Richard Propst

There is a growing trend (again) of middle managers being let go in the last year, with the middle now accounting for about 30% of all layoffs. This. Is. Alarming. Why? I get the need for companies to become more "agile" or "nimble" with efficiency being the mantra of the moment. No argument from me here. But when you're laying off the very people that are supposed to be empowering the front lines, alarm bells should be going off in your company. For organizations focused on customer and employee experience, and I'm not sure who isn't these days, the reduction in middle management must be handled very carefully. These managers often play crucial roles in mediating between frontline employees and higher management, and they can significantly influence employee engagement and service standards. And executives are busy enough. By putting more responsibility on them for frontline engagement and spreading them more thinly, you will create more space between the frontline and executives, not less; this will lead to your best talent walking out the door. What should you consider instead? 1. Companies need to prioritize trust over bureaucracy. 2. Discard the notion of “player-coach” because you're asking managers to balance two jobs instead of focusing on one. 3. Identify the most critical managerial roles. How? Simple, find those that generate the greatest profit or involve the highest risk. 4. Pinpoint your most influential in this group that are the most influential. How? Simple, ask your people! 5. Bring these "select few" into the tent and engage them in the strategic decisions the business needs to make. 6. And then empower these people to lead from the middle. Given them data, tools, and agency to run their business. 7. Remove the tasks that weigh Middle Managers down by automating or reassigning tasks or eliminating them altogether. You will drive greater efficacy through the middle. 8. By doing the above, you will allow the middle to elevate the work of their direct reports. By the way, an outcome of all this will be an improved customer experience. With connected employees who understand their roles and how they have an impact, it allows them to deliver the experience customers expect from your brand. #customerexperience #employeeengagement #middlemanager #culture #laidoff

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Our revops “team” at Chili Piper does A LOT OF automations. If you’d see our list, you’d think we have a full train of rev ops folks working here at Chili Piper (spoiler alert, we have 1 and a half). Here’s an example of an “unconventional” automation We assign churned accounts to SDRs. Yep, we automate outreach to churned accounts Here’s why and how First, let me tell you, it breaks my heart to see any customer churn. I feel like my heart is asking but always aim to learn from it and make everything better for them if they were to come back. Hence, we want to learn what made them leave, fix the problem, and win them back And the good news is that we win many of them back . Here are the nitty gritty on how we do this : We setup these rules for assigning churned accounts to our SDRs: – Account Status = updated to Churned – Transaction End Date = 91 days – Round Robin across SDRs and update SDR Owner – SLA: after 12 working hours, check if there was activity yesterday AND ROE phase ≠ unfit to work, send Slack notification – SLA: after 12 working hours, check if there was activity yesterday AND ROE phase ≠ unfit to work, reassign – Provide a Slack notification to the AM (80 days post-contract end date) – Provide a Slack notification to the SDR once the Account has been assigned (91 days post-contract end date) – Provide SDRs with information on why the account is churning in SFDC to give them the context to sell into the account effectively. If you are curious about more details on this, let me know!  

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What was plan A? A #twilio backed #spac bust out that would have made even #spacanator Avi Katz cringe with envy. 🤯 So where are we now that the foxes 🦊 are running the hen house? Well Twilio made #Spamtexts and #Robocalls Great Again! T-Mobile can you do something here? No way Mike Sievert and his team, Ryan Reynolds MrBeast are ok with the epidemic of scamming Grandma. Please watch short, and if the #swifties find out what’s going on here, it’s not going to be Pretty😡 https://lnkd.in/dRxjgdtT #teammagenta CTIA Federal Communications Commission Federal Communications Commission #ftc Sinch Infobip tyntec The Carlyle Group Cipio Partners Cisco Bird Microsoft Von Coalition iconectiv AT&T Verizon Kris Weterrings The Campaign Registry Tata Communications Eric J. Troutman Frederick ("Rick") Joyce Commsrisk Telnyx YouMail Inc. Jeff Pulver Jeff Lawson Piper Sandler Vonage Lazard #money #wallstreet #antitrust #cpaas TSG Global, Inc. Aegis Mobile Ecosystem Forum VEON Jonathan Marashlian Bandwidth Inc.

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In a truly progressive SaaS world: we wouldn't delineate customer lifecycles by company organizations. Solutions would care about adoption as retention.  Sales would care about retention as revenue.  Product would care about feedback as features.   Finance would care about CLV as quarterly results.  Marketing would care about enablement as lead gen. I don't think that's too far-fetched. Do you? #customerlifecycle #solutions #saas

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You ever look around and think to yourself "why are all these enablement and ops roles being eliminated when so many GTM motions seem broken?" I've been wondering that lately as well. If your team stinks (Pistons, Jets - sorry Barry Saltzman, White Sox) you fire the coach and maybe the GM and replace them with new, ideally better executives. But what you dont do is fire the coach and GM and hope that the players can now coach themselves. What I see a lot of right now in SaaS is companies chopping heads without understanding who will backfill the roles that those people are playing. I look at Ops as the GM of the GTM team. They build the strategy, they put in the tooling and infrastructure, and help to set the tone for the team to be successful. Enablement are the coaches. They are in the trenches with the team, coaching, teaching, calling the plays. When you look at it like that, you wouldn't want to be without these roles for any extended period of time, things would just get worse. I get that there are tough decisions to be made when things aren't going well. And I dont envy business leaders who have to make those calls and everyone that is subsequently affected. But I would encourage everyone think "how can I upgrade these roles" vs. "how can I eliminate this cost."

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Really interesting perspective on how a GTM systems team can drive business success.

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This man right here, Henry Schuck, is what a great leader looks like! Companies have to make business decisions everyday. Some of those decisions are hard, like deciding to stop a project, but how a company handles that decision is what really matters. Henry, handled it amazingly. I have always been one of the top sales reps and to become the top I need to think outside the box. I can't just rely on applying to a job and hoping for the right opportunity to come to me, I need to make it happen. When I told Henry how I was going to stand out and that I just needed access for a couple months of ZoomInfo so I could contact those Directors and VP's of sales, he immediately said yes and let me utilize his product without hesitation. Thank you Henry for the bottom of my heart, I just needed the right tool and ZoomInfo was exactly that and now I'm hitting the phones and sending all the emails. No I'm smiling and dialing for a new job, not just during my job. If your company or someone you know is hiring an Account Executive or Account Manager look no further than me! I'm willing to put in the work just to get a job and I guarantee you that I'll be one of the top reps at your company in no time. ZoomInfo and Henry have given me the tools now its my job to go out there and show the world what I am made of! Corporate Bro #opentowork #hiring #technology #future #sales

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There's an oft-cited stat from Pendo that 80% of software features are rarely, if ever, used. While it's impossible to know the accuracy of that, it's not hard to believe. I've been part of multiple feature factories, where emphasis was put on new features to 'claim' rather than taking time to ensure we've actually solved the desired problem before moving onto the next. If you're a Product Manager/Leader in the Indy area, join us on August 14 for a conversation around best practices for measuring product success. We'll have food, drinks, and hopefully some great learnings! (Registration link in the comments)

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What's wrong here? John Cutler's chart beautifully illustrates the lag time between what management is thinking and how this propagates to the teams. Some lag time is inevitable due to the different levels of perspective (macro vs. micro), but we can actively minimise that. What are your best practices to minimise lag time and create a strong alignment between teams and management?

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DevRev's SLAs are linked directly to your customers, product features, and issues—not just tickets. Now you can effortlessly create, assign, and monitor SLAs with powerful automation and a simple UI. It’s time to rethink your support strategy with DevRev: https://lnkd.in/g3YBttbB #DevRev #SaaSSupport #CustomerSupport

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✨ “Detect bugs before they wreak havoc!” ✨ Software development’s smooth sailing starts with early defect detection, and that’s exactly what QA Mentor’s Static Testing and Inspection Artifacts Services offer. Here’s why partnering with us is a no-brainer: 🚀 Early Issue Detection: Think of us as your tech radar! We identify issues before they morph into expensive, time-consuming problems. Our hawk-eyed approach detects defects early, keeping your project on track and your sanity intact. 💡 Efficient Solutions: Time is money, right? By catching flaws early, we smooth out the bumps in your development process, minimizing hiccups and maximizing efficiency. Our approach transforms chaos into clarity, leaving you with a polished, quality product. 🔍 Comprehensive Testing: We leave no stone unturned! Our static testing services dive deep into your software, ensuring that nothing but excellence comes out the other end. It's time to step up your QA game with QA Mentor - Software Testing Expert - 13 Years of Making Products Successful – where proactive testing saves you from future headaches. 📞 Reach out to us today at [email protected] or 212-960-3812, or simply DM me to discover how we can elevate your software quality: https://lnkd.in/dyh4KBV3

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👥 Leaders, if you believe catching problems early is absolutely crucial, you're halfway to understanding why Static Testing is a game-changer. ✨ 📬 Let's connect! DM me if you need help with your testing needs - let's make your software flawless!

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Last livestream of the week with Rodney Nissen 👋 and Robert Wen, CSM, SPC6 3 Jira Duties, 2 ACP-120's, 1 TJL Episode, and 1 Atlassian Live Learning. Join us for the last stream! Link in the comment

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At Clari our mission is to Run Revenue, ere are 5 unexpected learnings to help you capture more revenue this year. Context: Clari just passed $4 trillion in revenue under management. That’s how much revenue is flowing through the Clari Revenue Platform. Check our learnings below.

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PLG vs Sales led, which is better? The answer is clear. It depends. As with all things product, context matters. For example: Would your target customer ever seek out a solution to their problem? Would they be successful trying it out without project management? Is the decision making on purchases streamlined? If No, PLG likely will not work for that product. On the flip slide, does the value you offer justify paying for people to sell, onboard, etc? If No, hard to justify sales led. I've worked on all sorts of products, both as a PM and consulting with other PMs. One of the quickest ways to light money on fire and feel frustrated is to not match your go to market with your market. In product, you can have a preferences. But don't fool yourself that your preference will work in all situations.

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I’ve noticed a lot of the same handful of big SaaS companies on podcast after podcast, article after article. And people gobble it up! As if ‘how we built roadmaps at Apple in 2003’ is ever going to matter for your role at the auto mechanic records app. As if ‘user conference learnings at Salesforce’ apply to your grocery store inventory platform. Even if you work for a unicorn – are the ‘habits of employee number 6’ relevant for you as employee 148,993? A story. When I was young I was interested, as many young men are, in getting yoked. I would pore over Muscle & Strength and Men’s Fitness magazines, noting the diet and lifting habits of the latest Mr Olympia with great fascination. I even made lists! But I didn’t like lifting heavy or even going to a gym. The content I consumed didn’t match the situation I was in. And that’s ok! The world needs middle distance running dads who enjoy an occasional power yoga class. And the world needs your lesson planning app for elementary school music teachers. So I would recommend recognizing much of this content as entertainment for you. And look for education elsewhere. Suggestions: 1) Learn lessons from those companies that are more similar to you, and in your situation more recently. This may require talking to people from other companies one on one. 2) Learn from your own company. Get out of the feature factory and support tickets for bit. Dive deep into your customers. Spend time understanding results of different customer types. Look at trends and develop strategies for causing inflection. Talk to representative customers. 3) Hypothesize and act. Since your product is unique, the best learning comes from doing and making adjustments along the way.

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The two phrases I hear most from Tarsal prospects: 1) "I want to mature my detection & response program" 2) "I want to clear my detection backlog" 50% of the work in writing a detection on a new log source is in ingesting + normalizing that data. Why should your Detection and Response/SecOps team have to worry about building integrations? Every minute spent wrangling API documentation is a minute away from protecting your organization. Tarsal has one-click, zero-maintenance integrations that take away that toil so that SecOps teams can focus on protecting their crown jewels.

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Downtime costs as much as $9,000 per minute. Matt troubleshoots in less than 5 minutes - paying for itself in less than a week. See Matt's detailed troubleshooting of a Datadog alert, "svc1 failed To connect to svc2 on 1 host" finding the root cause in 4mins: https://lnkd.in/gAxXBBB2 Follow us on ProductHunt (https://lnkd.in/gGUTAn9b) and be the hero in your org by significantly reducing downtime. Webb.ai Chi Su Anirudh Donthireddy Rameez Shuhaib Khimraj Suthar Vananidhi Kalkur Matthew Wirges Zachary Delagrange Akshay Dongaonkar #sre #devops #sitereliabilityengineering #sitereliabilityengineer #sitereliability #softwareengineering #cloudarchitect #staytuned Datadog Kubernetes

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Our partnership with Brex now gives us unparalleled insight and breadth in SaaS purchasing reports

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