Ops Cast

In this episode, we talk with George Xing (Shing), Co-founder and CEO of Supergrain, a customer engagement platform. Prior to founding Supergrain, George held multiple roles at Lyft, including Director, Head of Decision Science Products and was a data scientist at Indiegogo. Before that he was a Fixed Income Analyst with Morgan Stanley.

Tune in to hear:
- George's career journey and how it led to starting Supergrain.
- Why he describes Supergrain as a warehouse-native solution for marketing / marketing ops.
- Trends that George is seeing in the Martech / Revtech space and how the Supergrain solution aligns with these technology trends.

In this episode, we talk about we are joined by AJ Valles to talk about his journey in different Marketing Ops roles. AJ is currently Senior Marketing Operations Manager at Saviynt. Prior to that he has worked in marketing operations and marketing technology consulting as well as in-house roles. In addition to his “day” job, AJ is also a sports enthusiast and is an NCAA basketball official.
Tune in to hear:
- AJ's experience with In-house vs consulting and he how would describe the similarities and differences between the two.
- How his experience prior to Saviynt set him up for success in his current role.
- How AJ went from zero to one in a company with no Marketing or Revenue Operations.

In this episode, we talk with Omair Izhar to talk about what it is like working in Marketing Operations in Europe, especially with a US-based company. Omair is currently the Head of Marketing Operations and Technology at Ably. Prior to that, Omair had several roles in Demand Gen, general Marketing and Marketing Ops roles. He has also worked for Oracle / Eloqua.

Tune in to hear:
- His experience working in MOPs in Europe vs other regions such as the United States) and what do he sees as the major differences between Europe and the US (or other regions).
- What he has found to be effective in managing global teams dispersed in several regions.
- How Omair's roles evolved and expanded over time and how did he's gotten support to increase his scope of responsibilities.

In this episode, we talk How to Elevate Marketing Ops from a CMO's Perspective with Kyle Lacy. Most recently, Kyle was the SVP of Marketing at Seismic after Seismic acquired Lessonly, where Kyle was the CMO. Kyle has held several marketing leadership roles at several different companies. In addition, Kyle is an advisor to several organizations, a speaker and author of three books [this is something I just learned]. And, I think it is safe to say that Kyle believes in the power of community to accelerate careers.
Tune in to hear:
- Kyle's experiences working with different Marketing Ops teams, whether there were there lots of similarities in structure/size, and how he viewed those teams from a marketing leadership perspective.
- How he thinks most Marketing Ops teams are perceived by their marketing leader (or executive team) and why?
- What advice would he give to Marketing Ops professionals to be more involved with marketing strategy and planning.

On today's episode we talk about the broken nature of (Marketing) project management with Amara Omoregie, President of amaraREPS.
Amara Omoregie has an inbound sales and marketing agency, amaraREPS, and is a speaker. With a passion for using her expertise and strategic approach from working with and supporting a vast number of companies, including Fortune 500 businesses, to build startups and small businesses, she’s been able to help companies generate and raise millions of dollars in capital through investment and product/service sales.

Her vision is to create an environment where entrepreneurs and businesses can obtain top quality sales, marketing/revenue operations, and implementation support, but can also have access to resources and education for the latest marketing and business development best practices that they need to employ for their innovative brands and products.
Tune in to hear:
- An overview of Amara's career, what led her to start your business and why she has a passion for project management.
- Major lessons she's learned about streamlining product management and project management.
- What Amara means when she says, “marketing project management is not just about systems, it is more about data and data management.”
- Suggestions she has for listeners who are facing challenges with impact of discipline (or lack thereof) on data, SLAs, on a marketing or marketing operations team’s ability to execute efficiently.

In this episode, we talk about the rising importance of Marketing Ops with Tim Parkin, President of Parkin Consulting. Tim is a consultant, advisor, and coach to marketing executives globally. He specializes in helping marketing teams optimize performance, accelerate growth, and maximize their results. He is a speaker, author, and thought leader who is featured frequently in industry publications.

Tune in to hear:
- Why Tim think Marketing Ops should be a senior/VP level role.
- Why Marketing Ops is more about People and not technology or some other element typically associated with Ops.
- What Tim means when he says Marketing Ops is not a "role."

On today's episode, we are joined today by Dave Rigotti to talk about Marketing Ops in Product Led Growth (PLG) organizations. Dave is the CEO and founding team member of Inflection.io, a startup developing software for marketing teams at product-led companies. Previously, Dave was a Director of Marketing at Adobe, responsible for account-based marketing supporting Marketo and Magento. Dave made his way to Adobe via two acquisitions. First, he was the VP of Marketing at Bizible. Bizible was acquired by Marketo, which was subsequently purchased by Adobe in 2018. Prior to Bizible, Dave spent nearly 5 years at Microsoft introducing Bing and Bing Ads to the world.
Tune in to hear:
- Major trends that are happening in PLG.
- Dave walks listeners through how MOPs and marketing are different in PLG compared to traditional GTM.
- What skills are needed in marketing and MOPs to be successful in a PLG company.
- Lessons that non-PLG marketers or MOPs professionals can apply to their “traditional” business.

On today's episode, we talk about the art and science of email deliverability with CEO & Founder of CyberData Pros, Chris Arrendale. Chris is a privacy, data security, and compliance professional with a proven track record of accomplishment for enhancing organization practices, while focused on revenue growth. Before starting CyberData Pros, Chris has started multiple consulting companies and advises with several other companies on all things deliverability. He started his career with Silverpop helping clients with deliverability challenges. Chris is a sought-after expert, author and speaker.
Tune in to hear:
- Chris talk about the relationship between deliverability and privacy/compliance/legal policies and practices?
- His suggestions on how listeners can keep up with the changing legal/regulatory landscape, and how they will know when or if they should make changes.
- The best practices for managing regional opt-in (global standard vs regional variations, etc.), and how important double opt-in or other similar approaches is.
- How to monitor deliverability and reputation
- Whether there are any distinctions between B2B and B2C as it relates to deliverability and compliance and what the major differences are.

In this episode we were joined by John Van Pijkeren. John is a professional in digital, marketing & technology with a capability to combine strategy with execution. He has over 10 years' experience in delivering digital products, platforms and campaigns for leading brands in an international environment. He is currently a Product Manager with Nike, with previous stints with brands such as Heineken. He has also been a consultant and is the co-founder of GiftShift, a solution for non-profit organizations to enable easier donations from supporters.
Tune in to hear:
- Lessons John learned from aligning multiple operating companies across the globe on martech and processes.
- His experience at Heineken and whether it was all B2C or a mix of B2C and B2B?
- What impact he thinks came from the dynamics of a global company - global vs local, global vs regional and related implications on skills and capabilities?

In this episode, we talk with four marketing operations experts, each to talk about one of the major marketing automation platforms. Lara Black is currently Director of Marketing Operations at ExtensisHR and is a Pardot Pro, AJ Navarro is currently a Packaged Technology Operations Consultant with Shift Paradigm and is a Marketo Pro and George Samaras is currently Director of Marketing Operations and Technology at Coveo and is an Eloqua Pro. Mike Rizzo is currently CEO & Founder of Marketingops.com and is a HubSpot Pro.
Tune in to hear:
- Each expert tell us what they are most excited about in terms of recent changes or announcements from each platform.- What is each of their companies is doing to engage with the marketing operations community.
- If there are any features that the user community is looking for that the vendor has not prioritized the way they have hoped.