The 2025 RevOps Playbook: Owner.com CRO’s Secrets to Scaling
How to Build Your Sales Measurement Engine
Introduction and Background
Kyle Norton brings a wealth of experience as the CRO at SaaStr Fund-backed Owner.com and former leader of a $1B business unit at Shopify. His 15-year journey in sales and revenue leadership has culminated in a systematic approach to revenue operations that can transform chaotic startup environments into predictable growth engines.
Owner.com operates in the vertical SaaS space, providing comprehensive online solutions for independent restaurants – similar to how HubSpot and Shopify serve their respective markets. He’s scaling his team at Owner to over 100 GTM and revenue professionals this year.
Here are the key lessons learned:
1. What Really is a Revenue Operating System?
Think of it as your Iron Man suit for revenue growth. It’s the interface between you (the revenue leader) and all the resources/people around you to grow revenue predictably. The system breaks down into four core pillars:
Measuring
Managing
Planning
Communicating
2. The Key Learning: Start with Minimum Effective Dosage
The biggest trap? Over-engineering your revenue system. You want just enough process to drive results, but not so much that you spend more time talking about the business than building it.
A few key principles:
Only measure what you’ll actually manage
Match the system to your business stage
Focus on input metrics (behaviors) that drive output metrics (revenue)
3. Building Your Measurement Engine
The foundation is what Kyle calls the “measurement rhythm” – your heads-up display of business health. You need four core tools:
Control towers (Executive dashboards)
Scoreboards (Team/IC visibility)
Monthly business review cadence
Target setting process
Pro tip: Start simple. Pick the 6 most critical metrics for your stage and build from there.
4. The Management Framework That Works
The secret sauce is in the weekly “Maple” update – a structured written brief that includes:
Key metrics
Work accomplished
Critical advances
Emergencies/blockers
This feeds into a tight meeting rhythm:
1:1s that start with a 1-10 wellbeing check
Team meetings focused on priorities and blockers
Monthly planning sessions
5. From Vision to Execution: The Planning Stack
Your growth plan needs to connect high-level targets to day-to-day execution. The key components:
6-12 month growth model
Monthly game plans
Project prioritization framework
Regular check-in cadence
6. The Missing Piece: Change Management
Here’s what most RevOps leaders miss: you need a systematic way to deploy change. Use a stoplight framework:
Green: Simple changes
Yellow: Moderate impact
Red: Major changes (comp plans etc.)
Red light changes require at least 3 touch points: written, video, and live training.
7. How to Actually Implement This
Don’t try to build Rome in a day. Start with:
Basic measurement dashboard (6 key metrics)
Weekly written updates
Structured 1:1s and team meetings
Monthly planning rhythm
Central knowledge hub
The truth about building a revenue operating system? It’s a multi-year journey. But get these fundamentals right, and you’ll build a predictable revenue engine that scales.
(And of course, subscribe to Kyle’s new Revenue Leadership Podcast in partnership with Pavilion for weekly deep dives on these topics!)
Want to learn more about revenue operations and scaling? Join the discussion at SaaStr Annual 2025 – May 13 in SF Bay!!.