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Meet Tessa Whittaker, VP of RevOps at ZoomInfo 👋
Tessa Whittaker has had a unique career path. She started as an Executive Assistant and eventually pivoted into operations, holding multiple project management, strategy, and sales operation leadership roles at Salesforce.
Today, Tessa is the VP of Revenue Operations at ZoomInfo, where she manages ops programs and team members across multiple functions and regions.
We recently talked with her about:
- The transition from EA to VP of RevOps – and the lessons learned
- The biggest challenges facing RevOps teams today
- How to build an effective AI strategy in RevOps
Prefer to watch instead of read? Catch the full conversion:
A winding career path: From EA to RevOps leader
Laying the foundation
Tessa kickstarted her career as an Executive Assistant and Chief of Staff. These titles are often used interchangeably, but Tessa noted some differences.
Executive Assistant
- Focused on administrative tasks
- Often responsible for:
- Event planning
- Offsite coordination
- Day-to-day operational tasks
Chief of Staff
- Focused on strategic initiatives
- Often responsible for:
- Setting the business strategy with executives
- Bringing together different groups to solve complex problems
“A Chief of Staff is more in the business – aligning on and executing strategic initiatives, while an EA is focused on the day-to-day.”
Nuances aside, in both roles, Tessa was exposed to strategic discussions and learned to take initiatives from high-level vision to actionable plan.
Today, Tessa credits much of her success in RevOps to the skills she developed as an EA, including her ability to:
- Communicate effectively: To navigate discussions with stakeholders on different teams and levels, Tessa learned to be clear, concise, and articulate.
- Build relationships and influence others: Getting buy-in from leadership and cross-functional teams is a skill Tessa honed early on.
- Get things done: With a laundry list of responsibilities, Tessa perfected her ability to execute efficiently.
“Where I am today is because I started as an executive assistant, even just the rooms I was in from the very first day in tech. You're sitting there and listening to all these incredible leaders talk about high-level business strategy and how they're going to translate that into tactical execution.”
Making the transition into RevOps
After a few years in EA and Chief of Staff roles, Tessa was looking for a new adventure.
Using the skills she had already developed, she found her way into a program manager position at Salesforce and eventually climbed the ladder in ops leadership.
It turned out that RevOps was the perfect fit, allowing Tessa to create order and structure, automate business processes, and drive teams toward key business outcomes.
If you’re considering switching to an operations role, you’re in luck. Tessa shared her top tips:
- Have a problem-solving mindset: There’s never a shortage of problems to be addressed in operations roles, so being solution-oriented is critical. Driving continuous improvement is the name of the game.
“RevOps professionals need to wake up every day thinking about how to get 1% better – not just for themselves, but for their business.”
- Hone your communication and collaboration skills: Operations is a highly cross-functional position, and RevOps is often at the center of marketing, sales, and customer success. You must be able to break down silos and simplify complex problems.
- Embrace curiosity: There will always be new tools, tech, and processes. As an operations professional, it’s your responsibility to always be learning.
“The main thing you need to be is curious and comfortable being uncomfortable.”
The world of RevOps today
Challenges plaguing RevOps professionals
Tessa outlined three of the biggest obstacles for operations folks today:
- Prioritization: The best ops teams are strategic and purposeful, not ticket-takers. They must prioritize work that moves the needle for the business long term while running day-to-day operations.
- AI: AI is on every executive's mind, and RevOps leaders have the tricky task of identifying which solutions will drive meaningful efficiency gains. With the market moving quickly, RevOps leaders are also understandably confused about which solutions are problem-solvers vs. toys.
“One of the questions that we're getting from our CEO and COO is, ‘What is our go-to market AI strategy?’”
- Data: AI is only as good as the data it’s built on. Many teams rely on CRM data, but it’s often incomplete or inaccurate, making it more challenging to use new AI technology successfully. RevOps leaders must be able to merge 1st and 3rd party data to create a foundational data layer that can be used across the tech stack. “You need a data strategy before you have an AI strategy,” shares Tessa.
How to build an AI strategy
It’s possible to overcome those challenges with the right strategy. Tessa shared her proven playbook to help you successfully implement and use AI.
- Identify your “why”: You must have a clearly defined business challenge before implementing AI. Consider the behavior you’re trying to drive and the problem you’re hoping to solve.
“You should identify the three to five business objectives and consider how you layer in AI to accelerate those or drive more efficiency.”
- Assess your current state: Detail existing processes and where there are opportunities to improve efficiency. Identify if your workflows are built to scale or if you could accomplish more with increased automation. For example, is there a process that takes 20 steps today, but could take only 4 with the addition of AI?
- Pinpoint where AI could help: Based on the work you did in the previous steps, consider where you could get the most gains from implementing AI.
- Make your case: Develop a strong point of view on why you think AI will be beneficial and be prepared to defend your position in planning or roadmap conversations. Make sure to tie it back to efficiency gains and business outcomes.
- Select and implement an AI-driven solution: Once you’ve received approval and selected a tool, implement and integrate it into your tech stack.
- Equip your team to use AI: AI is only useful if teams adopt it. You need to train end users, provide context, and showcase the benefits. Change management is critical.
“If you have all these AI solutions fundamentally changing how people work, are they going to adopt them? And are you going to see an efficiency gain?”
The future of RevOps
AI is here to stay – RevOps professionals must become well-versed in AI solutions and learn how to use the technology to work more effectively and productively.
“If you don’t adapt and evolve with AI, your career in RevOps might not be that long.”
However, AI won’t replace the need for strategic alignment and problem–solving skills. To be successful, Tessa recommends leaning into new technology while embracing foundational operations skills, like communication and relationship-building.
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