MarTech Overtime: How marketing operations teams can be more effective

Marketing operations expert, Kimi Corrigan from Duo Security at Cisco, led the MarTech East session, “How to Organize and Coach Outstanding Marketing Operations Teams.” Corrigan shared her passion for helping teams work more effectively and offered insights on navigating the work culture and the need for honest feedback. She also happens to love Schitt’s Creek and made references to gifs from the show that are relatable to her work and the reason some attendees wanted to know about her favorite character (she shares that at the end).

What is a theme for your coaching conversations?

An equal playing field. I think the best coach-player relationships are built on mutual respect and trust. Different people feel that trust by different means. Some people respond well when I share my own similar challenges and how I worked through them. Others may respond better when you share clear expectations. What I’ve learned most is that there is little to be gained by not being open to sharing or being ambiguous. 

How do you determine when a certain business request requires the need for a project manager?

Nearly everything has some level of involvement with our project manager. Even if it’s something we don’t need a project manager to manage we typically have the requestor put in a work request for the PM to assign to the right person on the team. She has the best view of the workload of each person on the team. She also acts as a buffer for requests that aren’t fully baked and projects that might have scope creep.

How large is your marketing ops team and how many project managers support?

In total, we have five full-time members of the marketing ops team, including the project manager. The PM also supports our demand-gen team of six. 

I’m from a place where there is a culture to not give honest feedback. Do you have any advice for bringing radical candor to your workplace where it would otherwise be misconstrued?

Have your team read Kim Scott’s book, Radical Candor. Her advice was perfect. “Tell your team that you think you have not been Radically Candid enough and that you’re going to try to make a big change.”

By communicating that you want to improve, you’ll show your team that you’re serious about the cultural shift. Prove that you mean it by asking for their help. Ask them to rate your feedback as well.

By building a collaborative process, you’ll improve your own impromptu feedback quicker, and you’ll help your team see first-hand the impact of Radical Candor. When they see the improvements, they’ll also be encouraged to make the change themselves.”

What is YOUR favorite episode of Schitt’s Creek? 

Impossible to pick. 

Favorite Schitt’s Creek character?

David will always be my #1, but I grew to love Alexis almost as much too. 

About The Author

Wendy Almeida

Wendy Almeida is Third Door Media's Community Editor, working with contributors for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. She has held content management roles in a range of organizations from daily newspapers and magazines to global nonprofits.