Hiring a TBM or FinOps Analyst
TBM Therapy - Issue #3
The Question: What are the most important skills to look for when hiring a TBM analyst?
What’s Going On: I’m building my team and want to know what to look for beyond the certifications.
What I’m Afraid Of: We hire someone too deep in technical Apptio skills and they’re unable to deliver outside the tool. And I don’t have the headcount for someone who is solely technical.
I’m answering the question for a TBM analyst hire, but I think everything below applies just as much if you’re hiring for FinOps. While the tools may differ, I believe the traits that make someone good at either are the same.
In my experience, the certifications and trainings are good for introducing a new person to the world of TBM and FinOps, but real, practical experience or strong critical thinking skills will better prepare one for the role than the piece of paper does.
For an analyst, my favorite trait to interview for is obsessiveness: does a wrong-looking number bother them, or do they just report what the tool spits out. Being genuinely good at Excel matters too, not because it's Excel, but because it forces you to break a big problem into small solvable pieces. I find that people who've done deep work in tools like Excel or Alteryx have a good balance of first principles analysis, understanding constraints, optimizing for sustainability, and genuine enjoyment for solution building. The best TBM analyst I've ever helped hire told us in an interview that he and his friends built an entire Excel model to settle an argument about the best Kanye West album. It was the perfect amount of nerdiness, systems thinking, and obsessiveness.
There are always tradeoffs to consider: how soon do they need to present to leaders, how much runway do you have to develop and train, and will they be joining a bigger team or primarily working with one other person (i.e., their manager). Generally speaking, I find that it takes 6-9 months to get a TBMA independently contributing depending on those three questions. I'd see how you can find the right balance between those tradeoffs for your organization.
Because I know there are a lot of manager and director openings for TBM/FinOps-like roles out there right now, I thought I'd drop a line on what I'd look for in those roles. Happy to go deeper if there's interest. For managers, translating and communicating complex data nuances, and what they actually mean, becomes the most important skill. Directors need to thrive at advocating for the TBM/FinOps capability itself, pushing back on the idea that this is a project or an analytical exercise, specifically in the midst of organizational politics and shifting strategic priorities.
Hope that helps!
Gboyega
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