What's MOps got to do with it?

Welcome to episode 13 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? Karla brings up the topic of reaching the world’s carbon neutral goals, agreeing with Simon that Marketing and Marketing Operations have a role to play in bringing this about.

Getting us started in the marketing leader chair this time is Eric Jan van Putten VP of Marketing at Cloud-based eCommerce Suite provider Dynamicweb. Eric talked about the move from Marketing Operations practitioner to marketing leader and managing the temptation to remain too involved, just because it’s so much fun! (And here’s the blog post Simon mentioned on how different Mops leaders measure their own teams’ performance.)

Then in the Marketing Operations leader slot we have Danny McKeever, Senior Director of Marketing Operations and Technology at Integrate. Danny highlighted how much further down the funnel Marketing Operations must support the purchasing cycle now, talked about balancing internal and external resources and how much time is spent on martech contract renewals…

As ever we chat with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Having established that Karla is essentially carrying the rest of us while we’re all on holiday, Courtney flagged that while buried in the maelstrom of day-to-day activity, it’s easy to overlook new developments. Chief among these she suggested is artificial intelligence and Courtney was interested to find out what other people are doing here. Not for the first time, an area where Mops should be taking point!

And finally… this episode is Simon’s last as co-host so look out for new episodes soon as Karla continues to explore the world of Marketing Operations with a revised format for the podcast.

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com and follow our LinkedIn page for regular updates too.

Welcome to episode 12 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? Karla recaps her highlights from the recent AntiConLX Conference, leading to a discussion with Simon on when, if ever, is the right time to outsource your Marketing Operations.

Kicking us off in the marketing leader seat is Robert Howells, COO at demand generation agency Demand Studio, talking us through the move from marketing art to marketing science, the importance of MOps understanding Marketing goals and the the growing role that Revops and Chief Revenue Officers have to play, plus the ins and outs of working with clients that may or may not have a MOps team.

Next up in the marketing operations leader slot we are joined by Lucy Alligan, VP, Head of Global Marketing Automation‏ at asset management firm State Street Global Advisors. Lucy explains the importance of bringing a little magic to the world of MOps with a combination of sector knowledge and technical expertise, the experience of helping a business move through the martech maturity curve and the need to build trust internally with data and intelligence, together with the importance of partnerships to make all of this happen.

And as ever we chat with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. After a quick comparison between the recent hot snap in the UK and last year’s Pacific Northwest “heat dome” (the mercury hit about the same level but they had to put up with it for a bit longer in the US), Courtney reports on summer camp from which she recently returned. Another great opportunity to bond with fellow MOps soul mates, swap war stories and how to translate geek speak to c-suite when needing to prove the value of Marketing Operations. Plus, an update on the development of MOps charades…

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected] or [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com and follow our LinkedIn page for regular updates too.

Welcome to episode 11 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? Karla and Simon discuss the importance of Marketing Operations avoiding the perception of being “back office” or even the “IT of Marketing”, following a post on Martech by Darrell Alfonso.

Getting us started in the marketing leader chair this time is Steffen Hedebrandt (@SHedebrandt), Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder at marketing attribution solution provider Dreamdata. Steffan shared his serendipitous start-up story, thoughts on B2B attribution including how understanding the return on the last chunk of spend is more important than the first and the role MOps has to play in measuring marketing success.

Then in the Marketing Operations leader slot we have Helene Hornecker, Head Of Marketing Operations at developer security platform Snyk. Helene explained how she scaled MOps in a business growing so fast it’s “a new company every quarter”, the benefits of sitting in a central services organisation and how to prioritise which meetings to attend!

And as ever we chat with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Courtney is off on summer camp again next month and brought up the alarming number of layoffs that seem to be happening right now, as reported by Layoffs.fyi.

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected] or [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com and follow our LinkedIn pagefor regular updates too.

Welcome to episode 10 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? Karla and Simon discuss the news that Elon Musk is buying Twitter and what that might mean for marketers. [Note: this was recorded last week and events have obviously moved on but we thought our comments were still relevant so have left them in!] They also asked guest Toby Daniels (see below) for his perspective having previously built a social media event business. There wasn’t time to include it in the podcast so head over to our Bonus Content page to listen to what Toby had to say.

Kicking us off in the marketing operations leader seat is Lauren Sanyal, Director of Marketing Operations at healthcare communication platform provider, TigerConnect. Lauren talks about how important it is for MOps professionals to be both left brained and right brained, scaling Marketing Operations to keep pace with a growing business and experience with sales and marketing alignment.

Next up in the leader slot we are joined by Managing Partner in Web3 incubator Workstead and co-founder of Our Next DAO, Toby Daniels (who just happens to be Simon’s little brother). Toby takes us through what Web3 actually is, how we’re likely to encounter multiple metaverses (“metaversi” as David Berkowitz puts it in his Serial Marketer newsletter), the mysterious acronym “DAO” and what all this means for Marketing Operations. Subscribe to Toby’s excellent (we’re not just saying that!) newsletter rounding-up everything you need to know about Web3, This Week in Web3 and follow him on Twitter where he is @tobyd. And we couldn’t resist sharing this take from the Marketoonist on the future of the metaverse.

And as ever we chat with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Courtney (and in fact Karla too) is celebrating 3 years as an independent consultant, prompting reflections on what has been learnt over that period and how it applies to MOps more broadly.

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected] or [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com and follow our new LinkedIn page for regular updates too.

Welcome to episode 9 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? Live! We’ve been “on the road” and recorded a segment of the podcast live at the B2B Marketing Martechopia conference along with a regular “studio” section. Simon and Karla also share their reflections from the event.

So, in our slightly altered format, getting us started in the live segment from the marketing operations leader seat is Holly Gage, Senior Manager, Marketing Technology (EMEA) at leading identity provider Okta. Holly talked to us about centres of excellence, hub and spoke models for handling global MOps and martech management and career pathways for MOps.

Then (just to keep regular listeners on their toes!), we’re joined by our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Despite sporting her What’s MOps mug, it had to be more of a double espresso conversation, but we still managed to pack in the wisdom of martech documentation, retaining talent and when build vs buy makes sense (hint, people not tech!). Also, Courtney introduces us to the intriguing acronym of “DOPE”…

Finally, back in the calm of the What’s MOps multi-media studio (OK, Karla and Simon’s respective kitchen tables…) we spoke to B2B legends-in-their-own-lunchtimes Shane Redding (@ShaneRddng) and Steve Kemish (@skemmo). A wide-ranging conversation took in bringing teams back together, MOps training delivering affirmation for doing the right thing and not getting hung-up on names.

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected] or [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com.

Welcome to episode 8 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? aka the Mug Edition… (see photo on the homepage!). Simon and Karla share the exciting (or nerve-wracking!) news that the next episode of the podcast is being recorded at this week’s B2B Marketing Martechopia conference and discuss other highlights to look forward to at the event.

Kicking us off in the Marketing leader slot we are joined by Head of Campaign and Communications at home assistance services provider Homeserve, Kerrie Lo. We chatted about falling into Mops (again!), generalists versus specialists and whether Marketing Operations becomes so ubiquitous it stops being a stand-along function (gasp!). Kerrie also touches on the third rail of Mops remuneration; perhaps we should talk more about that another time?

Next up in the marketing operations leader seat is Jeff Kew, Director, Global Marketing Operations at enterprise application intelligence and integration specialists Magnitude Software. Jeff talks about process improvement, big data management and how to tell your story, as well as providing some advice on reimplementing a marketing automation platform.

And as ever we chat with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Courtney is delighted to be drinking her coffee from a What's MOps Got To Do With It? mug, notwithstanding the handle having been broken in transit! The conversation turns to whether webinars have a future and what the etiquette is around signing-up and not attending…

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected]or [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com.

Welcome to episode 7 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? Simon shares a summary of his recent round-up of Marketing predictions from around the web, spanning Mops recruitment training and budgets, Big Ops, no code/low code and privacy, plus of course Web3. Read the full run-down on LinkedIn.

Getting us started in the marketing leader chair this time is Mike Gwilliam, Regional Marketing Director at journey orchestration engine vendor Thunderhead. Mike discusses the challenges of managing Marketing Operations in the absence of dedicated resources and recommends outsourcing specialisms, speaking the language of internal stakeholders, staying focussed and much more.

Then in the Marketing Operations leader slot we have Director of Marketing Operations at outsourced services specialists Intertrust Group, Ian Bennison. We talked to Ian about getting into Mops without even having a background in marketing and creating Marketing Operations teams from scratch, plus the topics of specialism and using the right language recur. And here’s the Freakonomics podcast episode on specialism in American Football, an interesting case study on the value of doing one thing extremely well.

And as ever we chat with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Courtney brings up the topic of definitions, specifically source, channel and offer (courtesy of Courtney’s friend Carey Picklesimer) in campaign tracking. Plus, a terrible confession is aired, threatening Courtney’s position in the coffee slot…

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected]or [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com.

Welcome to episode 6 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? We launch straight in with some observations from Karla on the place that Web3, NFTs and blockchain should be occupying in the minds of marketing leaders right now. (Hint: get the basics right first.) Should you be looking for a primer, hit Karla up to get hold of a copy of her paper on the topic. (And for a final thought on the matter, we liked this from Charlie Silver, CEO at PermissionIO: “Web3 treats individuals as owners not as products.”)

Kicking-off in the guest seat from Down Under, Gabriele Famous joins us to provide a business-wide perspective on the role of Marketing Operations and puts forward a novel suggestion for where a Revenue Operations function should roll-up into.

Next up, our Marketing Operations leader is Bill Furlong, CEO and Co-founder of business apps command centre platform SquareStack. Bill also asserted the role MOps has to play across the business, together with providing the glue to keep Sales and Marketing working together.

And as ever we chat with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. We dive into sequencing, or how to decide the order in which to do things, plus a revelation about Karla’s Christmas movie viewing…

Share your thoughts on anything discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected] or [email protected]. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com.

Show notes: Episode 5

Welcome to episode 5 of What's MOps Got To Do With It? We get started with a discussion (OK, a min-rant from Simon!) on MOps role descriptions in job ads, picking up on comments he made in his recent email newsletter. Getting to the heart of the point for this podcast in many ways, Simon suggests that while the definition of MOps might be wide-ranging, certain activities just don’t fit in the role. Or do they?

Our first guest, in the Marketing leadership slot, is that rare entity of someone with both hands-on Marketing Operations and wider Marketing experience. Ceri Jones, Senior Director, Global Demand Generation at AI-powered working capital solutions platform Taulia, talks about marketing at a scale up, managing hybrid teams and change management among many other things. A great conversation with a marketing leader who really gets the value of MOps and the difference it makes in delivering effective marketing.

Joining us in the Marketing Operations leader seat is Omair Izhar, Head of Marketing Operations & Technology at real-time digital experiences synchronisation platform Ably. Exuding positivity (let it be a lesson for us all!), we discussed the importance of documentation and knowledge sharing, creating the right structure to work with others across the business and balancing firefighting with development. (The latter chiming well with a recent LinkedIn post from Sara McNamara.) Omair also shares a classic Mops blooper concerning email language versions…

And we end as ever with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Ostensibly a discussion about the need for good planning, especially as 2022 is just around the corner, there are plenty of diversions into the correct pronunciation of Courtney’s surname as well as top Christmas movie picks. Returning to planning and paraphrasing her recent LinkedIn post, “Smart folks will have a plan for the first quarter. Really smart folks will have a plan for the second quarter as well…!”. We’ve been told!

Share your thoughts on the issues discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also follow Simon on Twitter in his guise as Marketing Ops Guy for regular Marketing Operations “thought curation”.

And should you be interested in receiving Simon’s “MOps Monthly” newsletter just drop a note to [email protected] and he’ll add you to the list. Finally, here are the 50 best Christmas movies of all time from Timeout or the Top 100 Christmas movies of all-time from IMDb. (And I note that Die Hard appears on the list…)

Show notes

Published: 6-Dec-21

Welcome to episode 4 of What's MOps Got To Do With It?, our podcast focused on the world of Marketing Operations. Presented by fellow MOps veterans Karla Wentworth and Simon Daniels, the podcast features conversation with Marketing and Marketing Operations leaders, experts and practitioners. Diving into challenges, solutions and best practices, Simon and Karla seek to answer the eternal question, “What's MOps Got To Do With It?”.

Karla and Simon initially discuss a recent report in Marketing Week about personalisation accelerating ‘marketing velocity’ for Pets at Home and the likely role Marketing Operations will have played in bringing that about.

Moving on we get started this time with marketing measurement guru Jim Lenskold, who shares some insights on insight and the role Mops has to play in its delivery. Jim founded his own eponymous consultancy in the late nineties since when he has been advising Fortune 1000 and emerging mid-size companies on adopting advanced marketing ROI capabilities. We discuss why reports and dashboards are the beginning not the end of insight delivery, whether or not it’s possible to achieve attribution for every dollar spent and how MOps should be insight champions within Marketing.

Then we spoke to Marketing Operations legend-in-his-own-lifetime Darrell Alfonso, who looks after Global Marketing Operations at Amazon Web Services (AWS). We kick-off the conversation with Darrell’s recent “7 Habits of Highly Effective Marketing Operations Professionals” LinkedIn post and pick out our favourites. Then we covered some definitions of Mops (variously prosaic and practical…), the importance of taking a unified approach to Mops management and what the future holds for the discipline.

And we end as ever with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, as we grab a virtual #CoffeeWithCourtney. Revealing his misspent youth watching “Star Trek: The Next generation”, Simon introduces Courtney to her “vocal doppelganger” Denise Crosby (aka Tasha Yar). Oh, and there’s a discussion about martech certifications as well – are they necessary, worth the effort or just vanity? (Needless to say, Courtney is Marketo certified!)

Share your thoughts on the issues discussed in the episode by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also follow Simon on Twitter in his guise as Marketing Ops Guy for regular Marketing Operations “thought curation”.