Weekly newsletter #96
The best of what I've read this week, about operations, training and education, communication, and more
Hello!
For my most recent workshop cohort, I created a first draft of an audit and user research template for improving existing documentation systems — please let me know if it is useful and any ideas for improvement! There is a feedback form link at the end of the template. Most of that workshop and its templates are about creating a system from scratch, so this will hopefully assist people who have some sort of documentation set up already.
I’m getting back in the habit of writing, including creating recaps from the MOps-Apalooza sessions I attended to help share the learnings (on LinkedIn now, in a blog soon). I also finally finished another book draft blog! Read about the factors for RevOps success here.
Onto the curated resources!
Thanks to this week’s sponsor:
If you have a human-centric resource you think could help the readers of this newsletter, consider sponsoring it!
Last week’s most popular link (tied):
Josh Hill writes how Five Whys is the next Six Sigma superpower for operations professionals
George Samaras shares takeaways from MOps-Apalooza
What I've been reading, watching, and listening to:
LinkedIn
Nils Vinje writes about the six words that will make any executive trust you instantly
Crissy Saunders compares sunscreen and go-to-market operations
Charlie Saunders writes about how "Excelympics" is killing your team's productivity
Vladlena Mitskaniouk writes about how success as a demand leader is about knowing where to focus first, what to maintain at a minimum, and making tough choices about what can wait.
Melissa Rosenthal writes about how a lot of companies suffer from "Silver Bullet Syndrome."
Peep Laja shares 10 things about qualitative research for skeptical marketing leaders
Leore Spira writes about turning closed lost deals into lessons
Greg Portnoy shares the 9 hardest lessons learned while climbing the corporate ladder from Partner Manager to CRO
Amy Volas writes about one hiring mistake nearly every founder makes. Fixing it creates years of momentum
Jeffrey Fermin writes about how HR tech tools are too focused on the admin experience and not enough on the employees
Adriane Schwager writes about 5 secrets to Unreasonable Hospitality that got Will Guidara’s Eleven Madison Park ranked No. 1 in the WORLD
Jeff Kushmerek writes how Customer Success leaders need to present themselves as being able to run a business. It's not enough to describe yourself as "empathetic" and "customer-centric"
Kristen Kelly writes about how agency profitability reporting is a challenge, and likely for so many teams that may not even realize
Hugo Welke writes about lessons learned when jumping from Product Design into HR/People
Lila Krutel Meyer shares a Customer Education Strategy: End-of-Year Course Update
Jonathan Fianu shares an update on enablement progress
Justine Dechaine writes about starting agency standard operating procedures, and scope creep 📝
Dee Acosta writes about how marketing has evolved so much in the last eight, four, and even two years
Gagan Biyani writes how MBA thinking actively destroyed his last company when he killed a delightful product moment for the sake of unit economics
Omi Diaz-Cooper writes about data standardization, bringing order to chaos
Logan Lyles writes about a little-known secret about client churn in your agency
Cam Martinez writes about how the term “ops” carries so much weight, yet it’s a word that can mean almost anything depending on the context
Articles, Reports, Guides, Newsletters
Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes about making the case for checklists 📝
Lisa González writes about Training Rhythms: Essential Tips for Process Compliance 📝
Jeff Cypher writes about how Passing Work Between Departments Doesn't Need to Be Difficult
Sara McNamara writes about how to audit a marketing automation platform in a matter of hours
Wes Kao writes about how to give a senior leader feedback (without getting fired)
John Cutler writes about work ‘shape’ mix and why it matters
Darrell Alfonso writes about Things Ops Teams Should Steal from Product Management 📝
Jess Almlie shares 4 Tips For L&D's Working With That "Difficult" Stakeholder
Todd Sprinkel shares Takeaways from MOps-Apalooza 2024 (+ Slides)
Jarrod Gingras writes about MarTech Vendor Bullying
Kanako Tone writes about the 80% Rule: Capacity Planning without Stress
Kaylee Davies writes about How People Leaders Can Ditch HR Stereotypes and Drive Results by Thinking Like Product Managers
Podcasts, Webinars, Videos
Harv Nagra discusses how to document and embed best practices that stick on The Handbook podcast - 22 minutes 📝
Carson Pierce and Marcel Petitpas discuss 20 Years of Agency Wisdom: Insights for Maximizing Client Success on the Agency Profit podcast — 40 minutes
Jen Hamilton and Adi Klevit discuss perfecting your team and process on the Systems Simplified podcast — 18 minutes 📝
Jonathan Hansing and Michael Hartmann discuss how Data-Driven Marketing is Dangerous on the OpsCast podcast — 48 minutes
Shriya Ravikumar and Camela Thompson discuss why relationship building is key to RevOps success on the RevOpsAF podcast — 27 minutes
Jenny Weigle-Bonds and Christina Garnett discuss The Power of Community 201 on the Women’s MBA podcast — 31 minutes
Mallory Lee and Justin Norris discuss Lessons in RevOps From Pardot, Terminus, and Beyond - on the RevOps FM podcast — 53 minutes
Helen Abramova, Lauren Aquilino, and Sydney Mulligan discuss Running Towards Personal Growth on the Pretty Funny Business podcast — 1 hour
Stevie Case and Kyle Norton discuss building a learning and revenue machine on The Revenue Leadership podcast — 82 minutes
Featured Events or Classes:
Applications close December 6: COO School ($) from Operations Nation
December 9-11: Event Driven Growth Summit
December 12: How to Run an Effective Prioritization Activity ($) from John Cutler
Starts February 20: Non-Boring Facilitation ($) from Offbest
Featured Book:
Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff — affiliate link to Bookshop.org
Featured Remote Jobs:
A Few Ways I Can Help You
On-demand courses:
How and Why to Document Your Business Processes — full course
There is now a MarketingOps. com version! It includes the workbook and some marketing-ops-specific resources
Live courses:
How to Document Your Business Processes — the next cohort starts Jan. 8.
Participate in the research for the next course about employee onboarding
Emoji Key:
📝 Documentation
🚢 Employee onboarding
$ Paid course/event
Jen, thank you! This is a helpful roundup to start my week. In particular I found the link to Nils Vinje writing about the six words that will make any executive trust you instantly helpful. It validated what I have been practicing - bring solutions!