AMA: Splunk EMEA Director of Customer Success, Ed Sowden on Customer Success Interviews

What are the most common mistakes you see candidates make during an interview for a customer success position?

For customer success interviews, what are helpful resources you'd recommend and types of questions to prepare for from both hiring managers and cross-functional partners?

How does one gauge autonomy in a customer success interview?

What are some of the most common red flags you've come across either on a candidate's resume or initial interview that you'd advise future customer success managers to avoid?

How can I improve my interviewing skills for a customer success role?

As a hiring manager, what do the best customer success have in common?

Do you generally recommend that candidates go 'above and beyond' in preparing for interviews?

In which situations do you recommend this approach or not?

What are the key questions you like to ask and why?

How would the proper answers to your questions look like?

What are the key questions you like to ask and why? How would the proper answers to your questions look like?

When hiring- what do you look for in a candidate- that will influence your opinion on future performance most?

Are you looking at skillset? The manner in which they display their thought process? Previous experience? We can all acknowledge all the above is important which is most influential?

How do we identify challenges or opportunities that customers may not even be aware of? One of the biggest challenges with mature accounts is that customers often feel they’ve already realized the full value of the platform. However, there is usually untapped potential. How do we influence customers to uncover and explore those additional opportunities?