I've found two KPIs to be difficult to commit to: 1. Customer Health. If you have a robust algorithm to measure customer health (influenced by a number of inputs ), it can be hard commit to a certain outcome. To frame this another way, I've often observed customer health scores as being a bit of a black box where it's hard to tie the actions you take to specific outcomes when there could be a number of variables outside of your control that influence the ultimate score. I much prefer to commit to lead measures that are directly within the control of the team. KPIs related to customer engagement are a good example of things that are more directly within the team's control. 2. Upgrade rate. Many CSM teams are measured on Net Revenue Retention. As part of this, your CSMs may be responsible for identifying growth opportunities within the install base of customers. I find it's effective to measure the team on how many growth opportunities the team identifies but not the close rate or upgrade rate, especially if the Sales or Account Management team owns the closing motion. 

Question: What does customer success mean to you? What is it, what is it not? Why it's good: It's open-ended, and gives the candidate a big opportunity to talk about CS as a field, the success of a customer on an individual basis, and more. Example of a great answer: "To me, Customer Success is the driving of client business outcomes by providing value through our product and services." From there, the best candidates talk about being able to do this at scale (do more with less!), using technology and data to drive results, and give examples of how they actually prove ROI to customers. 

I’ve been at Eightfold for just over 2 years now, moving over to customer success from a 20+ year career in Talent Acquisition, so remember that my experience is unique vs. a traditional CS career path. I was the first CSM to join the EF team, reporting into a leader who had created the group from scratch. I moved from senior leadership position in my previous position to an individual contributor role with similar compensation. I was concerned that I might be taking a step back, but I knew I had a lot to learn. We then added several other experienced professionals from different areas that would complement our expertise. As we grew, we created more levels, adding Sr. CSM and CS Associate roles. We also created Director roles and promoted internally (I took one of those roles, just about a year after I started). We also looked internally to add to the team, so brought over someone from Talent Acquisition as well as someone from our Professional Services department. In hindsight, I am so glad I took the role as an individual contributor, as I learned so much, which I was able to bring to my role in leadership. To summarize, what worked best for us was to bring on very experienced people with a variety of backgrounds at first, and then develop the structure as we grew.

The important thing is to start measuring items. Your initial 'goal' may be off, but you won't know that until you start measuring it and having your team work towards a KPI. Be open with them that this is a trial period that nobody's performance will be managed based on if they hit the number out of the gate. And then adjust from there -- if people are overachieving, up the target; if people are consistently struggling to hit, lower the bar. Once you've found the sweet spot, then you can add compensation, performance management, etc. on top.

Unlike a lot of Customer Success departments, we’ve chosen to align our team to customer KPIs rather than commercial/upsell targets. As such, we have less overlap in goals between CS and Sales. Of course, we’re both targeting Gross Renewal Rate and ensuring we maintain the customer base, but we don’t extend that to upsell targets in the same way as commission-based CS teams. Currently, we’re focused on exploring how we can share “time spent” efficiency and reach KPIs to help keep us accountable for spending as much face time with our customers, tech, and agency partners as we can over the course of many key city hubs whilst being mindful of the cost of trips.

There are two questions I always like to ask during an initial interview with a candidate: 1. Tell me about a problem you have worked on and how you solved it? - In full transparency, I actually borrowed this question from an article I read about Elon Musk's interview questions. I found the reasoning behind this question to be extremely interesting. First, you gain insight into the types of challenges the candidate has come across and their thought process for overcoming those challenges. Second, Musk says that this question shows him if the candidate truly worked on resolving this problem. Someone who was integral in the solution of a problem will know all the details and be able to explain in length what they were thinking was during the process. I have found a lot of success in asking this question. 2. I ask candidates to share with me a time they had to articulate value of their product/solution to a customer. As I mentioned in another question, showcasing your company's value is one of the most important responsibilities of a CSM. If a candidate does not have experience with this, how can I expect them to articulate value to our customers?

I'd structure my thoughts tailored to the company's goals, customer needs, and product/service offerings, distinguish between leading and lagging indicators, establish the median metric numbers, and improvise as we go from time to time. 1. Understand Company Goals: I will start by understanding the company's goals. These could include revenue growth, customer retention, market share expansion, specific product adoption targets, and multi-product strategies. 2. Align with Business Objectives: Identify how we can contribute to achieving these goals. For example, if the company aims to increase revenue through upsells and expansions, we may focus on improving product adoption and identifying upsell opportunities. 3. Identify Customer Needs: It's important to monitor your customers' needs and expectations. Conduct customer surveys, interviews, and feedback analysis to identify key areas. 4. Milestones: Map the journey from onboarding to renewal/advocacy. If needed, develop the enhanced engagement model and ensure the impact is delivered from all perspectives. 5. Identify Metrics: Based on the above factors, select meaningful and actionable metrics. These may include retention rate, churn rate, NPS, product adoption metrics, expansion revenue, customer health scores, and Verified Outcomes. 6. Distinguish Leading and Lagging Indicators: Balance between leading indicators (predictive of future success) and lagging indicators (reflecting past performance). For example, while the retention rate is a lagging indicator, the product adoption rate may be a leading indicator of future retention. 7. Iterate and Improve: Continuously review and refine your customer success metrics based on feedback, changes in business strategy, and evolving customer needs. Be open to experimenting with new metrics and approaches that better align with company goals. 8. Communicate and Align: Communicate the selected metrics clearly to the customer success team and ensure alignment with their roles and responsibilities. Provide training and resources to empower them to drive success based on these metrics. By following this process, one can align with the company's goals and objectives, enabling your team to effectively drive value for both customers and the business.

While I have been at HubSpot for a long time (13+ years), many opportunities have come up over time that I have had to assess new opportunities. Here are the things I tend to look at when considering a role; * Market Evolution * Size and growth potential of the market the company plays in * Stage of evolution : is this a horizon that is in its late stages or on the cutting edge? * Potential : is this a single product/one trick pony or do * Product * Do customers love their product/service? * Who are their competitors and how does their solution stack up? * Are they a leader or laggard? Have they shown product/service innovation? * Leadership and Culture * Are they proud of their vision, values and culture, even if they are against the grain? * How visual/vocal is their executive leadership? * Do people love the company? Are they staying there or leaving after short periods of time? * How do they treat failure? * Skills and Growth * Does my past experience lend well to the role? * Are there opportunities for me to build new skills? * What is my potential for impact on the business priorities? * Does this role help me build skills for the next position I hope to achieve?

What I enjoy most about the customer success role is the lens of seeing customers grow from their initial commitment to successful renewals and expansions where the customer achieves their goals. Throughout this journey, many teams often engage and work with the customer to support this motion. Having a view of the end-to-end customer journey and a strong understanding of the motions that drive customer value is a perspective that can benefit most areas of the business. 

Great question! I've fallen in this trap so I'm speaking from experience here. You need to lead the conversation here and find the right answer, and don't just take orders from the various departments on what they want CS to focus on. Being too responsive here (rather than proactive) is how we land in the camp of doing "all the things" and creating a ton of thrash on the CS team. My recommendation: * Start by understanding what customers need. Talk to them-- customers of all shapes and sizes. Understand where they struggle to learn about and adopt your product(s) and build a prioritized list of those things. Record your customer interviews and save them were others can learn from them too. * Work with your cross-functional partners to identify potential ways to serve the biggest customer needs. The answer to some of them may be a CSM, but challenge the business to find other solutions- whether supplemental to CSM or replacing a CSM answer. * If you have friendly customers, this is a good point to share some of the ideas and get their reactions. * Then you go back to the exec team with your point of view for where CSMs will focus and where they won't, and the other solutions that also need to exist. * Repeat the customer listening > CSM scope conversation periodically or as your business changes significantly.