RevOps Framework Deep Dive: Team Structure

Recently, we published the Hyperscayle RevOps Framework. Hyperscayle defines revenue operations as the design and execution of Go-To-Market (GTM) processes and systems across the lead-to-cash lifecycle.   

To us, this includes marketing operations, sales operations, customer success operations, channel operations, and finance operations. Ours is a holistic view, not thinking in terms of silos bolted together, but rather as steps of a unified process. We created the Hyperscayle RevOps framework to further structure our approach. 

The categories of our framework include leadership alignment, process definition, team structure, systems & tools, and data foundation. These five categories cover all facets of a holistic RevOps program, and Hyperscayle uses this framework to organize our efforts and prioritize the right things for our clients.  

Each of these categories is a weighty topic, so this article is a deep dive into the RevOps team structure. 

Team structure is critical for RevOps teams trying to maximize efficiency at the lowest cost, while still making sure they can support all the necessary functions at the same time. This means thinking about key roles and hires, as well as how people will work together to maximize value. Unfortunately, most companies under-invest in people and don’t think carefully about the structure of the teams that support RevOps.

Ideally, organizations should think about hiring people to lead and support all the areas of the RevOps Framework, including processes, systems, and data. But this will naturally evolve as companies mature in their RevOps capabilities. That said, let’s start with the most important hire – the person who will lead the RevOps function.

Design Team Structure to Support Business Goals

When creating a RevOps function, the CMO/CRO will often fight about who controls it – they will each want their own RevOps or sales ops structure under them to support the business. This is valid considering all the changes to operations over the years.

Ultimately, the RevOps function and team are created to support the business, so the key here is not figuring out if marketing or sales owns RevOps. Instead, focus on aligning these teams across functions with a RevOps leader who can be the go-to for both the CMR and CRO while holding the line on the overall goals of the program.

Let’s look at the CMO as an example. They will want marketing ops folks under them to ensure they can meet deliverables and get things into the market. The RevOps leader, in their leadership alignment role, should collaborate with and guide the CMO to develop a marketing ops plan that has the most benefit to the marketing ops function, the RevOps function, and the organization as a whole.

Driving to a Self-Organized RevOps Team Structure

Once your RevOps leader is in place it’s important to think about how to organize teams to support the function.

Ideally, this leader should be able to form and create self-organizing teams as needed to support the function. Much like an agile process, the RevOps leader needs to create teams that can support all the workstreams that come into marketing that ladder up to the big business goals.

Also, the leader should be able to reform these working groups as needed to support marketing streams as they evolve. More agile teams can adapt more quickly to support the changing needs of the business, while at the same time, that RevOps leader makes sure everything stays accountable and on track.

In the early stages of RevOps maturity, organizations will not have enough team members to have an admin for each Martech system or a business analyst dedicated to defining processes. This is completely OK and a normal evolution. It’s important to have a plan to add more people in support of specific needs and goals. For example, adding a demand manager, campaign manager, and designer to a team focused on campaigns.

Additionally, since some of these resources will likely ‘sit’ in IT, the whole point here is to work across traditional silos and foster collaboration as a team. For example, if a marketing system admin needs to update lead routing, this typically involves a lot of back and forth, especially since it will touch multiple systems. With that RevOps leader in place, they can enable better collaboration and help remove issues that bog things down.

How Mature is Your RevOps Team Structure?

Here's an example of how a RevOps team structure might change as a RevOps function matures:

Along the top are the middle three levels of the RevOps Maturity Model, and it’s meant to show an example of how a RevOps team might scale as a company matures.

• So at Level 2: Functional, the company doesn’t have a true RevOps team yet, but they do have an analyst or two keeping things running in support of the marketing and sales systems and functions.

• At Level 3: Repeatable, the company has a RevOps director with a few analysts under them.

• And at Level 4: Scalable, we start to see the full RevOps function and team structure come together with a VP of RevOps, multiple directors, and teams under each that span marketing, sales, customer success and project management.

As always, Level 4 isn’t necessarily better than Level 2 or 3. Instead, a company should right-size the team with the complexity of the GTM motion. For example, an early-stage company can get by at a Level 2 and spend resources elsewhere.

The risk here is that if companies don’t invest in teams early enough, the few RevOps resources you have will be overwhelmed, consumed by tactical firefighting, and will end up slowing down the GTM organization rather than accelerating it.

Bottom Line on Team Structure

Of all the areas in our RevOps Framework and RevOps Maturity Model, we most commonly see under-investment in people and team structure. Starting with a solid RevOps leader, whose real priority is alignment (both between teams and with business goals) and empowering them with a flexible team structure is one of the best ways to accelerate RevOps maturity.