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Digital Panel - May 11, 2021

meet the biggest scaling challenges head on

Do your scaling challenges have you feeling like Tom Hanks in Cast Away: totally isolated? Surprise - you're not alone! Catalyst has rounded up never-before-seen research collected from 100 Customer Success executives on their struggles and issues in scaling and more.  

We were joined by Sydney Strader at Catalyst, Scott Dzialo at Braze, and Max Davison at PandaDoc to learn how world class CS leaders manage these challenges. 

Topics

  • Best practices for finding and recruiting CS talent

  • How to approach a leveling system in your CS org

  • Fostering the next generation of CS managers

  • Technology management: how?!

Key takeaways

  • Hire with a defined process that correctly sets expectations for everyone during the interview process. Think about hiring for traits rather than traditional CS backgrounds - don’t be afraid to look outside the CS & revenue org disciplines for really good CS hires!

  • Think about scaling in a few ways. First, your customer journey and your guiding vision - what are the major touch points you have in CS and what are the unique skills needed? Secondly, solve for the business needs by working backwards from your business’s operating plan.

  • Some best practices for growing the next generation of leaders in an organization: make mentoring a part of the culture; delegate responsibilities via the player-coach model; and create a formalized growth process with specific timelines.

  • How to think about tech and CS: no one tool can accomplish everything you need, so have a Grand Central Station for information. Be intentional about new tech - every new tool you bring on means more training. Get your process in place before you bring on more tech!

  • Through all scaling challenges: focus as a service. Making sure that the business and revenue teams and ops are all connected on the same priorities, with targets on the same goals, and take action together to solve those!

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