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Working in SaaS is not all roses and sunshine, as we're seeing in the news week over week. One big risk for anyone in and around SaaS - layoffs. 

This week, I talk about my first experience with layoffs, how to spot them coming (hint: it's all about growth), and the strange upside around perception that comes from being included in the cut. 

Pull up a saddle and let me bend your ear for a minute... you might just enjoy it. 

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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I stumbled into SaaS almost 15 years ago after working for low pay as a restaurant manager coming out of college. I got a referral in, underbid the salary, and they took a risk. I'm now here to tell you - there are great things about working in SaaS. 

A few things I talk about in this episode:

• Education requirements for SaaS work (hint: there are basically none)
• Career mobility
• Do you need to know code? (hint: nopers)
• Remote work and flexibility
• Innovation and pace of change 
• Rewards (comp, increasing pay, etc.) 
• The great people
• Where to go for training (hint: www.aspireship.com) 

Special note, this episode was NOT sponsored by Aspireship - I've been on the platform and evaluated the training and think it's a great place to get exposed to thought leaders and the initial ideas that build the framework for SaaS. Other great places include Partnership Leaders, PartnerHacker, RevGenius and other online communities. 

Bonus Hint not in the episode: your best way in is through REFERRALS. We can get into that in yet another episode but it's worth knowing now. 

Come along if you like, but... if not... that's okay, too. 

Oh, I also end this 'good luck partnering' because I'm still looking for a good signoff catchphrase. Send me ideas, please. It's... starting to feel weird. 

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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You ever wonder what a job search in SaaS looks like following a layoff? 

Yeah.. me either, but here we are and if talking through it offers some encouragement for the people I know recently impacted, why not be open on the journey? 

I was going to talk about the pros and cons of working in SaaS but after a few tries realized those were worth their own shorts, so tune in next week for those. 

Also, a word from one of my biggest sponsors.   ;o) If you only get 30 seconds in, you'll be glad you did. 

Good luck partnering.

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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If you work in Professional Services AT a software company, your job is not about Professional Services. Yes, that's what you do each day, but you do it in service to the Total Lifetime Value of the customer. The TLV impacts retention, which impacts valuation, which impacts shareholder value. Professional Services itself is wrapped up in the Customer Acquisition Cost so there should be a vested interest in keeping those costs low. 

Enter the ecosystem. 

In todays' cast I talk about the mindset of Professional Services for Ecosystem and the difference between non-partner centered PS teams and partner-centered PS teams. I also talk about Chris Murray over at Lead Forensics, but in a nice way because he spurred these thoughts on this morning. 

Feedback? Find me on linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton and let's have a conversation. 

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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Operations is almost an entirely 'behind the scenes' function for your average SaaS company. Projects in this space invariably touch 'live' environments where people are working and downtime is extremely limited or prohibited, depending on the system. The result is that most of the best moves happening in your ops ecosystem are nearly invisible to anyone outside the team, much less the company. This makes it easy for companies to undervalue operations on the whole. 

In this episode I ramble a bit about these invisible projects, the impact on organizations, and the simple plan to improve that visibility and recognize your ops pros for the value they bring (hint: you just ask and share - boom! Saved you 7 minutes...) 

Thanks for coming along. Let me know what you think over on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton) 

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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In 2022, I was unexpectedly laid off from what I thought was going to be a much longer and more lucrative journey in a SaaS unicorn. This podcast is born from that time, driven to explore the unknown side of SaaS companies and the constant ebb and flow of new technology. It was originally called 'The Partner Syndicate' but... well... I changed it. 

I got to thinking about how many people I know that just don't understand SaaS, or even those within SaaS that still undervalue the complexity of the SaaS model and what it takes to operate well. I wanted to take people behind the scenes, talk about the different operational and business challenges of growing a successful SaaS company based on my own experience working inside these companies. 

So here we are... looking behind the SaaS to discuss all things operations, partners, ecosystems, growth, failure, and success. 

Thanks for taking a minute to check your interest - see you behind the SaaS! 

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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Day 5️⃣ The future of #PartnerOps (hint: think #ecosystem)

Time for some speculation! Where, exactly is PartnerOps heading in an ecosystem driven world? Getting to the future requires we consider a bit about the current state.

#PartnerOps is not like other careers.

❌ There's not a clear entry point - usually pivoting in from program management (where ops begins) or an internal transfer from another ops role.

❌ There's also no clear end point - anyone ever see a C-Level Partner Ops role? Anyone? ... Bueller... Bueller.... (seriously, please comment and get me introduced to nail down that path...)

❌ We often work across multiple other departments but have no direct reports (i.e. lack management control and/or experience).

❌ Our mandate (as already discussed this week) can be broad, foggy, and lack prioritization.

❌ True expertise and opportunity tends to exist in only in the largest organizations (i.e. your Salesforce, Orcale, Atlassian, etc. etc. etc.

So we exist in this weird cross-section of roles where much is required in terms of corporate knowledge, collaboration, and cross-functional skill sets but little is offered in terms of growth and development.

Where is this all headed? Enter the #ecosystem.

As companies shift to #ecosystem thinking, #partnerled mindsets will start to emerge throughout the organization. This will lead to a lot of new opportunities that are partner-centric or partner-tangent roles. Those working in and around #PartnerOps right now will be the natural option to niche down into the roles needed to support a vibrant ecosystem.

What kind of roles?

➡ Partner Business Analysts

➡ Partner Project Managers for integrations and internal cross-functional project delivery

➡ Partner Experience Managers helping guide the overall experience (also coming out of and in collaboration with #enablement)

➡ Ecosystem Architects guiding the partner tech stack and tracking,

➡ Partner Support Managers inside or next to CS Managers

➡ A continued breakout of all the work of PartnerOps in organizations that truly understand and embrace the value of an #ecosystem mindset

The PartnerOps manager of today is the Ecosystem Leader of tomorrow, helping organizations navigate the change in mindset alongside the Partnership/Channel leader.

Looking for a place to connect with other experts in #partnerships? Then join Partnership Leaders , the home for the home for everyone in partnerships!

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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Day 4️⃣ New #PartnerOps Hires - Tips for Success

If you're new to #PartnerOps or just feeling a bit lost in your current role you might benefit from a few tips on getting started that can also help an established role get re-centered in an off season.

✅ Map the Partnership Processes. Go find every process tied to Partnership, write it all down, get it reviewed, and collect it into a single SOP to build from.

✅ Map the Relationships. Sign up for Lucid or another charting tool and start mapping all the people that are in any way connected to Partnerships. This helps you keep up with names/roles but also clearly demonstrates the company-wide culture of Partnerships.

✅ Map the Data. Part of process mapping will be figuring out the data model, during which time you can build out some basic reporting to check for quality issues like "Do we know how many partners are in X program?" or "Do we have a definitive list of Partner Contacts for event marketing?" Find all the gaps in process and data quality that need filled up.

✅ Map the Technology (are you seeing a trend here?). How does the tech stack support or, more likely, not support the larger partner ecosystem? Do they have a PRM? Do they offer SSO for partners? What's the LMS for enablement? How are they managing integration projects? What are they using for contracting? Just ask questions - every process likely has or needs supporting technology. Write. It. Down.

✅ Find the Reports. Pretty straightforward - find them, bookmark them, figure out how they are made, look for innovation.

✅ Ask about program prioritization. Which program matters most to the org, and why, so you can properly set your own agenda and work effort. Something will eventually have to give and you shouldn't have to make that call on your own.

✅ Setup Recurring Meetings. Program leads will appreciate regular touchpoints to share grievances an ideas. Start with bi-weekly half-hour sessions if the schedule affords it and then shift to monthly once the meetings close out in less than 15 minutes. Ask all the questions you think of throughout the week in this space to help drive the agenda. Listen listen listen.

✅ Define the process for change. If you want to drive change you'll need to know the who and how behind it. Do they have a well established framework for requests tied to CRM updates, data changes, etc? Do you do that work or do you write up requirements? If not you, who does and where do you send it? You may find they don't have anything like this, super flexible org, etc. so be prepared to offers ideas. IT/Systems will need to be your best friend here.

Looking for a place to connect with other experts in #partnerships? Then join Partnership Leaders , the home for the home for everyone in partnerships!

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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Day 3️⃣ Refining the Scope: #PartnersOps or #BusinessAnalyst?

Partner Operations, more than many other operational roles in my experience, tends to be a catchall title reflecting a deeper need for operational AND programmatic support. Operational work falls to the first few program hires trying to stand things up and by the time an Ops hire shows up on the scene there's a mixed bag of work that needs done.

The difference in skills overlap but the jump back and forth from daily operational work into deep research and analysis on how to drive improvement can slow down delivery and be mentally exhausting (i.e. being all things to all people, always saying yes, etc).

You might benefit from refining the scope of your need and balancing that against the maturity of your company to drive the results you really need, right now.

Below is a loose breakout of how you might visualize each role to more clearly delineate value and purpose in your hiring process and deployment of the role into the organization.

Partner Business Analyst:
✅ High level project management as core function
✅ Requirement development and road-mapping for strategic projects
✅ Cross-functional collaboration to drive partner initiatives internally
✅ Strategic program support - dedicated or multi-pronged
✅ Drives requirements into Operations to deliver

Partner Operations:
✅ Core reporting/dashboard development and maintenance
✅ Enterprise architecture/Ecosystem management
✅ Data enrichment/hygiene management
✅ SOP development and enforcement
✅ Daily support rhythms for team and external partners
✅ Maintaining and improving manual processes into automation
✅ Technical system ownership/representation into core business tools

Personally, I think early stage companies would benefit by leaning into the Analyst definition more heavily than the Ops as part of that role is driving or-wide awareness and resource alignment toward Partnerships. This ultimately benefits the company-wide effort to make partnerships an integral part of the organizational fabric and pushes ownership deeper into the org as those operational functions build out and support partnership solutions.

What do YOU think?

Looking for a place to connect with other experts in #partnerships? Then join Partnership Leaders, the home for the home for everyone in partnerships! Also check out their upcoming report on the state of Partner Operations: https://lnkd.in/gPjfZuye

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com

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Todays Post: 2️⃣ Making Your First #PartnerOps Hire

Yesterday (see link in comments because LinkedIn posting needs help), I covered a laundry list of things that typically fall into/around Partner Operations. The potential scope of the role combined with the timing of your first hire determines whether you look INTERNALLY or EXTERNALLY for your first partner ops role. Let's talk about the benefits and challenges of each.

INTERNAL PROS✅ and CONS❌:
✅ Well suited as early hire due to cost and ability to ramp with program growth
✅ The know the #organization, #product, and players already, making #collaboration easier and improving long-term performance potential
✅ Start part-time to help you define your true needs and make a more intentional hire/decision later based on actual program success
✅ Backfilling any other Ops role is easier than finding experienced PartnerOps hire in the open market right now
✅ It's likely more affordable that hiring outside the org
✅ #blunt: If you fail at scaling the program, an internal hire's existing relationships improve their own position to shift back into another role

❌ Ground up training means you likely go slower at the start
❌ No experience means a lack of best practices, tech debt, rework, etc.
❌ Taking talent from another team may create some tension if your partner culture isn't established
❌ Risk of mismatched talent that goes with any internal transfer
❌ May lack the technical skills or project management capacity of experienced hires

EXTERNAL PROS ✅ and CONS ❌:
✅ Would prefer to be an earlier hire but capable of coming in a little later and making an impact
✅ Outside experience brings knowledge of best practices, rhythms, and program models to support scale
✅ Familiarity with industry = help developing program model, definitions, and norms
✅ Will have existing relationships with vendors/platforms to leverage
✅ #Experience adds strategic value to #decisionmaking
✅ Collaboration and project management basics are already present

❌ May need 2-3 months to get to know the product, players, and program as well as decipher what's already been done to build a roadmap
❌ May come with higher upfront cost, challenging for younger programs
❌ As with any 'experienced' person, may be entrenched in specific ideas not suited for your program
❌ May have a different view of the role that does not reflect your goals

In an ideal world, companies investing in Partnerships would bring in experienced ops support right behind their first Program leader. This would allow your program to scale faster from the start and at every point along the way.

Aaron Howerton
www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhowerton
www.partneropspartner.com