The Synergy of Cross-Functional Product Design and Customer Success Teams

Introduction

For a SaaS company committed to user-centric design, promoting cross-functional collaboration between the customer success and product design teams can be highly beneficial. The customer success team gains valuable qualitative insights from daily customer interactions, while the product design team has a wealth of quantitative product data but often lacks regular customer feedback.

By getting these teams to work together, you can significantly improve both the customer experience and the quality of support provided. Although there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, here are some ways Product Design and Customer Success teams can collaborate to identify new features, enhance customer support, and improve existing product functionality:

Engage the Customer Success Team in User Experience Research

Develop targeted research activities that customer success representatives can easily carry out, like brief surveys or compiling notes on customer interactions, to inform the product team.

Collaborate with the Customer Success Team to Identify Common Issues

Partner with the Customer Success team to systematically track how customers engage with the product, pinpointing areas of difficulty. This structured approach enables you to identify opportunities for improvement, assess which features are most valuable to your users, and optimise the user experience.

Touchpoint Surveys for Comprehensive Feedback

A touchpoint survey offers a structured way to gather feedback across various customer interactions, such as phone conversations, live chats, video calls, webinars, onboarding sessions, and in-person meetings.

Include the Customer Success Team in the Design Process

Grant the Customer Success team access to prototypes and preliminary designs. This enables them to provide valuable feedback and gain a better understanding of the direction for new features and enhancements.

Frequent Team Meetings for Insight Sharing

The Customer Success and Product Design teams should convene regularly to discuss emerging trends in customer issues, reactions to newly released or updated features, and other insights related to product usability and pain points.

Building a Customer Contact List for Product Testing

Collaborate with the Customer Success team to compile a list of customer contacts for product testing within your UX research tools. Consider inviting customers to participate in testing initiatives after their issues have been resolved, ensuring a more constructive feedback process.

By implementing some or all of these strategies, you can make sure that the Customer Success team becomes an essential stakeholder in the design and enhancement of your product features. At a minimum, such collaboration will deepen your understanding of your customers’ needs, preferences, and experiences.

Collaboration Maturity Curve: Assessing Team Synergy

A table that gauges the extent to which the Customer Success and Product teams are working together to ensure customer success with the product. This framework was originally developed by Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight.

Level 0: No collaboration

All communication goes via Zendesk and Jira

Level 1: Work on client issues

Teams collaborate but focus mainly on high-priority client issues.

Level 2: Proactive approach to clients

Both teams actively align on key clients and their product requirements.

Level 3: Cross-functional projects

Limited joint projects exist to foster collaboration between the teams.

Level 4: Shared KPIs

Customer Success and Product teams align their goals by adopting commonly owned metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Level 5: Best Friends Forever

Teams continually exchange insights and data and routinely include each other in discussions.

Shared Metrics and KPIs for Team Cohesion

An example of shared KPIs could include:

New feature adoption
Customer retention rates
Weekly support ticket volume
User engagement levels
Conversion rates
User satisfaction scores
Monthly recurring revenue

Identifying the Who, What, and When of Collaboration

Collaboration isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s essential to clearly define who should be collaborating, what the focus of the collaboration should be, and when this teamwork should take place. Establishing these parameters is crucial for the long-term success of any joint venture. The key takeaway is that Customer Success and Product Design teams can maximise their effectiveness by recognising the unique value each stakeholder brings to the table, for the benefit of everyone involved.

Aligning Collaboration with Company Objectives

For this collaborative initiative to be successfully integrated into your company’s product design process, it’s vital to secure approval for a new company policy. This policy should earmark resources for tackling customer issues, streamlining product workflows, and implementing team-recommended features. Without such a policy, the initiative risks failure.

It’s equally important for team research efforts to stay aligned with the broader company goals. By doing so, the teams can adopt a focused approach to data collection and analysis. This enables the development of solutions that are not only attuned to user needs but also contribute to business growth.

Periodic Planning and Structured Workflows

Periodically throughout the year, the Product Design and Customer Success teams should come together to prioritise upcoming tasks on the product roadmap. To deliver high-quality results that align with your company’s overarching goals, both teams should adhere to a structured workflow outlined by a checklist. This checklist will guide the teams through essential steps, including defining clear objectives and metrics, carrying out focused user research, prototyping and refining solutions, and evaluating the outcomes to inform future work.

Defined Objectives and Performance Indicators

Both teams need a solid grasp of the company’s overarching goals for the product, including pinpointing target user demographics, key performance indicators, and anticipated results. This clarity will guide their work and make sure it stays aligned with the larger company vision.

Targeted User Research

For optimal results, teams should use UX research methods to gather targeted feedback from both current and potential customers. Importantly, this research should be tightly aligned with the company’s current product objectives to ensure that the data collected is both relevant and actionable.

Ongoing Testing and Refinement

Teams should consistently employ testing and iterative techniques, using tools like user testing, A/B testing, and analytics. This practice ensures that solutions are not only user-centric but also closely aligned with the company’s broader objectives. Early issue detection and resolution are additional benefits, making the development process more efficient.

Evaluating Impact and Guiding Future Efforts

Teams need to define and track specific metrics that align with company and product objectives. Monitoring these metrics sheds light on the efficacy of their efforts and highlights areas needing improvement. Furthermore, this data-driven evaluation offers crucial insights for upcoming product development initiatives.

Copnclusion

The strategies outlined in this article provide a robust framework for both Product Design and Customer Success teams to excel collaboratively. Not only does this approach ensure alignment with the company’s overarching goals and objectives, but it also places customer needs at the forefront of decision-making. The joint efforts in defining shared KPIs, conducting targeted research, and implementing iterative testing regimes make for a more cohesive, effective process. This holistic methodology not only enhances the quality of the work produced but also sets the stage for sustainable growth and improved customer satisfaction. By systematically measuring impact and iterating based on data-driven insights, teams can anticipate challenges and pivot effectively, all while nurturing a culture of continuous improvement.