Why a strong product/CS relationship matters
Think about the most successful software product companies out there — Salesforce, Microsoft, HubSpot, Twilio, Atlassian. What do they have in common?
The most successful software companies establish strong partnerships between their product management teams and their customer success teams across a variety of initiatives, ranging from tactical to strategic.
They understand that if the product isn’t adopted by customers, then the product isn’t valuable and the company won’t meet its objectives.
While there are many surface-level articles out there about how product teams and customer success teams can work together, we wanted to go deeper.
In this multi-part series, Jennifer Chiang (author of The Startup’s Guide to Customer Success and Head of Customer Success at Yup Technologies) and Clement Kao (author of Refining Your Product Skills and Cofounder at Product Manager HQ) will delve into what it means for the product management and customer success teams to work together — from high-level initiatives like aligning on strategic visions to the nitty-gritty like how to approach customer calls together.
We’ll cover:
- Why a strong product/CS relationship matters
- How to cultivate a strong Product/CS relationship
- How to align on visions and bring teams together
- How to structure 1:1s between Product/CS
First, let’s establish why it’s such a strategic advantage to have a strong product/CS relationship.
Deliver transformative value to customers
If customers don’t use a product, regardless of how great the product might be, it will have no value to the customers. It’s as simple as that.
Product teams always seek to create outsized value for customers. But, many times, product managers don’t have a clear grasp of customer pains and priorities. On top of that, product managers rarely have a firsthand perspective on the challenges that customers face when trying to adopt their features.
For a product manager to deliver real, lasting impact, they need visibility into customer pains and customer adoption patterns.
Thankfully, customer success teams already have that information on-hand. By partnering with CSMs, product managers can make low-cost refinements that significantly reduce adoption challenges.
Customer success teams always aim to set their customers up for success and growth. But, many times, CSMs don’t have clarity on how their customers’ needs fit into the long-term product vision. And, in many cases, CSMs don’t have insight into how the product works in the first place, which makes it difficult for them to provide thoughtful solutions to their customers.
For a CSM to deliver real, lasting impact, they need visibility into the product roadmap and context on how the product works.
Thankfully, product teams already have that information on-hand. By partnering with product managers, CSMs can more deeply solve for their customers’ needs, increasing loyalty and decreasing churn.
To unlock transformative value to customers, these two teams must constantly share information with one another. What are the customer’s current pain points? How does the product address certain personas or use cases — and if it doesn’t, why not?
By having a strong relationship, both teams can have more frank discussions about how we can help each other reach and surpass our goals.
Accelerate operational efficiency
Product and CS both have nearly-infinite workloads. To prevent burnout and employee attrition, both teams must invest in eliminating friction.
But it isn’t just about less stress. It’s about missing out on high-value opportunities for your business.
When CSMs are overwhelmed, they’re unable to invest time in crafting deep partnerships with customers. That’s a huge loss of value for the business. Customers who perceive their CSMs as partners are more likely to stay with the business, and are more likely to purchase multiple solutions from the business.
When PMs are overwhelmed, they’re unable to invest time in delivering on their product roadmap and vision. That’s a huge loss of value for the business. The goal of a product team should be to drive 10x value vs. existing alternatives — but product teams can’t do that if customers are constantly threatening to terminate their contracts.
So, how does a strong product and CS relationship accelerate operational efficiency? A tight partnership increases transparency and improves shared context, which reduces friction and mitigates fires.
When Product is tightly partnered with CS, product managers gain deeper empathy for their customers. With that empathy, product managers can make better product decisions that yield high customer value. Customers appreciate it when their voices are acknowledged by the product team — so, exposing product managers to CSMs increases customer loyalty.
When CS is tightly partnered with Product, CSMs can set clearer expectations with clients and can better advocate for customer needs. By setting the right expectations, CSMs set the customer up for success. When the customer has transparency into the company’s priorities and roadmap, and has a clear understanding of where their own requests are prioritized, the customer becomes more receptive to partnering with CSMs over the long run.
Reduce customer churn and throwaway work
By actively finding time to share context with one another, product teams and customer success teams can craft more effective plans, set better expectations, and reduce the likelihood of preventable fires.
Here’s a tangible example. Say that a strategic logo is threatening to terminate their contract. If there’s already a strong product / CS relationship, both teams don’t have to start from square one on understanding who this logo is, why they are important, and how they operate. That reduces the time needed to find an effective solution, which reduces the likelihood of churn.
If the CS team is already armed with product knowledge, they can proactively suggest interim solutions to the customer while they work alongside the product team to deliver a more complete solution.
And, if the product team is already armed with customer knowledge, they are more likely to deliver a solution that solves both for the specific logo’s pain and for the broader customer base.
Imagine the alternative, where the CS team is lacking product knowledge and vice versa.
If the CS team lacks product knowledge, they may suggest a workaround that the product doesn’t actually support. Or, they may accidentally commit the company to significant throwaway work that doesn’t yield long-term business value across customers.
Conversely, if the product team lacks customer knowledge, they may build out functionality that doesn’t actually address the customer’s pain, which then causes the strategic logo to churn.
Clearly, it pays for CS teams to have product knowledge and for product teams to have customer knowledge. That two-way flow of information can only happen when both teams have a strong relationship with one another.
Summary
A strong product/CS relationship accelerates your business.
When product managers and CSMs partner together and share context with one another, they jointly deliver scalable solutions that customers are eager to adopt. They address customer pains more quickly, more completely, and more empathetically. They can more effectively prevent customer churn and prevent throwaway work.
It’s worth investing into building the partnership between product and CS. In the next chapter, we’ll discuss how exactly to cultivate a strong relationship between both teams.
