Scaling success with a self-starter mindset

This case study exemplifies how empowering people to be effective, self-starter, project managers can have positive business outcomes.

---

---

Industry Problem

Software products have potential to automate away mundane tasks and turn complicated challenges into trivial pursuits. But software needs to first be developed, and with real customers. Services are used to bridge the gap between a young software product and a fully matured customer experience. These services enable customers to receive valuable outcomes from the software, but are heavily reliant on technical experts delivering the solutions.

Typically that technical expertise needed, is niche to the problem the software solution addresses. Hiring these experts into the company is expensive and difficult to do. The industry experts are likely comfortable and well compensated doing the job they are already doing, and niche product expertise is typically developed by using the product itself.

Additionally, opting for resource is a prevalent obstacle. Even if you’re in growth mode, well funded, and with a steady stream of revenue, there is still in-fighting for resources.

But there must be a way to bridge the gap between a product that needs substantial, expert, hands-on delivery, and seamless customer experience.

Creating a Solution

In this situation, I helped the company to hire junior and intermediate-level staff, and train them to deliver complex solutions.

In an 4 month period, the company hired and trained 2 staff to the customer success team. They both had technical backgrounds relevant to the field, but had not managed customers before. The company was rapidly expanding, from having no customer success team a year prior, to creating systems on-the-fly to support a growing customer base. Two of the team’s account managers were recruited to other key parts of the organization, and the sales team continued to win more projects.

I worked with the new staff to learn the must-dos and must-don’ts of client management, and to gain confidence in driving work themselves. Both new staff came from larger organizations, and were used to more structure and direct instruction than they now received. The team developed a system around goal setting. The system encouraged each team member to lean on their own strengths and that of their teammates, taking ownership to drive different aspects of their customer’s success.

Results

Despite the mountain of challenges they were up against, the systems we put in place allowed the two staff to succeed. They enabled:

• Winning an expansion contract increasing the company’s total ARR (annual recurring revenue) by about 40% from the year prior;
• Retention of close to $10,000 MRR from a founding customer account, as the product scaled; and
• Managing a full customer load by the end of 3-month probation period, without provoking any churn.

How we did it

Before investing in recruitment, I worked with the team to identify the gaps in the organization. What skills did the company lack that would help them succeed? We identified what would be best filled with current staff and what would need to be obtained externally.

Then, we made sure the corporate level goals were understood by the hiring team. Why those goals were important, and what the timelines were. Together, we made a priority list so the team could assess which candidates helped fill the most important gaps.

Aligning on the priority order and understanding each existing team member’s personal goals, made it easy to decide on how to best build up the team. We assessed the strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations of the current staff, and agreed on what could be trained, improved on, filled by hiring, or left as a low priority weakness.

This understanding of the resources at hand, and connection with the bigger picture (the company’s vision for success), allowed us to put the first building blocks together in establishing an organizational leadership system. We re-assessed role accountabilities, identified what kind of training staff would need, and helped staff set personal goals. By the end of the four month period, the team was well set up to enable customer growth, career growth, and fill current gaps in the product offering.

In summary

Does this problem sound familiar?

Are you trying to scale your product? I hope this case study provides you with some useful ideas to approach the challenges you’re facing.

If you’re not sure what to do next, let’s chat. Email me for a 30-min consultation and I’ll see what I can do to help.