v.14 | stinky fish and proving value | weeknotes

Every Friday I use a random selection of prompts to write about working as a Customer Success Manager from Stockholm.

Flowers brought by the inlaws who came to visit all the way from Arizona. The vase, on the other hand, comes from my grandmother's town of Caltagirone (Sicily).

3 Learnings

• Always always always sync internally before a customer-facing meeting. Especially when we are still getting to know each other as colleagues, perfecting that team choreo to put up the best of performances for the customer.
• Understanding the context takes time. Being new to the video streaming scene — specifically eCDN — means that I don’t have the reference points to the wider context to understand when customers are saying something relevant (and follow with an equally relevant and very intelligent remark) or if they’re in outer space (and gracefully bring them back to planet Earth). This is a challenge that I just need to sit with as I learn more, I was told it will probably take no less than 6 months so…
• A part of my workdays goes into selecting the perfect GIFs to send to my colleagues and I am perfectly fine with that. My favourites are Schitt’s Creek-related.

Speaking of GIFs, memes are also very important. The context: this meeting was actually about Customer Stories and then Laima went on and added this hilarious caption to this screenshot that she took without us knowing. From the top left and around: Laima, Niclas, Chio, and moi — not sure why we have these faces, it was a very enjoyable meeting. But back to the meme: I thought it was hilarious and my peeps working in CS will get it, apparently it’s a common challenge across the market!

…and 2 Thoughts

Proving the value of CS internally

Customer Success is a relatively new function in SaaS and other industries at large. The great thing about that is that the soil is fertile and we get to set the precedents, but it also comes with challenges that, for the most part, there isn’t a widespread understanding of what CS is. Proving yourself externally to the customer is one battle —the first hill to climb often being getting the opportunity to prove them that what you’re offering is worth their time. Having to prove the value of your role internally is an entirely different hurdle. I feel lucky to work for an organisation that tries to live by its “Customer Centricity” core value from the top down, but of course there still will be individuals who don’t “get it” (yet). It’s never personal and it takes time, but it does directly affect your daily work as a CSM all the same.

Supportive leadership

This week our afternoons were busied by our internal QBRs. Lucky for me, I was only an attendant seeing as laying out my performance for the whole company to scrutinise isn’t my idea of fun! On a serious note though, it’s been super interesting to listen in and so refreshing to see managers who have their team’s back providing some context to underperformance. In Sicily we say: “U pisci feti da testa” (lit. the fish always stinks from the head because fish starts rotting from the head), meaning that the bad example is set from the top of an organisation and trickles down. This might reflect a rather hierarchical mindset, but there definitely is truth to it — both in the negative and positive sense. When leadership is supportive even in the face of individual challenges, the rest of the team will follow suit.

Lit. “The fish stinks from the head” — I made this. Why yes, I am a graphic designer by night. Thank you for asking.

Thank you for reading. I will be out of office for the next couple of weeks, finally introducing my daughter to my father’s side of the family since I haven’t seen in two years #becausecovid — so expect radio silence from me.

Have a great weekend! 🎠