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. 

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.

This question is a bit subjective as going "above and beyond" can mean different things to different people. If a candidate truly wants a role, in my opinion, they should do whatever they feel puts them in the best position to receive an offer. I cannot remember ever walking out of an interview and thinking to myself "that candidate was overprepared." With that said, there are a few areas, I would recommend a candidate focus on: 1. Know the company/product: I highly recommend learning everything you can on a company. Some examples include reviewing their product offering, reading case studies and watching a demo on their website. 2. Know the role you are interviewing for: You should know the job description inside and out. Understand the experience the company is looking for and the day-to-day responsibilities of the position. Practice speaking about your background and how it is a fit for this role. 3. Learn about your interviewer: It can never hurt to know more about or find something in common with the person interviewing you. For example, learn about their previous companies/positions, where they went to college or some of their interests. Most of this information can be found on Linkedin or on the company website. Find a way to work this into the interview as it can make for a much better conversation and shows the interviewer you have done your research. 4. Prepare questions for the interviewer ahead of time. If you are not good at coming up with questions on the spot, it is best to have 3-4 questions written down ahead of time. Asking questions shows the interviewer you are interested in the position and want to learn more. Any candidate truly interested in joining a new company should have plenty of questions to ask. 

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.

No technical skills are not always necessary to be an effective CSM, however having a basic understanding of technical concepts can he helpful particularly if working in certain subsegments of the tech industry. The level technical skill required is also to a degree dependent on the company and the scope of the role. Some CS roles in deeply technical companies may require you to have a level of familiarity with technical concepts however for many CS roles this is not the case. However in either scenario familiarity with the product or service being supported can be beneficial as as a CSM while you may not be responsible for technical troubleshooting you will be required to have a good understanding of the product offering and will need to be capable having conversations with customers about the products features, functions and capabilities.

Yes! In the past, we had various approaches to driving adoption in our accounts that would cause temporary boosts but didn't result in sustained adoption. Now we have a motion that's working! First things first: you have to understand why users do/don't adopt to move the needle on this. When/where do the users get value from using your product (things that would make them come back)? How easy is it for them to pick the product up and use it without instruction? What use cases are easiest to start with? For us, we learned that users do best when their leaders are setting the tone: why they purchased the product, when/how they should use it, and what metrics the organization will start to rally around from the product. We are leaning into that with a motion of Rollout and Adoption planning (which is a flavor of success planning) which was actually invented by some members of our CSM team: * Identify key user groups and use cases that align to the outcomes our customers want to achieve. This is done through a focused conversation with our executive/champion in the account. * Prescribe use cases (simple to advanced) that align to those outcomes. * Provide the customer with templates to communicate those to their users about Why, When, How to use the platform. * Orient user training (both online and live) around those key use cases and help train the users. * Measure results, discuss them with the customer * Rinse and Repeat

Driving product adoption is all about helping users achieve their desired outcomes with your SaaS product. Here are some effective strategies I've used: 1. Align Adoption with Customer Goals: Uncover Objectives: During onboarding, understand each customer's unique goals and challenges. Align product features to their specific needs. Outcomes Over Features: Focus on the outcomes your product will deliver – how it will help them achieve their goals – rather than just listing features. 2. Personalize the Onboarding Journey: Segment Users: Group users based on needs and roles. Tailor onboarding experiences with relevant content, tutorials, and support. Dynamic Onboarding: Use user data to personalize the onboarding flow, highlighting features that directly address their needs. 3. The Power of Storytelling: Customer Success Stories: Showcase real-world examples of customers who achieved success using your product. This resonates with users and builds trust. Goal-Oriented Scenarios: Create narratives that mirror user goals. Show them how your product helps them overcome challenges and achieve success. 4. Deliver Value Early - Quick Wins Matter: Focus on Core Features: Prioritize features that deliver immediate value and address user pain points. Low-Hanging Fruit: Identify easy-to-use features that generate quick wins. This fosters early engagement and motivates continued use. 5. Golden Feature Focus: High-Impact Features: Identify a small set of "golden features" that deliver significant value to a large portion of your user base. Targeted Promotion: Promote these features heavily during onboarding and through product tours. Ensure users understand their benefits. 6. Identify and Empower Champions: Internal Champions: Empower internal customer-facing teams to become product adoption champions. They can advocate for the product and guide users. Customer Champions: Identify enthusiastic users who excel at using your product. Leverage their expertise through case studies, testimonials, or peer mentoring programs. I believe that by Implementing these strategies, you can create a product adoption plan that feels personal and valuable to each customer. This combination of user-centricity and clear value proposition will drive successful adoption and long-term engagement with your product.

These are some of the most common reasons why a customer isn't adopting your product: 1. They find it difficult to use. 2. They do not have the service and support they require to be successful. 3. They are not seeing and/or do not understand the value it provides to their business. 4. The product is not evolving to fit their needs.

I answered a similar question for new grads looking to get into a CSM role, the same advice applies. 1. Learn about the role. I have included some links below that can help with this. 2. Network (don't be afraid, I've found the majority of people are more than willing to offer guidance and advice) 3. Ask for a mentor 4. Look for internships https://www.csinfocus.com/community https://www.customersuccess.community/feed https://gaingrowretain.com/ https://hub.practicalcsm.com/ https://catalyst.io/community/community-home https://community.gainsight.com/ https://userpilot.com/blog/customer-success-courses/

There's only one that springs to mind and it's "Put the customer at the centre of everything you do". If every department thinks customer first, then the whole company wins, as well as the customers!