Michael Hartmann

Hartmann Advisory Group LLC

We provide marketing and related consulting services, primarily to B2B companies. We are experts in how to enable B2B startup, scale-up and growth companies maximize and leverage their investment in marketing/revenue technology, processes and resources to enable growth.

Founder / Principal

MarketingOps(dot)com

Ops Cast is the podcast for Marketing Ops professionals from MO Pros. Tune in and register to be notified of new episodes at www.themopros.com/opscast.

Co Host, Ops Cast podcast

MO Pros is the community for Marketing Operations professionals. As an ambassador, we help guide the direction of the community and support the members.

Ambassador

RevGenius

RevGenius is a group of revenue-generating sales and marketing professionals brought together to learn, share, support, and grow with each other. You can consider us your alt work family!

Member

Rimini Street

Serving the global Marketing Operations & Technology team.

Director, Marketing Operations & Technology

Informa Markets

Leading the Marketing Operations / Optimization and Digital Marketing team supporting Informa Markets' Fashion portfolio.

Senior Director, Marketing Operations

Revenue Collective

The Revenue Collective is a private, invitation-only community of sales and marketing executives at growth-focused companies.

Member / DFW Chapter Steering Committee

Freeman Company

Built and managed team responsible for demand generation and marketing technology and establishing an inside sales/SDR function, as well as marketing analytics for leading event company.
• Led implementation of marketing automation solution (Marketo) and other components of the marketing technology stack, including integration with CRM (Salesforce)
• Established baseline for Marketing influence on pipeline and revenue, supporting Marketing target for influenced revenue for first time in company’s 90+ years
• Optimized agency and other vendor relationships to provide budget and project flexibility

Director, Marketing Technology, Demand Generation and Analytics

Anritsu

Manage team responsible for Americas Region marketing operations and infrastructure, as well as interactive marketing initiatives for high-tech manufacturer.
• Implemented technology and processes that enabled the ability to evaluate ROI for marketing activities
• Led implementation of marketing automation solution (Eloqua) and other components of the marketing technology stack, including integration with CRM
• Managed multiple vendor relationships for both SaaS and on-premise solutions
• Restructured both processes and infrastructure in first twelve months, including promotional web, email, and customer database, improving consistency, efficiency and productivity
• Technical lead on task force for improving customer loyalty and engagement

Marketing Operations Manager

Texas Instruments

Responsible for strategy and tactics to communicate and promote usage of suite of software products.

Product Marketing Manager

Internet Marketing Manager

Worked with product marketing, communications and other teams to implement marketing strategy for online and other digital media.

Program Manager, Internet Marketing

Centex Homes

Independent Consultant

I am a passionate and focused leader who loves to build and has the ability to bring order and clarity to situations where there is ambiguity or chaos. I am a creative problem solver, and a bit of a geek. 

I believe:
- Being a leader means leading the “whole” person - mentoring young talent is something I get much satisfaction from
- The Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule) - Progress is better than perfection...every time
- Occam’s Razor - the simplest solution to a problem is usually the best
- Consensus is important - but that doesn’t mean 100% agreement, it means we can all support a decision 100%

I get sh*t done by:
- Getting support and alignment across diverse stakeholders trying to achieve Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) through consensus building
- Balancing the healthy tension between strategic initiatives and tactical priorities
- Keep my eyes on the future rather than looking back
- Cutting through the noise and focusing on outcomes

Coming out of college with an engineering degree, then into management consulting and eventually into marketing / operations has exposed me to many types of companies and industries. 

If your organization needs some strategic guidance for your operations functions, let’s talk. I can help with advisory services, fractional leadership, or projects to optimize your processes and resources.

Yes, I know...I'm behind on posting about Ops Cast episodes (again). But Thanksgiving felt like the perfect time to catch up and to say thank you. 🦃

When we started Ops Cast, my biggest worry wasn't the tech, the editing, or the cadence - it was whether we'd have enough guests to keep it going. Turns out, that was never the problem.

We’ve been blessed with an incredible #community of marketing operations, revops, and martech professionals who’ve given generously of their time, insights, and humor. Over the past few months, we’ve released episodes with:

 🎙️ Sari Hegewald – The Human Side of Marketing Ops
 🎙️ Sarah Lane-Hawn🧚‍♀️– From Ticket-Taker to Strategic Influencer
 🎙️ Danielle Urban – From Scrappy to Scalable: Martech Maturity in HubSpot
 🎙️ Danielle Balestra – Building MOPs in Highly Regulated Industries
 🎙️ Tracey Fudge – Practical AI for Marketing and Ops
 🎙️ Penny Hill – Simplifying the Complex: Attribution, Alignment, and What Really Matters
 🎙️ Aby Varma – The Value-Driven Path to AI Adoption

Each conversation reminded me how much talent, creativity, and generosity exist in this community.

So, to every guest who has joined us (and those still to come), to everyone who has listened, shared, or sent us a note - thank you. You've made this podcast more than a series of episodes; you've made it a place for connection and learning - and I am the primary beneficiary.

Here's to the people behind the dashboards, data, and strategy - the real people of Marketing Ops and the Marketing Ops Community. 🙌

🎧 Links to all recent episodes are in the first comment.

#MarketingOps #RevOps #OpsCast #MoPros #Gratitude #Community #MarTech #Leadership #CareerGrowth #AIinMarketing

Business Operations Executive | Marketing/Revenue Ops Advisor and Leadership Coach | Podcaster

Most teams say they are "doing AI." Spencer Tahil says most of them are not.

In this week's Ops Cast episode, Spencer joins me to break down why #AI isn't really transforming most marketing teams - it's just helping them do the same old tasks slightly faster.

According to Spencer, the real divide isn't between AI adopters and laggards...
It's between teams that automate tasks and teams that rebuild processes.

We dig into:
✔️ Why "just spin up an AI pilot" is the fastest path to wasted time
 ✔️ How to escape the trap of superficial use cases
 ✔️ Why AI fails when it's treated like a feature instead of a workflow
 ✔️ The organizational change required, not just the tech change
 ✔️ What it takes to scale AI beyond individual enthusiasts
 ✔️ Why MOPs should own the AI operating model (and why most don't yet)

Spencer's take is simple and sharp:
AI won't replace marketers - but marketers who understand systems thinking will replace those who don't.

If you’ve ever wondered why your AI "wins" aren’t moving KPIs...this episode will hit uncomfortably close to home.

🎧 Link to the full episode is in the first comment.

#MarketingOps #RevOps #OpsCast #MOPros #AI #AIinMarketing #MarketingTechnology #Automation #ChangeManagement #Leadership #ProcessDesign #FutureOfWork

Mike Rizzo

MarketingOps.com

With very few exceptions, the majority of products in the Marketing Automation and MarTech space have completely failed to build products and features for the Marketing Operations Professional. The industry just keeps giving us more tech to integrate, manage and maintain.

I'll be taking a community-led approach to building resources that are purpose-built for MO Pros to: 

- build centers of excellence that help us demonstrate ROI and earn us a seat at the proverbial “table” of leadership
- help us easily and efficiently accomplish work that we NEVER have time for (hang on, I have another fire 🔥 to put out)
- prove that we’re getting the most out of the technology we’re managing

Community-led Founder and CEO

The number one community for Marketing Operations Professionals. 

I don’t know about you, but I have always found it really hard to find other Marketing Operations Pros to network with both locally and online.

So in January 2017, I started a Slack channel dedicated to connecting with Marketing Operations Professionals.

Today we're a growing community of wicked smart Marketing Operations Professionals who love learning and collaborating with each other.

You can join us here: https://www.themopros.com/join

Founder

Ops Cast by MO Pros is a podcast for Marketing Ops Pros by Marketing Ops Pros.
Tune in here: www.themopros.com/opscast

Co Host

Outset

Strategic Advisor

Stack Moxie

Helping Stack Moxie as they continue their community-led approach to building product(s) and features. They'll soon launch an Industry Advisory Board, and a Customer Advisory Board.

Head of Community & Advisory Programs

Mavenlink

In the span of just a few years (with a great deal of cross-department collaboration) I helped build, launch, manage and optimize Mavenlink's first-ever user community and Client Advisory Board programs.

Manager, Community and Loyalty Programs

human.marketing

Orange County full-service Inbound Marketing Agency. We take great pride in becoming a fully integrated team within your organization and promise that you'll think of us as a remote marketing team. 

As a Director of Marketing Strategy for Client Accounts, I partner with small to mid-size businesses to build and execute a KPI-focused Inbound Marketing Strategy.  My clients leverage our full-service marketing agency for content marketing, web design,  social media marketing, demand generation, email marketing and more.

Experts in HubSpot, Magento, Big Commerce, Shopify, Mailchimp, and much more.

Director of Marketing Strategy Client Accounts

InMobi

InMobi is a global mobile advertising platform that specializes in delivering the best ROI for mobile marketers. A mobile-first and mobile-only platform, InMobi has been pioneering the next generation of ad experiences, including video advertising, on the back of deep learning based optimization engines.

InMobi platforms help brands, performance marketers and app publishers engage mobile users across different stages of their lifecycle, converting each mobile moment into an opportunity to drive engagement and revenue. Recognized by Fast Company as one of The Most Innovative Companies in 2016, InMobi reaches over 1.5 billion unique mobile devices worldwide, and is redefining business models for the mobile ecosystem. For more information, visit www.inmobi.com

Sr. Manager Growth Marketing - Publisher Platform

AerServ (Acquired by InMobi)

About AerServ:
AerServ is the leading inventory and audience monetization technology for mobile publishers.  AerServ helps thousands of mobile publishers increase revenue through AerServ's ad mediation platform, and increase yield by delivering brand-based ads from the AerMarket ad exchange. AerServ's mediation layer is powered by OpenAuction technology, the industry's first true, comprehensive unified and simultaneous auction. AerServ's entire platform and infrastructure is built with a publisher-first objective and provides best in class support from account managers and software engineers. The company was founded in 2013 and has offices in Irvine, California. Visit AerServ at www.aerserv.com or follow us on Twitter at @AerServ.

My Role:
I'm in charge of designing and executing a marketing plan to achieve AerServ's growth goals.

Director of Marketing

Orange Logic

My primary Objectives / Responsibilities:

- Develop and deploy demand generation programs that align with our growth goals.
- Partner with sales leaders to manage and set pipeline definitions, metrics and goals.
- Liaise with executive leadership, product development, sales, and the marketing team to develop strategies for inbound and outbound campaigns. 
- Optimize lead management, data hygiene, lead scoring, and lead nurture models that align with industry best practices.
- Ensure optimal lead flow and follow-up on marketing generated leads.
- Manage and negotiate with vendors while managing the demand generation budget.
- Build and manage the sales + marketing alignment where neither department had previously existed
- Build a new website (www.orangelogic.com)
- Build and execute on product marketing, pricing, and brand marketing strategies
- Evaluate and provide strategic advice on market positioning across multiple verticals
- Implement and manage HubSpot CRM, Website, Blog, and Automation
- Plan and execute on content marketing strategies including social
- More to come as we see more growth!

Sr. Marketing Manager

Achievements:

- Generated over $1,000,000 in incremental opportunities with email campaigns and nurtures in less than 6 months.

- Improved conversion rates on the blog by 1000% with technology and “growth hacks”

- Generated Conference Leads and MQLs that turned to opportunities ~ 20-30% of the time.

Responsibilities

1. Design, manage and constantly improve lead management and lead flow processes and procedures through our marketing stack (HubSpot, Unbounce, and Salesforce).

2. Support marketing team & programs with underlying technology & best processes by providing training, analysis and documentation on all marketing technology operations.

3. Execute email, webinar & other demand generation campaigns to support marketing lead gen goals.

4. Own end-to-end funnel metrics and provide analysis/reporting using Excel/Salesforce/HubSpot to promote smarter data-driven decisions.

5. Provide logistic and campaign support for online and offline events.

6. Monitor, manage, and maintain quality of marketing database.

7. Research, analyze, recommend and execute conferences to help meet the marketing demand generation goals.

8. Develop a world class sales & marketing partnership that drives the company’s revenue goals via innovative process improvements, sales enablement, and accurate, intelligent funnel management.

9. Work cross-functionally with engineering, product and sales to identify opportunities to optimize data structures or processes to improve marketing and sales productivity.

10. Identify marketplace trends, tools and technologies to drive online acquisition, improve conversions, and support the growth of the business.

Marketing Operations and Events Manager

Medata Inc.

As marketing administrator, I worked with team members in sales, development, and all other departments in an effort to garner new sales opportunities and improve upon existing client relationships.

Responsible for project management of a new corporate website, marketing events/conferences, and email campaigns.

I was responsible for the integration & maintenance of marketing automation platforms at Medata. We used Pardot and ACT-ON. I acted as the CRM administrator for SugarCRM, although we started in Salesforce. 



Additional Responsibilities:

• Managed and update social media channels

• Managed corporate website redesign project and engage key stakeholders

• Helped set standards for design in alignment with brand positioning

• Oversaw the functionality, layout and CMS for the Medata website

• Managed process for creation and updating of content

• Assessed new technologies to determine if they were fit for our needs 

• Gathered and report digital metrics and trends

• Managed the process for content owners to update online content

• Worked with marketing organization to build lead generating and nurturing programs to 
attract prospects, build relationships and retain existing clients

• Played a key role in the marketing team to design, build and coordinate a wide mix of 
marketing campaigns and activities, including: partner programs, white papers, 
webinars, PR, SEO, Google AdWords campaigns, social networks, banners, e-
newsletters, blogs, etc.

• Enhanced and managed marketing information systems to include marketing automation 
systems, integrated CRM (ACT-ON / PARDOT)

• Advised Marketing on how to optimize offline content for online use cases

• Worked with IT on issues affecting website and online presence

Marketing Administrator

When it comes to Community and Marketing Ops, I'm your huckleberry. Community-Led Founder of MarketingOps.com and MO Pros® - the community for Marketing Operations Professionals

Mike Rizzo is a career marketing operations professional passionate about using a people-first approach to building scalable and efficient solutions to the challenges faced by marketing, business operations, and client success teams. 

With his extensive background in marketing Mike helped build, launch, manage and optimize Mavenlink's first user community and Client Advisory Board programs.

In 2017 he also founded the growing community of MO Pros - a place where thousands of Marketing Operations Professionals connect, collaborate and help elevate the practice of Marketing Ops. He is also the co-host of the podcast called Ops Cast.

As the founder of MarketingOps.com, Mike is taking a community-led approach to building a platform purpose-built to elevate Marketing Operations Professionals.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the people who make everything possible for me.

This time it is not the community. Not the events. Not the work.

The three people at the center of it all, my wife and our kids, Wyatt and Ellie.

Building a business, a community, and a life at the same time isn’t simple. 

It comes with incredible highs and some quiet lows. Through every one of them, my family has been the constant.

My wife has trusted me from day one.

Long before MarketingOps was a thing, she believed in what we were building. 

She’s the realist who keeps me grounded and the dreamer who lets me stretch. 

Somehow, she balances the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship while raising two amazing kids with more grace than I can explain.

That trust shows up in a thousand little choices that keep our family moving forward.

Wyatt reminds me how fun it is to think differently.

He’s wildly analytical. If I say, “It’s 1:30,” he’ll correct me “It’s 1:28.”

He’s deep into books, obsessed with math, and curious about everything. 

Every question he asks makes me pause and think, this kid is going to lap me one day.

Part of me hopes he becomes a scientist.

Part of me thinks he’s already wired for Marketing Ops.

Then there’s Ellie.

Five going on fifteen.

Fierce. Creative. Loud in the best way.

If I match her energy, she’s all in, painting, taping, or crafting her next “gift” out of stickers and glitter.

She shows love through art.

She has a “good list” and a “naughty list.” I’m usually on the naughty one, sometimes for taking away dessert, sometimes just because. Both are fair.

This year, I’ve learned how much I need them and how much they need me.

Investing in my health forced me to slow down and rethink how I show up. 

Nights lying awake, asking myself how to be a better father, husband, and human.

Everyone says kids grow fast. They’re wrong. It’s faster.

Watching them become who they’re becoming makes everything else feel smaller.

Through all the work, travel, and chaos of life, my family has been my anchor.

So this Thanksgiving, I’m proud.

Proud of my son for diving deep into what he loves.
Proud of my daughter for being brave enough to speak up in class.
Proud of my wife for launching her cookie business on her terms, on her time, and for surviving (and, honestly, thriving) through days with small kids that would absolutely break me.

And when I think about what’s ahead... two amazing kids turning 8 and 6 this coming year, a healthy family, a home full of (let’s be real here folks) laughter, tears, fighting, and learning… there’s a bright future full of things to experience together, I feel incredibly thankful.

We’re stepping into a new chapter.

A fun one. A busy one. A meaningful one.

And I’m deeply grateful to be in it with them. ❤️

#Family #Gratitude #Thanksgiving #Leadership

marketingopscom

stackmoxie

ops-cast

us-claim-solutions

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #mopros, #opscast, #community, #marketingops, and #marketingoperations

When it comes to Community and Marketing Ops, I'm your huckleberry. Community-led founder and CEO of MarketingOps.com and MO Pros® -- where 20K+ Marketing Operations Professionals engage and learn weekly.

As we close out one chapter and step into the next, I’ve been thinking about the people who make this community what it is.

This year wasn’t simple.

We made big decisions about the future of MOps-Apalooza.

We invested in new programs, experimented, stumbled, learned, and kept going, all with one goal: to build something that thrives long-term, not just survives the moment.

Through every pivot, challenge, and late-night scramble, one thing stayed constant…

The people who believe in this community and the vision behind it.

To the Team

The people who take my harebrained ideas and somehow turn them into reality:

Audrey Harze — stepping in as CMO and leading with intention, strategy, and heart. Your partnership means the world. I can’t express precisely how meaningful your partnership has been to me… but YOU ROCK! And THANK YOU!

Grace Miller — the voice of clarity and calm, keeping content, comms, and sanity in sync.

Veronica Drake — the quiet force behind programming and sponsorships.

Dan Mott — your fingerprints still guide so much of what we do.

Austin Weatherhead, Jeffery Lucas, Anton R., Adarsh, and Growth Natives — your work, design, development, and partnership built this foundation.

This team believed in the vision. They carried the weight quietly. They made it all possible.

To the Community

You’re the reason this exists.

You show up online, in-person, and everywhere in between.

You share what you know, help each other grow, and protect the value of what we’ve built.

And you do it without ego, without pretense, without expectation.

I’m so grateful for all of you showing up the way you do!

To the Sponsors

Thank you for believing in a community-led model when it would’ve been easier to follow something more familiar.

Your partnership helped shape one of the most unique ecosystems in our industry.

And as we look toward 2026, I’m genuinely excited about the new ways we’ll partner, healthier, more intentional, more community-centric.

Such partnerships lift the entire profession.

To Our Chapter Leaders

Thank you for your patience, leadership, and faith in what we’re creating together.

You’re the ones helping people feel connected, supported, and safe, carrying forward the spirit of this community louder than any marketing campaign ever could.

You’re the heartbeat of this community.

We made tough calls this year.

Shifted direction.

Built new programs.

Planted seeds that are just starting to grow.

2026 will be our strongest year yet because of you.

Because this community is built on something deeper than events or content.

As we said at MOps-Apalooza:

We’re not “support.” We’re architects of scale.
We don’t “sit inside” revenue teams. We enable them.
We don’t follow the future. We design it.

AI won’t change the game.
MOps will.

Thank you for trusting us.
Thank you for building this with us.
And thank you for letting us serve this community. 💛

#MarketingOps #RevOps #Community #Leadership #Thanksgiving

Too often, Marketing Ops gets treated like a service desk.

You know the drill: someone needs a form fixed, a campaign launched, or a system patched.

Ping Ops. Ticket submitted. Done.

However, that view overlooks the actual story.

Marketing Ops are way more than that!

They are the connective tissue between business logic, GTM execution, and system intelligence.

The best Ops leaders I’ve worked with literally operate on a completely different level.

➡ They’re Translators,

People who can take a CRO’s vision for “predictable pipeline” and turn it into something measurable: lead flows, data models, and automation logic that actually make sense.

They’re fluent in two languages. 

One strategy and two systems and somehow, they make them talk to each other.

➡ They’re Stewards 

The quiet ones who protect alignment when everything’s moving too fast.

They build governance, define taxonomies, and keep data clean so the business doesn’t lose trust in itself.

Because in Ops, alignment is oxygen.

And without it, even the best campaigns collapse under their own data debt.

➡ And they’re Accelerators

Always looking for friction to remove.

They find the manual handoffs, the redundant approvals, the things everyone complains about but no one fixes.

Then they build systems that scale growth without adding complexity.

They expand what’s possible.

Though none of that works if Ops isn’t empowered.

You can’t expect someone to lead strategically if you treat them like a ticket-taker.
If you’re leading a GTM team, this might sting a little:

Your Marketing Ops leader might be the most strategic hire you’ve made, and you might not even realize it yet.

Invest in them like you would a product leader.

Because in many ways, that’s exactly what they are.

They design the infrastructure that keeps your GTM engine running, the governance that protects it, and the clarity that lets it scale.

And (for many in this profession) if you give them room to operate, they’ll do what the best systems do,

Run quietly, efficiently, and powerfully in the background, so everyone else can move faster in the foreground.

If you’ve worked in Marketing Ops long enough, you know this rhythm by heart.

Budgets tighten. Tech stacks get audited. Everyone’s suddenly asked to “do more with less.”

And here we are again, 2026, another turning point.

Only this time, the systems we built are the ones deciding how fast (and how smart) we can adapt.

Here’s what’s shifting beneath the surface 

1️⃣ Campaign Ops

Campaigns today feel more like ecosystems than projects, full of triggers, dependencies, and feedback loops.

To launch one campaign, you’re coordinating segmentation, QA, enrichment, and reporting across a dozen moving parts.

The future of Campaign Ops is transforming from how fast you hit send to designing operational architecture that keeps creativity flowing without breaking the process.

2️⃣ Modular stacks are winning over monoliths

Teams are done being trapped in one vendor’s “all-in-one” pitch.

They want choice. The freedom to plug in tools that play nicely together and retire the ones that don’t.

With iPaaS and API-native integrations, composable architecture is becoming the real standard.

The edge for MOps is knowing how to make multiple systems act as one.

3️⃣ Data strategy is the new competitive moat

The strongest teams aren’t hoarding dashboards, but they’re defining what their numbers mean.

“Lead.” “Opportunity.” “Source.” These words get standardized, not argued about.

When data speaks a single language across Marketing, Sales, and CS, trust compounds.

And that trust shows up downstream in every GTM decision you make.

4️⃣ AI is moving quietly from novelty to infrastructure

We’re edging past the “prompt engineer” era.

AI is already running under the hood. We are seeing it in routing, enrichment, and anomaly detection.

The value is in cleaner logic, fewer manual fixes, and better feedback loops.
In 2026, AI will amplify the operators who understand context, process, and governance.

5️⃣ Ops convergence is no longer theory

In B2B, the walls between Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, and CS Ops are dissolving.

The most resilient teams now share systems, metrics, and accountability under one GTM Ops strategy.

The title might shift, but the mission doesn’t: simplify complexity, connect silos, and make growth measurable.

2026 won’t reward teams that move faster.

It’ll reward the ones who move together.

MOps leaders who think like architects, speak the language of systems (+ a bit of finance), and build with clarity will define the next phase of GTM maturity.

#MarketingOps #RevOps #GTM #Leadership #AI

It appears as though the “team of one” era in Marketing Ops is ending.

But the accountability gap it exposed is still alive and well.

Our 2025 study shows “solo MOps” teams dropped to 26%, while 44% now operate as pods of 2–5.

That’s progress but distributed ownership without defined accountability is just chaos with more Slack channels.

The challenge is not headcount, it’s system ownership.

As Marketing Ops scales, the operational surface area expands,

We get integrations, data governance, workflow QA, user enablement, and change management.

Without clear domain ownership, issues fall through the cracks faster than ever.

Here’s what high-functioning teams are doing differently 

➡ RACI 2.0 for GTM Systems

Define owners for integrations, automations, reporting, and change control.

Make sure every tool has a human counterpart, someone responsible for uptime, release notes, and rollback plans.

➡ Backlog over inbox

Requests are inputs into a prioritized backlog.

Mature teams apply business-value scoring and publish sprint summaries to keep alignment visible.

➡ Weekly or Monthly system demo

Instead of status meetings, teams demo what shipped, new workflows, new metrics, and cleaner syncs.

Stakeholders learn what’s working by seeing it, not waiting for a quarterly update.

➡ Lifecycle documentation

Every automation has a lifecycle: creation, QA, owner, and retirement.

The org should always know who owns each and how to deprecate it.

More people don’t equal more progress. Accountability does.

If you’ve grown past being a team of one, the next evolution is process maturity.

Go for it!

#RevOps #MarketingOps #Leadership #Strategy #GTM

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A few weeks ago, we wrapped MOps-Apalooza... and I’m already thinking about the next wave of voices and leaders who are pushing GTM systems forward.

We’re planning our next in-person event, and we want you to be a part of it!

I’m helping curate the GTM Ops Track at #DemandAndExpand 2026, and I’m opening up speaker submissions starting today.

If you’ve been pushing this profession forward, designing GTM systems, rethinking attribution, or building frameworks that practitioners actually use, your work deserves a platform.

Here are the areas we’re building the program around:

➡ GTM Product Architecture & Systems Thinking
➡ Data, Integrations & GTM Infrastructure
➡ AI, Automation & Agent-Oriented Ops
➡ GTM Strategy, Planning & Revenue Architecture
➡ Campaign Architecture, Attribution & Measurement
➡ Martech/Revtech Selection, Adoption & Composability
➡ Cross-functional Alignment & Operating Models
➡ Leadership, Career Development & the Future of GTM Ops

We’re prioritizing sessions grounded in lived experience:

 –– Lessons that came from projects
 –– Frameworks that actually shipped
 –– Experiments that changed how you operate
 –– Scars that made you better

If you have something worth sharing, whether it’s a proven playbook you think others could learn from, an idea you’ve been noodling on, or a system design you believe in, submit your idea.

You can pitch up to three sessions.

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: January 16th.

👉 Let’s go! Submit your session

https://lnkd.in/gvVFTSZH

Excited to learn from the operators building what’s next.

#gtmops #marketingops #GTM #mopscommunity #DemandAndExpand2026

Everyone in GTM loves to talk about funnels.

But if you’ve been watching how real buyers move in 2025, you know there’s no funnel anymore, there’s a feedback loop.

Buyers don’t follow a linear path from awareness to decision.

They move back and forth between research, validation, peer reviews, and product comparisons.

It’s the messy middle, and it’s exactly where Marketing Ops earns its stripes.

Because while most teams are chasing attribution models that don’t hold up, MOps leaders are building systems that can actually read the signals:

→ Stitching together first-party data (page views, email clicks, CRM updates)
→ Enriching it with third-party intent, review-site activity, and social signals
→ Feeding that context into workflows that trigger smarter handoffs

This is what modern orchestration looks like.

The next wave of MOps leaders will think in system architecture.

They’ll be the ones mapping logic trees, aligning schemas, and connecting enrichment, routing, and attribution in one living system.

When those pieces work in sync, GTM becomes adaptive.

That’s when “messy middle” turns from a problem you manage into an advantage you design for.

P.S. That day, I was teaching Wyatt how flag football works, how you run, catch, and pull the flag. 

The park near our home is usually where he plays soccer, but that day we joined an adult flag football league just for fun. 

I only lasted 2 games before remembering I’m definitely not twenty-something anymore.

Everyone’s asking the same thing lately 
 
“Will AI replace Marketing Ops?”

My answer?

It won’t. Not even close.

Because Marketing Ops isn’t a checklist of tasks. 

It’s a mindset.

You can automate activity. Sure.

But accountability is something that’s still on people.

AI can execute. It can analyze.

But it can’t:

→ Bridge the gap between teams that barely speak the same operational language.
→ Decide which metrics matter when leadership priorities collide.
→ Build trust in the systems people rely on to make real business decisions.

That’s where Marketing Ops lives, in the gray space between GTM vision and messy execution.

It’s the discipline that turns chaos into clarity.

And the irony is, AI will make some of this faster... while creating a brand-new set of problems:

⚙️ Governance.
⚙️ Data integrity.
⚙️ Ethical decisions.
⚙️ Change management headaches.

They’re people issues.

If you’ve been in MOps for a while, you’ve seen this movie before, from manual HTML days to automation platforms to now, AI orchestration.

The tools change. The job doesn’t.

Because it was never about doing more.

It’s always been about thinking better.

AI can suggest actions.

But only humans can decide which ones actually matter.

Been working with Ahmed Datoo and Alysha 🌟 Khan at allGood on something I actually wanted for myself: an AI QA testing tool for marketing emails.

The tool checks your emails before you send them:
✓ Tests every link
✓ Validates UTM tracking
✓ Fresh copy/ grammar review
✓ Basic compliance in place

Free tool. In beta now. Actually very useful.

Reg link in the comments if you wanna check it out.

Organizational change doesn’t fail because of strategy.

It fails because the systems, data, and processes underneath it aren’t ready.

That’s why Marketing Ops ends up at the center of every transformation — even when we’re not brought in early enough.

This week’s newsletter breaks down:
>> Why MOps has a front-row seat to organizational change
>> How tech debt becomes the silent killer of transformation
>> The gap between expectations and authority for MOps teams
>> What leaders must do differently to make change stick
>> How MOps pros can push upstream and influence the roadmap

If your company is going through a rebrand, restructuring, new tech rollout, or any major shift… this one will hit home.

🔗 Read the latest edition here 👇

And if you want posts like this delivered weekly, you can subscribe directly from the newsletter page.

Organizational change doesn’t succeed without aligned systems, clean data, and scalable processes. That’s exactly where Marketing Operations shines. W

The Role of MOps in Organizational Change Management

The skills that got you here won’t be enough in 2026.

MOps is shifting fast!

From tactical execution to systems architecture, data fluency, and cross-functional leadership. 

And the data from four years of State of the MO Pro research makes it pretty clear.

Here’s what matters most heading into 2026:

1. Operational Strategy & Policy Design
It’s now the top responsibility in MOps. 78% of pros said system design, governance, and process optimization are core parts of their role. SLAs, intake, QA, compliance… this is the job now.

2. Data Analysis & Reporting
Nearly 70% cite analytics as a primary responsibility. MOps owns attribution logic, funnel diagnostics, and performance insight — not just dashboards, but the data engine behind them.

3. Tech Stack Evaluation & Integration
81% say integration is the No. 1 factor in tool selection. The best MOps pros think like IT architects: scalable, modular, and built for the whole GTM motion.

4. Cross-Functional Communication
MOps is officially a GTM-wide function. Pricing, forecasting, sales process alignment, change management — you’re in all of it now.

5. AI Fluency & Prompt Engineering
AI isn’t replacing MOps. It’s amplifying the ones who know how to structure prompts, inspect outputs, and operationalize models safely and intelligently.

View newsletter: Mastering Marketing Ops'2025

If you want to thrive in MOps in 2026, think like a systems architect, act like a data analyst, and automate like your job depends on it. Because it p

Open article: Top Skills and Tools for MOps in 2026 by Mike Rizzo • 3 min read

The 2025 State of the MO Pro Report tells:

52% of organizations offer no formal training for their Marketing Ops teams.

33% see no defined career path for Ops professionals.

And yet... 92% believe AI will completely reshape how Ops gets done.

Let that sink in for a second.

We’re betting the future of GTM on AI but not investing in the people who’ll actually run it.

We’ll spend six figures on tools, then skip the five-grand budget that could teach someone how to use them strategically.

That’s how you end up with automation without adoption.

AI without accountability.

And dashboards that look impressive but don’t move the business an inch forward.

I believe somewhere along the way, we started treating “enablement” as a nice-to-have, instead of the engine that makes innovation sustainable.

We built tool stacks faster than we built talent stacks.

And in the process, we’ve created Ops teams that are over-burdened (with tech) and under-developed.

If we want real maturity, we need to shift how we invest:

→ Budget for Brains: Training isn’t an expense; it’s compounding ROI. Make it a line item, not an afterthought.
→ Shadow the Strategy Room: Let Ops sit in on OKR, budget, and GTM planning. Exposure creates fluency.
→ Narrative > Noise: Stop measuring activity and start storytelling. Translate data into decisions that matter.

Because the companies that win won’t be the ones with the most tech, they’ll be the ones with the most capable operators behind it.

A Question for you all…

If you could fund one team-wide course this year, would you pick AI automation or data storytelling?

Your answer probably says a lot about what kind of organization you’re building.

PS: You can download the full report from MarketingOps website

#MarketingOps #RevOps #Leadership #AI #ProfessionalDevelopment #StateOfTheMOPro2025

Most of you are probably doing it wrong.

Want to adopt AI into your business?

Here's how to get started: 

Pick your AI thought partner (I used GPT)
Start a Project within it and teach it about your business/team by:
- Talk to it about your goals
- Break down some of the aspirations you have for your department/team in the coming years (or months) 
- Uploading documents about your products, mission, vision, etc
>>>> Do not upload confidential things, please, be smart. <<<<


Then, do the unthinkable... (not)

Ask AI to do what it does best: come up with some random ideas of semi-coherent strings of text on how to implement AI agents and AI workflows into your business, specifically tailored to some of the KPIs you're looking to achieve, or the experience you're trying to improve. 

*** Disclaimer ***
A lot of the generated ideas are total crap.

But some of them are really great jumping-off points.

Take those and run with them. 

You'll be surprised how quickly you can go from a "blank canvas" to inspired. 

Then, take it a step further and start building with some of the AI solutions out there. 

I ended up with a list of 

It took me 2 hours to build up a benchmark study service/app for our community (details coming soon) 

It took me about 30 min to replicate a calendar link tool in the market 

I built in Base44.

You can do it with plenty of others. 

And you can do it FAST. 

It's a fun time to be in Marketing Ops and GTM Ops. 

What would you like to see me build and make available to the members of the Marketing Ops Community? 

Here's what is on my list already: 
- UTM Link Generator & System
- Calendar Link Generator (for "add to calendar" use cases in email)
- Campaign Naming Convention Checker

What else would be a microservice that someone should have access to in their GTM Ops role?

I’ve learned a lot from the MagicMirror team, and this session will NOT disappoint.

Join Daphna Wegner and Melissa McCready, you won’t be disappointed!

GenAI adoption in marketing is growing fast…but visibility, consistency, and control? Not so much. 😬

If you’re in Marketing Ops and being told to “make AI happen,” our upcoming session with MagicMirror is for you.

🗓️ Join us on Dec 4 at 11am PT/2pm ET for a very real convo on how to scale GenAI without losing your grip on data, brand, or compliance.

We’ll be covering:

🧩 The GenAI Divide → Why most teams stay stuck in experimentation and how to shift toward operational impact.
🚨 Industry Risks → Key considerations to keep in mind when adopting new AI tools.
🛡️ AI Governance → What problems are Marketing Ops leaders faced with today and how does MagicMirror help solve them.

👥 Featuring Daphna Wegner (MagicMirror) + Melissa McCready (HLX)

👉 Save your seat: https://lnkd.in/g4JqzuEe

#marketingops

Open article: Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: AI in Ops—How to Scale Adoption Without Losing Control. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. by us02web.zoom.us

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: AI in Ops—How to Scale Adoption Without Losing Control. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Most Marketing Ops wins never make the slide deck, but you’ll always find them in the numbers.

Across every State of the MO Pro report from 2021 to 2024, pipeline has been the #1 KPI for MOps teams. When pipeline is the metric, impact becomes measurable — cleaner data, stronger alignment, smarter processes, faster execution.

That’s exactly what this week’s newsletter digs into.

I break down four fictional (but very common) scenarios that mirror patterns in the research:
 • Cutting manual lead routing from 24 hours to 30 minutes
 • Saving a budget cycle through tech stack consolidation
 • Restoring trust in attribution across sales and marketing
 • Reducing campaign cycle times with real documentation

Each example shows what the data has told us for four years: when MOps owns process, governance, and system design, performance moves — fast.

If you’re following the 52-week series, the next article is live now.

Give it a read and let me know what resonates.

👉 Read it here:

Marketing operations wins are often quiet, but they consistently show up in the numbers. Across every State of the MO Pro report, pipeline is the top 

Celebrating Wins: Stories of MOps Driving Business Success

Your year-end MOps review shouldn’t be a list of tasks — it should be a proof point of business impact.

Too many MOps reviews focus on what got done. The real story is what the work enabled.

Alignment. Acceleration. Accountability. That’s what leadership actually cares about.

This week’s newsletter breaks down the metrics that matter most at year-end — the ones that elevate MOps from “support” to “strategic operator.”

Here’s a preview:

✔ Pipeline influence: 
The top KPI in every State of the MO Pro report since 2021 up until 2025. If you’re not showing how scoring, routing, attribution, and enrichment moved pipeline, you’re missing the headline.

✔ Operational efficiency:
 Lead routing from 2 days to 10 minutes.
 Campaign cycle times reduced.
 Manual work eliminated.
 This is the story behind how the business moved faster.

✔ Data health:
 Bounce rate reduction.
 Duplicate cleanup.
 Field audits.
 A defined data quality score.
 With 88% of MOps pros investing in data initiatives (2024 report), this is the multiplier that deserves to be front and center.

✔ Attribution accuracy:
 If sales trusts your reporting more today than last year, that’s strategic impact. Say it plainly.

✔ Stack performance:
 Usage rates, redundant tools removed, integrations maintained, time to deploy.
 This is the real definition of “owning the stack.”

✔ Training, documentation, and enablement:
 SOPs created.
 Team members trained.
 Self-service adoption.
 
This is performance — even if it doesn’t show up on a dashboard.

And yes, we cover which metrics to retire once and for all (looking at you, email opens).

If you’re following the 52-week series, the newest article is live now.

Would love to hear how you’re preparing your own year-end MOps review.

Your MOps performance review isn't just about what got done. It's about proving the value of how it got done and what it enabled. Reporting on perform

Open article: Key Metrics for a Year-End MOps Performance Review by Mike Rizzo • 4 min read

Key Metrics for a Year-End MOps Performance Review

Anyone looking to get into a HubSpot portal or account? Drop me a note - I have a few partners offering incentives to get you started in HubSpot or get your upgrade locked down and humming!

Clay is giving MO Pros a new kind of spotlight…and we’re here for it 🔦
They just launched Clay World Records, a challenge to celebrate the most creative, one-of-a-kind Clay tables being built by the community 💡
And yes, it’s becoming a real book 📚

✅ The first 100 submissions will be featured in the 2026 Clay World Records book
✅ Anyone can submit — as long as your table is original, useful, and a little outside the box

Some records already claimed:
🛥️ First Clay table built on a jet ski
🎭 First Clay table built as Ghostface
💘 First Clay table to help find a significant other
🏔️ First Clay table built at 14,000 feet

Try something new in Clay and get your work featured.
🔗 clay.com/world-records
#marketingops

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