The Brilliance of Asana's Rev Ops Team Structure

I believe Asana is in a state of transition with their GTM strategy. Historically, they have embraced a Product Led Growth strategy but a quick analysis of headcount growth over the last several years would indicate they are starting to shift investment to a heavier emphasis on Enterprise Sales. Layer that in with some of the financial performance indicators and the data speaks for itself.

In FY23 (ended Jan 2023), Asana’s total revenue increased 45% YOY.

• Enterprise Customers (spending $100K+) increased 49%.
• And their investment in Sales & Marketing increased 54%.

This is perhaps one of the more challenging stages of PLG growth we see for SaaS startups. This edition of gazette has learnings for all Revenue Operations teams, not only those in PLG.

Why PLGs Struggle with Rev Ops

It is inevitable that PLG startups hit a ceiling on the growth they are able to achieve purely with Product Led motions. Moving upmarket and expanding existing accounts with meaningful upsells will undeniably require a Sales strategy.

And while Sales Led companies have focused on the fundamentals required succeed with Sales motions since the early days of the company, these investments are typically lagging in PLG startups that didn't need to think about it until now.

Typically, this means a dramatic underinvestment in Revenue Operations - and a downright lack of understanding about what purpose the role is meant to serve within your Go-to-Market organization.

Fortunately, this does not seem to be the case with Asana.

The structure of Asana’s Rev Ops org is as good as any I’ve seen.

We will take a quick look at the breakdown of the team. Then, a few highlights about what we like most.

First and foremost, it's a well resourced group compared to any Sales org this size.

Some comparisons for you:

• Rippling: 625 Sellers; 14 in Rev Ops
• SolarWinds: 620 Sellers; 15 in Rev Ops
• Podium: 620 Sellers; 7 in Rev Ops
• Confluent: 690 Sellers; 31 in Rev Ops
• OneTrust: 575 Sellers; 14 in Rev Ops
• Blue Yonder: 650 Sellers; 13 in Rev Ops

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Full Rev Ops Breakdown:

Leadership

• Eugene Berson (Head of Global Revenue Operations
• Anil Kumar (Head of Global Revenue Operations)
• Jeffrey Rosenlund (Head of Americas Revenue Strategy)
• Michael Czwarno (Head of Enablement, RevOps, Sales Development)

Snapshot of Rev Ops:

• Head of Global Customer Success Operations
• Head of Revenue Onboarding and Enablement Ops
• Head of Business Process Management
• (8) Revenue Operations Managers
• (2) Partner & Channel Sales Operations Leads
• (8) Revenue Operations Analysts
• Global SD Enablement Manager
• (2) Deal Desk Managers
• Deal Desk Analyst

GTM Systems Team at Asana

Again, this is often an area overlooked by all SaaS startups but especially those coming from roots in Product Led Growth. Simply put, it's because the focus and investment is concentrated around core Product & Engineering teams - we typically see spend on Internal Tools for the Sales org based on necessity only.

The Systems team at Asana is nicely resourced for a Sales organization of their size, though.

• Head of Revenue Technology
• Head of Salesforce Engineering
• 2 Salesforce Administrators
• 4 Salesforce Developers
• 2 Salesforce Architects

Highlights and Key Roles

Ultimately, I believe this is where the brilliance of Asana's team structure shines through. While it all starts with making the proper investment, which Asana has done, you need to know how to structure the function in order to get maximum value.

The greatest challenge with Revenue Operations is the expansive nature of the role. There is simply too much surface area to cover across GTM teams with wildly different motions and needs.

The specialized functions outlined below are always part of someone's job in Revenue Operations - there is nothing novel about paying attention to this area of the business - but usually, an individual is tasked with managing 3-4 of these areas.

At Asana, they have opted into a specialized Revenue Operations model, allowing individuals to massively impact one area, including:

• Global Inbound Pipeline Operations
• PLG Pipeline Operations & Analytics
• Head of Revenue Ops focused on ‘Onboarding and Enablement’
• Head of Enablement & Productivity.
• Channel and Partner Sales Operations
• Data Management and Accuracy
• Head of Rev Ops Enablement & Expansion
• Manager of Sales Development Enablement & Operations
• Customer Success Operations Leader within Rev Ops
• Order to Cash Manager

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