💬 RevOps Discussions

maggiebutler
HubSpot Moderator
HubSpot Moderator

How do you hire for tech stack management and innovation?

In our recent Road to Revops event, Scott Brinker moderatoed a session on 'How to Future Proof You Tech Satck' asking the important question: how do you staff a role like this? What kinds of qualities or attributes does a professional need to have in order to properly manage and scale your systems? 

 

What do you think - how do you hire for a role like this? Leave your comments below so we can build the ideal profile!

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Drew_Cohen
Top Contributor

How do you hire for tech stack management and innovation?

This is definitely a role that it helps to have some experience in different departments, or experience in a very hybrid role (such as a Strategist at an agency who not only has hands hands-on marketing experience, but also understands the sales process).

 

When it comes to questions about tech stack, a great starting point for conversation is about a company's processes, which ultimately leads right into a discussion about problem areas and/or areas for improvement. Having a candidate in this role who has first-hand experience about what it takes to be successful in a sales team, marketing team or customer service team is invaluable. Not only are they then likely to be familiar with processes that make a department successful, but they likely have hands-on experience using tools that support those specific teams.

 

Let's think about Hubspot's Sales, Marketing and Service Hub as an example. Depending on the specific role you have at your company, you may only interact with one or two of those hubs, but if you can find a candidate who has experience using these hubs in a day-to-day function, you can really bridge the gap between process and technology because it's likely this candidate understands how these work and what made the platform successful successful or not. On top of this, a candidate with a variety of different career experiences will also likely have exposure to different pieces of technology and what you can do to overcome the challenges of disjointed systems. More and more, companies are facing challenges with technical integrations or migrations, and being able to navigate these conversations, identify the business objectives, and work with technical resources to build a plan to streamline data movement is critical.

 

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JenBergren
Guide

How do you hire for tech stack management and innovation?

Aside from technical knowledge about how the business and industry works, common needs for systems, common issues and complaints, systems that work well together, etc., someone in a specific role to manage and scale systems will need to have some serious empathy and change management skills, and have leadership of this department with those same people skills. Changing or adding systems can be a very hot topic among some people in the company who cling to the idea that one tool is better than another, or people in the company who do not understand the benefits of using tools or systems in a certain way.

Going back to your questions of HOW to hire for the role, I think it may be difficult to hire with these people skills in mind, aside from getting personal references from them, or perhaps change management certifications could help show they are at least aware of the need for that in their role. I would love to hear about any 'tests' other companies are using to make sure the people they hire have these skills!

 

Jen Bergren

Sr. Operations Manager

Remotish -- A HubSpot RevOps Agency


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Jen Bergren
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MattBolian
Participant | Elite Partner
Participant | Elite Partner

How do you hire for tech stack management and innovation?

RevOps is about orchestrating that process, orchestrating the tools to execute those processes, and then leveraging that data to give insights to the business. Few people come out of the gate with the skills to execute a holistic strategy well. The qualities needed fall into three buckets.

  1. Bucket 1: Operational Management - Can create a holistic process to execute strategic business decisions. Map process / Design Thinking Session / Project Management 
  2. Bucket 2: Enablement - Fully understands the salesperson's pain and provides training on how to leverage tools - sales methodologies and tools - to increase velocity. Sales training / Sales process / Sales Documentation / BOFU Content
  3. Bucket 3: Insight - Likes data and knows how to create attribution for Marketing and Sales Campaigns. Dashboarding, strategic analysis, data dedupe, etc.
  4. Bucket 4: Tools - Has a depth of understanding of all tools uses for specific functions in Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success. Can list all the e-sign companies by name offhand. Knows the features and limitations of multiple platforms. Tech Stack Audit, Integrations, etc.
DPassman
Contributor | Elite Partner
Contributor | Elite Partner

How do you hire for tech stack management and innovation?

Maggie,

You outsource it to RevPartners! All kidding aside, in reality, it depends on what your current RevOps team looks like. If you're starting from scratch, I honestly believe the best approach is to partner with an agency. You immediately gain expertise in sales, marketing, and operations (which includes the tech stack guy you need). You also save money not having to hire 3 people (or more) to fill these roles. 

 

Now, if you already have a RevOps team in the works, your tech stack professional needs to come from a database, back-end development-type role, someone who has worked closely with a sales team in the past. Ideally, a database developer that knows DevOps(systems, tools, reports, analytics). 

David Passman