James Darragh

Head of Revenue Operations, dbt Labs

Content

What's your best revenue operations 30-60-90 day plan to make a big impact at a new company?

James Darragh

dbt Labs Head of Revenue Operations • December 7

I hit on this somewhat above but generally it should be * 30 Days: Learning and Discovery * Meet with key stakeholders (Managers and ICs) to learn current processes, bottlenecks, and paint points. Since ops roles are very cross functional, make sure you are meeting with people n......Read More

2995 Views

What's the earliest stage a startup should consider hiring a revenue operations manager?

James Darragh

dbt Labs Head of Revenue Operations • December 7

Rev ops should be a Day 2 hire - the systems and tools a company are implementing from very early days (e.g. SFDC) would benefit from a dedicated operations person to ensure that things are being built for scale. I may be biased as an ops person myself, but I think it’s extremely important to inv......Read More

1360 Views

What are the biggest surprises when going from a company where revenue operations was established to one where you have to establish revenue operations?

James Darragh

dbt Labs Head of Revenue Operations • December 7

I think the biggest surprise is what you take for granted when rev ops is already an established function. The problems and decisions you make affect many more people at an established org - but they are very different in scope (instead of deciding accelerator percentage buckets on a comp plan, y......Read More

1255 Views

What is your advice for creating and/or improving the revenue operations process when joining a small but growing team?

James Darragh

dbt Labs Head of Revenue Operations • December 7

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,......Read More

1115 Views

How do you coordinate and work cross functionally with the demand generation team to create commonly shared KPIs?

James Darragh

dbt Labs Head of Revenue Operations • December 7

The org structure I mentioned really lends itself to working cross functionally. Our marketing ops folks are embedded on the marketing team and work together to create and cascade down quarterly OKRs and KPIs. The quarterly roadmap and project plans are built collaboratively and team goals and me......Read More

1023 Views

How do you retain good talent, especially when revenue operations roles are in such high demand across the industry?

James Darragh

dbt Labs Head of Revenue Operations • December 7

This is a great question - so many things about talent retention have to do with the company as a whole vs. things that I have control over on the operations team. So the first thing is to join a company that aligns with your values and where you believe in the mission and leadership; retention i......Read More

898 Views

What does your revenue operations team org structure look like?

James Darragh

dbt Labs Head of Revenue Operations • December 7

We have a centralized ops team at dbt Labs - rolling up to the G&A org. I've worked in both siloed and centralized operations teams in the past and have a strong preference for a centralized structure (i.e. all rev ops functions roll up to one leader vs. marketing ops rolling up to a CMO and sale......Read More