#163 How to Assess Your Finance Function with Catherine Marks

Catherine Marks, former VP of Finance at Depop joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO show. Kevin interviews Catherine about evaluating a finance function and, in particular, her experience applying this to her finance team at Depop. Catherine discusses the 5-step process she used at Depop to do this. She highlights tools like the GrowCFO size of finance team report and competency frameworks that can help. Catherine also shares lessons from applying this process at Depop as they grew and were acquired by Etsy. This provides a valuable framework for finance leaders to evaluate their teams and plan the right structure for the future.

Catherine outlined 5 steps:

1) Understand the business strategy and needs – Catherine stresses starting by understanding where the business is headed in the next 3 years and what financial support will be required. This provides important context for evaluating the finance function.

2) Benchmark the finance function size – Catherine recommends using the GrowCFO size of the finance team report, which benchmarks team size based on 10 factors. This helped her assess where Depop was positioned.

3) Map roles and responsibilities – It’s essential to document the day-to-day responsibilities and any project work to understand capacity and skills needs. Catherine learned to avoid underestimating project work.

4) Assess existing team members – Tools like the GrowCFO competency frameworks and strengths finders can provide insight into individuals’ skills, ambitions, and development areas to identify gaps versus future needs.

5) Evaluate team dynamics – Assessing how well the team works together and implementing initiatives for continuous improvement, like workshops for ideas, helped Catherine motivate and energize the Depop finance team.

Links

• Catherine Marks on LinkedIn
• Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn
• The Size of a Finance Team: 2023 GrowCFO Report
• GrowCFO Competency frameworks
• January GrowCFO Quest – Assess your finance function

Timestamps

Evaluating finance functions and teams. (0:12)

Finance team structure and development. (5:41)

Team dynamics, leadership, and finance transformation. (11:40)

Business structure, transactions, and investors. (16:26)

Finance team structure and operations. (21:12)

Reshaping finance function for future growth. (25:53)

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