Episodios

  • 197: Anna Leary: The Art of saying no and other mental health strategies in marketing ops

    197: Anna Leary: The Art of saying no and other mental health strategies in marketing ops
    Nov 25 2025
    What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Anna Leary, Director of Marketing Operations at Alma.(00:00) - Intro (01:15) - In This Episode (04:38) - How to Prevent Burnout (05:46) - What Companies Can Do Better (07:50) - Agility of Planning (08:53) - Why Saying No Strengthens Marketing Operations (13:48) - How to Decide When to Push Back (18:03) - Hill To Die On (20:03) - How to Handle Constant Pushback (29:55) - Wishlist (37:06) - How to Use Asynchronous Communication to Reduce Stress (44:24) - How To Evaluate Martech Tools Based On Real Business Impact (48:45) - Why Marketing Ops Needs Visible Work Systems (51:24) - Health Awareness (52:56) - How to Recognize and Prevent Burnout in Marketing OperationsSummary: Anna built systems to keep marketing running smoothly, but the real lesson came when those same systems failed to protect her. In this episode, she shares how saying no became her survival skill, why visibility is the antidote to burnout, and how calm structure (not constant hustle) keeps teams sharp and human. It’s a story about boundaries, balance, and learning to lead without losing yourself.About AlmaAnna Leary is the Director of Marketing Operations at Alma, where she builds scalable systems that help marketing teams work smarter. With a focus on lead flow, data architecture, and enablement, she’s known for creating centers of excellence that turn fragmented operations into cohesive, measurable programs. As a Marketo Certified Solutions Architect and Marketo Measure (Bizible) specialist, Anna brings a rare balance of technical depth and strategic clarity to every initiative she leads.Before joining Alma, Anna spent more than a decade shaping marketing operations strategies for brands like Uber, Teamwork, Sauce Labs, and Bitly. Whether optimizing attribution models or training teams to adopt new workflows, Anna’s work always centers on efficiency, empowerment, and driving impact across the full marketing ecosystem.Burnout and BalanceMarketing ops work demands constant precision. Teams juggle system integrations, data cleanups, and new tech rollouts, often all before lunch. The job requires mental endurance and a tolerance for chaos. Anna understands this well. “Everyone’s trying to be the person who knows the newest tech,” she said. “It’s hard to keep up, and that adds to the mental load.” The competition to stay relevant has turned into a quiet stress test that too many operators fail without noticing.The strange part is that ops teams often create systems designed to protect their organizations but rarely use those same systems to protect themselves. Anna explained how Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can lose their meaning when teams treat them as flexible. Urgent requests push through, exceptions pile up, and structure dissolves. Each “quick favor” chips away at the purpose of having defined processes. She put it plainly:“If we’re making an exception for everything, then we’re not respecting the process.”When teams stop respecting their own boundaries, burnout follows quickly. SLAs exist to create stability, and stability is what keeps people sane. Following process is not bureaucracy; it is protection. It gives operators time to think clearly, plan ahead, and make fewer reactive decisions. That way you can build predictability into your week instead of letting other people’s emergencies define it.Anna also shared how her team reworked its entire planning system to reduce stress. “We used to do quarterly capacity planning,” she said, “but half the projects fell apart by week four.” She scrapped the process and replaced it with smaller, rolling cycles that fit the unpredictable nature of marketing requests. For someone who identifies as Type A, letting go of that much structure felt risky, but the tradeoff was worth it. Her team now works with more energy, less anxiety, and a better sense of control.“Giving up some of that control is actually good in the end because it’s less stressful.”Her story shows how burnout prevention depends on structure that adapts. Ops professionals do their best work when their systems reflect real life, not an idealized version of it. Boundaries, planning, and discipline should support humans, not box them in.Key takeaway: Protect your team’s mental health by enforcing the systems you build. Treat SLAs as promises, not preferences. Review your planning cycles regularly and adjust them to match the actual pace of work. Stability in ops comes from building rules that people respect and structures that evolve as the business changes.The Power of NoSaying no is one of the hardest and most necessary skills in marketing operations. Every week brings a new request, a “quick fix,” or a last-minute idea that someone swears will only take five minutes. Anna treats these moments as boundary checks. They test whether her team can protect their focus without losing trust or influence across the ...
    Más Menos
    56 m
  • 196: Blair Bendel: The World of casino marketing and the tech that brings it to life

    196: Blair Bendel: The World of casino marketing and the tech that brings it to life
    Nov 18 2025
    What’s up everyone today we have the pleasure of chatting with Blair Bendel, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Foxwoods Resort Casino.(00:00) - Intro (00:49) - In This Episode (03:39) - Evolution of Casino Martech (06:11) - Customer Loyalty & Personalization (09:36) - Using the Right Marketing Channel for the Right Goal in Hospitality (12:38) - Foxwood’s Martech and Customer Data Migration to MoEngage (15:05) - Picking MoEngage (20:07) - Why Change Tools?? (22:46) - Implementing a New Platform (24:58) - Building Structure for 24/7/365 Casino Marketing (31:20) - Key Things to Track (33:15) - Fail Fast, Learn Faster (37:25) - Balancing Big Data with Privacy (40:23) - Why AI Will Not Fix Casino Marketing Overnight (43:23) - Exploring AI (46:59) - Human Experience Drives Long-Term Casino Revenue (49:05) - Human Side (52:12) - Why Face-to-Face Conversations Strengthen Marketing TeamsSummary: The casino floor never sleeps. Lights hum, cards shuffle, and people come not just to gamble but to feel alive. While other industries went digital overnight, casinos stayed grounded in human moments, and Blair’s mission has been to connect those experiences through smarter tech. At Foxwoods, he replaced a maze of disconnected martech with a single platform, giving his team one clear view of every guest. Push messages became quick nudges, emails carried depth, and silence built trust. In a business that runs 24/7/365, his team moves fast, learns constantly, and protects what matters most: guest privacy. About BlairBlair Bendel has spent nearly two decades shaping brands that make casinos feel alive. As SVP of Marketing at Foxwoods Resort Casino, one of the world’s largest gaming and entertainment destinations, he leads strategy across brand, digital, loyalty, and guest experience for a property owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.Before Foxwoods, Blair drove marketing for Boyd Gaming and Pinnacle Entertainment, guiding multi-property teams through high-stakes launches and rebrands. Known for blending data and instinct, he’s built campaigns that turn foot traffic into fandom and moments into measurable growth.The Evolution of Casino MartechCasinos thrive on the energy of real people in real spaces. Blair has spent his career in that environment, where the hum of slot machines and the rhythm of foot traffic define success. He points out that while other industries rushed to digitize, gaming and hospitality focused on the on-property experience that drives most of their revenue. Technology in this world serves the guest standing in front of you, not a distant audience online.“There’s a lot of innovation, but it’s all centered around that customer and that on-property experience,” Blair said.Walk across a modern casino floor and you see how far that innovation has gone. Slot machines now reach twelve feet high, lit by curved screens that feel more like immersive art installations than games. Even bingo, once a paper-and-pen ritual, lives on tablets. These changes reflect more than aesthetic upgrades. They mark the blending of digital personalization with in-person entertainment. Each new machine and experience collects data, interprets patterns, and helps casinos understand what keeps players coming back.Blair sees the next phase of progress in the pairing of martech systems and artificial intelligence. Casinos have long collected data on player habits, but much of it stayed locked in isolated databases. AI now connects those dots, linking preferences, visit frequency, and loyalty activity into one living profile. That way you can predict what a guest wants before they ask for it. Personalized dining offers, targeted game promotions, or well-timed follow-up messages all become part of a continuous loop that strengthens engagement.Still, Blair focuses on the human side of this transformation. “People assume tech makes everything easier, and it doesn’t,” he said. Each new platform requires training, integration, and trust. Martech without people who know how to use it becomes clutter. Blair spends much of his time ensuring his team understands the technology deeply enough to keep the guest experience effortless. The strategy depends on teams who can think like data analysts and act like hosts.Key takeaway: Martech and AI can elevate on-property hospitality when used to deepen human connection instead of replacing it. Integrate systems that unify guest data, but prioritize training and comfort among your team. When your people trust the tools and your guests feel known, technology quietly fades into the background while loyalty takes center stage.Customer Loyalty and Personalization in Casino MarketingCasino marketing has operated on autopilot for too long. Guests still get dropped into massive segmentation buckets, treated as if their weekend habits, entertainment tastes, and spending patterns are interchangeable. Blair describes it bluntly: “We still send show offers to guests who’...
    Más Menos
    55 m
  • 195: Megan Kwon: How One of Canada’s largest retailers orchestrates messaging, and structures martech

    195: Megan Kwon: How One of Canada’s largest retailers orchestrates messaging, and structures martech
    Nov 11 2025
    What’s up folks, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Megan Kwon, Director, Digital Customer Communications at Loblaw Digital.(00:00) - Intro (01:26) - In This Episode (04:11) - Building a Career Around Conversations That Scale (06:25) - Customer Journey Pods and Martech Team Structures (09:08) - Martech Team Structures (11:23) - Customer Journey Martech Pods (12:54) - How to Assign Martech Tool Ownership and Drive Real Adoption (14:54) - Martech Training and Onboarding (17:30) - How To Integrate New Martech Into Daily Habits (19:59) - Why Change Champions Work in Martech Transformation (24:11) - Change Champion Example (28:25) - How To Manage Transactional Messaging Across Multiple Brands (32:35) - Frequency and Recency Capping (35:59) - Why Shared Ownership Improves Transactional Messaging (41:50) - Why Human Governance Still Matters in AI Messaging (47:11) - Why Curiosity Matters in Adapting to AI (53:08) - Creating Sustainable Energy in Marketing LeadershipSummary: Megan leads digital customer communications at Loblaw Digital, turning enterprise-scale messaging into something that feels personal. She built her teams around the customer journey, giving each pod full creative and data ownership. The people driving results also own the tools, learning by building and celebrating small wins. Her “change champions” make new ideas stick, and her view on AI is grounded; use it to go faster, not think for you. Curiosity, she says, is what keeps marketing human.About MeganMegan Kwon runs digital customer communications at Loblaw Digital, the team behind how millions of Canadians hear from brands like Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, and President’s Choice. She’s part strategist, part systems thinker, and fully obsessed with how data can make marketing feel more human, not less.Before returning to Loblaw, Megan helped reshape how people discover and trust local marketplaces at Kijiji, and before that, she built growth engines in the fintech world at NorthOne. Her career has been a study in scale; from scrappy e-commerce tests to national lifecycle programs that touch nearly every Canadian household. What sets her apart is the way she leads: with deep curiosity, radical ownership, and a bias for collaboration. She believes numbers tell stories, and that the best marketing teams build movements around insight, empathy, and accountability.Building a Career Around Conversations That ScaleRunning digital messaging at Loblaw means coordinating communication at a scale that few marketers ever experience. Megan oversees the systems that deliver millions of emails and texts across brands Canadians interact with daily, including Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, and President’s Choice. Her team manages both marketing and transactional messages, making sure each one aligns with a specific stage in the customer journey. The workload is immense. Each division has its own priorities, and every campaign needs to fit within a shared infrastructure that still feels personal to the customer.“We work with a lot of different business divisions across the entire organization. Our job is to make sure their strategies and programs come to life through the customer lifecycle.”Megan’s team operates more like a connective tissue than a broadcast engine. They bridge the gaps between marketing, product, and data teams, translating disconnected strategies into a unified experience. That work involves building systems capable of:Managing multiple brand voices while keeping messaging consistentTriggering real-time communications that respond to customer behaviorIntegrating old and new technologies without breaking operational flowEvery campaign becomes part of a continuous conversation with the customer. Each message is one step in a long dialogue, not a one-off announcement.Megan’s perspective comes from experience earned in very different industries. She began her career at Loblaw during the early days of online grocery, a time when digital operations were experimental and resourceful. She later worked across fintech, marketplaces, and paid media before returning to Loblaw. That journey helped her understand every layer of the customer funnel, from acquisition through retention. It also taught her how to combine growth marketing tactics with enterprise-level communication systems, that way she can scale personalization without losing humanity.Most large organizations still treat messaging as a collection of isolated programs. Megan treats it as an ecosystem. Her work shows that when lifecycle and acquisition efforts operate within a shared framework, communication becomes more coherent and far more effective. Alignment between data, channels, and teams reduces noise and builds trust with customers who engage across multiple brands.Key takeaway: Building a unified messaging ecosystem starts with structure, not volume. Create systems that connect channels, data, and brand voices into one coordinated experience. Treat...
    Más Menos
    55 m
  • 194: Jane Menyo: How Gong democratized customer proof with AI research and standardized prompts

    194: Jane Menyo: How Gong democratized customer proof with AI research and standardized prompts
    Nov 4 2025
    What’s up everyone today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Jane Menyo, Sr. Director, Solutions & Customer Marketing @ Gong.(00:00) - Jane-audio (01:01) - In This Episode (04:43) - How Solutions Marketing Turns Customer Insights Into Strategy (09:22) - Using AI to Mine Real Customer Intelligence from Conversations (13:18) - Why Stitching Research Sequences Works in Customer Marketing (17:09) - Using AI Trackers to Uncover Buyer Behavior in Sales Conversations (23:21) - How Standardized Prompts Improve Sales Enablement Systems (29:43) - Building Messaging Systems That Scale Across Industries (34:15) - How Gong’s Research Assistant Slack Bot Delivers Instant Customer Proof (38:26) - Avoiding Mediocre AI Marketing Research (43:42) - Why Customer Proof Outperforms AI-Generated Marketing (45:41) - Why Rest Strengthens Creative Output in MarketingSummary: Jane built her marketing practice around listening. At Gong, she turned raw customer conversations into a live feedback system that connects sales calls, product strategy, and messaging in real time. Her team uses AI to surface patterns from the field and feed them back into content that actually reflects how people buy. She runs on curiosity and recovery, finding her best ideas mid-run. In a world obsessed with producing more, Jane’s work reminds marketers to listen better. The smartest strategies start in the quiet moments when someone finally hears what the customer’s been saying all along.About JaneJane Menyo leads Solutions and Customer Marketing at Gong, where she’s known for fusing strategy with storytelling to turn customers into true advocates. She built Gong’s customer marketing engine from the ground up, scaling programs that drive adoption, retention, and community impact across the company’s revenue intelligence ecosystem.Before Gong, Jane led customer and solutions marketing at ON24, where she developed go-to-market playbooks and launched large-scale advocacy initiatives that connected customer voice to product innovation. Earlier in her career, she helped shape demand generation and brand strategy at Comprehend Systems (a Y Combinator and Sequoia-backed life sciences startup) laying the operational groundwork that fueled growth.A former NCAA All-American and U.S. Olympic Trials contender, Jane brings a rare blend of discipline, creativity, and competitive energy to her leadership. Her approach to marketing is grounded in empathy and powered by data; a balance that turns customer stories into growth engines.How Solutions Marketing Turns Customer Insights Into StrategyJane’s role at Gong evolved from building customer advocacy programs to leading both customer and solutions marketing. What began as storytelling and adoption work expanded into shaping how Gong positions its products for different personas and industries. The shift moved her from celebrating customer wins to architecting how those wins inform the company’s broader go-to-market strategy.Persona marketing only works when it goes beyond demographics and titles. Jane treats it as an operational system that connects customer understanding with product truth. Her team studies how real people use Gong, where they get stuck, what outcomes they care about, and how their teams actually make buying decisions. Those details guide every message Gong sends into the market. It is a constant feedback loop that keeps the company close to how customers think and work.Her solutions marketing team functions like a mirror to product marketing. Product marketers focus on what the product can do, while Jane’s team translates that into why it matters to specific audiences. They do not write from feature lists. They write from the field. When a sales manager spends half her day in Gong but still struggles to coach reps efficiently, Jane’s team crafts stories and materials that speak directly to that pain. The goal is to make every communication feel like it was written from inside the customer’s daily workflow.“Our work is about meeting customers where they are and helping them get to outcomes faster,” Jane said.That perspective only works when every team in the company has equal access to the customer’s voice. Gong’s own technology makes that possible. Conversations, feedback, and usage patterns are captured and shared automatically, so customer knowledge is no longer limited to those on the front lines. Jane’s group uses that visibility to deepen persona profiles, test new positioning, and identify emerging trends before they reach scale. It makes the company more responsive and keeps messaging grounded in real behavior instead of assumption.For anyone building customer marketing systems, the lesson is practical. Treat persona development as a live system, not a static report. Use customer data to update your understanding regularly. Create tools that let everyone in your company hear what customers say in their own words. That way you can write content, sales ...
    Más Menos
    53 m
  • 193: David Joosten: The Politics and architecture of martech transformation

    193: David Joosten: The Politics and architecture of martech transformation
    Oct 28 2025
    What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with David Joosten, Co-Founder and President at GrowthLoop and the co-author of ‘First-Party Data Activation’.(00:00) - Intro (01:02) - In This Episode (03:47) - Earning The Right To Transform Martech (08:17) - Why Internal Roadshows Make Martech Wins Stick (10:52) - Architecture Shapes How Teams Move and What They Believe (16:25) - Bring Order to Customer Data With the Medallion Framework (21:33) - The Real Enemy of Martech is Fragmented Data (28:39) - Stop Calling Your CRM the Source of Truth (34:47) - Building the Tech Stack People Rally Behind (38:18) - Why Most CDP Failures Start With Organizational Misalignment (44:18) - Why Tough Conversations Strengthen Lifecycle Marketing (55:15) - Why Experimentation Culture Strengthens Martech Leadership (01:00:00) - How to Use a North Star to Stay Focused in LeadershipSummary: David learned that martech transformation begins with proof people can feel. Early in his career, he built immaculate systems that looked impressive but delivered nothing real. Everything changed when a VP asked him to show progress instead of idealistic roadmaps. From that moment, David focused on momentum and quick wins. Those early victories turned into stories that spread across the company and built trust naturally. Architecture became his silent advantage, shaping how teams worked together and how confidently they moved. About DavidDavid is the co-founder of GrowthLoop, a composable customer data platform that helps marketers connect insights to action across every channel. He previously worked at Google, where he led global marketing programs and helped launch the Nexus 5 smartphone. Over the years, he has guided teams at Indeed, Priceline, and Google in building first-party data strategies that drive clarity, collaboration, and measurable growth.He is the co-author of First-Party Data Activation: Modernize Your Marketing Data Platform, a practical guide for marketers who want to understand their customers through direct, consent-based interactions. David helps teams move faster by removing data friction and building marketing systems that adapt through experimentation. His work brings energy and empathy to the challenge of modernizing data-driven marketing.Earning The Right To Transform MartechEvery marketing data project starts with ambition. Teams dream of unified dashboards, connected pipelines, and a flawless single source of truth. Then the build begins, and progress slows to a crawl. David remembers one project vividly. His team at GrowthLoop had connected more than 200 data fields for a global tech company, yet every new campaign still needed more. The setup looked impressive, but nothing meaningful was shipping.“We spent quarters building the perfect setup,” David said. “Then the VP of marketing called me and said, ‘Where are my quick wins?’”That question changed his thinking. The VP wasn’t asking for reports or architecture diagrams. He wanted visible proof that the investment was worth it. He needed early wins he could show to leadership to keep momentum alive. David realized that transformation happens through demonstration, not design. Theoretical perfection means little when no one in marketing can point to progress.From then on, he started aiming for traction over theory. That meant focusing on use cases that delivered impact quickly. He looked for under-supported teams that were hungry to try new tools, small markets that moved fast, and forgotten product lines desperate for attention. Those early adopters created visible success stories. Their enthusiasm turned into social proof that carried the project forward.Momentum built through results is what earns the right to transform. When others in the organization see evidence of progress, they stop questioning the system and start asking how to join it.Key takeaway: Martech transformations thrive on proof, not perfection. Target high-energy teams where quick wins are possible, deliver tangible outcomes fast, and use that momentum to secure organizational buy-in. Transformation is granted to those who prove it works, one visible success at a time.Why Internal Roadshows Make Martech Wins StickAn early martech win can disappear as quickly as it arrives. A shiny dashboard, a clean sync, or a new workflow can fade into noise unless you turn it into something bigger. David explains that the real work begins when you move beyond Slack celebrations and start building visibility across the company. The most effective teams bring their success to where influence actually happens. They show up in weekly leadership meetings for sales, data, and marketing, and they connect their progress to the company’s larger mission. That connection transforms an isolated result into shared purpose.“If you can get invited to those regular meetings and actually tie the win back to the larger vision, you’ll bring people along in a much bigger way,” ...
    Más Menos
    1 h y 3 m
  • 192: Angela Vega: Expedia’s Martech leader on ADHD, discernment, and the art of picking battles in martech

    192: Angela Vega: Expedia’s Martech leader on ADHD, discernment, and the art of picking battles in martech
    Oct 21 2025
    What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Angela Vega, Director, Capabilities and Operations at Expedia Group.(00:00) - ‌Intro (01:18) - In This Episode (04:55) - Building an ADHD Techstack (11:11) - Why ADHD Shapes Better Decision-Making in Marketing Operations (19:06) - How to Turn ADHD Patterns Into Martech Leadership Strengths (23:38) - Why ADHD Helps Marketers Build Better Systems (31:25) - Building a Bridge Between Strategy and Execution in Marketing Ops (37:21) - Execution Defines Whether Ideas Live or Die (41:19) - Why Recent Execution Experience Builds Better Marketing Leaders (46:09) - How to Build Discernment in Martech Leadership (52:52) - Energy Economics for Marketing Ops Leaders (01:00:39) - How to Build a Personal Growth Formula in Marketing LeadershipSummary: Angela built her ADHD tech stack as a way to survive the noise in her own head, turning distraction into design. Her workflow (Offload, Shape, Prototype, Loop, and Anchor) channels restless thought into motion through AI tools like Whisper and GPT. After her second pregnancy and a diagnosis that reframed her chaos, Angela stopped fighting her wiring and built systems that worked with it. Her fast, pattern-driven brain now thrives in marketing operations, where complexity rewards connection. She reads emotion like data, earning trust through clarity and transparency, and reminds leaders that execution, not strategy decks, moves companies forward. These days she measures success in energy and her mantra is “It’s just marketing, we’re not in the ER”.About AngelaAngela Vega has spent over 13 years in FinTech, health, and travel, she has unified global martech stacks, accelerated execution ninefold, and led CRM for Expedia, Vrbo, and Hotels.com, supporting over a billion monthly customer interactions. Her leadership grows both teams and ideas. She blends creative intuition with operational rigor, translating insight into systems that last. As a late-diagnosed ADHD professional, she experiments with AI to help neurodivergent leaders thrive, proving that marketing can be both human and scalable.Building an ADHD TechstackAngela built her ADHD Tech Stack to make her brain an ally instead of a hurdle. The system blends ADHD science with AI practicality, turning common executive function challenges into structured momentum. Each part of her workflow (Offload, Shape, Prototype, Loop, and Anchor) acts as a circuit for channeling mental noise into clarity. It is both a workflow and a survival strategy for people who juggle too many tabs at once, whether they are digital or mental.Her starting point came from frustration. Lists, sticky notes, and phone alarms worked for a while but always hit a ceiling. The real struggle was never remembering to do things but figuring out where to start. Executive function is about getting from idea to action, and for ADHD professionals, that gap can feel massive. Angela found her bridge in AI tools that could listen, capture, and organize her thinking in real time. Whisper transcribes her thoughts. GPT shapes them into frameworks. Gemini helps her plan and communicate with clarity.“I talk out loud all the time. Instead of saying things into the abyss, I say them into AI,” Angela said. “One system holds my to-dos, another handles updates for my boss, and another helps me break big goals into smaller steps.”Her stack follows five steps that anyone can adapt:Offload: Speak or type ideas into AI to clear mental clutter.Shape: Ask AI to sort and group ideas into logical categories.Prototype: Turn thoughts into quick drafts or mockups to trigger dopamine and action.Loop: Use AI for feedback, reflection, and gentle nudges that replace self-criticism.Anchor: Set reminders, templates, and adaptive systems that help you return to projects smoothly.Angela’s framework works because it aligns tools with real human behavior instead of forcing people into rigid systems. The design rewards momentum over perfection. It gives permission to think out loud, change direction, and experiment without shame. Every ADHD brain operates differently, so every system should too. AI’s flexibility makes that possible by turning scattered thoughts into structured workflows without losing the spark that drives creativity.Key takeaway: Treat productivity as a design challenge, not a discipline test. Use AI to capture ideas before they vanish, shape them into usable form, and build adaptive anchors that forgive interruptions. That way you can create a personal martech system that channels ADHD energy into consistent output, steady progress, and fewer moments of paralysis.Why ADHD Shapes Better Decision-Making in Marketing OperationsADHD rewires how people handle complexity, and marketing operations thrive on complexity. Angela discovered that her diagnosis reframed everything about her work and leadership. Years of restless multitasking, late-night thought spirals, and endless side projects ...
    Más Menos
    1 h y 6 m
  • 191: Aboli Gangreddiwar: Self healing data agents, hivemind memory curators and living documentation

    191: Aboli Gangreddiwar: Self healing data agents, hivemind memory curators and living documentation
    Oct 14 2025
    What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Aboli Gangreddiwar, Senior Director of Lifecycle and Product Marketing at Credible. (00:00) - Intro (01:10) - In This Episode (04:54) - Agentic Infrastructure Components in Marketing Operations (09:52) - Self Healing Data Quality Agents (16:36) - Data Activation Agents (26:56) - Campaign QA Agents (32:53) - Compliance Agents (39:59) - Hivemind Memory Curator (51:22) - AI Browsers Could Power Living Documentation (58:03) - How to Stay Balanced as a Marketing LeaderSummary: Aboli and Phil explore AI agent use cases and the operational efficiency potential of AI for marketing Ops teams. Data quality agents promise self-healing pipelines, though their value depends on strong metadata. QA agents catch broken links, design flaws, and compliance issues before launch, shrinking review cycles from days to minutes. An AI hivemind memory curator that records every experiment and outcome, giving teams durable knowledge instead of relying on long-tenured employees. Documentation agents close the loop, with AI browsers hinting at a future where SOPs and playbooks stay accurate by default. About AboliAboli Gangreddiwar is the Senior Director of Lifecycle and Product Marketing at Credible, where she leads growth, retention, and product adoption for the personal finance marketplace. She has previously led lifecycle and product marketing at Sundae, helping scale the business from Series A to Series C, and held senior roles at Prosper Marketplace and Wells Fargo. Aboli has built and managed high-performing teams across acquisition, lifecycle, and product marketing, with a track record of driving customer growth through a data-driven, customer-first approach.Agentic Infrastructure Components in Marketing OperationsAgentic infrastructure depends on layers that work together instead of one-off experiments. Aboli starts with the data layer because every agent needs the same source of truth. If your data is fragmented, agents will fail before they even start. Choosing whether Snowflake, Databricks, or another warehouse becomes less about vendor preference and more about creating a system where every agent reads from the same place. That way you can avoid rework and inconsistencies before anything gets deployed.Orchestration follows as the layer that turns isolated tools into workflows. Most teams play with a single agent at a time, like one that generates subject lines or one that codes email templates. Those agents may produce something useful, but orchestration connects them into a process that runs without human babysitting. In lifecycle marketing, that could mean a copy agent handing text to a Figma agent for design, which then passes to a coding agent for HTML. The difference is night and day: disconnected experiments versus a relay where agents actually collaborate.“If I am sending out an email campaign, I could have a copy agent, a Figma agent, and a coding agent. Right now, teams are building those individually, but at some point you need orchestration so they can pass work back and forth.”Execution is where many experiments stall. An agent cannot just generate outputs in a vacuum. It needs an environment where the work lives and runs. Sometimes this looks like a custom GPT creating copy inside OpenAI. Other times it connects directly to a marketing automation platform to publish campaigns. Execution means wiring agents into systems that already matter for your business. That way you can turn novelty into production-level work.Feedback and human oversight close the loop. Feedback ensures agents learn from results instead of repeating the same mistakes, and human review protects brand standards, compliance, and legal requirements. Tools like Zapier already help agents talk across systems, and protocols like MCP push the idea even further. These pieces are developing quickly, but most teams still treat them as experiments. Building infrastructure means treating feedback and oversight as required layers, not extras.Key takeaway: Agentic infrastructure requires more than a handful of isolated agents. Build it in five layers: a unified data warehouse, orchestration to coordinate handoffs, execution inside production tools, feedback loops that improve performance, and human oversight for brand safety. Draw this stack for your own team and map what exists today. That way you can see the gaps clearly and design the next layer with intention instead of chasing hype.Self Healing Data Quality AgentsAutonomous data quality agents are being pitched as plug-and-play custodians for your warehouse. Vendors claim they can auto-fix more than 200 common data problems using patterns they have already mapped from other customers. Instead of ripping apart your stack, you “plug in” the agent to your warehouse or existing data layer. From there, the system runs on the execution layer, watching data as it flows in, cleaning and correcting records without waiting ...
    Más Menos
    1 h y 3 m
  • 190: Henk-jan ter Brugge: The Head of Martech at Philips thinks martech has outgrown marketing and it’s time we lead like pirates

    190: Henk-jan ter Brugge: The Head of Martech at Philips thinks martech has outgrown marketing and it’s time we lead like pirates
    Oct 7 2025
    What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Henk-jan ter Brugge, Head of global digital programs and Martech at Philips.(00:00) - Intro (01:17) - In This Episode (05:11) - Embracing the Digital Pirate Mindset in Martech (16:18) - Why Clean Data Is the Real Treasure Map for AI in Marketing Ops (19:20) - Why Composable Martech Stacks Work in High Seas Regulated Enterprises (24:35) - Rethinking Martech as People Tech (32:51) - Elevating Martech Teams Beyond Button Pushing (37:16) - Where Martech Should Report in the Organization (42:58) - Unlocking Innovation Through the Long Tail of Martech (47:42) - The Limits of Vendor Isolation in Martech (52:12) - Philips Digital Marketing & e-Commerce Stack (55:10) - How to Use Weekly Prioritization to Protect EnergySummary: Henk-jan works like a pirate inside the navy, exposing inefficiency with data, redesigning roles around real capabilities, and breaking AI promises into measurable wins backed by clean data and clear standards. He treats composability as an operating model with budgets tied to usage, gives local teams autonomy within guardrails, and measures martech by how it serves people and drives revenue. Ops leaders earn influence by pulling in allies and securing executive sponsorship, while reporting debates matter less than accountability and outcomes. Real innovation comes from embracing the long tail of smaller tools, working with vendors who integrate into the ecosystem, building adoption models with champions, and protecting energy through ruthless prioritization.About Henk-janHenk-jan ter Brugge is Head of Digital Programs and Martech at Philips, where he leads the global digital marketing and ecommerce technology team. With over a decade at Philips, he has driven transformation across CRM, ecommerce, sales enablement, web experience, ad tech, analytics, and AI innovation. Henk-jan is a lean and agile certified leader who believes technology is an enabler, but it’s people who create the real impact. His career spans international experience in Seoul, Paris, and Shanghai, and he is a frequent keynote speaker on martech, salestech, and digital transformation. Passionate about improving health and wellbeing through meaningful innovation, he connects strategy, technology, and change management to deliver customer value at scale.Embracing the Digital Pirate Mindset in MartechPirates were early system hackers. They rewrote rules on their ships, experimented with shared decision-making, and introduced ideas like equal pay centuries before they reached land. That spirit of rewriting norms has carried into Henk-jan’s work in martech. He frames the pirate as someone inside the navy, pushing the big ship to move differently, rather than a rogue causing chaos on the outside.Corporate inertia creates its own myths. Vendor onboarding still takes 12 to 18 months in some organizations. Translation cycles hold content hostage for weeks. Colleagues accept these delays as culture, with a shrug and a “that’s just how we do things.” Henk-jan refuses to let tradition dictate output. He arms himself with data and turns it into proof. If a team claims a translation cycle takes three months, he presents the real number: 10, 15, maybe 20 days.“Everything we say can be data driven. If someone tells me translation takes three months, I can show with data that it takes 10, 15, maybe 20 days. The data talks there.”The pirate mindset works only when it builds coalitions. Lone rebels fade out in corporate structures. Movements form when people across teams share the same impatience for inefficiency and the same hunger for progress. That is why Henk-jan focuses on allies who welcome change. With them, he introduces controlled experiments that rewire expectations step by step until the new way becomes the default.One of his boldest moves came in team design. He rebranded product owners as platform managers. They stopped acting like ticket clerks and became capability builders, consultants, and business partners. They handled strategy, education, and enablement, while still owning the backlog. A time study revealed that 70 percent of team energy had been going into internal operations. After the shift, 60 percent went directly into business-facing work. The lesson was clear: titles shape behavior, and behavior shapes impact.Key takeaway: The digital pirate mindset thrives when you expose inefficiency with data, recruit allies who share your appetite for change, and redesign roles so teams build capabilities instead of servicing tickets. Work inside the system, use transparency to gain trust, and experiment in controlled steps. That way you can redirect energy from internal bureaucracy toward direct customer value, creating momentum that compounds over time.Why Clean Data Is the Real Treasure Map for AI in Marketing OpsSpeaking of chasing treasures… AI has forced leadership teams to finally pay attention to the quality of their data. Henk-jan...
    Más Menos
    1 h