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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