17 Podcasts for Operations Pros

These podcasts let you learn from the tech industry’s top operators.

Written by Hal Koss
Published on Aug. 30, 2020
operations podcasts

There’s a podcast out there for just about every hobby or niche interest. Plenty of them are aimed at tech professionals — especially founders, entrepreneurs and marketers. But when it comes to podcasts catering to operations pros, the pickings get slimmer.

That’s why we decided to round up our favorite operations-focused podcasts. Their topics — like operations itself — range from sales ops to growth strategies, logistics and company culture.

This list is by no means exhaustive. However, it should give you a good starting point.

 

General Interest

land of giants podcastLand of the Giants

Led by Recode’s Peter Kafka and Rani Molla, this podcast takes a deep dive into some of the world’s biggest tech companies, examining what makes each one so successful. Season one looks at Amazon, and season two is all about Netflix.

Check Out: “Netflix Is a Team, Not a Family,” “Netflix vs. Hollywood,” “Why You’ll Never Quit Amazon Prime”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

masters of scale podcastMasters of Scale

Leaders of successful startups — like Slack, Spotify and Spanx — sit down with Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, to share the ups, downs and lessons learned from building, scaling and operating their companies.

Check Out: “How Warby Parker Is Making Decisions in Uncertainty,” “The Elusive Formula for Great Hiring,” “How to Price Your Product to Scale”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

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Marketing, Sales and Customer Success Ops

gain grow retainGain Grow Retain

Customer success leaders, specifically those in the B2B SaaS and tech realm, are the target audience of this podcast, which hosts candid conversations about how to grow a business (and how customer success is key to making that happen).

Check Out: “Driving Toward Predictable Renewals,” “Leading Indicators for Churn,” “A Chief Customer Officer Can Own Sales?”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

operations sean laneOperations With Sean Lane

Each week, a guest from a tech company joins Sean Lane, the director of operations at Drift, to discuss subjects that marketing ops and sales ops leaders may find useful — everything from revenue strategies to tech stacks for sales teams.

Check Out: “The 3 Ways to Level Up Every Interaction With Go-to-Market Leaders,” “Building a More Data-Centric Company,” “Life of a COO in Hypergrowth”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

revops and hopsRevOps and Hops

Over the course of eight 20-minute episodes, the two hosts, together with seasoned ops leaders, unpack the buzzy practice called revenue operations (RevOps) in a friendly fashion that goes down smooth. They also talk about craft beers.

Check Out: “RevOps and Sales/Customer Success,” “RevOps and Pricing,” “Demystifying RevOps”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

sales ops demystifiedSales Ops Demystified

According to this podcast’s “About” section, its goal is to turn you into a “sales ops ninja.” The host, Tom Hunt, sits down with sales operations leaders at the director, VP and C-suite level. Together, they discuss their favorite sales ops strategies and tactics.

Check Out: “Sandeep Sachdeva, Global Head of Sales Operations at Unity Technologies,” “Cris Santos, Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations at Pluralsight”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

supports ops simplifiedSupport Ops Simplified

As the name suggests, this podcast simplifies support operations. It hosts interviews with support ops leaders who share their favorite tips and tactics for keeping the business growing — and it’s centered around generating positive customer experiences.

Check Out: “‘Cutting Response Time By 97%’ with Eric Broulette of Flywheel,” “‘Customer Support Algorithms’ with Brittany Naylor of Evernote”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

ReadRevOps Stops Fights Between Marketing and Sales

 

Operations Leaders

business infrastructureBusiness Infrastructure

This weekly podcast aims to cure the “back-office blues,” offering tips and tricks for owners and operators of businesses that are small, but looking to scale up. Its focus isn’t exclusively on tech companies, but it still covers important ops topics like inventory management and pricing.

Check Out: “Improving IT Project Delivery,” “Re-engineering In-Person Operations,” “Improving Workplace Communications”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

it visionariesIT Visionaries

This podcast delivers 30- to 60-minute interviews with information technology and operations leaders. They discuss topics tech companies today may want to stay up to date on, such as edge computing and digital transformation.

Check Out: “Working to Streamline Authentication in Online Marketplaces,” “How the Cloud is Empowering Fluidized Workflows,” “Why Customer Experience Starts With Employee Experience”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

manage thisManage This

Aimed squarely at people who want to enhance their project management skills, this podcast takes listeners through a range of subjects — including how to lead teams, manage unexpected events and deliver projects on time and under budget.

Check Out: “Productivity vs. Burnout,” “Successful Stakeholder Engagement,” “Is Agile Right for Me?”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

Find out who's hiring.
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saastr podcastThe Official SaaStr Podcast

Some of the world’s leading C-suite tech execs take the mic to share hard-earned insights and their favorite strategies for building, growing and operating SaaS businesses.

Check Out: “Gusto COO Lexi Reese on the Playbook to Scaling High-Performance Teams,” “Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield on Taking Care of Your Team and Your Customers”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

operators podcastOperators

In this conversational podcast, Delian Asparouhov, a principal at Founders Fund, interviews operations leaders who hold titles like chief operating officer and head of people at big-name tech companies. They focus on unpacking nitty gritty, solutions-oriented stories.

Check Out: “Kelly Wright (Tableau),” “Willem van Bergen (Shopify),” “Bob Meese (Duolingo)”

Listen: Spotify, Apple 

 

the operators podcastThe Operators

If you want to launch your own tech company, this 10-episode podcast covers many of the important topics you’ll need to understand if you want operations to run smoothly. It features interviews with operations pros who cut their teeth running successful startups.

Check Out: “Recruiting Your First Hires,” “The Role of Finance in Tech Startups,” “Growth - What It Is and How to Get It”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

private equity funcastPrivate Equity Funcast

Two partners at a private equity group share their knowledge on “technology and management issues” at private equity-owned companies. They talk leadership, strategy and how to run and scale a business in a fast-changing environment.

Check Out: “Anatomy of a Security Assessment,” “Building Effective Teams and Healthy Organizations,” “How We Think About People Ops and Culture”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

second in commandSecond in Command

This podcast focuses exclusively on chief operating officers — what they do, how they got to where they are and what lessons they learned along the way. The interviewees often come from backgrounds beyond tech, but their insights are applicable across a broad range of industries.

Check Out: “AARP Executive Vice President & COO, Scott Frisch,” “Checkr, Chief People & Operations Officer, Linda Shaffer”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

Supply Chains and Logistics

art procurementArt of Procurement

With more than 300 episodes in its archives, this podcast offers a breadth and depth of content that’s all about the trends and best practices of procuring goods and services for a business. Niche? You bet. All the better if this is your field.

Check Out: “The Current State of Facilities Services,” “How to Identify & Mitigate Risk With a Category Continuity Plan,” “Building an Expense Management Program”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

 

inbound logistics podcastInbound Logistics Podcast

This podcast is tailor-made for listeners who want to stay up to date on the latest news and innovations in third-party logistics and supply chain management, interviewing leaders in the industry.

Check Out: “Real-Time Visibility: Are You Leveraging the Data to Keep Your Supply Chain Goals in Sight?” “What Technology Solutions Exist to Help Deal With the Capacity Crunch?”

Listen: Spotify, Apple

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