Why systems are the secret to success in your Marketing Ops career
Why systems are the secret to success in your Marketing Ops career
Systems > Goals
If you’re thinking about where you eventually want to land in your career, you may start thinking long-term. Perhaps even 10, 15, or 20+ years down the road.
In a world full of KPIs, OKRs, and MBOs, it can be easy to start thinking about specific goals or objectives in your career that align with these timelines. You may be one of those lucky people who knows what they want to do early in their career. Perhaps you’re thinking:
“I want to be a CMO one today”
“I want to have a large team reporting to me”
“I want to manage a RevOps team, with Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, and Customer Success Ops”
It’s helpful and motivating to keep these targets in mind. When it comes to planning, goals like this can offer a direction and focus. When it comes to progress, however, goals are always trumped by systems.
Everyone on your Marketing Ops team can have the goal of becoming a CMO, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will eventually become one.
Having systems designed to help you get the experience and skills needed to become a CMO will greatly increase your chances of achieving your intended goal.
What is a system?
A system, defined as “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method”, requires action and has an input and an output.
Why are systems beneficial?
Systems are observable and measurable, and can be modified to achieve a different or better outcome.
Systems are also repeatable. Being able to use the same skills, thought processes, and then to compound the learnings results in an increasingly positive output.
Systems can also be automated and supported with tools and even other systems.
Systems are typically also transferrable. If you have something that works well for you in your role as a Marketing Ops specialist in one company, it will probably also work for you as a Marketing Ops Manager in a new team.
So when should I use a system?
Systems can be developed and used in a variety of contexts.
It may be helpful for your career to develop systems for the following use cases:
Capturing and cataloging things that you’ve learned, either from people you work with or from other resources
Documenting your achievements and the positive impact they’ve had on the companies you’ve worked for
Discussing important topics like job responsibilities and raises
Learning to lead
Adding new soft/technical skills to your tool belt
Evaluating new career opportunities
Systems are beneficial even if you fall into the bucket of not knowing exactly where you want to be in the next few years. You can identify skills you think you’ll need or qualities you’d like to have and develop specific systems to help you get there.
Obviously, systems can be applied outside of the framework of career development as well. Systems can be extremely useful in the daily life of a Marketing Ops pro, helping increase efficiency, reduce mistakes, and improve outcomes. I’ll talk more about some of my favorite systems in an upcoming issue of this newsletter.