Operations with Sean Lane

When you stop and think about it, it’s pretty crazy that our entire mindset around work has been completely challenged in just a few short years.And now, it looks like we find ourselves again in a debate about the future of work. Do we go back to offices? Are remote or hybrid teams less effective? Will employees revolt if companies try?Luckily, to answer these difficult questions, we have Denise Thomas, COO of Cisco Meraki.This is not your typical post-pandemic remote work conversation. Denise will make you think, and might even make you question how you think about work yourself.In our conversation, Denise and I tackle what we got better at what we got worse at during the pandemic, how her HR background makes her a better COO today, and why teams, not leaders, are the unit of movement in organizations.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn and Twitter @Seany_Biz.This episode is brought to you by the RevOps experts at Fullcast.io, the go-to-market planning platform. To learn more about them, visit fullcast.io and tell them Sean sent you!

Most Ops teams are notoriously strapped for resources. We scrape and we claw to build our teams, and design them to make meaningful impacts on our organization. But sometimes we just don’t have the resources internally to get some of our projects done, and done well.And that’s when Operators will typically turn their attention to the fragmented, overwhelming, and slightly intimidating world of operations consultants. Our guest to help us navigate that world is Max Maeder, the CEO of FoundHQ, a hiring platform that connects companies with vetted Salesforce Freelancers.Prior to FoundHQ, which he has run since 2020, Max was also the Founder and CEO of TwentyPine, a Consulting & Headhunting Firm that specialized in Salesforce and SalesOps-related roles.In our conversation, Max teaches us about the reasons why Ops teams seek out outside help, how companies should decide how much control they truly want to set the direction of their projects, and why he fundamentally believes that the GTM tech strategy shouldn’t be run by RevOps.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on  LinkedIn and Twitter @Seany_Biz.This episode is brought to you by the RevOps experts at Fullcast.io, the go-to-market planning platform. To learn more about them, visit fullcast.io and tell them Sean sent you!

Many growing companies go through a phase where things are loose, messy, and undefined. This episode's guest, Johnathan Warren, affectionately refers to this phase of a company’s growth as “the wild west.”Johnathan is the Head of Revenue Operations at CaptivateIQ. Having built out the Ops functions at other startups like Spiff and KeyedIn, Jonathan is now on his third ride through and out of the wild west.In our conversation, Johnathan gives us two specific examples of ways you can graduate from the wild west, he gives a crawl-walk-run approach for building your first territory model, and together we realize that there’s an opportunity cost to chaos.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on  LinkedIn and Twitter @Seany_Biz.This episode is brought to you by the RevOps experts at Fullcast.io, the go-to-market planning platform. To learn more about them, visit fullcast.io and tell them Sean sent you!

In January 2023, LinkedIn released its list of the 25 fastest-growing job titles in the US. The #1 job on that list? Head of Revenue Operations.If you’re listening to this show, that’s probably exciting news to you. But here’s the thing: roles dubbed as Revenue Operations can be foggy, amorphous blobs, with one company’s job description different from the next.That’s what we’re here to clarify and explore in this episode. First, we’re going to talk through the typical definition of Revenue Operations. And then, I’m going to give you my take on why so many people get the definition wrong.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz and LinkedIn.

Start-ups often preach speed over execution. And it makes sense: “Take the disciplined, thoughtful approach” doesn’t really pop off the wall next to your ping pong table.But that's also because the disciplined approach is hard. Moving fast is easier.On this episode, our guest Rupert Dallas is someone whose discipline I really admire. Rupert is the VP Revenue Operations at AudioEye, an accessibility platform that helps businesses build inclusive and compliant websites, mobile apps, and digital documents.In our conversation, Rupert and I talk about how the responsibilities of operators has evolved, we use the partnership between RevOps and Data Teams as a model for how Ops can and should leverage available resources, and if you stick around, you’ll hear Rupert offer one of the more thought-provoking comparisons of how different types of Operators approach their work.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz and LinkedIn.

100 episodes of Operations! We are so grateful for the brilliant Operators who have been so generous with their time and their lessons on this show.After 100 episodes, we thought it was only fitting to look back at the top 10 lessons we’ve taken away from our guests, 5 from our first 50 episodes and 5 from the latest 50.So whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or you’re just checking out Operations for the first time, you're getting the best of the best in this one.Our 10 lessons come from the following guests:Brett Queener, Partner at Bonfire Ventures (Episode 3)Sylvia Kainz, Director of Global Productivity Partnerships at Airbnb (Episode 9)Melanie Fellay, CEO and Co-founder at Spekit (Episode 26)Rachel Haley, CEO and Co-Founder at Clarus Designs (Episode 39)Karen Borchert, CEO and Founder at Alpaca (Episode 19)Allison Pickens, Former COO at Gainsight (Episode 72)Greg Callahan, Partner at Bain (Episode 73)Mallun Yen, Founder and CEO at The Operator Collective (Episode 74)Marcela Piñeros, Global Head of Sales Enablement at Stripe (Episode 77)Erol Toker, Founder and CEO at Truly.co (Episode 90)Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz.

In Sales, it’s not hard to find people with opinions. Everyone has their own biases shaped by their own experiences, but give me a data-driven conclusion over a gut feel any day.Our guest on this episode, Michelle Vazzana, most certainly has the data to back up her findings. Michelle is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of VantagePoint Performance, and the co-author of the upcoming book, The Sales Agility Code. So we're breaking down exactly how she arrived at her Sales Agility Code. In our conversation, Michelle teaches us about why there’s a negligible correlation between experience and expertise, the method behind how you “observe” agility, and how a company that adopted her new methodology went from closing 25% of forecasted deals to 54%.The Sales Agility Code comes out on May 2, and you can pre-order your copy today!Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz and @DriftPodcasts, and Michelle on LinkedIn.

We’ve all at some point heard about or felt some flavor of imposter syndrome - that feeling where you are quite certain you don’t belong and you’re moments away from everyone figuring out you’re a fraud.After talking with today’s guest, I’m more convinced than ever that that hint of doubt, that nagging imposter syndrome, is actually a really good thing.Our guest today is Ping Del Giudice, Vice President of Revenue Operations at Leapsome. Ping was recently named to The Top 100 Revenue Operations Leaders of 2022, and still, even she experiences her own version of imposter syndrome.In our conversation, Ping and I talk about losing all of your institutional knowledge when you leave your job, the inherit vs. build decisions you have to make when joining a new team, and the major project she found herself signing up for on just her second day on the job.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz and @DriftPodcasts, and Ping on LinkedIn.

As much as we want it to be, growth inside of companies isn't a straight line. And while I don’t think people are oblivious to that fact, we’re all still a little surprised when growth is harder than those beautiful up-and-to-the-right graphs might imply.So, how can we better prepare ourselves for the less pretty parts of that growth? Our guest today, Alastair Woolcock, has the answers. Alastair is the Chief Strategy Officer at Revenue.io, and he believes that growing companies face what he calls the walls and stalls of growth.In our conversation, Alastair teaches me about how to look out for these walls and stalls, the two "P" words that will help you to get through those walls faster, and why segmentation is the reason you’ll either quickly climb over a wall in your growth or be stuck languishing for quite some time.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz and @DriftPodcasts, and Alastair on LinkedIn.

Our guests' experiences, and their stories, are great. But for operators, we should know that numbers – proven approaches that yield tangible, measurable results – that’s what operators really want.Luckily for us, that’s exactly what our guest today brings. That guest is Jeremey Donovan, Executive Vice President of RevOps and Strategy for Insight Partners - a venture capital firm that specializes in scaling companies.Jeremey is well-positioned to help us bring data to the conversation of "what good looks like," and ultimately separate the practices from the best practices.In our conversation, Jeremey explains the methodology he used to create what he calls the Revenue Maturity Assessment across 122 companies, why some best practices make you a top performer and others don’t, and why of all things, he’s chosen to be a student of CROs.Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on Twitter @Seany_Biz and @DriftPodcasts, and Jeremey on LinkedIn.