My answer is actually not revenue ops specific. But here are my answers: 1) Growth- the rising tide lifts all ships. The higher the growth rate, the more opportunities you will have to scale the business and grow your career in parallel. 2) People / culture - make sure you like who you are working for / with and how work is being done 3) Role - what exactly will you be doing? Is this aligned with your skillset / strengths / interests? 4) Industry - tech vs. non tech / actually product function and buyer type. D2C vs. B2B. These all have trade offs and you have to decide what you want. I don't think you can be pick about all four categories but the first two are my most important ones and then I usually prioritize #3 over #4 but everyone has a different calculus on what's most important to them. 

When there are only one or two team members, I would have the team focus on mission-critical projects only. The three main areas would be 1: Sales process & forecasting, 2. Define and measure KPIs, 3. Sales Compensation design. Initially, individuals will cover broader responsibilities but will not have the capacity to go very deep in each area. All of these can evolve throughout the business, but I would clearly define and set the structure by working closely with your sales leader. * Sales Process & Forecasting: You can be simple with the process. In the beginning, set 2 - 3 action items and 1 - 2 exit criteria for each stage. Don't worry too much about getting the fields or validation rules right. The key is to train the sales team so that it becomes easy to remember and follow. In one of my roles, we used to print and laminate a 1-pager, and all reps had it on their desks. Also, investing in solid forecasting tools (Aviso, Clari) will be foundational. Making sure there is visibility and enforcement on forecast categories (pipeline/upside/commit) goes a long way. * Define and Measure KPIs: For SaaS businesses, there are ~10 metrics you should care about. (ARR (by region, business type, segment), Average Deal Size, # of Deals, Cycle Time, Conversion Rates, Win Rates, # of Customers, Retention Rate, Rep Productivity, Rep Attainment). You should define these metrics and build your SFDC data structure so that anyone can easily pull these numbers. It will save you time to focus more on strategy and insights if you get the fundamentals in place. * Sales Compensation Design: Again, comp plans can be simple. There are many standard comp plans out there. I would stick to those and not do anything crazy. As the business evolves and business goals change, you would want to add components, but in general, I will keep it to the basics.

You should own all of the KPIs/metrics if you are the first revenue operations hire. Initially, you'll need to validate the data sources and availability, put a system (and potentially tools) in place to capture them and do the calculations and visulization yourselIf the first few times. I once worked at a company that did not look at any metrics in their weekly executive staff meeting. I made it my mission to develop a simple executive dashboard with operational metrics that was reviewed by leadership at the start of the call. It helped galvanize the teams in the facts and drove better decision-making. And by establishing myself as the data expert with finger on the pulse of the business, I utlimately earned a seat at the table.

Never underestimate the importance of building strong relationships at work. I honestly think all of this stems from building good relationships with the leadership across the teams and showing how RevOps can help CS improve, operate more efficiently, and achieve their goals. The fact of the matter is, both teams are working towards the same goals. When I’ve seen situations like this before, I think it’s best to focus on the following: * Focus on the shared goals across the two teams. * Create shared objectives and initiatives. * Pocket a few wins, and call attention to it. * Focus on your key stakeholders and invest the time in building the relationship. Specifically focus on ensuring you’re aligned with leadership. Remember, we’re all people - connecting on a personal level will make it more enjoyable and collaborative. * Be an internal advocate for the team where necessary.

I'd encourage you to partner with your sales leadership to align on a shared vision around your reporting and analytics roadmap and get the buy-in and sponsorship that these views will be valuable and enable them to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively (e.g. focus on the right opportunities at the right time, understand where pipeline is stalled). If they buy into the vision and what you are trying to build and rollout, then I'd suggest asking for their help in reinforcing the guidelines around deal hygiene and calls to action for the sales team. If sales leadership and reps can have a clear understanding of how they will get value from these dashboards, then they are much more likely to contribute towards ensuring their accuracy. Since this is a new approach for the organization, it will take some time and continued reinforcement and communications to drive this behavior change. 

Here are some of my favorites templates/resources 1. OpsCast Podcast (https://marketingops.com/podcasts/) 2. OpsStars Conference (https://www.ops-stars.com/) 3. Operations with Sean Lane (https://operationspodcast.drift.com/public/13/Operations-43678) 4. RevOps Podcast (https://www.revenue.io/revops-podcast) 5. Marketing Ops Professionals Slack Group 6. Darrell Alfonso - Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellalfonso/) 7. Chief Martec (https://chiefmartec.com/)

I think it comes down to a few things and I don't think this is specific to revenue ops. I borrow this concept from one of my favorite Youtubers, Ali Abdaal, who notes in his upcoming book that meaningful work boils down to three P's - power, play, and people. And if you have a team or an organization that does all three well, you'll have a good chance of retaining people. * Power is about autonomy and progress, the feeling that people have control over the work that they do. It also encapsulates a feeling of progress, and having a destination to work towards. Do people feel like they have a path forward? Do they have autonomy? Being able to say "Yes" to both is necessary to retaining (and hiring) talent. * Play is simple - it's enjoyment. It's the idea that doing the thing, the work in and of itself, is joyful and fun. Do they enjoy the work? Are they being challenged enough? Are they bored? * People is many things, but fundamentally I think it's about teams. I picture this as an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle is the immediate team that someone is in, their manager, their direct coworkers, the people they interact with on a daily basis. Is there a sense of connection with the team? Do people feel like they have to compete with one another? How are ideas discussed? How are they criticized? It's often said that people leave managers (and teams), not companies, and that's what the inner circle is about. The outer circle is the broader organization and company. It's less relevant than the inner circle, but still important. A strong sense of connection the company's mission is a indicator of retention.

Focus on getting the big systems in place first (on the sales side, for example, think CRM, data enrichment, sales engagement platform) and audit all the existing tools and processes currently in place. Ripping and replacing part of a tech stack is painful, but the earlier you make this decision, the easier it will be - so getting these tools procured and set up early-on is important. If you already have the main tech-stack pillars in place, ensure you have all the ‘future state’ tracking you’ll need (e.g. you may not need to report on stage by stage conversion rates right now, but you definitely will in the future, so ensure you are stamping the correct data points and stage details now to make life easier for future you). Meet with all of your direct (and indirect) stakeholders in your first weeks on the job - and make sure you have ongoing meetings with functional leaders. Identify their bottlenecks and pain points to help inform your first priorities - I guarantee there are some easy quick wins you’ll be able to knock out right away - this will put you in the team’s good graces and also help you create a backlog of larger items you can focus on in the next 30-60 days.

Hard skills: * Sales or marketing experiance. Gives you credibility with your internal customers. * CRM and related technologies. It's important to understand best practices and use cases for your tech strategy. * Financial analysis and budgeting. Good RevOps leaders are data-driven. Soft skills: * Critical thinking * Problem solving * Teamwork and collaboration * Communication * Abandoning the status quo

This is a non-trivial topic since Revenue Operations is often a "recommender" in many decisions, as opposed to a "decider". The "dual mandate" of the Revenue Operations function is: 1. Grow revenue faster 2. Make the go-to-market resources more productive I believe best-in-class Revenue Operations teams should have a seat at the table, with direct influence on the outcomes above. With that in mind, Revenue Operations should be accountable for: 1. Revenue growth, addressable market penetration, market share expansion 2. Revenue/ FTE, FTE HC growth vs revenue growth Since an important part of the function pertains to running effective operations, it should also be accountable for: * Plan and forecast accuracy * Rep quota attainment distribution (50/50 or equivalent philosophy) * % account transitions y/y (lower is better)