings buyer questions; checks whether pages help in real deals.

RACI for Reference

Workstream	Responsibility	Accountable	Consulted	Informed
Query set + AI visibility checks	SEO Lead	Program Lead	Content Analytics	Exec Sponsor
Templates + rewrites	Content Lead	Program Lead	PMM Sales/CS	Marketing
Technical changes (templates, CWV, index rules)	Web Eng	Web Eng	SEO Analytics	Program Lead
Dashboard + events	Analytics	Analytics	SEO Web Eng	Program Lead
Claim rules (regulated content)	Legal/Compliance	Legal/Compliance	PMM Security	Program Lead
Proof surfaces (security, implementation, pricing)	PMM + Web Eng	Program Lead	Security Sales	Marketing
Quarterly narrative review	Program Lead	VP Growth	SEO PMM Sales	Exec Team

Rule: one accountable person per workstream. Never “the team.”

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Operating Rhythm and Decision Rights

Most tiger teams fail because cadence is vague and decisions get re-litigated. Run your team and deliverables like a product sprint.

Weekly Rhythm

Monday (30 min): plan

• pick 3 ready items

• confirm owners

• define “done”

Midweek (async): unblock

• blockers posted in a shared channel

• engineering or legal escalations flagged immediately

Friday (45 min): demo + decisions

• show what went live (pages, templates, dashboards)

• review leading indicators

• decide: expand, revise, or stop

Monthly rhythm (exec-facing)

Monthly GEO scorecard (30 min)

• AI presence rate on priority queries (directional)

• citation-to-canonical rate

• proof-page consumption (security, implementation, comparisons)

• organic conversion rate and pipeline signals

Visibility isn’t the goal. Revenue and reduced deal friction are.

Decision rights (write them down)

Tiger team decides

• template standards and which pages get rewritten first

• internal linking rules inside the chosen scope

• which measurement events get added

• rules for public vs noindex vs gated for the scoped content

Escalate to exec sponsor

• major navigation redesign

• pricing claims, compliance, or security assertions

• large engineering lifts competing with the roadmap

• brand positioning shifts

48-hour rule
If a blocker isn’t cleared in 48 hours, escalate. Pace is the point.

Moving from Your Tiger Team to Lasting Capability

A tiger team is a change vehicle, not a permanent org chart box.

By month six, you should have

1. A repeatable playbook

• “reference object” page template

• vertical Q&A patterns

• proof page standards

• rules for claims and updates

2. A measurement system that keeps running

• AI referral grouping where measurable

• on-site behavior metrics

• monthly scorecard cadence

3. Clear owners after the team ends

• Content team: templates + refresh cadence

• Web team: technical guardrails + release QA

• SEO / AI search lead: query sets + competitive monitoring

• Legal / security: claim review lanes

Sunsetting Criteria

End your tiger team when:

• core templates exist and teams use them across the scoped area

• measurement is live and reviewed monthly

• at least 2 to 3 test cycles have run (learned, applied, repeated)

• the remaining backlog can be handled inside normal functions without escalation

After that, move from “tiger team” to a normal marketing operating system.

Your Sample 6-month Plan to Get Moving

Months 1–2: foundation + first wins

• build the priority query set for one product line

• publish content templates (answer block, definition, troubleshooting, proof links)

• fix top technical blockers in scope (indexing mistakes, broken canonicals, slow templates)

• launch a dashboard with leading indicators

Months 3–4: scale inside the lane

• rewrite the top 20 pages into reference objects

• publish 3 proof surfaces (security, implementation, comparison)

• run 2 controlled tests (structure, entity clarity, internal linking)

Months 5–6: embed and expand

• document rules and refresh cadence

• train internal teams on the template approach

• expand to the next product line or vertical lane

• fold the tiger team into standard team responsibilities

Your Next Steps to Get the Ball Rolling in 2026

Charter a 6-month GEO tiger team with:

• one product or category scope

• 3–5 measurable outcomes

• a weekly sprint cadence with clear decision rights

• a defined end state and sunset criteria

Skip the big reorg. Start with a small team that publishes changes weekly, measures results, and turns what works into standards other teams can follow.

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Last updated 01-20-2026