CSM - What's the Best Way to Get Early Customer Success?

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Having the c s m roll be heavily focused on product education and adoption early is definitely where you want to invest your time and energy. A really great model to start applying early with your customers is the train the trainer model. Also, getting the foundation early. This is something the catalists did, and i think it pai off incredibly well for us in our ability to provide immediate value to those early day customers. The middle ground is the best. Ideally you have a product that's robust and flexible, but from a customer's success standpoint, this is where you can ultimately start owning the narrative of what the best practice and recommendation is to get highest value from the platform.

Today’s episode is with Sydney Strader, VP of Customer Success at Catalyst. Prior to joining Catalyst, Sydney was the VP of Customer Success at InVision.

In our conversation we focus on founder-led customer success, an area of early company building that’s often overlooked. Here’s a preview of her tactical advice:

How to structure early customer check-ins, plus a framework to help surface more specific feedback.
The most impactful questions that founders and customer success managers should ask all their customers.
Why everyone at the company owns the net revenue retention metric — not just the customer success function.
How to make your first customer success hire, from the ideal profile to structuring the interview process and setting comp.

You can follow Sydney on Twitter at @sydneystrader. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.