What attracted you to work at the Adobe Strategy and Ops Team? Additionally, what is Adobe's vision in setting up the Revenue Ops team?

Prior to joining Adobe, I worked as an economic consultant specializing in antitrust and competition. Like most consultants joining fresh out of undergrad, I saw consulting as a stepping stone and a great opportunity to learn a lot while figuring out what I wanted to do long term. At the time I was debating three exit ops: (1) get an MBA, (2) get a PhD in economics and become a professor, or (3) work in tech.

After working for two years, the third option appealed to me most because it represented the most choice, and in some ways, almost a round two of consulting - a great place to learn a ton of useful skills while figuring out what I enjoy long term. In the absence of clarity, pick a direction that seems reasonable and figure it out along the way. That's advice a lot of mentors have given me. Most of us don't know what we "really" want to do, so prioritize learning and give yourself the best shot possible to keep growing.

That's what attracted me the most about my current role. Although Adobe is an old organization (as far as tech companies go), the team I'm in is relatively new and growing quickly. There's a ton of whitespace, a ton of new challenges, and consequently a lot of opportunities to grow. That said, it's not all work, all hustle, all the time. Within tech, Adobe has a strong reputation for promoting work-life balance and in my experience, that's been true. As an example, Adobe has company wide week-long shutdowns in the summer and winter, true time off to unplug where since everyone's offline, there's no pressure to still work/check emails. Put those things together and this role felt like the perfect launchpad into the next stage of my career, balancing both career growth and personal well-being.

I loved how one Exponent article put it, "One of the best parts of a BizOps role is that you can be like a chameleon—morphing and changing to address the most critical needs of a business. [...] You get enormous visibility into how a company thinks from the top down. How each team sets priorities can help you see how a business is growing and preparing for the future."

On vision, the one-liner is to be true strategic partners rather than simply data aggregators. Internally, we call the latter function "reporting the news" where traditionally, ops has been focused on running day-to-day operations - things like measuring and reporting pipeline, tracking deals, etc. These are are vital functions and necessary for running the business, but the vision is to go one step further and think of ways to also change the business. It's the difference between just reporting pipeline coverage vs. coming up with initiatives to improve pipeline coverage (by increasing generation, conversion, quality, etc.).

*Footnote: on why an MBA and a PhD didn't make sense for me after consulting

• On (1), I felt that getting an MBA felt pre-mature without first working in a different industry and getting broader functional exposure. I also didn't have a clear idea of what I would be doing the MBA for and didn't have a strong vision of what I wanted to do afterwards. It simply felt like something I "should" do. I know many people who have gone straight into their MBA after consulting and done very well, but it didn't feel right for me.

• On (2), I don't know that I've completely thrown out the idea of becoming a professor. I've always loved teaching/mentoring and there's something quite appealing about living out in a college town and being able to teach and study and research things you love. But I'm not convinced I love economics (or any subject frankly) enough to devote 5 years of grad school and the rest of my immediate future to it.