In this conversation, Sajeel Qureshi interviews Jen Bergren, an operations trainer and HubSpot RevOps certification professor, about the myths and challenges of RevOps. They discuss the misconception that RevOps is solely about software administration and the importance of teaching strategic skills in addition to technical ones. Jen shares that in her RevOps bootcamp, she focuses on teaching prioritization, project management, goal setting, overcoming objections, and process mapping. They also discuss the prerequisites for becoming a RevOps professional and the need for generalists with a wide range of experience. Jen talks about the challenges of fending off requests from different departments and the importance of making your work visible and proving your success. They touch on common problems in RevOps, such as dealing with bad data and articulating the value of RevOps work. Jen shares her journey into RevOps and her upcoming book, 'What is RevOps?' which aims to provide clarity and create career paths in the field. Jen Bergren discusses the importance of documentation in various aspects of her career, including training new hires, seeking promotions, and improving team efficiency. She emphasizes the need for clear and user-focused documentation, incorporating multiple formats to cater to different learning styles. Jen also shares her insights on the future of documentation and the role of AI in note-taking. Additionally, she talks about her weekly newsletter, where she shares interesting and diverse content with her audience.

Takeaways

• RevOps is often misunderstood as solely being about software administration, but it is a strategic role that requires a wide range of skills.
• In addition to technical skills, RevOps professionals need to be proficient in prioritization, project management, goal setting, overcoming objections, and process mapping.
• There are no strict prerequisites for becoming a RevOps professional, but a background in various functions across the business can be beneficial.
• One of the challenges in RevOps is fending off requests from different departments and proving the value of RevOps work.
• Common problems in RevOps include dealing with bad data and articulating the value of RevOps work.
• Jen Bergren is writing a book titled 'What is RevOps?' to provide clarity and create career paths in the field. Documentation plays a crucial role in various aspects of a career, such as training new hires, seeking promotions, and improving team efficiency.
• Good documentation is clear, user-focused, and incorporates multiple formats to cater to different learning styles.
• The future of documentation is not threatened by AI, as robots cannot extract the context and history behind the information like humans can.
• Jen's weekly newsletter is a curated collection of diverse and interesting content that aims to save people time and share valuable resources.
• The act of taking notes and documenting processes helps individuals understand and learn more about the subject matter.

Sound Bites

• "RevOps people are just software admins or tool people, that revops is not strategic."
• "It's all about frameworks and project management and goal setting and prioritizing and overcoming objections and big picture things that lead people to success that usually aren't taught."
• "We teach prioritizing, like how to prioritize projects, how to make a roadmap of your projects and how to present that information so that everyone can agree on like this is what you're doing."
• "I also used documentation to try to get a promotion because at one corporate job I had, like my manager changed five times in one year. Nobody knew what I was doing."
• "I would say that it is clear that it's written for the user and not for yourself unless you are the only user."
• "Building that culture of document using documentation of communication of when you're answering someone's question also including the documentation as a reminder."

Chapters

00:00 Dispelling the Myth: RevOps is More Than Software Administration
03:01 Teaching Strategic Skills in RevOps Bootcamps
05:24 The Importance of Making Your Work Visible in RevOps
08:47 Dealing with Common Problems in RevOps
11:46 Jen Bergren's Journey into RevOps and Her Upcoming Book
24:58 The Importance of Documentation in Career Development
26:33 Creating User-Focused and Multi-Format Documentation
34:06 The Future of Documentation and AI
43:46 Jen's Weekly Newsletter: Sharing Valuable Resources
48:48 The Learning Power of Taking Notes and Documenting Processes

Links

Jen Bergren's LinkedIn

Sajeel's LinkedIn
Computan's LinkedIn