Hot Seat

Lower Contract Sizes, Less Churn: The Dumb-Pipe Math MAP Vendors Refuse to Run | Peter Oleson

On the leadership-practitioner gap: 'Marketing ops people get it immediately. Leadership resists because they conflate dumb pipe with loss of strategic value'

Who Becomes the First Modern Dumb Pipe & What It Means for Enterprise Martech | Peter Oleson

Peter Oleson on why the first modern platform to go 'dumb pipe' will reshape the competitive economics of email infrastructure.

Worth the Wait: Why RCS Approval Queues Don't Have to Stall Your Messaging Strategy | Stephanie Griffith

Stephanie Griffith on why the 8-16-week RCS approval queue is actually the right moment to fix your SMS program

Babylist Cut Newsletter Build Time by 87%: Then the Roadmap Expanded | Elizabeth Martin

On why 'efficiency' is the wrong frame: the real measure isn't volume of campaigns sent, it's whether each communication got meaningfully better."

The Humans Behind the Stack | Phil Gamache

Most of this industry talks about the tech. Phil points the mic at the humans running it.

The Awards Industrial Complex: Earned, Bought, or Invented | Jonathan Harrop

On what it actually takes to win, what the system gets wrong, and how to tell which trophies mean anything at all.

MCP Adoption Is Outpacing Accountability; Your Brand Will Pay the Difference | Israa Alrawi

Why 'education before the checkbox' isn't a UX preference; it's the only thing standing between a brand and a multi-million-dollar liability

How a $1.4B Company Built Its Brand Without Knowing the Playbook Existed | Lottie Coxon & Joe Martin

On why authenticity isn't a strategy you adopt; it's what happens when you stop performing a brand persona.

The Warehouse Won, Now Someone Else Gets to Monetize It | Luke Ambrosetti

Ambrosetti on why "warehouse-native" becoming a vendor checkbox is actually more dangerous than warehouse-native losing the debate.

The Email Accessibility Gap Is a Revenue & Compliance Problem | Sarah Gallardo

On why defensive auditing — building a legal paper trail instead of fixing the underlying problems — is the industry's most underacknowledged accessibility (a11y) failure

AI Creates Mediocre Code: An Email Developer's Honest Take | Megan Boshuyzen

Why prompting your way through email development is a false shortcut, and what actually happens when a practitioner stress-tests the tools

Ticket Taker vs. Problem Solver: Be Irreplaceable | Darrell Alfonso

The marketing ops job market is separating two types of professionals, and only one of them has a future.

Martech Ownership Problem: Why More Tools Won't Fix Your Stack | Bree Graham on Lessons from Afterpay

Bree Graham on why the org chart your company built is the same one your customers are quietly paying for.

GTM Engineering Is Just Marketing Ops With Better PR | Sara McNamara

Sara McNamara on why the function being renamed out of existence is the same one AI needs most.

Why AI Can't Pick Your Tech Stack | Scott Brinker

Scott Brinker on synthetic certainty, the AI governance gap, and why full vendor consolidation is the most dangerous assumption in martech right now.

The Definitive State of Martech | Scott Brinker

Why everyone feels behind right now | 2026 State of Martech

this is the end. 😱

NOT CLICKBAIT!

you have a 1 in 9.2 quintillion chance 🏀

and nobody has ever picked a perfect bracket. Paramount's odds of a good decision aren't much better.

genuinely how is everyone doing

new episode. it helps. probably. 🤷‍♀️

i'm all in 🎰

she rolled the 🎲 and rewrote the rules

Brain drain... 🪫

Loading 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠

Swoosh, there it is 👟

👽🛸🕶️, ⛳🏌️‍♂️🍻, 🏎️🚙⛽.... what in the sneakerhead are you talking about?!? Also, ty for your patience while we had tech difficulties.

I've got a confession to make... 💋

They said I was a valued customer. Now they send me hate mail. 📮

Please don't throw me into the Chokey

Also, your "sweet" tooth may be to blame. 🍬

I, robot?