The Customer Success Playbook
Welcome to “The Customer Success Playbook,” a fresh podcast initiative spearheaded by Kevin Metzger and Roman Trebon. Immerse yourself with us in the dynamic realm of customer success, where we unravel the latest insights, inspirations, and wisdom from recognized leaders in the Customer Success domain.
Our journey began with a simple yet profound belief: that meaningful conversations can significantly impact our professional trajectory. With this ethos, we’ve embarked on a mission to bring to you the voices of seasoned and revered professionals in the field. Our episodes have seen the likes of Sue Nabeth Moore, Greg Daines, Jeff Heclker, James Scott, David Ellin, and David Jackson, who have generously shared their expertise on a variety of pertinent topics.
We’ve delved into the intricacies of Profit and Loss Statements in Customer Success with Dave Jacksson, explored the potential of Customer Success Platforms with Dave Ellin, and unravelled the role of AI in Customer Success with all guests. With Sue, we navigated the waters of Organizational Alignment, while Greg brought to light strategies for Reducing Churn. Not to be missed is James insightful discourse on the Current Trends in Customer Success and Jeff’s thoughts on Service Delivery in CS.
Each episode is crafted with the intention to ignite curiosity and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement among customer success professionals. Our discussions transcend the conventional, probing into the proactive approach, and the evolving landscape of customer success.
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to the industry, our goal is to propel your customer success prowess to greater heights. The rich tapestry of topics we cover ensures there’s something for everyone, from the fundamentals to the advanced strategies that shape the modern customer success playbook.
Our upcoming episodes promise a wealth of knowledge with topics like CS Math, Training, AI, Getting hired in CS, and CS Tool reviews, ensuring our listeners stay ahead of the curve in this fast-evolving field. The roadmap ahead is laden with engaging dialogues with yet more industry mavens, aimed at equipping you with the acumen to excel in your customer success journey.
At “The Customer Success Playbook,” our zeal for aiding others and disseminating our expertise to the community fuels our endeavor. Embark on this enlightening voyage with us, and escalate your customer success game to unparalleled levels.
Join us on this quest for knowledge, engage with a community of like-minded professionals, and elevate your customer success game to the next level. Your journey towards mastering customer success begins here, at “The Customer Success Playbook.” Keep On Playing!!
The Customer Success Playbook
Customer Success Playbook Podcast S3 E56 - Elizabeth Harrin - Blueprint for Managing Competing Project Demands
When multiple projects collide with competing deadlines, stakeholder management becomes an art form. In this dynamic episode of the Customer Success Playbook, Kevin Metzger and Roman Trebon continue their conversation with Elizabeth Harrin, exploring the intricate dance of aligning diverse stakeholder expectations. From financial services to healthcare, Elizabeth shares her cross-industry insights on what truly matters to different stakeholders and how to orchestrate harmony amid chaos.
Detailed Analysis
The episode opens with Elizabeth's compelling cross-industry comparison that immediately sets the tone for nuanced stakeholder management. Her transition from financial services to healthcare revealed a fundamental truth: what matters most varies dramatically by context. In finance, deadlines reign supreme; in healthcare, quality trumps timing when lives are at stake. This powerful example illustrates why understanding stakeholder priorities isn't just good practice – it's essential for project success.
Elizabeth introduces her stakeholder prioritization grid, a tactical tool that transforms vague relationship management into strategic action. The framework helps project managers navigate the complex web of expectations by first identifying what each stakeholder values most – whether it's time, cost, quality, or social impact. This clarity becomes the North Star for prioritization decisions.
The conversation takes a practical turn with Elizabeth's "Five Email Rule" – a communication strategy that recognizes when digital ping-pong needs to become actual dialogue. After five exchanges, pick up the phone or schedule a meeting. It's a simple yet powerful reminder that efficiency sometimes means stepping away from the keyboard.
Roman's enthusiasm for tactical tools shines through as he highlights the real-world applicability of Elizabeth's methods. This isn't theoretical project management; it's battle-tested wisdom that acknowledges stakeholders are just as overwhelmed as project managers. Elizabeth's solution? Become "easy to do business with" by streamlining communications, creating consolidated reports, and establishing predictable patterns.
The discussion culminates in a masterclass on transparency and trust. When competing demands surface, honest conversations about trade-offs become possible only when you've built that foundation of trust. Elizabeth emphasizes that while you can accomplish anything with enough resources, reality demands smart choices within constraints. By making these constraints visible, project managers empower stakeholders to guide prioritization effectively.
This episode delivers a crucial message for customer success professionals: managing multiple projects isn't just about juggling tasks – it's about orchestrating relationships, understanding diverse priorities, and creating systems that make collaboration effortless.
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Welcome back to the Customer Success Playbook podcast. I'm Kevin Metzker. Here again with my co-host Roman Trevon and our guest, Elizabeth Herron, the Force Behind Rebels Guide to Project Management. Roman, are you ready for, uh, question?
Roman Trebon:I am ready for the one big question, Kat, but before we do that, I wanna ask a little Elizabeth a few questions to get to know her a little better. Right. So, Elizabeth, I hope you're ready for this. I hope you're buckled up. These are all really hard hitting questions here. Right. So
Elizabeth Harrin:I'm ready.
Roman Trebon:Um, okay. If you could travel anywhere you haven't been, where would you go and what?
Elizabeth Harrin:I would go to Japan. I've never been, I think it's a. Beautiful area from what I've seen. And I really love sushi.
Roman Trebon:Yeah, I love sushi too. I'm, I'm in, I'm in Me su
Kevin Metzger:Yeah. I, I Roman, I'm, I think we need go back and actually look at the survey of all of our guests. I'm pretty sure Japan's starting to kind of creep up the list. Oh,
Roman Trebon:really? Just maybe one of the top. I think so too. I think so too. Maybe we can get our, the tour, the, uh, Japanese tourism department is a sponsor. Kev, there you go. We can, uh, do and Oak
Kevin Metzger:Journal. There you go, Elizabeth. Uh, hometown. Where, where are you located?
Elizabeth Harrin:I'm located in a, a small town just south of London. So I thought I'd give you, um, you know, if, if you want sort of tips somewhere to go in, in London, that's probably a, something I can offer.
Kevin Metzger:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Perfect. Let's go with that.
Elizabeth Harrin:So, yeah, I mean, there's loads of cool places in London, isn't there? But the place that I like is Columbia Road Flower Market, and we went there for my sister's hen party as part of her sort of hen day out in London. And it's just so pretty and it just feels like it's a real, it hidden gem in the city. So if you're overpassing, it's in the East, um, it's, it's not that difficult to find. So that's the place I'd stop by.
Roman Trebon:I love it. So, Elizabeth, I, I, I am this will, this will show my American ignorance hen party. What, what, what is a hen party?
Elizabeth Harrin:A hen party. It's the party that the ladies have before someone gets married. What do you call?
Roman Trebon:Back to the red party. Back to the red party that, there we go. So you learn something new. We're, we're not only just getting project management tips, we're learning, uh, uh, nomenclature as well. Awesome. All. Elizabeth, what is your favorite way to unwind After a long week of project deadlines, I.
Elizabeth Harrin:Oh, that's a hard one. I think, I mean, I like crochet, but I'm not very good at it and I'm really, really slow. So I'd say probably the thing that I turn to the most is cooking. I, I just bake cakes or I'll make something with pastry and then eat it.
Roman Trebon:Love it. That's the best part. That's both worlds. That's the best cook gets up off your mind and then you get to enjoy a little comfort food afterwards. I love it.
Elizabeth Harrin:Exactly.
Roman Trebon:Alright, you ready for the one big question?
Kevin Metzger:Yeah. Let's get into it. So, Elizabeth, uh, how. Can we align stakeholders expectations with running multiple projects with Com, competing deadlines and demands?
Elizabeth Harrin:I think, I mean, it feels really difficult when you've got lots of stakeholders and they're all, all asking you for various bits of information or you've got different teams and they're expecting stuff. I think the, a good starting point is understanding what's important to the stakeholders. I. So for some of them,'cause I remember I, um, when I moved from financial services into healthcare, the expectations of what was important to stakeholders was very different. So in financial services, we always hit our deadlines. We delivered on time and that was the most important thing in healthcare. I remember being in a, in a room with some, um, nursing staff and we were trying to do project requirements and trying to find out what it was that they really wanted. And the little pager thing went off and. The, the team just walked out. The, the head nurse just left because obviously her job is saving people's lives and doing nursing work and solving problems with patients. And all of that's far more important than me sitting there having a meeting about what do you want your IT software to look like? So the difference in people's expectations was, was extreme in that they were, would rather have a much more quality service, quality system. It didn't really matter if it took a little bit longer for us to find, uh, the time to speak to people. So it's really important just to focus on what is it that your stakeholders find, find the most important. It could be time, it could be cost, it could be quality, it could be green credentials, or environmental or social impact, or whatever it is that's important to them. And then that can help you prioritize the way that you manage your work. So you're giving them what it is. That they need. And the other thing I think with stakeholders is that they're just as busy working on all these projects as we are. So your client is probably working on a range of things with a range of different suppliers or internal contacts, and we need to streamline what we are providing to make it as easy as possible for them to work with us. So we are easy to do business with. So anything that you can do to streamline communications or make a consolidated report, set things in a regular pattern so they know what to expect, then those are the kind of activities that can, uh, help manage that relationship with stakeholders. So they're a bit more responsive when you pick up the phone to them.
Roman Trebon:I love it. And, and in your book, Elizabeth, I think you, you actually have a stakeholder prioritization grid, right? And, and you, yes. Which is, I, I love books that have actual tactical things that you can actually apply to your day-to-day job. And so, so check out the book and we'll be plugging it, uh, in our, in our podcast. So check the show notes for that as well. But, um, you have something in the book called The Five Email Rule. Can you, can you talk the, tell our audience a little bit about that and how that's used?
Elizabeth Harrin:Well, that's a communication strategy.'cause I think when you get to a point where your email chain has had five emails, then it's not really email anymore. You need to start having a conversation with people. So it's just a reminder for me and my team that once we've pinged backwards and forwards five, the chain is five. And for maybe for you it's three. Maybe for you it's seven, I don't know. But you know, pick a number that you feel is appropriate for the back and forth when it hits that number. Pick up the phone. We'll have a meeting or just. You know, take it out of that forum because nobody wants 20 emails on one topic and various different strands going off and reply to all. It'd just be, it's really, really busy and it's not an easy or efficient way to communicate.
Roman Trebon:Yeah. It's like the email I got, the email chain I got brought into and there is 17 emails. I don't think there's a 17 email rule. Right. We should lower that.
Elizabeth Harrin:Before that.
Kevin Metzger:Nobody wants more meetings on one hand. On the other hand, um, sometimes just. Getting a meeting actually saves everybody's time.
Elizabeth Harrin:Well structured meeting.
Kevin Metzger:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think that's a, actually, I really think that's a great role and it's something to, to consider. Uh, you know, the other thing you, you were mentioning that, um, I, I think was, was good, is you wanna save your clients' time. And it's something that, you know, as. Whether it's project management, whether it's customer success, wherever you are, when you're involved with a client. I, I, it's, it's something that we repeat over and over again, but I don't think it can be said often enough, is keeping your focus on what the client's goals are and objectives are and what they need to do. And if you can. Provide data in a way that they can reuse to report up to their management and save them time and save them effort in how they need to, um, how they need to report or basically allow them to be more proactive with their management team. It, it buys so much in the way of, um, customer satisfaction of. Trust and, and working with, with people. It's just, I, I think it's, I appreciate that you brought that up and I think it's really good to to reiterate on it, so thank you for that.
Elizabeth Harrin:That's right. Well, you also mentioned about competing demands and I think when you're making that data transparent and your. Talking to them and sharing that information, that the demands become more visible. And then you can have that conversation with them that says, okay, this is happening over here. This is happening over here. Which one of these projects do you want me to spend my time on? Because they've both got a deadline of next month or whatever. And it's impossible for the team to manage both. And if you've got that great, trusted relationship, you can have much more honest conversations about what the trade offs might be. You can probably, you, you know, you can do everything if you have enough money and enough people, but. You know, clients have budgets, right? We, we have finite resource pools, so we have to manage with what we've got. And so if you can share that information with them, they can then have those onward conversations and say, you know, what's our internal priorities? And they can better guide you with how you spend your time.
Roman Trebon:Great insights, Elizabeth. And thanks for breaking down on how to get everyone pulling in the same direction. Uh, we haven't scared you off yet. Hopefully you're coming to come back Friday. I'll, is that confirmed? You're coming back Friday. All right. All right. And you're gonna talk to us about how you can ta how AI can help manage all of this without adding complexity. So we'll get into ai. It's everyone's favorite topic nowadays, so, uh, we'll dig into that with you, Kevin. Excited for AI Friday, but until then, keep on playing.
