Swimming With Sharks: Customer Ops Unplugged - S2 Episode 8: Wendy McHenry

In this episode of Swimming with Sharks, Kevin Dean, CEO of ManoByte, sits down with Wendy McHenry, the Head of Solutions Engineering at CData Software, for an insightful discussion on customer operations and the evolving tech landscape. Wendy brings a wealth of experience from her journey in tech, starting as a statistician and moving through various leadership roles in sales engineering, particularly in financial services and government sectors.

Introduction:

Kevin introduces Wendy McHenry, highlighting her impressive career trajectory from a statistician to a leader in solutions engineering. Wendy’s unique path showcases her passion for technology and her commitment to improving customer experiences.

Interview Highlights:

• Wendy’s Career Path: Wendy shares her unconventional entry into tech, beginning as a statistician and transitioning into a sales engineer role at SAS Software. Her journey reflects a deep understanding of customer needs and the importance of aligning tech solutions with business goals.
• Challenges in Customer Operations: Wendy discusses the complexities customers face in today’s competitive environment, emphasizing the difficulties of navigating tight budgets, internal reorganizations, and the fear of change. She underscores the need for companies to build trust and guide customers through tech modernization.
• AI and Automation in Tech: The conversation shifts to the role of AI and automation in reshaping the tech industry. Wendy offers insights into how these technologies are helping companies do more with less, while also raising important ethical considerations. She predicts that while AI will not eliminate tech jobs, it will significantly enhance efficiency and innovation.
• The Role of Data Analytics: Wendy, a data enthusiast at heart, explores the critical role data analytics plays in driving business decisions and improving customer outcomes. She highlights the importance of staying at the forefront of data science to address challenges in various industries, from financial services to emergency response.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Tech: Wendy also shares her passion for DEI initiatives, particularly in creating psychologically safe workplaces. She emphasizes the importance of leaders fostering inclusive environments to drive positive change in the tech industry.

Key Takeaways:

• Trust and Empathy: Building trust with customers is crucial in today’s fast-changing tech landscape. Companies must listen to customer concerns and provide solutions that ease the fear of change.
• Leveraging AI for Efficiency: AI and automation are powerful tools that can help businesses maximize resources, but they must be implemented thoughtfully, with ethical considerations in mind.
• Data as a Driving Force: Data analytics is at the core of successful tech operations, enabling companies to make informed decisions and respond effectively to challenges.
• Inclusive Leadership: Creating diverse and inclusive teams is essential for fostering innovation and ensuring the tech industry remains a welcoming space for everyone.

Transcript

0:01

Hey there and welcome to Swimming with Sharks, a deep dive into customer ops. My name is Kevin Dean and I am your host. I'm the CEO of ManoByte and I am thrilled to have you join me on this exciting journey through the world of customer operations. On this podcast today, I am super thrilled and excited to have with me, Wendy McHenry. Wendy, welcome. Say hi to everybody and tell us a little bit about yourself. everyone and hi Kevin. Thanks so much for having me today. My name is Wendy McHenry. I'm the head of solutions engineering at C data software. I've worked in tech a long time and very excited to have this conversation today. me too. Me too. So tell me, like you've worked with a lot of really cool companies. How did you get into this lane and the path that you're on now? Tell us about your career path. That's a great question. Actually, I started my career as a statistician, which is kind of an unusual way to break into tech. And then I moved into a role in IT. I was the administrator for some statistical software called SaaS software. And when we were purchasing the software, the sales team came to present to us. And their sales engineer, I thought, the coolest job. I was like, wait, this guy just gets to sit around and talk about tech all day? How do I get that job? And so I moved into that job at SAS Software actually as a sales engineer. And I originally started in financial services because that was my background. Also had some government experience. So those are my two specialty verticals. And eventually ended up leading the inside sales pre -sales team at SAS Software. moved over to Pega where I led some financial services teams and later, you guessed it, the government vertical, and then moved into CTA software to build out their sales engineering business, which I've now been leading that team for almost two years now. That sounds like an amazing path and an exciting career. So let me ask you this. On this journey that you've been on, tell me what are some of the biggest challenges that you see facing customers as you talk to them on a day -to -day basis? Absolutely. I think there's two really big challenges for customers today. One is the complexity of the buying experience, frankly, for customers today. I imagine we are in the most competitive environment I've ever seen. We've got tightened budgets today, right? Certainly that they're facing. I've seen many customers are dealing with their own reorganizations, their own layoffs, things like that, that are deprioritizing projects. But really, besides the complexity of buying and differentiating your product from a competitor's is frankly their willingness to change, right? People fear change. And really, I think that's a lot of what we're doing is we're helping people through that process of modernizing their tech stack. you think, why would someone still be using Fortran all of these decades later? But it still happens, right? There people that still hire Fortran programmers for that reason. So those are two of the big challenges I see from the customer side today. And I honestly think the more you can provide a good experience for the customers and really help them solve their problems and remove friction from their day -to -day life, make their life easier, you're going to have a customer for life if you can do that. Yeah, I agree with you. That's a really nice thought. I really enjoyed the thought that you said about buyers have a fear of change. That's something that we see and that we hear a lot, this fear of change. Right now, there's a lot of change happening. How do you see that fear of change growing? And what do you think can be done to help? companies, individuals, you know, feel more comfortable with the rate of change that is happening today. Honestly, think it's, sometimes it's a lot of patience, helping them feel heard and that you understand the pain that they're feeling, right? And that you'll be there right alongside them. Honestly, I think a lot of times they're just looking for that partner to help them through it. Cause it's going to be a rough ride for all of us. It's just a matter of who's going to be there by your side, right? We've all seen that once you've earned the customer's trust, That's how you're able to really build and grow that relationship from there. But it's that initial gaining the trust. Yeah. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. Empathy is an important role. And just reassuring them that you're going to be there throughout that process, right? I think that's super important. As you think about the challenges that people face, you mentioned, think, earlier that you've seen a lot of people who have limited resources. When it comes to people dealing with the challenge of having limited resources, what have you seen as it relates to technology helping to address some of these challenges and where do you think technology falls short? So honestly, I think the biggest win is when you can prove that your technology will help them do more with less. And that's what we're all being asked to do today, right? Do more with less. And where that falls short is, I mean, there's many ways that can fall short for a customer, right? They have, sometimes they will have limited resources internally. Of course, it depends on the size of the company, the size of their technical team, right? Is it one person? running their technical implementation and then you need to have a different approach to help that size company versus a large enterprise organization that has many different technical teams that can help. And that poses its own challenges when you're in that type of environment because you then have many different kinds of tech that have to work together seamlessly. And that can be difficult. So the implementation can be longer, more complicated. But yeah, so I honestly do encourage that you consider the environment you're going into, the resources they have, the scale they have. And also something I've been thinking about a lot lately is where they are on that tech maturity life cycle, right? What's the complexity of their tech stack? What's the knowledge of their tech teams, the skillset of their tech team? The more they don't have those skills, the more you have to supplement them somehow through professional services or partners or things like, or education. and what's the best path that you're recommending for them. But again, it's trusting that you have that experience that you're helping advise them. All so the trusted advisor term definitely comes into play here. And then how are you then helping them grow along that technological maturity? Yeah, no, that's awesome. I love those thoughts. So let's talk about the 800 pound gorilla in the room. How do you think AI and automation is reshaping everything that is happening in the tech space and how it relates to not just, you know, the tech companies themselves, but the way that people do business? What are your thoughts on that? Well, absolutely, right? We sure have had rapid change in the last two years in this space, right? I mean, the number of conversations I have every day where someone brings up chat GPT, right? And the way I think of where we're at right now is that the automation is not the end -all be -all, right? I think it's more making us more efficient with our time. Right? That's where I think we are in the, in the, the promise of AI and automation right now is an efficiency, right? Again, going back to the do more with less, whether it's helping a salesperson, research a company, or it's helping a pre -sales person get ready for a demo, right? Or, or an HR manager helping write their job descriptions. Right? There's lots of different ways I see the AI coming into play there. then from an automation perspective. I think we're just at the beginning. I honestly think we're just starting, at least from where I sit, that's what I'm seeing. We're just at the very beginning of these emerging technologies. So for example, in the demo automation space, I think that's a very exciting space to be watching right now. Of course, I'm in the pre -sales world, so that's the one I'm watching the most. And then customers want to know how can they be leveraging AI and automation, right, to run their business more smoothly, again, with fewer resources available. Yeah, no, those are awesome points, great tips. And you're so right. We are really at ground zero. This is just so much happening so fast. And I think we're just at the starting point. I think that you made a good point that right now it's about helping us do more with less, but then the future, who knows what's going to come next. There's so many amazing opportunities. the promise is there, right? I mean, do I think that tech jobs will be eliminated? I don't. Do I think that developers will use AI tools to help them be more efficient with writing their code so that they can bring a more valuable insight elsewhere? Yes, I do. But yeah, I think we're at a fun time. And I think we're at what I think of frankly, as being one of the most innovative times in tech. in my career. it is fun to watch. yes, I mean, honestly, if you'd asked me 10 years ago, this is where we would have been. I wouldn't have predicted it, right? I really, being a statistician, I really was like, way. We are so far, so far from that. But again, I think that just shows you the innovative minds working in this space. I do think I'll bring it up, right? The ethical considerations of AI are certainly, glad that there are people that are thinking about those things and taking that into account. And so I do appreciate that people are trying to do this with intention and with care, right? But I think the ethical considerations of AI is also an interesting thing I think everyone should be watching right now. I agree with you. think that it's all of our responsibilities in this space as tech services providers, as developers to act in a responsible way and to deliver in a way that makes people feel safe and secure. I think it goes back to your point earlier, right? We've got to build that trust, right? And I think that, you know, it doesn't start with the conversation. It starts with, you know, how did we build this? Or how did we make the model? How are we going to implement this? Like everything has to go into consideration. think there's so much black box right now that you've got to open it up and give it little more transparency. So I think. from those that are in regulated industries and on the auditors, right? They have to be able to show how the model was created and what was behind it. so, know, industries like financial services and energy, and they're going to be much more cautious, I think, moving into utilizing AI because of those types of concerns. Yeah, those are valid concerns. And I think it also goes back to your statement earlier. I think there are still a lot of fears, fears of the unknown, fears of what could happen if not handled appropriately. So I think it's like we just did like a full circle. didn't we? Well, but this is where it's like, yes, it's exciting to move forward, but proceed with caution, right? Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. So you're a statistician, At your core. And I'm a data guy at my core. So tell me, how do you see data analytics playing a role in the future and everything that's going on right gosh, I mean, honestly, I think it plays such a huge role in everything we do, right? That's why I loved going into schools to talk about what was possible in a career in data analytics. I think if I had been born at a different time, I would have been called a data scientist other than a statistician, right? Because I do think it's at the heart of everything. You think about everything in your grocery store that you touch, your medications. that are brought to market because of the work data scientists and analysts have done to prove the safety and efficacy of those medications. I mean, it's in everything. It's on our airplanes. It's in air traffic controllers. And I don't see that ever changing. In fact, I think that it just becomes more and more important. actually to businesses, I have been so pleased over my career to see how people have really embraced it. And anyway, and like you said, I'm also of course a data person. And that was why I was so happy to come to see data because I felt like I was coming back home to how I grew up, right? And I get to work with other companies now that have their own data and analytics teams and they're thinking about all of these concerns, right? And so I do think like, I also was laughing. was like, remember my first job. programming on a mainframe and I would run this model and it would run all night long and then you just hoped you didn't leave out a semicolon, right? And now to see the speed at which we can develop these models and update them with the freshest data. So think about like fraud departments for a bank, right? How they need to be staying on top of things, right? Because people get more more innovative with how they're committing these financial crimes. And so the advances in data science have enabled them to get much more efficient. Again, apologies, my background being financial services and government, but the same in government can be said as well, right? So I think about like my state, North Carolina, we just had a hurricane hit last week and the damage is here, right? And you think about how can we get emergency services out to our communities? How can we make sure? people have food and water and those types of things, that's all being done behind the scenes, but with the help of data and analytics. Yeah, that is awesome. This is cool stuff. Like I think we could geek out here for quite a while on this topic. But for the audience, let's just switch and just have another conversation. Tell me something about yourself that most people don't know. awesome. Well, I will talk about my favorite topic then, which is I have spent many of the last, gosh, five, six years doing a lot of efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion in tech, right? And really trying to be part of the change in the tech space, especially since the pandemic, right? Helping to leaders to create inclusive and welcoming environments. In the last year, I've done a lot of work around creating psychological safety in your workplace and why that's important, right? Whereas before the pandemic, I was talking a lot about why corporate DEI initiatives were important for your business. Right now, it's down at the leadership level. So I'm very passionate about that topic, and I love coaching other leaders. I've worked with leaders all over the world, which has, it's just been such a joy to do so. And always happy to meet other tech leaders that want to talk about how we can continue to make TAC a great industry to work on for everyone. That's an important thing. So I'm glad that you brought that up and I'm glad that you're doing great work in that space. Yeah, so Wendy, like the audience knows that I am a big music guy. I love music. I'm always jamming out. I'm always listening to something new. So tell me, give me something that I need to go and listen to today. gosh, I'm currently listening to the new Vampire Weekend album, Only God Was Above Us. We've always really been into alternative music. And they're on tour and I'm seeing them here in Raleigh in a few weeks, which I'm excited. But I will tell you, Kevin, I am a classical pianist. So go enjoy some Rachmaninoff for me. All right, you gave me two paths to go down today. So I love that. I love it. I love it. I love, love, love it. Wendy, this has been so great. I really enjoyed talking to you and I'm super excited for us to circle back and chat again. Thank you so much for having me, Kevin. Bye. Yep, see you Wendy, bye bye.