I don't usually ask for favors in this space. Today I'm making an exception. I've been nominated for the Atonom 2026 Thought Leader Award, recognizing ideas, research, and perspective shaping the future of customer experience. I built this platform on one belief: Customer Success only earns its seat at the table when it can prove its value in the language the business actually speaks. Every framework, every hard truth, every "here's what nobody tells you" post has been in ser

Fourteen years in Customer Success has taught me a lot of things. But there's one rule that has stayed constant through every team I've built, every org I've scaled, and every business I've advised: If it's not measurable, it's not real. And I don't mean measuring the activity. I mean measuring the outcome the activity was supposed to produce. The Dashboard Problem Open almost any CS dashboard right now and you'll find the same thing. Number of meetings held. Number of Busine

I've worked for a handful of companies over the years, some good, a couple truly great, and plenty that were entirely forgettable. When I look back at what separated the great ones, it wasn't the product, the perks, or even the pay. It was one decision, repeated over and over, that most companies talk about and very few actually protect. They invested in their people. Not as a slogan on a careers page. But as an operating principle. They invested in growth. At the companies t

Every Customer Success leader has a version of this story. You're in a meeting, a decision gets made that undercuts everything you've been building, and you walk out convinced your leadership team just doesn't get it. I lived that story for years. I was certain the problem was them. It wasn't. The problem was that I never once asked what "Customer Success" meant to the people I was reporting to. I assumed we were all working from the same definition. We weren't, and that gap

I was in a working session with a company recently, doing what I usually do: digging into their onboarding process. Somewhere in that conversation, a familiar number came up. Ninety days. That was the timeline they were pushing every customer toward, the number stamped on internal decks and used as the measuring stick for whether onboarding was "working." So I asked the obvious question. What percentage of customers were actually hitting that 90-day mark? Eighty percent were

What if I told you I could stop the war between sales and CS? You know the one. Sales is rolling in gold like Scrooge McDuck and CS is literally sitting in a dumpster fire. Sales thinks CS makes excuses. CS thinks sales doesn't care. Not my problem vibes all around. I've been on both sides of this. And I can tell you the tension is real, but it's also fixable. The problem isn't the people. It's the design. The Story That Changed How I Think About This I'll never forget one cu

“Figure it out.” It’s a phrase that sounds empowering on the surface. But most of the time, it’s not empowerment. It’s leadership abandonment. And founders and CEOs need to hear this. I’ve seen this happen over and over again in early-stage companies. In fact, it happened to me more than once earlier in my Customer Success career. A founder or CEO pulls you aside and says something like: "Kristi, this is a big opportunity. You've never done this before, but I believe in you.

Most Series A & B founders believe they’re “investing in Customer Success” when they promote a strong individual contributor into a leadership role. On paper, it makes sense. They know the product. They know the customers. They’ve proven themselves. They’re gritty. They execute. So you elevate them to Head of CS and tell them to build. And then you step back and say, “Go figure it out.” Here’s the problem. Building a Customer Success function is not the same as being great at

I wish more founders and CEOs would remember that not all money is good money. Some revenue brings opportunity. Other revenue brings sacrifice. And if you’ve ever led Customer Success, you know exactly what I mean. For 14 years in CS leadership, I often had to live with business decisions that were made in the name of growth. My team and I were the ones who had to “make it work.” We were the ones told to “figure it out.” And when things went sideways, we were often the ones a

Executive turnover inside your customer’s organization can feel like a threat. A new leader shows up, priorities shift, budgets get scrutinized, and suddenly the relationship you’ve spent months (or years) building feels less secure. But here’s the reality: new stakeholders enter accounts all the time. This isn’t a rare event. It’s part of doing business. What is rare is a Customer Success Manager who treats executive change as a strategic moment instead of a disruption. When

Do you ever just want to scream at someone, “Get off that hill, you’re gonna hurt yourself!” Or is that just me? That’s how I feel every time I hear someone say, “I’ll die on that hill.” Why? Because it’s embarrassing. Truly. The only hill I’d ever die on is the “there’s no hill to die on” hill. I’ve built Customer Success five different times at five different companies. Early stage, late stage, VC-backed, PE-backed, private. SMB focus. Enterprise focus. From $3M in ARR to n

There’s something I say to leadership teams all the time, and it usually lands a little uncomfortably: Not enough companies go through their own customer processes. And it shows. You can see it in the messy onboarding. You can feel it in the clunky handoffs. You can hear it in the awkward renewal conversations. Most of the time, customers are polite about it. But they notice. They always notice. When I work with companies on Customer Success strategy and operations, one of th

Most Series A and B founders don’t actually want Customer Success. They want revenue retention. And those two things are not the same. That might sound provocative, but it’s a pattern I see constantly when I come into early- and growth-stage organizations. Early on, when you’re growing fast, closing new deals is the priority. Revenue now feels urgent. Retention later feels manageable. And for a while, it is. New logos are coming in, the pipeline is moving, and the focus is on

Last week I was on a call with a customer and about ten minutes in she paused and said, “Kristi, can I be honest? You’re one of the only people we work with who doesn’t make us sit through slides.” I laughed. But I also noted it. Because that comment says a lot about where customers are right now and what they actually need from CS. They don’t want more meetings. They don’t want another deck. They don’t want another “just checking in.” They want help that is fast, relevant, a

How to actually track whether your EBRs and QBRs are working One of the things I hate most about EBRs and QBRs is how they’re tracked. I see teams all the time mark a completed meeting as a success. Maybe they go a step further and track who attended, but it usually stops there. A meeting happened. A box gets checked. Everyone moves on. But let’s be honest. A meeting is not an outcome. Recently I was on a call with my friend Berit Hoffmann, CEO and Co-Founder at Korl. If you’

“Accept feedback with grace.” This was one of the best pieces of advice I’d ever been given. Also, one of the hardest for me to follow. I’m a Words of Affirmation girlie. I like knowing I’m doing a good job. I like hearing that things are working. So early in my career, feedback didn’t feel like guidance. It felt like a report card. If someone had feedback, my brain immediately translated that into: you’re not doing enough or your work isn’t great. It felt like failing a test

Most founders know they need capital. Fewer realize how valuable the right investors can be once the check clears. This piece from Stage 2 Capital explores what it looks like when limited partners do more than fund companies. They actively help them win. The article breaks down how Stage 2’s network of experienced go-to-market leaders supports portfolio companies through real execution support, not just advice. Their LP community gets involved in everything from strategy and

Prioritizing risk took me a long time to figure out. Early in my career, I treated every issue like it was urgent. Every problem felt like the problem. I wanted to fix everything, immediately. On the surface, that sounds noble. Responsible, even. In reality, it was exhausting and ineffective. Not everything can be a priority. And when everything is a priority, nothing actually is. What finally changed things for me was getting far more disciplined about business impact. Inste

“Hi Mary, resending the email I sent last Tuesday at 2:37pm EST in case you missed it.” There are very few moments at work that feel as satisfying as being able to send that message. It’s a small sentence, but it carries a lot of weight. Proof. Receipts. Vindication. And yet, the reason you need to send it in the first place usually feels awful. Being accused of something you didn’t do is one of those experiences that sticks with you. It’s frustrating, demoralizing, and surpr

The teams struggling most with AI don’t have a tooling problem.They have a leadership one. Many organizations adopted AI expecting faster execution, sharper thinking, and better outcomes. And on the surface, it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening. Decks are more polished. Emails are clearer. Processes feel tighter. Even task lists look more strategic. Objectively, the work looks better. But when you step back and look at the actual value being created for the business