What happens when a data engineer with an obsession for truth-testing crashes into marketing’s ‘best practices’? Sarah’s journey from code to growth unfolds like a trained detective story, where she picks apart marketing myths and rebuilds them with an engineer’s first principles. Her fresh take on centralyzed vs decentralyzed data team structures favors embedding an analyst deeply in marketing and growth teams.More
Category Archives: operations
151: Austin Hay: An operator’s guide to AI agents, composability, building in concert and self-designing APIs
Something extraordinary is brewing in the world of martech. In the near future, Austin thinks AI agents will turn into an omniscient digital butler, anticipating your needs with uncanny precision while vanishing into the background of your workday. But the real revolution unfolds in the seemingly mundane machinery of marketing operations, where innovative companies are transforming their spaghetti mess of data pipes and platforms into something approaching digital poetry. More
150: Welcoming Darrell Alfonso as a co-host, celebrating baby milestones and the top 2 predictions for martech by 2030
The Humans of Martech enters an exciting new chapter with Darrell Alfonso joining as co-host, bringing fresh energy and insights to the show. As a long-time listener and new dad, Darrell offers relatable stories of juggling work, family, and community while sharing bold predictions like the shift to warehouse-native architectures in martech, which promise to streamline data operations for enterprises. More
149: Kacie Jenkins: Claude Code’s Head of Marketing on capturing the true impact of marketing and avoiding reductive metrics
Marketing isn’t about cramming creativity into a spreadsheet, and Kacie’s journey proves it. She took on last-touch attribution, broke free from narrow metrics, and built a system that told the whole story, one where sales and marketing actually worked together. It wasn’t flashy; it was months of unsexy foundational work that led to record-breaking results. More
148: Stephen Stouffer: Understanding AI’s role in customer journeys and messaging
AI can transform your marketing without overwhelming you. Start with one use case. Watch the results, and go from there. You don’t need to master data science to add AI value, but you need to be willing to experiment, keep what works, and let the tech do the heavy lifting.More
147: Nataly Kelly: Making global feel local through the power of marketing localization
Global expansion is a wild process that connects brands to the unique vibe of each market, it’s not just creating a website or translating content. Moving into international territories means showing up prepared, with a localization strategy that’s flexible and has a ton of local insight. Marketing Ops and RevOps both play a key role in localization as a strategic partner, organizing data and decision-making to fuel growth across departments.More
146: Jim Williams: The strategic role of marketing ops in annual planning
Forget version control spreadsheets and stale budgets, Jim’s take on marketing planning is about putting purpose behind every dollar. Instead of throwing darts at a board, focus on creating a blueprint that connects goals to actual business impact. For him, goals shouldn’t be handed down from the top like a royal decree but hammered out together with practitioners so they’re ambitious… but you know, grounded in reality.More
145: Barbara Galiza: The inconvenient truths of attribution no one wants to admit
Attribution is a bit like navigating Amsterdam’s canals: mesmerizing but full of hidden turns that don’t always make sense. You don’t need to chart every twist—just focus on finding the direction that moves you forward. Instead of obsessing over every click, use attribution like a compass, not a GPS. More
143: Danny Lambert: A guide to data transformation and building a warehouse-first martech stack
Marketers often feel like they’re battling a dragon when it comes to integrating data. We’re overwhelmed by technical jargon, stuck with outdated methods, and facing roadblocks from data teams. Danny walks us through his journey of cautiously entering the data world and the role dbt can play for marketing teams. Here’s how to get started with a warehouse-first martech stack.More
141: Rutger Katz: Cutting through the fluff of Lean methodology and recognizing when process gets in the way of efficiency
Rutger helps us cut through the fluff of Lean methodology in marketing and how to spot when process gets in the way of efficiency. His advice is to cut out the waste—whether in your process, your tech stack, or how you measure success. Focus on what drives conversions, keep your systems lean, and use simple structures to maintain speed without sacrificing alignment.More