This article is part of our Growing a Partnerships Team spotlight series. Each week, a different professional joins us to share their experience scaling their partnerships team. Learn more in this quarter’s introduction.
Ben Roodman started a new role within AppsFlyer this year as the AVP of Business Development, after founding the partnership team. He started his career as a sales engineer, working to identify and solve issues for clients. It was in that role that he saw the value of working with partners to solve problems for clients.
Today, Ben joins us to dig into his responsibilities at AppsFlyer, resources that have been beneficial to his career, and his best practices for growing a partnerships team.
Ben’s Responsibilities at AppsFlyer
Ben Roodman managed a team of nine Partner Development Managers in the US. “I founded the partnership team in North America as the first partnerships hire. When I joined, I saw it as an opportunity to combine a lot of my previous experience — I had experience with global growth and working with other app developers. I looked at the types of partnerships that were already established, for example, we were already a partner with Facebook, and saw there was a lot of potential value to grow similar partnerships.”
Resources & Advice for Excelling in Partnerships
Having a leadership organization that allows you to explore new ideas and new partnerships and especially being a part of an organization that values partnerships has been very helpful for Ben. He explained, “at AppsFlyer, we wanted to be everywhere — you often grow with your industry by putting yourself out there. There’s this influential industry conference called Mobile Apps Unlocked. We attended when there were only 200 attendees. It has since expanded to host thousands of leaders from top mobile brands, allowing us to build relationships with industry professionals.”
Outside of AppsFlyer’s perspective on growth, Ben shared his own approaches that have been beneficial to his career in partnerships. “There are three mindsets I try to keep at the forefront of my efforts. The first is having a learning mindset in everything you do. Work to learn the ecosystem, your product, understand how your product works, and how it all fits together. Often, as a new hire, there’s a large learning curve. Embrace it!”
“Second, communication is critical,” Ben continued. “Often, we’re doing things where we’re communicating and presenting new ideas. It’s essential to be able to explain those to stakeholders. Similarly, when training partners, you need to share what success looks like and clearly communicate your value. Finally, build relationships and trust. You need to show up and demonstrate that you’re dependable. Be clear about where your business ends and where your partner’s begins.”
Scaling a Partnerships Team
Ben shared that, ultimately, the hiring decisions and team building are his responsibility. He explained, “I work with a panel across the organization as part of the hiring process. I really value their input into the organization. It’s a multi-stage process — it’s involved. When we get to the end of it, I feel like candidates feel really connected to the organization as they’ve gotten an opportunity to meet executives and raise any concerns. By the time we’re ready to make an offer, we’ve done all the reference checks and the candidate feels good, so we’re all excited to get started.”
Ben mentioned that the qualities he looks for in his team have evolved as the business has grown. Ben shared, “Initially, I over-indexed on the technical side. I was looking for Technical Account Managers, and previous experience working with APIs. Now, I appreciate that some of the mentality is a service-oriented mindset of helpfulness and working with others. Resources should be skilled at providing value in our conversations both internally and externally. I want candidates to think like a founder — can this person be the domain owner of the partnership block they’re tackling? With the final decision — can I trust this person with the keys to a Lambo? Will they represent AppsFlyer well?”
Excel in Your Career & Scale Your Team with Partnership Leaders
Ben shared some tactical tips for excelling as a partnerships professional and growing your team. If you’re interested in joining Ben’s team at AppsFlyer, he’s currently hiring for a Senior Partner Development Manager. Dig into tactical advice from all of our interviewees in our Partnerships Career Progression Playbook and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and watch for the rest of the interviews in our hiring series.
Join The 1850+ Leaders Transforming Partnerships
As a member of Partnership Leaders you will:
- Build and learn with the top partner people at the best companies around the world.
- Increase your impact and accelerate your career with proven resources, tools, and best practices.
- Grow a network of peers, partners, and advisors with common objectives.
