What questions should you ask during your one-on-ones with your cross-functional teams during your first month at the company?

As with any time you join a new company, listen, listen, listen, and THEN ask, ask, ask! I highly suggest driving those 1:1s if they aren’t already scheduled for you, and then spend time understanding the internal processes (and why they were built the way they are). I would stay away from “well, in my former company we did xxx and xxx and it worked great” – instead ask “do you know why this is done this way?”. Get all the info on interactions with clients that you can as well – your internal folks, especially implementation teams, usually have quite a bit of “behind the scenes” information that can help you as you start interacting with clients!

As a customer success professional and leader, you should ask the following questions during your one-on-ones with your cross-functional teams during your first month at the company:

1. What are the goals and objectives of your team, and how do they align with the overall company goals?
2. What are the biggest challenges your team is facing, and how can we work together to address them?
3. How do you measure success for your team, and what metrics are you tracking?
4. How do you currently communicate with customers, and what feedback have you received from them?
5. How do you ensure a smooth onboarding process for new customers?
6. How do you identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities with existing customers?
7. How does your team work with other teams (e.g., product, sales, marketing, customer success, support) to ensure a seamless customer experience?
8. What are your team's priorities for the upcoming quarter, and how can customer success support those priorities?
9. How can we work together to ensure customers receive the value they expect from our product?
10. What feedback have you received from customers that we can use to improve our product and customer success efforts?

These questions will help you understand your cross-functional teams' perspectives, identify areas of improvement, and ensure that customer success is aligned with the company's overall goals and objectives. It is essential to actively listen to their responses and work collaboratively to solve any challenges.