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  • Update on As a Service trends

    In my new eBook / trend report I will cover the As a Service trend (see point 9 here for more on that) and the role customer success plays in it. This post and others that follow will document examples of where I see companies exhibiting behaviours of this trend. I first wrote about them…

  • Playing your part in the machine of business is hard. Start with mindset.

    Business transformations or change management efforts are a dime a dozen. We are bombarded by the constant need for change in the face of accelerating change. We get we need to build an ability to master change. The problem is in the face of cynical change or transformation programs where many have gone wrong, we…

  • Considering buying a new technology platform, ask this about their customer success

    I’ve been on both the receiving and offering end of efforts so can speak to both. In the Software as a Service business especially, if that is how the platform is offered, the vendor should have a team supporting how the platform is deployed, adopted and maintained. Moreover, the team should be focused on helping…

  • Leading the right behaviours through metrics and new work models

    Metrics drive behaviour. Organisations also know that they can better manage, what they can measure. So if you want to change behaviours, look at the metrics you are using and how they are driving behaviours. You also need to look at the models and frameworks in which the metrics are contextualised and which drive them.…

  • Thought Rocket: The Conversation is the Collaboration

    Workplace chat is something I am heavily focused on at the moment, i.e. my customers use of Microsoft Teams. Either through lack of knowledge or legacy thinking, I’m faced with initial confusion. This quick video aims to tackle that. I’m trying to emphasise that it’s not about the many things I get asked to address…

  • Thought Rocket: Persona’s and knowing your users

    I put this simple video together the other day. I shared it on LinkedIn and it got some good feedback – check the comments. The post and comments go in to more detail in terms what I was thinking and how responses helped me flesh it out a little. So herewith, the video:

  • What good data looks like

    This last week I attended a meetup and workshop in London organised by Customer Success Network, a European based not-for-profit community for customer success managers. It had the same title as this post. An excellent session which started off with a few minutes of talking by Dan Steinman, GM Gainsight EMEA. I then facilitated one of the…

  • What business are you in?

    The question in the title derives from the classic marketing thought piece by Theodore Levitt entitled Marketing Myopia. At the time it rocked not just the marketing world but the business world in general and has shaped business thinking ever since. Published in the Harvard Business Review in July/August 1960, it is no less relevant…

  • State of Customer Success 2018

    I attended Pulse Europe (the 4th) on the 8-9th November, an event run by Gainsight, a Customer Success (CS) technology vendor. They run the larger, main event in the US and I had the pleasure of attending last year where I captured the State of Customer Success 2017. So this is a timely update with…

  • Enabling Usage Insights for Office 365 Customers

    This post provides first some simple context for whom and why it is important to understand usage of enterprise technology platforms and then how we enable it at Microsoft for the Office 365 suite of products. You can skip the context and head straight to the enabling part if you like. It’s important for Customer Success…

  • An explorers guide to the new era of work

    The explorer There’s a long list of traits prevalent in the explorer, people that are naturally inclined to overcoming challenges and seeking new discoveries in any field, place or time. Those traits that stand out for me are the joy of mastering new skills or knowledge, an insatiable desire for uncovering truth and new things…

  • SaaS beyond Software – Automakers

    The auto industry needs Customer Success managers. Geoffrey Moore, famed author of Crossing the Chasm and father of Moore’s law is writing a new book on Customer Success. This slide above comes from a talk where he is quoted applying the concept of customer success to manufacturing. I applied the same thinking in this blog…

  • Agile in nature not just by name

    Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft where I work) recently shared his thoughts on how organisations need to embrace “tech intensity” to innovate and grow in today’s high-intensity digital economy. He didn’t specifically call out speed but its implicit in everything he said. I’m surrounded in the work I do at Microsoft, by IT teams that…

  • Role of Self Service in Customer Success

    Customer success teams were put in place in technology SaaS and subscription companies to ensure that customers are successful in their use of the technology they invested in. They have become a core part of ensuring the customer derives long-term value and ultimately stays with the vendor (in other words renews the subscription). But has…