What's MOps got to do with it? – Details, episodes & analysis

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 karla.wentworth@intermedia-global.com. 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 karla.wentworth@intermedia-global.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. 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.

Show Notes

Published: 22-Nov-21

Welcome to episode 3 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?”.

We open on an epic conversation with veteran CMO Scott Vaughan, drawing on his extensive experience leading marketing across a variety of industries and sharing some of his learnings for Marketing Operations professionals. There’s a controversial position on Sales and Marketing alignment, how to deal with competing priorities and learning listening skills from our aforementioned Sales colleagues. Also, find out how Simon “nailed it, 1000%” according to Scott…it doesn’t happen often!

Next-up is Emily Gravel, Senior Marketing Automation & Operations Manager at VMware. Bringing us a great definition of MOps, it’s place in the wider Marketing function and the foundations it offers, Emily also talked about the importance of stakeholder engagement and the bright future in store of Marketing Operations as it emerges into the daylight. Not to mention, in making reference to previous episodes, we know we have at least one listener!

Finally, closing us out with our regular virtual coffee, our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, was keen to talk about “The Great Resignation” aka everybody quitting their jobs! We talked about what might lie behind this phenomenon, the joys of newly found geographical flexibility and thoughts on how to retain talent. Plus, how many bad puns can be made from Courtney’s recent laser eye surgery…

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 Karla@vantageclever.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. You can also follow Simon on Twitter in his guise as Marketing Ops Guy for regular Marketing Operations “thought curation”.

Show notes: Episode 2

Published: 27-Oct-21

Welcome to episode 2 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 conversations 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?”.

Joining us for our Marketing leader segment is the multi-faceted Ian Truscott, a B2B tech marketing leader with a particular interest in product and content marketing, as well as being the host of the Rockstar CMO Podcast (to which any similarities with this podcast are entirely coincidental!). Ian discusses how he sees Marketing Operations being perceived by CMOs, how MOps can deliver the greatest value to Marketing and what the future holds. Plus, how to make sure that not only MOps but all of Marketing avoids being seen as the “marketing automation” department!

We then turned to a heavy hitter in MOps leadership in the form of Paul Wilson, VP of Marketing Operations at Slack. Paul told us about the challenges of building out a MOps function while navigating the acquisition of Slack by Salesforce, how to organise Marketing Operations at scale and what his initial priorities were when taking on the role. We really enjoyed our conversation with Paul and gained a great insight into MOps leadership at the top of the game.

And joining us as always for a virtual coffee, our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech, tells us about her adventures on MOps summer camp! Yep, you heard that right, a bunch of Marketing Operations pros sitting around a campfire and if not actually singing “Kumbaya”, then actually playing Mops charades… We kid you not, listen in to find out more!

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 Karla@vantageclever.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. You can also follow Simon on Twitter in his guise as Marketing Ops Guy for regular Marketing Operations “thought curation”.

Show notes: Episode 1

Published: 11-Aug-21

Welcome to episode 1 of What's MOps Got To Do With It?, the second instalment of our podcast focused on the world of Marketing Operations. (The first pilot edition was episode zero, obviously!) Presented once again 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?”!

We kick-off this time with Joya Scarlata, Director of Digital Marketing at technology services provider InterraIT, and self-professed AI enthusiast. Joya explains how Marketing Operations is handled at InterraIT where there is no MOps team (shock!) together with her fascination for the possibilities presented by artificial intelligence. We discuss whether Mops should be responsible for AI deployment – listen to find out!

Turning next to the front line of Marketing Operations leadership we spoke to the Director, Global Marketing Operations at pharmaceuticals business Parexel, Katie McEachern. We talked about the route into Mops, solutions to the age-old issue of Sales and Marketing alignment (something to do with puppies apparently, or was it Sales Enablement platforms…) and get an invaluable lesson on avoiding email disasters.

Finally, we again grab a virtual coffee with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech. After hearing about the recent “heat dome” affecting Courtney’s Pacific North West location, we discover that the challenges in recruiting good Mops talent are affecting both sides of the Atlantic. While there are no magic bullets, we discuss a few tips for finding the right people.

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 Karla@vantageclever.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. You can also follow Simon on Twitter in his guise as Marketing Ops Guy for regular Marketing Operations “thought curation”.

Show notes: Pilot episode

Published: 21-Jun-21

Welcome to the pilot episode of our brand new Marketing Operations podcast “What's MOps Got To Do With It?”. Presented by fellow MOps veterans (as they like to think of themselves!) Karla Wentworth and Simon Daniels the podcast aims to explore the world of Marketing Operations through conversation with Marketing and Marketing Operations leaders and experts. We aim to dive into the challenges, solutions and best practices in setting up and running a Marketing Operations function and seek to answer the eternal question, “What's MOps Got To Do With It?”!

Our Marketing leader conversation is with David Malkinson, VP Digital Client Platform at The Adecco Group, one of the largest recruitment companies in the world. Prior to this current global role, David was the CMO in the UK and was the driving force behind the implementation of a Marketing Operations team led by none other than podcast co-host Karla. We discuss what was behind the decision to bring in a Mops function and how it benefited the business.

Who better to feature as our inaugural MOps leader guest than then the redoubtable Helen Abramova(@lena_abr), Marketing Operations Lead at Verizon to find out her approach to running Marketing Operations, what she sees for the future of the discipline and why advocacy is important to her. It’s pretty mind expanding!

Finally, we grab a virtual coffee with our favourite Stateside Marketing Operations guru Courtney McAra, principal at Mustang MarTech. Courtney suggests that Product-Led Growth (PLG) is the next big thing that MOps leaders need to get up to speed on and recommended this overview webinar from Elena Verna as a good starting point for educating ourselves.

Let us know what you think about the pilot by commenting and rating on your podcast provider or by getting in touch with us on Karla@vantageclever.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. You can also follow Simon on Twitter in his guise as Marketing Ops Guy for regular Marketing Operations “thought curation”.

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 Karla@vantageclever.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. 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 Karla@vantageclever.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. 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 Karla@vantageclever.com or simon.daniels@percassity.com. 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 Karla@vantageclever.comor simon.daniels@percassity.com. All previous episodes and show notes can also be found on our website at whatsmops.com.