In this episode of Sound Bites, host Bill Binch from Battery Ventures talks with Yezi Peng, Former VP of GTM Ops at Pendo, about the product-oriented shift happening across GTM teams, the rise of GTM engineering and how Pendo is building, governing and rolling out AI-powered workflows to transform productivity and reduce operational friction.

Key Takeaways/Key Moments:



(00:44) The Shift Toward Product Orientation in GTM Teams

Yezi describes how rapid product cycles and new agentic AI tools are pushing sellers and RevOps teams to think like product managers, through experimenting, by understanding the ICP deeply and building tailored workflows.

(01:58) RevOps Is Evolving from Buyers of Tools to Builders of Tools

Instead of only purchasing software, modern RevOps teams now build internal apps, automations and AI-driven workflows such as Pendo’s internally built book-building tool powered by Lovable, N8N and Clay.

(05:32) Pendo’s Core AI Deployment Principles

Yezi outlines the five principles behind their AI rollout: remove manual tasks first, enable self-serve where possible, minimize the rep-facing tech stack, eliminate institutional knowledge risks and stop requiring 100% adoption for new tools.

(08:48) Using AI to Eliminate Single Points of Failure in GTM Ops

Pendo now asks departing Ops team members to create a GPT of themselves by capturing processes, tribal knowledge and workflows, so the knowledge persists after they leave.

(11:41) Defining the GTM Engineer Role at Pendo

Yezi explains how Pendo hires early-career builders with strong curiosity to own tools like Clay and develop outbound/inbound automations, including pipeline engineers sourced from within the BDR team.

Disclaimer:

This material is intended for an audience of entrepreneurs and provided for informational purposes, and it is not, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any fund or investment vehicle managed by Battery Ventures or any other Battery entity. The information and data are as of the publication date unless otherwise noted. Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Battery Ventures has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this post nor notify its readers in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate. The information above may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or expectations. Predictions, opinions and other information discussed in this video are subject to change continually and without notice of any kind and may no longer be true after the date indicated. Battery Ventures assumes no duty to and does not undertake to update forward-looking statements. For a full list of all Battery investments, please visit https://www.battery.com/list-of-all-c...