How do you balance the urgent reporting needs in a company with how much time you actually have in a day?

I assume the balance you are asking about is the need for responsive/urgent reporting or other work with longer-term strategic thinking vs. just how do you get the reporting work done in ~50 hours per week. If you're struggling to get the urgent work done in ~50 hours, then you are some combination of under-resourced, inefficient (could be skills gaps or tools/data/process gap), and poorly prioritized and should work with your stakeholders to find some solutions.

If this is about the balance of urgent vs. strategic, I think my answer to another question addresses is.

Providing strategic insights is a critical role of RevOps or Sales Ops teams but can be very challenging given the constant nature of any business and the questions/requests you get on a daily basis. Perhaps the most important way to do this is develop the ability (and the right) to say "no." You also need the right people on the team who have the skills and experience to be strategic, so think about what you're hiring for in each role. Finally, as a RevOps or Sales Ops leader, you need to have an open dialog with the CRO and Sales leadership team so they understand how you want to balance tactical work with strategic work. Without an articulated POV on what you want your team to do, it's hard to get anyone you work with to support it.

Some ways that can help you say "no" to create the space and time to

• Earn the right to say "no" by building a great relationship with your stakeholders. The Trust Equation (https://trustedadvisor.com/why-trust-matters/understanding-trust/understanding-the-trust-equation) is a helpful framework for this. The more you act as an advisor to them with the business's interest at heart, the easier it is to find ways to contribute to strategy.

• Align with your Sales partners on OKRs or quarterly goals. You can use that "contract" to allocate your team's time and push back when there are requests for new work. You'll always need to reprioritize, but this can make you less reactive.

• Automate the basics so Sales and other cross-functional partners can self-serve data questions. If you don't have to answer recurring, daily questions for them, it can open up a lot more time to be strategic.

• Be clear on what the tradeoffs are. If your team is only doing reporting work, your won't be able to drive material changes in the business. Very few senior leaders will say "that's the way I want it to be."

You should also be realistic with your team about the balance of daily run-the-business work and long-term strategy work. For more junior roles, they are likely spending 80-90% of their time on the reporting/RTB activities. At the Director+ level, that should decrease to 50% or less.

Balancing urgent reporting needs with limited time is indeed challenging and part of the day-to-day of any RevOps leader. My strategy includes few things that I find they have a lot of common sense:

Prioritization: I'm stating the obvious, but everything starts with this. In a data-saturated environment, I try to guide my team to embrace the principle that less is more. There’s a plethora of insights available, and it’s crucial for us to distill this information and present only what’s most relevant to our users. By doing so, we remove unnecessary noise and enable more educated, impactful business decisions. My team and I try very hard all the time to prioritize tasks, ensuring that we focus our efforts on the most urgent and significant reports.

Automation and Templates: I’ve encouraged my team to invest time in automating repetitive tasks and creating templates for recurring reports. This strategic foresight enhances our efficiency, enabling us to swiftly address urgent reporting needs as they arise.

Clear Communication: Transparent communication is a cornerstone of our workflow. When multiple urgent tasks are in play, my team is well-versed in setting realistic expectations with stakeholders regarding timelines and potential delays.

Delegated Focus: Rather than time-blocking on an individual level, I ensure that my team has structured workflows that allow for dedicated focus on reporting tasks. This guarantees high-quality output even when operating under tight deadlines.

Active Listening for Feedback: To stay user-centric, we have established a steering committee comprised of real users. My team actively seeks their feedback and validation before implementing major decisions or changes in our reporting processes. This practice ensures that our reports are continually refined and aligned with user needs.

With all of the above, we try to effectively balance the urgent reporting requirements of our stakeholders, ensuring timely, accurate, and relevant data support for all business decisions.