This article was based on the interview with MarketingOps CEO Mike Rizzo on Marketing Operations as a strategic driver of growth by Greg Kihlström, AI and MarTech keynote speaker for The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström podcast. Listen to the original episode here:
For years, many of us in marketing leadership have held a convenient, if somewhat reductive, view of the Marketing Operations function. We see them as the indispensable plumbers of the department—the team that keeps the pipes clean, ensures the data flows, and makes sure the trains of our campaign calendar run on time. They are the tactical wizards we turn to when a list needs uploading, a workflow needs building, or a new piece of technology needs integrating. This perception, while not entirely inaccurate, is becoming dangerously outdated. In an era defined by technological complexity and the relentless march of AI, viewing Marketing Ops as a mere service center is a critical strategic error. It’s like owning a Formula 1 car and only using it to drive to the grocery store.
The reality is that the modern go-to-market (GTM) motion is not a series of disconnected campaigns; it’s an intricate, interconnected product in its own right. The sprawling ecosystem of marketing, sales, and customer success technology isn’t just a collection of tools; it’s the chassis, engine, and onboard computer of your entire revenue engine. When viewed through this lens, a fundamental question emerges: If our GTM stack is a product, who is the product manager? Who is responsible for the roadmap, the integration strategy, and the ultimate ROI of this multi-million dollar investment? The answer, as I discussed with Mike Rizzo, founder and CEO of MarketingOps.com, is hiding in plain sight. It’s the very team we’ve often relegated to the engine room, and it’s time to bring them up to the bridge.
From Service Desk to Strategic Ownership
The fundamental flaw in the traditional view of Marketing Ops is that it focuses entirely on execution while ignoring architecture. Teams are so inundated with delivery requests—webinars, email blasts, list deduping—that they have no capacity for the strategic work that would actually move the needle. This constant churn of tactical tasks prevents them from asking the most important questions about the technology they manage: Are we getting the most out of it? Are these systems orchestrated to deliver on the core hypotheses of the business?
Mike Rizzo argues that the first step in unlocking the true potential of this function is to reframe the role itself. We must stop treating Marketing Ops professionals like a service department and start empowering them to be the product managers and architects of the GTM tech stack. They are uniquely positioned at the intersection of business goals and technical capabilities, making them the ideal translators for the organization.
“You need a product manager and an owner to figure out how to orchestrate the plays to best serve the needs of the business. And more importantly, you need to find the person who can translate the needs of the business, the goals, those bets you’re making… and they need to take that and make it, translate it into the sort of the capabilities of the tech stack… And the only people that are really, really good at that are marketing ops professionals. But you need to stop treating them like a service department and give them the opportunity to fill that void.”
This isn’t a simple retitling exercise. It’s a shift in mindset and responsibility. When a leader asks their board, “Who’s in charge of the go-to-market tech stack?” the answer shouldn’t be a shrug or a list of siloed department heads. It should be a single point of ownership, someone who can look across the entire ecosystem and ask why Sales and Marketing are paying for two different tools that do the same thing. This is the strategic void that a properly empowered Marketing Ops leader can, and should, fill.
AI: The Great Accelerator (and Job Creator)
The rise of AI and so-called “agentic workflows” is not going to make this strategic role obsolete; it’s going to make it absolutely essential. While the hype cycle on social media might suggest that we can simply build an AI agent and eliminate headcount, the practical reality is far more nuanced. As Rizzo astutely points out, AI accelerates the need for strategic orchestration. To leverage AI effectively, you need quality inputs, clean data, and a well-designed system for the AI to operate within—all core competencies of a sophisticated Marketing Ops team.
Furthermore, managing these new AI-driven workflows is a job in itself. In a candid example from his own business, Rizzo shared his experience building an AI agent to drive membership sign-ups. The agent could identify top prospects and draft personalized outreach emails automatically—an impressive feat that many would celebrate as a finished project. But as he discovered, the execution was only the first step. The real work began after the emails were drafted.
“How will it know? It is not being taught or trained to look for any of that information, and certainly I could write those steps. But those are all things that I now need to go spend time on… I’ve built this tool. I now need somebody to go focus on optimizing it in pursuit of the core KPI for our organization, which is membership… this stuff’s all great, but you still need somebody to keep making it better.”
This is a crucial lesson for every marketing leader. AI doesn’t eliminate the need for human oversight; it shifts the focus from manual execution to strategic optimization. The agent was only 80% accurate and had no mechanism for learning from its successes or failures. Was one email enough? Should the cadence change? Did the person actually sign up? Answering these questions and continuously improving the system requires a human in the loop—someone who understands the business context, the technology, and the ultimate goal. This is not a replacement of the Marketing Ops role; it is its elevation. The MOPs professional of tomorrow won’t be building the email in HubSpot; they’ll be architecting and optimizing the agent that does.
Community: The Foundation of a Durable GTM Motion
This shift toward strategic, long-term thinking extends beyond internal systems and processes. It must also inform how we engage with our market. The most durable competitive advantage isn’t a clever campaign or a slick piece of technology; it’s a genuine, thriving community. Yet, building one requires the same architectural mindset we’ve been discussing. It’s not a quick-win lead generation tactic; it’s a foundational, long-term investment.
Rizzo, who has built the MarketingOps.com community from the ground up, emphasizes that community building is a deliberate act of listening and service. It requires understanding what members want, how they want to engage, and what value you can uniquely provide. It means resisting the urge to treat the community as just another channel to be mined for leads and instead nurturing it as an ecosystem for professionals to connect and grow.
“I think out of all possible go-to-market motions, it can be incredibly fruitful, similar to like an SEO play. It’s just it takes a long time to see the fruit from the tree. And it also takes a lot of effort, a lot of human capital effort to do that because, suffice to say, people are connecting to people and you should probably have a person to help them do that.”
This long-term perspective is often at odds with the quarterly pressures marketing leaders face. However, the payoff is a resilient, engaged audience that provides invaluable feedback and advocacy. A strong community becomes an extension of your brand and a core part of your go-to-market product. It is the ultimate expression of moving beyond transactional marketing to build something of lasting value, a principle that lies at the very heart of the strategic Marketing Ops function.
The evolution of marketing technology and AI demands a parallel evolution in how we structure and empower our teams. The traditional, task-oriented view of Marketing Operations is no longer sufficient. We are spending fortunes on our GTM technology stacks with no clear product manager at the helm, leaving immense value and efficiency on the table. The individuals with the skills to architect, orchestrate, and optimize this complex machinery are already in our organizations, but they are often buried under a mountain of tactical requests.
As leaders, our task is to clear a path for them. It is to challenge the old perceptions and provide the air cover necessary for Marketing Ops to step into its rightful role as the strategic owner of the GTM product. The next time you walk past your MOPs team, don’t just see the plumbers keeping the water running. See the architects designing the blueprint for a more intelligent, agile, and durable marketing engine. The future of your brand’s growth may depend on it.
