Ode to the Operators

We couldn't do it without you!

Here’s to the Operators.

Here’s to the ones who didn’t always pick this job. The ones who stumbled, slid, tripped, fell, emerged, or were forced into the role, and it suddenly felt like home. To those who were on an entirely different career path, before a seismic change led them to the world of Operations.

To the ones who thrive in the background, in the shadows. To the ones who are more comfortable doing the work than talking about it. To the introverts who avoid the spotlight. To those who would rather let their work do the talking for them.

Here’s to the ones who are misunderstood, misclassified, grouped in with other teams, or not sure if they’re in the right place in the org chart. To those who report to managers who aren’t sure what you do, or how to help.

To those who have stopped trying to explain to their parents, or their significant other, or their buddies at Thursday soccer night what it is they actually do, and why it’s so important.

To those who aren’t IT, but can try to help with the weird noise your computer is making.

To those who aren’t copywriters, but always provide their feedback on email subject lines and landing page headlines.

To those who aren’t sales reps, but obsess over every step it takes to close a deal.

Here’s to those who are underestimated. To those who feel like they’ll be “The Marketo Person” for the rest of their career. To those who have a whole host of ideas about tech stacks and data migrations and process improvement and are just waiting for the right time to chime in.

Here’s to you, Operators, because the buck stops with you. You are the end of the line. You’re responsible for taking all of the loose ends and making sure that everything ends up working smoothly in a well-oiled process. There’s no one to point a finger at if anything goes wrong, and you know that every time you click “Send”, or “Save”, or “Launch”, or “Approve”, you’re putting your reputation on the line.

Here’s to the Operators who don’t close any deals, plan any campaigns, or make any phone calls, but none of those things would happen without them.

Here’s to those Operators making frantic Google Searches (or trying to finagle the right answer out of ChatGPT). Here’s to you soldiering on, improving your knowledge and skillset despite having to rely on obscure threads from 7 years ago in a vendor community. Here’s to those who are motivated to find their own ways to learn, carefully sorting through literal tons of vendor-focused whitepapers and webinars to find the gems that will enable their master plans.

Here’s to those who have learned through trial and error, sometimes through big errors. Here’s to those Operators who have made mistakes and lived to tell the tale. To the ones who know that despite all we do we’re still only human, and humans make mistakes. Here’s to the ones who soldier on despite carrying that added pressure, and who have developed a thick skin to help when something goes wrong (and a hundred checklists to ensure that it doesn’t.)

Here’s to those who know that Operations mistakes are typically public and our successes are mostly private, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here’s to those Operators who have a process for everything and are as consistent as a ticking clock, while adapting all along. For those who are building for today while planning for tomorrow, and trying to see around the corner to get ahead of the next quarter. To those who have one foot currently planted in getting this quarter’s projects across the finish line, all while prepping for “the next big thing” for GTM teams.

Here’s to those who are the jack of all tools, AND master of them, too. To the ones who truly nerd out about the tech stack. To the ones who create all varieties of visual documentation of said tech stacks, knowing that to everyone else, this just makes them look like even more of a conspiracy theorist. To those who actually read product documentation. To those who know their tools better than their vendor CSMs. To those who spend their discretionary time earning what amounts to mostly Monopoly money-esque product certifications, in the hopes that something they learn will become valuable down the road. And then re-upping, when said certifications expire. To those who grimace when told that “sales said the Salesforce integration was easy”, and know if they had a dime for every time that wasn’t true, they’d be on a private beach somewhere.

Here’s to those who are passionate about weird things like uptime, GPDR, zip-code level sales territories, lead routing algorithms, and sync times. To those who obsess about the details no one else even knows exist, all in the name of a team win. To everyone who knows how many clicks it takes to close an Opportunity in Salesforce, and wants to reduce it by 50% by the end of next quarter.

Here’s to those solo Operators, those ever-prevalent teams of one. Our hats are off to you! To you is extended perhaps the most difficult, lonely, and challenging task of all - implementing operational rigor and foundations in the face of an ever-growing backlog, unrealistic stakeholder expectations, and no one but yourself to get the work done. To those in this right-of-passage stage, we salute you, and we’re here to help where we can. Going it alone is a balancing act, and the lessons you learn in your time as a solo operator will serve you well for the entirety of your career. Expectations typically scale somewhat well for other GTM teams, but those with “Operations” in the name have to build from 0 to 100, and do it by yesterday.

Here’s to those who know the data better than they know their middle name. To those who can rattle off conversion rates and average deal size like they were talking about the weather. To those who know where the holes are in the data and why they haven’t been fixed yet (any maybe never will). To those who will show someone how to pull the same report over and over again, even though it’s faster to just set up a subscription. To those who coordinate the colors of their graphs with the company color palette. To those operators who keep their finger on the pulse of the entire organization, and are constantly bringing data-driven insights to the table.

Here’s to those operators who look at the manual, tedious task that you need help with (that is due tomorrow) and smile. To those who always automate or accelerate if they can, but will also roll up their sleeves and manually charge down each column and across each row of every spreadsheet you send their way. To those who know the difference between a vlookup and countifs.

Here’s to those Operators who have boundless optimism and don’t ever give up. To those who know what needs to get done and find a way to do it. To those highly skilled in digital duct tape and bailing wire. To those who won’t take no for an answer.

Here’s to you!