Shows
Operations with Sean LaneThe Untapped Potential of Partner Operations with Euler CEO Greg PortnoyPartnerships teams often feel like the forgotten child of the go-to-market org—under-resourced, misunderstood, and held to different standards than their direct sales counterparts. Greg Portnoy is out to change that.Greg is the co-founder and CEO of Euler, the Home Base For Partnerships Teams. Drawing from his experience leading Partnerships teams at 4 different companies, Greg knows the difference between what works and what doesn't, and he's making the case for treating partnerships as a strategic business function—not just a side hustle for GTM.In our conversation, we talk about why Part...
2025-03-3144 min
Operations with Sean LaneAI Is the Tool, Not the Answer with Nara Logics CEO Jana Eggers (Live from Startup Week Boston)AI may be having a moment, but for Jana Eggers, it's been a career. Jana is the CEO of Nara Logics, an AI Advisor software company, and she's been building in AI long before it became a buzzword. In this episode live from Startup Boston Week, we talk about separating AI hype from utility, why AI should be built for subject matter experts (not just technical ones), and why she believes AI augments human intelligence, but doesn't mimic it. Also, stick around for one of the best lightning rounds we’ve ever done.Like this episode? Be su...
2025-03-2548 min
Operations with Sean LaneAccelerating Commercial Performance through AI with NVIDIA's Kelly GolesAI is revolutionizing every part of go-to-market strategy, and Nvidia’s Kelly Goles is at the forefront of that transformation. As the Manager of Revenue Marketing Operations at Nvidia (and winner of LeanData’s 2024 Ops Star of the Year award), Kelly has been tasked with using AI to accelerate commercial performance. In our conversation, Kelly shares how her team saved 1,500 sales hours per week and quadrupled the number of leads their reps can work, she walks us through Nvidia’s AI-powered GTM framework, and explains how her team balances AI experimentation with real-world operational impact.Like t...
2025-03-0138 min
Operations with Sean LaneRethinking Customer Success Playbooks with Mike Lemire (Live from Startup Week Boston)For a long time, post-sale teams haven’t received the attention they deserve. Companies have historically prioritized revenue growth over revenue protection, relying on human-intensive Customer Success models to keep customers happy. But the landscape is shifting—companies are rethinking how they structure their Customer Success teams, when and how to introduce Account Managers, and whether automation and scaled CS models can truly replace the human touch.In this episode, we sit down with Mike Lemire, a seasoned Customer Success executive with experience at Toast, HubSpot, and Overjet, who now runs his own executive coaching firm, Harmonic Lead...
2025-02-2738 min
Operations with Sean LaneBridging Academia and Entrepreneurship: Practical Lessons for Founders with Dr. Shari Worthington (Live from Startup Week Boston)In this special episode recorded live at Startup Boston Week, we sit down with Dr. Shari Worthington, Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Suffolk University. Shari brings a unique perspective as both a serial entrepreneur and an academic, sharing insights from her research on founder identities. In our conversation, we explore the different types of entrepreneurs, how she brings practical, real-world examples into a theoretical academic environment, and why embracing serendipity might be the key to success.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect...
2025-01-3147 min
Operations with Sean LaneBuilding a Thriving Community for 14,000 Operators with RevOps Co-op CEO Matt VolmIn this episode of Operations, Sean dives into the world of community-building with Matt Volm, CEO and Co-Founder of RevOps Co-op —a vibrant network of over 14,000 RevOps professionals. Matt shares how he transitioned from running a software startup to creating a thriving community, the lessons he’s learned about driving vs. moderating engagement, and why RevOps is attracting members from outside the tech industry. Tune in to discover how Matt and his team keep their content practical, their community engaged, and their mission alive in an ever-evolving landscape.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️...
2025-01-0329 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow Canva Reinvented its Enterprise Sales Motion at $1B ARR with Aarti RamanProduct-led and sales-led growth motions aren't binary; they exist on a spectrum. In this episode of Operations, we dive into the fascinating story of Canva’s go-to-market evolution with Aarti Raman, former Global Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations. Canva, the design platform valued at over $30 billion, had already surpassed $1B in ARR through a bottom-up product-led growth model. However, their B2B Enterprise sales model required a shift.In our conversation, Aarti shares the strategy behind transitioning Canva’s Enterprise team from a sales-led to a product-led model, the complexities of implementing pricing changes at thei...
2024-12-2048 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhat Separates Seasoned CROs from rising VPs Sales with pclub.io CEO Chris OrlobWhat separates the best CROs from up-and-coming sales leaders? In this episode of Operations, we dive deep with Chris Orlob, CEO at pclub.io, to uncover the skills and traits that distinguish world-class revenue leaders. After nearly 1,000 conversations with CROs and VPs of Sales, Chris has identified the key differences between those who succeed at the highest levels and those on the rise.In our conversation, we talk about the spectrum of CROs that are out there, the importance of thinking in systems rather than deals, and why the traditional sales career path might leave some leaders...
2024-12-1134 min
Operations with Sean LaneA Blueprint for Championing and Inspiring Operators with The Revenue Operations Manual Author Laura AdintThis fall, my new book, The Revenue Operations Manual, a blueprint for running a world-class RevOps org, was released. The book includes interviews with 50+ world-class Operators (many of which came from this show!), success stories from real world role models, and cautionary tales from when things didn’t go according to plan. Our guest on this episode is Laura Adint, my co-author for the book (and my former boss). It’s been a whirlwind since the book came out, so it was time to sit down with Laura and reflect not only on the process of writing a boo...
2024-11-2240 min
Beyond The PipelineImportance of Communication and Internal Branding for Ops with Laura Adint and Sean LaneThis episode features Laura Adint and Sean Lane, authors of "The Revenue Operations Manual." The discussion focuses on the importance of communication in RevOps and how it can elevate ops professionals in their roles.Key points from the episode include:The importance of communication in RevOps: The guests emphasize that being good at execution and data analysis isn't enough; ops professionals need to effectively communicate the value of their work.Ops professionals' unique perspective: Due to their exposure to various parts of the business, ops professionals have a unique vantage point that allows them to connect...
2024-10-1352 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy the AI Agent Era Will Change Everything with Bonfire Ventures' Brett QueenerHave you ever had a conversation that just sticks with you for days? It challenges everything you previously thought to be true. You sit up at night re-running parts of it in your head. I had one of those recently with Brett Queener, Managing Director at Bonfire Ventures.Brett's recent writings on The Implications of the AI Age on the Application Software Market caught my attention, and ultimately led to this conversation that has caused me to question everything I thought I knew about SaaS businesses. In our conversation, Brett breaks down the 3 ages...
2024-09-0453 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Challenges of Operations in a Usage-Based Business with Checkr's Lauren DavisIf you spend most of your career in a particular business model, it might be difficult to translate some of the things you believe to be foundational into a completely different model. A great example of this is for Operators who are used to the typical SaaS subscription bookings model, but find themselves working in a consumption, or usage-based business.Consumption-based software businesses are definitely on the rise, so I wanted to talk with someone who understand the nuances and complexities that are required to run Operations for a consumption-based business. I found that...
2024-08-1642 min
Operations with Sean LaneInside OpenAI's Operations Team with Keith JonesIf you’re having a conversation about the world’s most innovative companies, it’s hard to imagine a conversation taking place that doesn’t mention OpenAI.OpenAI, specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for everyone, but of course, on this show, we care about its impact on Operators. So who better to talk to about this impact than someone who actually leads Systems and Operations at OpenAI, Keith Jones, the company’s GTM Systems Lead.And while of cour...
2024-07-1943 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow the Best Sales Leaders Approach Planning with TigerEye's Will Magnuson and Anna RandallIt’s funny how certain stereotypes emerge about different roles in an organization. On today’s episode, we’re talking to not 1, but 2 incredibly accomplished Sales Leaders who are pushing back on the stereotypes of the typical Sales leader, particularly when it comes to planning. Those guests are Will Magnuson and Anna Randall, both Sales leaders at TigerEye, the GTM Planning platform. Will is the CRO and Anna is the VP of Sales, and their partnership goes back years (in fact, this is their 3rd company together!).I was excited to talk to Will and An...
2024-07-0542 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Emergence of Revenue Orchestration Platforms with Forrester's Anthony McPartlinIt can be hard sometimes to keep up with the pace of change in the tech landscape. New tools, new possibilities, new categories emerge. Luckily, there are folks whose job is to not only keep tabs on all these trends, but decipher what they mean for the rest of us. One such person, Anthony McPartlin, is our guest today. Anthony is a Principal Analyst at Forrester, and he recently co-authored an article about a new category that he and his colleagues at Forrester had identified: the Revenue Orchestration Platform.Revenue Orchestration is...
2024-06-2139 min
Operations with Sean LaneAdapting from SaaS to Services with Mission Cloud's Dina OteroThe best Operators I know exhibit "adaptive excellence." They can be dropped into any brand new situation, use their experience and the context of the new situation to figure out what will work best in this new environment, and ultimately thrive.Our guest today is a perfect example of someone who exhibits adaptive excellence. That someone is Dina Otero, VP Demand Generation at Mission Cloud. After a decade of working in SaaS at companies like Confirmit (now Forsta) and Aprimo, Dina made the jump last year to a Mission Cloud, an AWS Premier Tier managed services provider.
2024-06-0838 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Color-Coding Exercise to Unlock Your RevOps Career GrowthOperators are employees who want to learn. They want to stretch their minds and better understand an organization and how all its pieces fit together. Yet it's common for Operators to get pigeonholed into a specific Ops function or tied to a specific internal customer or area of ownership.On today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through an exercise you can do yourself or with your teams to guarantee you avoid this problem, and more importantly, cement the ongoing development of your team and their skills as part of your team's cult...
2024-05-2408 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy Operators are the Key to Leveraging AI with Copy.ai CMO Kyle ColemanIt's really encouraging that the tech marketplace is making the transition from AI hype to AI execution. We’re getting into real, concrete use cases that drive outcomes at companies, which is what we care most about on this show.I wanted to talk to someone who is living and breathing those real use cases every day and could share them with the rest of us. That someone in Kyle Coleman, CMO of Copy.ai, the go-to-market AI platform.I caught up with Kyle just a couple months into hi...
2024-05-1047 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Secret to Snowflake's Attribution and Finally Aligning Sales and Marketing with Hillary Carpio and Travis HenryIt’s not often someone builds something so high-functioning that it’s worthy of an entire book, but the guests on this episode accomplished exactly that.Hillary Carpio and Travis Henry from Snowflake, the cloud data platform, are the authors of Busting Silos, which details how Snowflake unites sales and marketing to win its best customers. Uniting Sales and Marketing is a claim made by many, accomplished by few. But these two might’ve pulled it off.In our conversation, they teach me the right and wrong questions to be ask...
2024-04-1938 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow to Forecast within 5% with Paul Shea and Chris LowryKevin Knieriem, President of Strategic GTM at Clari, wrote, "The sales forecasting process is so much more than just calling a number. It represents the entire operating rhythm of the whole company."On today’s episode, we’re going deep into forecasting, specifically how Operators can contribute to the forecasting motion at their companies. And to do that, I’m bringing in two people who I know understand the ins and outs of forecasting because I built it alongside them: Paul Shea and Chris Lowry. Paul and Chris were the architects of our Operations team’s foreca...
2024-04-0541 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Transition from Planning Mode to Execution Mode with Michael HeilmannIt's Q1. All of your plans for the new year have been out for a while. You’re off and running in this new Fiscal Year. But how are things going? Were you able to help your company quickly switch from Planning Mode to Execution Mode? That’s what this episode is all about. And the person to help the rest of us more successfully make that transition is Michael Heilmann. Michael spent the last 8 years building out the both the Sales and Sales Operations teams at Demandbase, where he saw explosive growth and most...
2024-03-1943 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Passion for Building and Scaling Iconic Businesses with Noah MarksI’ve always marveled at the Operators at larger companies who are tasked with the breadth of challenges and responsibilities that come with a role at that scale. How do they do it? How do they keep all of the details of a larger business in their head?To find out, I sat down with Noah Marks, a serial Operations Executive with a resume that includes Udemy, WalkMe, Okta, and Salesforce. Noah has made a career of helping companies make the jump from growth Mode to scale Mode. Today, Noah is the SVP & Head of...
2024-03-0142 min
Operations with Sean LaneShould Enablement Report to RevOps with Visualize's Carlos NoucheOn today’s episode, we’re going to explore the relationship between Ops and Enablement and whether, wait for it, Enablement should actually report into a RevOps leader instead of being its own function.To help guide us through that conversation, we’re joined by Carlos Nouche, VP at Visualize, the global leader in implementing the ValueSelling Framework. Carlos has been in the enterprise software industry for 25 years and for the past 16 years, he’s been helping Visualize’s customers maximize their sales effectiveness.In our conversation, we talk about how...
2024-02-1640 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Journey from 17th Employee to CEO with BlueConic's Cory MunchbachI think earlier in my career, I just assumed that anybody with a "C" at the beginning of their title knew everything. They had all the answers. Of course, this is a preposterous thing to think, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t look to those C-level folks for answers to our questions. So how do the rest of us who might want to sit in one of those chairs someday prepare ourselves for that moment?On today’s episode, we’re lucky to be joined by someone who, over the course of 8 years, grew fro...
2024-02-0242 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy "Composability" is the Key to Designing the Modern Tech Stack with HubSpot's Scott BrinkerIf you work in Marketing Technology, chances are you’ve come across the MarTech Map graphic at some point in your career. You know the one – the graphic that depicts the entire marketing technology landscape filled with so many logos that they are impossible to even see with the naked eye.In 2011, there were 150 companies on the graphic. In 2014, 10 years ago, there were just shy of 1,000. Today, that number is over 13,000 martech software tools available in the market. The man behind that famous graphic, Scott Brinker, is the VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot and Edit...
2024-01-1936 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow This Operator Found, Bought, and Became CEO of Their Own Business with Revenue Accelerator's Christi LoucksMaking the decision to go off on your own to build your own business is a daunting one. Social media would make you think that it’s all the rage right now to find small businesses, buy them, and then sit back and let the passive income roll in.But while there may be some exceptions to the rule, this isn’t the reality for most businesses. So I was wondering how this actually works in the real world?Our guest on this episode, Christi Loucks, is someone who can...
2024-01-0533 minOperations with Sean LaneRevOps Shouldn't Be SalesOps in DisguiseThere are some teams called Revenue Operations, but when you pull the curtain just a little bit, it’s really just Sales Operations in disguise, maybe with some added responsibilities to other internal stakeholders.Revenue Operations is often viewed as the silver bullet to siloed decision-making and inconsistent data sources, but you can’t expect a perfectly cohesive operation simply by naming an organizational structure. If Sales is still the dominant voice in your Go-to-Market planning and execution, you’re missing out on the potential benefits of a truly cross-functional Revenue Operations group.
2023-12-2216 min
Operations with Sean LaneEdTech's "Mission to Mission" Go-to-Market Approach with TeachFX's Rachel Jordan and Laurence HallIt’s so easy to get used to the echo chamber of B2B Tech Companies selling to other B2B Tech Companies. You learn a certain way of doing things, and you sell to people and companies that are just like your own.But what if some of your typical tactics don’t work on a different type of customer? On this episode, we explore a different buyer altogether in the world of Education Technology. Our guides to EdTech are Rachel Jordan and Laurence Hall from TeachFX, a tool that captures and analyzes teachers' classroom instruction and...
2023-12-0843 min
Operations with Sean LaneA New Approach to Operations in New Market Conditions with Logixboard's Hannah DuncanIt’s no secret that Operators and companies have been working in very different economic conditions for the past couple of years.Our guest today is someone who has had to figure out how to navigate those economic conditions and not just survive, but thrive within them. That guest is Hannah Duncan, Head of Revenue Operations at Logixboard.In our conversation, we talk about what it looks like to work in a more resource-constrained Ops environment, the value Operators can bring by sitting in on deal reviews, and why de...
2023-11-2525 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow Building Strong Company Foundations Allows You to Actually Run Your Business with Sweep's Benjamin ZeitzA former CRO and I used to have a running joke, "I can’t wait until we can get back to just running the business." It’s so easy in Operations to get bogged down by systems work, data clean-up, or troubleshooting the latest problem that reared its head, when all any of us want to do is run the business.To effectively run the business, though, you need to have confidence that the foundations on which you are building your business are sound.On today's episode, we're talking with Benjamin Zeitz, Head...
2023-11-1042 min
Operations with Sean LaneLaunching a New Product from Scratch as a General Manager with Force Management's Kathleen SchindlerThe role of the General Manager is one that's always been intriguing to me, but I've had a hard time wrapping my arms around it. Until now. And on this episode, we’re joined by Kathleen Schindler, GM of Ascender, a new platform and community by Force Management.What’s interesting about Ascender is that it’s basically a start-up within a very well established and successful company, Force Management. And what's interesting about Kathleen is that she had already been at Force Management for nearly a decade when she took on this new GM rol...
2023-10-2732 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Rise of VC Operations with Sydecar's Halle Kaplan-AllenVenture Capital firms are often the thought leaders and the tastemakers when it comes to new technologies and trends. But despite VC's focus on efficiency, they don’t really invest in internal efficiencies for themselves. Which brings us to VC Operations.What exactly does Operations look like inside of a Venture Capital firm? Luckily to help us answer this question, we’re joined by someone who has been studying this very topic for years, Our guest this week is someone who can help introduce us to what Operations looks like...
2023-10-1333 min
The Revenue FormulaHow to build RevOps for hypergrowth (with Sean Lane, Founding Partner, Minot Light Consulting)From employee #75 to helping Drift become an over $1B valuation company, Sean Lane knows a thing or two about hypergrowth.In this episode, we talk to Sean about his RevOps journey and how to create a strategic team in fast-growing companies. Don't forget to listen to Operations with Sean Lane and check out his new company Minot Light Consulting.(00:00) - Introduction
(00:42) - Meet Sean
(01:30) - How Sean got into RevOps
(07:09) - Expectations and misconceptions of RevOps
(09:41) - What does "Strategic" RevOps actually mean?
(15:59) - The fiscal year flip
(26:07) - Planning is hard
(33:22...
2023-10-1242 min
Operations with Sean LaneCharting a Course for International Expansion with Gong's Shantanu ShekharThe moment when a US-based company decides to expand internationally -- more specifically when they decide to open up local offices in those international regions -- is quite the investment. Everything about your business gets harder, more complicated. To help make the complex simple for the rest of us, we're joined on this episode by Shantanu Shekhar, someone who has gone through this exact expansion twice, at two of the most well revered brands in tech, LinkedIn and Gong.Shantanu is currently based in Dublin, Ireland as the Head o...
2023-09-2938 minOperations with Sean LaneWhy RevOps Policies are Your Company's Competitive Advantage with Fullcast Co-Founder Bala BalabaskaranAround this time of year, Operators are entering Planning season. We’re starting to piece together a laundry list of tasks that we need to accomplish before the year turns over.Planning as a function in RevOps has changed, though, and so have the tools available to us.Bala Balabaskaran is someone who has been at the center of those changes as Co-Founder and CTO of Fullcast.io, the Revenue Operations planning platform. After spending his career at companies like Salesforce, Microsoft and HP, Bala is unique because he brings a product perspective to Operations pr...
2023-09-1534 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhen "Good Enough" is Good Enough at Early Stage Companies with Taft LoveIt’s really tricky at an early stage company to know whether that new thing you’re building, that new process, that new report, that new piece of infrastructure is “good enough.”Should you just solve the immediate problem or do you need a solution that can withstand multiple years worth of changes in the business? Sometimes, according to our guest today, “good enough” is good enough.That guest is Taft Love, Founder of Iceberg RevOps, a revenue operations agency, and the Head of Inside Sales at Dropbox. From his own expe...
2023-09-0145 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Magic of Marketplaces with Colin GardinerMost of our time on this show has been spent looking at B2B SaaS companies. Where we have not spent much time at all, until today, is on marketplaces.The person to change that, and our guest on this episode, is Colin Gardiner. Colin is unique because he has led both Product and Revenue teams at marketplaces like Roamly, Outdoorsy, and Tripping.com, and today he puts that expertise to work as both an advisor and investor in all things marketplaces.In our conversation, Colin teaches me about 4 different types...
2023-08-1836 min
Operations with Sean LaneNavigating from Start-up to Scale-up with LinkSquares' Tim ParillaOne of the most interesting inflection points in a company’s evolution is when it becomes abundantly clear to everyone on the team that it’s time to transition from scrappy start-up to scale-up.Our guest on this episode, Tim Parilla, also loves this inflection point, and as you’ll soon see from our conversation, he thrives in it. Tim is the Chief Legal Officer at LinkSquares, the contract lifecycle management platform valued at over $800M. Prior to LinkSqures, Tim spent 7 years at DraftKings helping them navigate this same evolution.In o...
2023-08-0435 min
Operations with Sean LaneSpecial Announcement from SeanA couple of big pieces of news for Sean, and the show!
2023-08-0104 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow AI is Driving The Shift from Best of Breed to All-in-One Solutions with Recorded Future CMO Tom WentworthWhen we started this show, we knew we wanted it to be unabashedly for operators, with expert guests sharing lessons from those who had been there, done that. But this episode's guest made us realize that the show can not only be the place to reflect on the hard-earned lessons our guests have to share, but we can also be the place where operators can come to brainstorm, to debate, and to hypothesize about what’s to come. That guest is Tom Wentworth. Tom is the CMO of Recorded Future. As AI use cases exp...
2023-07-2129 min
Operations with Sean LaneAn Operator's Guide to Filling Your Cup with Jacki LeahyIt’s really quite refreshing when you see people being vulnerable about their own struggles in a professional environment. We all try to be so polished and put together all the time, especially as Operators, where our job is literally to have everything put together.So it caught my eye when Jacki Leahy, a Fractional RevOps Advisor and Founder of Activate The Magic, started a work advice column dedicated to navigating work relationships, something she admits she has struggled with herself.In our conversation (and her column aptly titled "De...
2023-07-0733 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy the Future of Work Should Optimize for Teams with Cisco Meraki COO Denise ThomasWhen you stop and think about it, it’s pretty crazy that our entire mindset around work has been completely challenged in just a few short years.And now, it looks like we find ourselves again in a debate about the future of work. Do we go back to offices? Are remote or hybrid teams less effective? Will employees revolt if companies try?Luckily, to answer these difficult questions, we have Denise Thomas, COO of Cisco Meraki.This is not your typical post-pandemic remote wo...
2023-06-2346 min
Operations with Sean LaneFinding the Right Consulting Resources for Your Most Important Projects with FoundHQ's Max MaederMost Ops teams are notoriously strapped for resources. We scrape and we claw to build our teams, and design them to make meaningful impacts on our organization. But sometimes we just don’t have the resources internally to get some of our projects done, and done well.And that’s when Operators will typically turn their attention to the fragmented, overwhelming, and slightly intimidating world of operations consultants. Our guest to help us navigate that world is Max Maeder, the CEO of FoundHQ, a hiring platform that connects companies with vetted Salesforce Freelancers.
2023-06-0945 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow to Escape your Company's Wild West with CaptivateIQ's Johnathan WarrenMany growing companies go through a phase where things are loose, messy, and undefined. This episode's guest, Johnathan Warren, affectionately refers to this phase of a company’s growth as “the wild west.”Johnathan is the Head of Revenue Operations at CaptivateIQ. Having built out the Ops functions at other startups like Spiff and KeyedIn, Jonathan is now on his third ride through and out of the wild west.In our conversation, Johnathan gives us two specific examples of ways you can graduate from the wild west, he gives a crawl-walk-run approach for bu...
2023-05-2642 minOperations with Sean LaneThe RevOps Definition That Most People Get WrongIn January 2023, LinkedIn released its list of the 25 fastest-growing job titles in the US. The #1 job on that list? Head of Revenue Operations.If you’re listening to this show, that’s probably exciting news to you. But here’s the thing: roles dubbed as Revenue Operations can be foggy, amorphous blobs, with one company’s job description different from the next.That’s what we’re here to clarify and explore in this episode. First, we’re going to talk through the typical definition of Revenue Operations. And then, I’m goin...
2023-04-2811 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy Discipline Makes You a Better Operator with AudioEye's Rupert DallasStart-ups often preach speed over execution. And it makes sense: “Take the disciplined, thoughtful approach” doesn’t really pop off the wall next to your ping pong table.But that's also because the disciplined approach is hard. Moving fast is easier.On this episode, our guest Rupert Dallas is someone whose discipline I really admire. Rupert is the VP Revenue Operations at AudioEye, an accessibility platform that helps businesses build inclusive and compliant websites, mobile apps, and digital documents.In our conversation, Rupert and I talk about...
2023-04-1434 minOperations with Sean LaneTop 10 Lessons From 100 Episodes Of Operations100 episodes of Operations! We are so grateful for the brilliant Operators who have been so generous with their time and their lessons on this show.After 100 episodes, we thought it was only fitting to look back at the top 10 lessons we’ve taken away from our guests, 5 from our first 50 episodes and 5 from the latest 50.So whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or you’re just checking out Operations for the first time, you're getting the best of the best in this one.O...
2023-03-3147 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy Agile Sales Reps Win More Deals with Michelle VazzanaIn Sales, it’s not hard to find people with opinions. Everyone has their own biases shaped by their own experiences, but give me a data-driven conclusion over a gut feel any day.Our guest on this episode, Michelle Vazzana, most certainly has the data to back up her findings. Michelle is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of VantagePoint Performance, and the co-author of the upcoming book, The Sales Agility Code. So we're breaking down exactly how she arrived at her Sales Agility Code. In our conversation, Michelle tea...
2023-03-2442 min
Operations with Sean LaneOvercoming Imposter Syndrome as a New Operator with Ping Del GiudiceWe’ve all at some point heard about or felt some flavor of imposter syndrome - that feeling where you are quite certain you don’t belong and you’re moments away from everyone figuring out you’re a fraud.After talking with today’s guest, I’m more convinced than ever that that hint of doubt, that nagging imposter syndrome, is actually a really good thing.Our guest today is Ping Del Giudice, Vice President of Revenue Operations at Leapsome. Ping was recently named to The Top 100 Revenue Operations L...
2023-02-2719 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Walls and Stalls of Growth with Revenue.io's Alastair WoolcockAs much as we want it to be, growth inside of companies isn't a straight line. And while I don’t think people are oblivious to that fact, we’re all still a little surprised when growth is harder than those beautiful up-and-to-the-right graphs might imply.So, how can we better prepare ourselves for the less pretty parts of that growth? Our guest today, Alastair Woolcock, has the answers. Alastair is the Chief Strategy Officer at Revenue.io, and he believes that growing companies face what he calls the walls and stalls of growth.
2023-02-1036 min
Operations with Sean LaneSeparating Practices from Best Practices with Insight Partners' Jeremey DonovanOur guests' experiences, and their stories, are great. But for operators, we should know that numbers – proven approaches that yield tangible, measurable results – that’s what operators really want.Luckily for us, that’s exactly what our guest today brings. That guest is Jeremey Donovan, Executive Vice President of RevOps and Strategy for Insight Partners - a venture capital firm that specializes in scaling companies.Jeremey is well-positioned to help us bring data to the conversation of "what good looks like," and ultimately separate the practices from the best practice...
2023-01-2037 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy Operators are Attracted to Pain with 1Password's Navin PersaudIf you’re an operator, you can’t deny that you get some sick satisfaction out of untangling a ball of impossibly tangled lights.There’s something about being handed a problem that’s painfully broken, and fixing it. Our guest today, Navin Persaud, is someone who has found himself attracted to a specific type of operations pain for his entire career.Navin is VP of Revenue Operations at 1Password, and over the course of his career, he has developed a well-formed perspective on how to seek out and solve th...
2023-01-0626 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhat it Really Takes to Run Slack's PLG Motion with Namrata RamProduct-Led Growth, or PLG, is about as buzzword-y a buzzword as you can find right now.But what does it take to actually run a real PLG motion at scale? For the answers, we’re turning to one of the most successful PLG companies you can find: Slack. Our guest on this episode is Namrata Ram, Slack’s VP of Sales Strategy and Operations.In our conversation, Namrata teaches us why scale and retention are the two foundational ingredients for PLG, when humans should and should not get involved in P...
2022-12-1629 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow to Adjust Annual Planning During Economic Uncertainty with Unqork's Heidi ThompsonIn a typical annual planning exercise, so much work goes into preparing your team and your company for the upcoming fiscal year. But this year, there’s a new added wrinkle due to the economic uncertainty that is spreading across much of the tech industry.So how does the current economic environment impact your planning for next year? For the answers, we turned to Heidi Thompson, VP of GTM Strategy and Revenue Operations at Unqork.In this episode, we asked Heidi to help all of us adjust our planning ex...
2022-12-0226 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Journey from Operator to Advisor with Forethought's Jeff IgnacioOur guest this week has a day job, but in this episode, we’re not actually talking about that day job. We’re going deep on something else: advising. Our guest, and the perfect person for this topic, is Jeff Ignacio, Head of Marketing and Sales Operations at Forethought.Today you'll learn about how he has leveraged his operations experience at companies like Google, Patient Pop, AWS, and Upkeep to build an impressive list of advising engagements. In our conversation, we talk about the content flywheel he built that led to his advising opportunities, the...
2022-11-1818 min
Operations with Sean LaneLIVE From Revenue Excellence Summit: RevOps in Rapidly Scaling Sales OrgsTypically, we bring just one incredible operator for us to learn from on this podcast, but this week, we've got 4.I recently hosted a RevOps panel at Modern Sales Pros’ Revenue Excellence Festival, or as MSP called it, a virtual festival for sales nerds, and we're bringing that conversation to the feed.The Operations panel was all about trying to scale in the midst of rapid growth. Cindy Hancock, Senior Director of RevOps at HighSpot, Henry Mizel, VP of Revenue at Apollo, Meagan Lloyd, Director of Operations at Anyroad, and...
2022-11-0439 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Future of Hyperautomation with Truly CEO Erol TokerEveryone strives for benchmarks, but at what point do benchmarks stop being aspirational and instead just become handcuffs?The people who question limiting beliefs and look at problems through brand new lenses are typically pretty great people to learn from. They’re the ones creating what will become the new norms, the benchmarks in the future.One of those people is Erol Toker, the Founder and CEO of Truly.co, a company that helps eliminate complex repetitive tasks through a methodology called hyperautomation.In ou...
2022-10-0735 min
Operations with Sean Lane#throwback The Intersection of Sales Operations and Sales Enablement with Spekit CEO Melanie FellayThe intersection of Sales Operations and Sales Enablement is a fascinating place. It’s where process, performance, systems, and analysis all converge. And in recent years, the tools at this particular intersection have absolutely exploded. That's why for this week's episode, we're throwing it back to an early guest on our show with sales enablement expert and Spekit Co-Founder and CEO, Melanie Fellay. Melanie and Sean go deep on measuring the ROI of different enablement tools, the reality of tool exhaustion, and the important distinction between change management and ch...
2022-09-2333 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe True ROI of Digital Adoption with WalkMe's Maor EzerThere is plenty of content out there about optimizing the customer journey or designing ideal user experiences. But for Operations teams, we have to not only consider our external customers, but our internal ones as well.On this episode, we speak with Maor Ezer, the SVP of Global Marketing at WalkMe, who spends every day thinking about those internal customers and more specifically, what he calls, the employee user experience.In our conversation, Maor explains the emergence of the employee user experience, we break down the triangle of players...
2022-09-0938 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow Hypergrowth Companies "Run Revenue" with Clari's Kyle ColemanRevenue teams, and specifically Revenue Operations teams, are responsible for a lot.We recently talked to someone, though, who has a really smart and refreshing approach to putting the right processes and guardrails in place to help revenue teams to, as he puts it, "run revenue."That someone and our guest today is Kyle Coleman, the SVP of Marketing at Clari, the revenue platform that helps teams get total visibility into their business.In our conversation, Kyle teaches me about everything that goes into “ru...
2022-08-2638 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Hidden Ripple Effects of Personnel Changes with Reprise's Phoebe FarberWhen someone new is hired at your hypergrowth company, territories are not magically assigned, commission plans are not automatically shipped. There are Operators behind the scenes making this magic happen. New hires, promotions, exits – they all require a unique series of steps to execute seamlessly all while considering the ripple effects of those transitions.Our guest on this episode is someone who has mastered the art of these personnel transitions, Phoebe Farber, the Director of Sales Operations at Reprise.In our conversation, Phoebe and I break down an Operations te...
2022-08-1222 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Genesis of Drift’s Sales Lab with Kyle BastienIf you look around your company today, it probably wouldn’t be hard to find people who had an idea or an opinion about how to make your sales process better. Everyone has one. Everyone has ten.Ideas are easy. Testing hypotheses, experimenting, and validating those ideas is much harder. On this episode, we’re going to break down a sales science experiment with the chemist who put it together, Kyle Bastien. Kyle is the VP of Sales Readiness at Drift, and in the past year, he launched something at Drift that is now know...
2022-07-2936 min
Operations with Sean LaneLearning a New Industry from Scratch with Brightflag's Rebecca SilversteinOperators are constant learners. We seek out new things, we aim to understand the "why" behind what’s happening around us. So what does it look like for an Operator to be dropped into a completely new industry, with new prospective customers?That’s what we explore on this episode with our guest, Rebecca Silverstein, the Director of Revenue Operations at Brightlag.In our conversation, Rebecca teaches us about the emerging function that is Legal Ops and its similarities to RevOps’ growth trajectory, we talk about what it looks like t...
2022-07-1533 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow to Design and Build a Community with The Lola's Eileen LeeTen years ago, I joined a newly-formed Fellowship program called Venture for America, a non-profit that takes recent grads and trains them as entrepreneurs to work at start-ups in lower-cost cities like Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland, and Providence.The Chief Operating Officer of the startup that was VFA, and our guest today, is Eileen Lee. Following six years running VFA, Eileen is once again putting her community-building chops to work as the co-founder of The Lola, a physical workspace and digital community for women.In our conversation, Eileen teaches...
2022-07-0128 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow CEOs are Reacting to the New Market Environment with BoostUp CEO Sharad VermaTurn on the news, read a financial advice column, or just click refresh on LinkedIn and you’ll be bombarded with stories of layoffs, venture capital investments drying up, and companies tightening their belts.So what does it mean to be a hypergrowth company in the midst of a market shift like this? And how do CEOs think about important themes like efficiency and productivity during this time?To figure that out, we spoke with Sharad Verma, the Co-Founder and CEO of Boostup, a revenue forecasting and intelligence platform....
2022-06-1736 minOperations with Sean Lane#throwback The 8 Pillars Of Being A Second In Command (aka The COO) With Cameron HeroldWhen we first started this show, there was one podcast out there about Operations that people told us we should check out. That podcast is called “Second in Command."The host of that podcast and our guest today is Cameron Herold. In addition to his podcast duties, Cameron is the founder of the COO Alliance, the former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, a keynote speaker, author, and one of the foremost thinkers and leaders on the work of COOs and their relationship with CEOs.In our conversation, Cameron and I ta...
2022-06-0330 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Lifecycle of an Operations Hire with SmartBear's Anu KrishnakumarEveryone wants to say that they have a Revenue Operations team these days. Companies that didn’t have the function in recent years are suddenly scrambling to get on board this wave and staff up with the hot new thing that is RevOps. So where does that leave the market? What are the ripple effects on both hiring managers and the candidates for RevOps and SalesOps type roles? To answer these questions, we turned to someone who isn’t new to this trendy movement, but rather someone who has worked in Operations for more than...
2022-05-2037 min
Operations with Sean LaneDesigning the Modern SDR Organization with Workiva's Melissa RaberLet’s face it: prospecting is really really hard. In 2022, there is more information than ever before at our fingertips to help us prospect, but there’s also more information than ever before to distract us from doing the work that matters. Often, the burden to find that balance falls on SDR teams.In this episode, we talked to someone who knows what running a successful, modern SDR Organization looks like. That someone is Melissa Raber, the Senior Director of Revenue Operations and Sales Development at Workiva.In our conv...
2022-05-0633 min
Operations with Sean LaneMake Operations Your Startup’s Incubator with LeagueSide’s Zubin TeheraniWe can get caught up sometimes in what the most ideal and advanced versions of an Operations team can look like.It can be easy to forget the early days of start-ups when an Operations team can be responsible for just about anything and everything that doesn’t yet have a home.That’s exactly what happened with our guest, Zubin Teherani. Zubin is the Co-Founder and COO of LeagueSide, a company that makes youth sports sponsorships easy by bringing together over 16,000 youth sports leagues with big brands.
2022-04-2221 min
Operations with Sean LaneShifting the Finish Line of Sales Enablement with Stripe's Marcela PiñerosHow each of us learns is a pretty fascinating thing, isn't it? How we retain information, or more frequently, how we don’t retain it.Our guest on this episode, Marcela Piñeros is an expert in learning. Marcela is the Global Head of Sales Enablement at Stripe, the online payments provider most recently valued at $95 billion.Marcela and her team enable a rapidly growing Sales organization and in her time since joining Stripe, Marcela has set out to transform the way the company enables its reps. In our con...
2022-04-0832 min
Operations with Sean Lane#throwback The Art & Science of Snowflake’s Sales Capacity Planning with Rachel HaleyThis week, we're throwing it back to the most popular episode of Operations ever.It's hard to take what looks like a perfect plan on paper and translate that to real life. It's even harder inside of a hypergrowth company. In this episode, we go inside one of the fastest growing companies out there: Snowflake.Our guest Rachel Haley spent two and a half years at Snowflake as their Senior Director of Sales Operations, and is now the co-founder and CEO of Clarus Designs, a consulting firm focused on...
2022-03-2537 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe 3 Common Traits of the Most Successful OperatorsFor our 75th episode, we wanted to focus on you, the Operators. What makes you tick? What are the characteristics we see in each other? What do we aspire to be?On today’s episode, we’re going to answer those questions, and identify the 3 common traits of the most successful Operators.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz and @DriftPodcasts.
2022-03-1108 min
Operations with Sean LaneWhy Venture Capital Needs Operators with Operator Collective’s Mallun YenThere’s an “aha” moment when you’re teaching someone something. You become more clear in your own point of view and you realize how much you know about that particular topic.That moment of realization is exactly what happened to this week’s guest, Mallun Yen. Mallun is the the Founder and General Partner of Operator Collective, a VC fund and community comprised of tech’s most sought-after operators from diverse backgrounds.Her “aha” moment led her to approach the unapproachable world of Venture Capital in a whole new way: through...
2022-02-2535 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow To Increase Bookings Through Strategic Account Management With Bain's Greg CallahanWhat if someone told you they could increase your company’s bookings by 20 - 40%? Not a bad hook, right?The strategy to support that hook comes from this week’s guest, Greg Callahan. Greg is a Partner at Bain & Company, and the Founder of Coro Account Planning.In his work with Bain’s portfolio companies, Greg has developed a blueprint for getting the most yield out of your customers that have the most potential: Strategic Account Management.In our conversation, we review the four core c...
2022-02-1135 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Anatomy of Creating a Category with Former Gainsight COO Allison PickensWhat does it mean to create category? A lot of companies say they are creating their own category, so we wanted to talk to someone who is an expert in it.That expert is Allison Pickens, former COO at Gainsight and now an investor and advisor through her work as the Founder and General Partner of The New Normal Fund.In our conversation, we talk about how Allison and the team at Gainsight created the Customer Success Category, why she believes it’s all about elevating a community of li...
2022-01-2828 min
Operations with Sean Lane#throwback Imperfection is Commitment’s Secret Weapon with Karen BorchertIt’s that time of year when everyone is taking stock of what they accomplished (and didn't accomplish) last year, so we decided to bring back one of our earlier episodes all about setting goals.Luckily, self-proclaimed goals nerd Karen Borchert, formerly COO at Flywheel and current COO of ROKA, is here to help. In our conversation, we go deep on the goal-setting framework she used at Flywheel, the special quadrant she built to help you plot all of your goals, and if you stick around until the end, you...
2022-01-0743 min
Operations with Sean LaneLIVE from Modern Sales Pros: Why Operations is the Key to Sales & Marketing AlignmentOn this episode, we're taking you inside a recent LIVE panel hosted by Drift and Modern Sales Pros on a topic everyone in Operations has likely wrangled with at one point or another: alignment. And not just any type of alignment: Sales and Marketing alignment.And to tackle such a meaty topic, we were lucky to be joined by two people who have been in different, important roles in creating that alignment: Kate Adams, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Validity and Jaclyn Balben, the VP of Operations at Bamboo Health.
2021-12-1753 min
Operations with Sean LaneInside a Consultant's Operations Framework with CS2's Crissy Vetere-SaundersIt's fascinating to consider the different Operations approaches of consultant vs. in-house practitioners. Consultants have so many more data points and companies they’re exposed to than we do in-house, so their ability to find patterns and create frameworks is accelerated at an unfairly high rate.On this episode, we talk to Crissy Vetere-Saunders about these patterns and the framework she's created at her business. Crissy is the Co-founder and CEO of CS2, a marketing ops and revops agency for high growth tech companies. After working in-house in Marketing Ops herself at companies like Ma...
2021-12-0345 min
Operations with Sean LaneHow Solutions Consultants Build Trust Both In and Outside of Their Companies with Drift's Joshua PerkIf you've worked in a start-up company, you know the feeling of when things really start to scale. Sales reps that used to do everything from prospecting to negotiation to support can no longer give the customer or prospect all the information they need. That's where solutions consultants come in.Joshua Perk, Senior Director of Solutions Consulting at Drift, came to the company just as it entered this phase. He led the build-out of the solutions consulting team as Drift shifted its messaging and selling motion. In this episode, he tells us what it...
2021-11-1234 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Top Books Recommended by Operations ProsIn the more than 60 episodes of this show, we’ve learned a lot from our guests. But if you’re a regular listener to the show, you know we also ask our expert operators where they learn. At the end of each episode, we ask each guest for the best book they’ve read in the last six months. And over the history of this show, we’ve compiled quite the list. So today, we're going to highlight some of those books and the themes raised by our guests (spoiler alert: they aren't just business...
2021-10-2906 min
Operations with Sean LaneBuilding MongoDB's Complex Go-to-Market Motion with Meghan GillHypergrowth organizations are constantly evolving: product offerings change, go-to-market strategies shift, personnel turns over.In Operations, we often have to help our companies through those seismic shifts. On this episode, we're talking to someone who has seen 12 years of those shifts at her company and now oversees one of the more complex go-to-market motions we’ve ever talked about on this show.Our guest, Meghan Gill, is the VP Sales Operations and Sales Development at MongoDB, the database platform company that went public in 2017.In...
2021-10-1534 min
SMAC TALKSMAC TALK PODCAST #47 | SEAN LANE (BEULAH)This week SMAC is joined by an old school friend and now entrepreneur Sean Lane! The lads break down the story of seans impressive wash a valet business and as always loads of other good craic bits
2021-09-191h 27
Operations with Sean Lane#throwback Inside Salesforce’s Annual Planning Process with Bala Balabaskaran (aka The Guy Who Built It)It's annual planning time, so we decided to throw it back to one of our earliest episodes all about the annual planning process at Salesforce.com.On this episode, we go back in time – to 2012, to be exact – when special guest Bala Balabaskaran first joined Salesforce as Vice President of Go to Market Technology and Operations. At the time, Salesforce was a $2 billion dollar startup going through hypergrowth. Sean and Bala talk about Salesforce's operating model and what it was like to be in charge of the go to market planning process at a larg...
2021-09-1740 minOperations with Sean LaneThe Crossover Episode: Behind the Scenes with Drift's Podcast HostsIn this special crossover episode, Sean is joined by Maggie Crowley (host of Build) and Matt Bilotti (host of Growth) to take you behind the scenes of Drift’s podcast program. You’ll learn how the hosts prepare for new episodes, the biggest lessons they’ve learned after recording 50+ episodes each, the best piece of advice they’ve received from their guests, and what listeners can expect in 2021. Want to learn Operations’ origin story? Listen to the full episode to hear Sean’s initial pitch for the show and what made him switch gears. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐...
2020-12-3028 min
Teaching PythonAI and Machine Learning for Kids with Dale Lane (@dalelane)In this episode, Kelly and Sean talk with Dale Lane an IBM Event Streams Lead Developer. - IBM awarded Dale, the 2018 IBM Volunteer Excellence Award—the highest form of volunteer recognition given by the company—which also earned a USD 10,000 grant from IBM for Solent Youth Action.
“Machine learning systems are all around us. We all use, interact with, or are affected by, machine learning systems every day. If our goal is to help children to understand how the world around them works, then understanding machine learning is an important topic. Also, the impact machine learning systems will h...
2020-12-0139 minOperations with Sean LaneThe Two-Way Highway Of Drift’s Data Engineering And Data Analytics Teams with Arun Venkateswaran and Kyle ThelemannOperators are often referred to as unsung heroes. But there's a group of unsung heroes within the unsung heroes: the Data Team. For companies in hypergrowth, the volume of data requests and the variety of data sources to access can be daunting. So we've turned to Drift's own Data team for help in navigating the world of big data. Together, Arun Venkateswaran, Senior Data Engineer, and Kyle Thelemann, Senior Manager of Business Intelligence, form the two-lane highway of Drift’s data team. In our conversation, we talk about how they’ve thoughtfully crafted their partnership, learn about the 4 V’s of B...
2020-09-1840 minOperations with Sean LaneThe 3 Ways To Level Up Every Interaction With Go-To-Market LeadersWe have talked a lot on this show with guests about their routines and cadences -- who they meet with regularly, what they meet about, even the structure of these meetings. Just as important as the content of these meetings, though, is how you present and articulate that content. The words you use and the energy you bring to the conversations you have with Go-To-Market leaders matter. In this episode, Sean outlines three ways you can level up your interactions with Go-To-Market leaders. Whether it’s a one-time presentation or a standing weekly meeting, we’re going to take you...
2020-07-2411 minOperations with Sean LaneBuilding A More Data-Centric Company With HubSpot's Bridget ZingaleHave you ever shown up to a meeting where you have one version of numbers to report only to find someone else in the meeting with a completely different version of those numbers? And then you spend half the meeting figuring out whose numbers are right? In this episode, Bridget Zingale, the Global Director of Analytics at HubSpot, is going to help us all avoid this all-too-familiar situation. Bridget and Sean talk about how the HubSpot analytics organization has evolved, what it means to promote data literacy at your company, and why the biggest risk in building centralized data...
2020-05-0138 minOperations with Sean LaneHow To Say NoSteve Jobs famously said, “It’s only by saying 'No' that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.” Let's face it -- everyone in Operations is busy. New projects come up, a pandemic completely upends your perfectly crafted forecast, or some tool you rely on breaks. With all the swirl that can come with being in Operations, there’s a magical arrow that every Ops person should have in their quiver: Saying 'No.' Operators are enablers by nature. Our roles are literally created to provide value to others, so our default answer to requests is often 'Y...
2020-04-1711 min
Operations with Sean LaneThe Intersection Of Sales Operations And Sales Enablement With Spekit CEO Melanie FellayThe intersection of Sales Operations and Sales Enablement is a fascinating place. It’s where process, performance, systems, and analysis all converge. And in recent years, the tools at this particular intersection have absolutely exploded.
Luckily, today’s guest, Spekit Co-Founder and CEO Melanie Fellay, is an expert in navigating the Sales Enablement landscape.
On today’s episode, Melanie and Sean go deep on measuring the ROI of different enablement tools, the reality of tool exhaustion, and the important distinction between change management and change enablement. We’ll also learn how her former boss telling her they were getting rid of Sales...
2020-03-0633 minOperations with Sean LaneWhy Your Operations Team Is More Like Your Product Team Than You Think (With Drift's Tim O'Brien)Let's face it... everyone thinks their team is special. Everyone thinks their problems are unique. But the truth is that your team isn't that special, and you might find lessons from peers in the places you'd least expect to find them. In this episode, Sean sits down with Drift's Director of Product Design, Tim O'Brien, to explore the surprising number of ways that an Ops team is the internal Product team for your company. And what you'll come away with is a laundry list of things that we as Operators can beg, borrow, and outright steal from our Product...
2020-01-1034 minOperations with Sean Lane#throwback Inside Salesforce’s Annual Planning Process with Bala Balabaskaran (aka The Guy Who Built It)It's annual planning time, so we decided to throw it back to one of our earliest episodes all about the annual planning process at Salesforce.com. On this episode of Operations, Sean goes back in time – to 2012, to be exact – when special guest Bala Balabaskaran first joined Salesforce as Vice President of Go to Market Technology and Operations. At the time, Salesforce was a $2 billion dollar startup going through hypergrowth. Sean and Bala talk about Salesforce's operating model and what it was like to be in charge of the go to market planning process at a large company with a st...
2019-12-1340 minOperations with Sean LaneThe Math Gives You the Data, but the Magic Comes from the People (with Auvik Network's Jacqui Murphy)On this episode of #Operations, host Sean Lane talks with Auvik Network's CMO, Jacqui Murphy. Jacqui and Sean talk about how she's scaled from a marketing team of one to now oversee marketing and business development teams totaling more than 50 people. Plus, why she's banished vanity metrics for good, her belief that the magic comes from the people on her teams – not just the data and much more. Tune in for their in depth conversation now.
2019-09-1218 minOperations with Sean LaneWhat Ops Pros Can Learn from this $9 Billion Company (with Okta's Jake Randall)Today on #Operations, host Sean Lane sits down with Okta's VP of Business Operations, Jake Randall. Okta's market cap is now $9 billion...not a bad company to learn from. Together Sean and Jake discuss how to actually measure your ops team's performance, scaling through hypergrowth, Jake's career path at Okta, what he's reading now and much more.
2019-09-1221 minOperations with Sean LaneHow to Go from MBA to VP of Operations with Drift's Will CollinsOn the very first official episode of #Operations, host Sean Lane sits down with Will Collins, VP of Operations at Drift. Together they look inward to focus on operations at Drift – Will was employee number 13. So what exactly does it mean to work in ops at a hypergrowth company? You'll find out in this episode.
2019-09-1224 minOperations with Sean LaneMetrics are Meaningless without Segments with Brett Queener, VC and Former Salesforce EVPOn this episode of #Operations, host Sean Lane sits down with VC and former Salesforce EVP and GM, Brett Queener. Queener joined the company when it was at $11 million in revenue. Today, Salesforce's market cap stands at $123 billion. This monumental growth is due in large part to Queener's focus on specialization and segmentation – essential for the success of any ops pro.
2019-09-1238 minOperations with Sean LaneApple Product Launches and 10,000 Handwritten Notes with Michelle Palleschi (COO of Sendoso)On this episode of Operations, Sean interviews Michelle Palleschi, the COO of Sendoso, the world's first sending platform. Because, as Michelle puts it, sending stuff is hard. But that kind of complexity is what Michelle lives for – she previously worked in finance at Cisco and Apple. Ever wonder how Apple forecasts new product launches? Well, re-engineering that process was Michelle's job. She shares a few stories from her time there – including how her team was able to predict the success of the rose gold iPhone in China. Michelle and Sean dig into the level of planning required when you're laun...
2019-09-1231 min