10 Roles
Nine people run the program all year. Every stage has one accountable owner, every partner has one named person accountable for it, and every AI agent drafts while a person approves. Human time goes to the 80 managed partners and to the exceptions in the long tail. (Decisions 34, 36, 40, 50, 66, 79, 99, 101)
All of this is synthetic. Cloud Cruz, its team and its partners are invented.
The team
Nine people on the partner team, flat all year (decision 66). AEs, solutions architects and lifecycle marketing sit outside it, in sales and marketing.
| Role | Owns | Capacity | Measured by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head of partner ecosystem | Optimize, the long tail, program reviews, the launch checks and guard metrics | n/a | Customers live through partners |
| Partner development rep (PDR) | Develop and Acquire, from first touch to signed terms | Top 8 leads a day by fit and intent (decision 70) | Qualified meetings held; fit score of accepted partners |
| Partner managers (2) | Onboarding; Acquire support (the meeting, admissions at fit 50 to 69, the Anchor plan); the long tail by exception | About 460 long-tail partners each, worked only when health turns cold or hot (decision 101) | Days to onboarded |
| Partner account manager | The 80 managed partners from Activate through Maintain, and co-sell with the AEs | 80 managed partners at most (decisions 66, 101) | Share activated within 90 days; co-sold win rate |
| Partner solutions architect | Technical kickoffs, sandbox office hours, implementation-package delivery, Level 2 and 3 proof-of-work reviews | 12 open package deals; 4 ISV integration reviews a month (decision 99) | Package deals live on time |
| Enablement lead | Courses, accreditations, Level exams, the weekly cohort session, Support Hub content | n/a | Active certified people |
| Partner operations | Salesforce and introw, the commission ledger, deal registration checks, the scorecard, and why long-tail partners stall | n/a | Deal registrations answered in 2 business days |
| Partner marketing | The partner directory, co-marketing fund, contribution points, the Slack community, acquisition channels with the PDR | n/a | Partners with approved contributions |
Outside the team:
- AE: owns the customer relationship and gets full quota credit on partner deals in their territory (decision 50).
- Solutions architect (sales): the customer's technical lead on co-sold deals.
- Lifecycle marketing: runs the automated onboarding and re-engagement campaigns that partner operations designs fixes for (decision 101).
Two books, one name on every partner
| Book | Partners | Accountable | Who acts | How |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managed | 80: all Anchor and Scale partners, plus Specialists assigned a partner account manager | Partner account manager | Partner account manager, with the partner solutions architect | Touch cadence by segment (decision 55) |
| Long tail | About 920 Builder and Specialist partners | Head of partner ecosystem | Partner managers, by exception | Automation does the routine work. A person acts when health turns cold or hot (decision 46). Partner operations fixes repeated stalls for everyone (decision 101) |
Why it works. A stall seen once is a partner manager's call. A stall seen twice is a pattern, so partner operations finds the cause and fixes it with partner marketing and lifecycle marketing: a clearer onboarding step, a better nudge, a new campaign. The long tail gets better without more people.
RACI across the eight stages
Each stage has exactly one accountable owner. Accountable answers for the result; Does the work is everyone who carries it out (the owner included, where they do); Consulted gives input before; Informed hears after.
| Stage | Accountable | Does the work | Consulted | Informed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 Develop | PDR | PDR | Partner marketing | Head of partner ecosystem, Partner managers |
| 1 Acquire | PDR | PDR, Partner managers | Head of partner ecosystem | Partner account manager, Partner operations |
| 2 Onboard | Partner managers | Partner managers, Partner solutions architect, Enablement lead, Partner operations | Partner account manager, Lifecycle marketing | AE |
| 3 Activate, managed | Partner account manager | Partner account manager, Partner solutions architect | AE | Head of partner ecosystem |
| 3 Activate, long tail | Head of partner ecosystem | Partner managers, Partner operations | Partner marketing, Lifecycle marketing | None |
| 4 Enable | Enablement lead | Partner solutions architect, Enablement lead | None | Partner account manager |
| 5 Hand off / Co-sell | Partner account manager | Partner account manager, Partner solutions architect, Partner operations, AE | None | None |
| 6 Maintain, managed | Partner account manager | Partner account manager, Partner marketing | Partner solutions architect | Head of partner ecosystem |
| 6 Maintain, long tail | Head of partner ecosystem | Partner managers, Partner operations | Partner marketing, Lifecycle marketing | None |
| 7 Optimize | Head of partner ecosystem | Head of partner ecosystem, Partner operations | PDR, Partner managers, Partner account manager, Partner solutions architect, Enablement lead, Partner marketing | None |
What "does the work" means in the less obvious cells:
- Acquire, partner managers: they hold the meeting, decide admissions at fit 50 to 69 with a logged reason, and build the Anchor plan. The PDR stays the owner through signing, so the partner never starts over (decision 79).
- Onboard, partner operations: Tipalti KYC, Salesforce and introw provisioning, the sandbox account. The partner solutions architect runs the technical kickoff for managed partners and sandbox office hours for everyone (decisions 40, 46).
- Hand off / Co-sell, partner operations: checks each deal registration for conflicts in Salesforce and Crossbeam so the partner account manager can answer within 2 business days (decision 79). The AE owns the customer and the deal (decision 50).
Approvals: a person signs off on every change of state
| What changes | Prepared by | Approved by | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| An AI outreach send | The agentic PDR drafts it | PDR | 63, 71 |
| A tier change | Partner operations computes it monthly | Head of partner ecosystem | 71, 92 |
| An implementation package | Partner account manager requests; the partner solutions architect confirms a Level 2 person | Head of partner ecosystem, against the budget | 53, 96 |
| A commission release | Partner operations reconciles the ledger after the 60-day hold | Finance, in Tipalti | 21, 24 |
| A co-marketing campaign | The partner applies in introw | Partner marketing | 77 |
| A contribution point | The partner submits in introw | Partner marketing | 78 |
| An admission at fit 50 to 69 | PDR | Partner manager, with a logged reason | 37 |
| A deal registration | Partner operations checks for conflicts | Partner account manager | 79 |
Where the AI agents work
Agents carry the routine work so 9 people can serve about 1,000 partners. Each one has a human owner, and none changes state on its own.
| Agent (build) | What it does | Human owner |
|---|---|---|
| Agentic PDR (build 3) | Scores partner leads on fit and intent, drafts outreach | PDR approves every send |
| Propensity and tier agent (build 3) | Flags partners likely to activate or move tier | Head of partner ecosystem approves tier changes |
| Answer Engine (build 4) | Answers partner questions from the Support Hub, with citations | Enablement owns the content; partner operations owns answer quality |
| Deal registration triage (build 4) | Checks conflicts and recommends an answer | Partner account manager decides |
Who administers each tool
Partner operations owns the Salesforce and introw configuration (07 Systems). Every other tool has one named admin.
| Tool | Admin |
|---|---|
| Salesforce, introw | Partner operations |
| Tipalti | Partner operations, with finance |
| Pearson VUE, Credly | Enablement lead |
| Crossbeam | Partner operations |
| Slack community and Slack Connect | Partner marketing |
| Zendesk | Partner operations |
| Support Hub | Enablement lead (content), partner operations (Answer Engine quality) |
| Partner directory | Partner marketing |
| Typed-decision layer | Partner operations; the head of partner ecosystem approves the weights |
Why this saves time and money
One accountable person per stage and per partner means nothing waits on a meeting about who acts. Capacity caps say out loud where a person's time runs out, and what happens next: partners with Level 2 people lead their own deals, and automation carries the long tail. Fixing a stall once for everyone costs less than chasing it partner by partner, so the team stays at 9 while the program grows to about 1,000 partners.