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Summary: This article explores the nuances of my role as a Gainsight Journey Orchestrator (JO) administrator, distinguishing it from a broader Gainsight CS Ops admin position and highlighting the skills, challenges, and future evolution of this critical function. Missed the first article in this series? View it here. 1. My Role vs. a "Whole Gainsight" CS Ops Admin My role is more focused than that of a general Gainsight CS Ops admin. While a CS Ops admin handles a wide range of tasks, including data design, reporting, and surveys, I primarily concentrate on: JO-Specific Tasks: Email template creation, content creation for journeys, troubleshooting, and testing within the JO platform Data and Integration: Working with data designs, reports, and dashboards as they relate to JO programs, and coordinating with marketing counterparts on external communication flows At the core, I specialize in the communication aspects of Gainsight, ensuring effective and targeted customer engagement through journeys. 2. Skills, Backgrounds, and Education My career experience prior to landing in email operations was built upon hybrid marketing and communications skills including: Email Marketing: Experience with B2B or B2C email marketing strategies and best practices Communications: Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, are essential for crafting effective messaging To enable me to manage the technical aspects of the platform and create compelling customer communications, the following have been instrumental in my success. Learning from the Global Gainsight Admin (GGA) Slack community and the Gainsight Gamechanger community Gainsight Certifications: Achieving Gainsight certifications (L1, L2 JO & Surveys) provides a solid foundation Technical Skills: Courses on Rules Engine, Data Designs, data manipulation, and VLookups are beneficial 3. My Partners, Support Network, and Stakeholders I collaborate with various teams, including: CS Ops – working with the full Gainsight admin for broader system support Client Enablement: Coordinating on customer training and resources Data Teams: Ensuring data accuracy and integrity for JO programs Sales Ops/Rev Ops/Marketing Ops: Aligning on communication strategies and goals Key stakeholders: Onboarding, Training, CSMs, Product, and Research – essentially, any client-facing team that leverages JO for customer interaction 4. Challenges, Pitfalls, and the Future Common challenges I face include: Data Hygiene: Maintaining clean and accurate data is crucial for effective targeting. This is often the biggest challenge. Stakeholder Management: Balancing competing and shifting requests from various teams can be demanding. Learning to say “ No, but… ” instead of “ No ” has been crucial. The future of my role is evolving with: AI Integration: AI will play a significant role, particularly in content development and personalization Increased Importance of Scaling and Personalization: As customer expectations rise, the ability to scale and personalize communications will become even more critical. Expanding Responsibilities: My role is likely to expand beyond just JO to include other communication platforms and lifecycle communication flows used by stakeholder teams. Conclusion In looking back at my role over the past three years, and forward to the future, the need for a dedicated JO admin isn’t decreasing. Rather, this role is a key part of the Gainsight Ops team for organizations scaling the Digital Customer Journey (a fact highlighted in this Pulse 2024 Presentation by ​@Amber Caldwell of Discovery Education). ​

Summary: This article provides an overview of Gainsight Journey Orchestrator (JO), its benefits, and the crucial role of a JO-focused administrator. It also shares insights on approaching communications within this platform, drawing from practical experience. 1. What is Journey Orchestrator (JO), and Why Should You Care? Gainsight Journey Orchestrator is a powerful tool within Gainsight that empowers customer success teams to automate and personalize communication programs. This platform enables scalable engagement with customers, leading to increased efficiency and improved outcomes. Key features and benefits include: Automated Communication Sequences: Streamlining outreach efforts. Scalable, Personalized Experiences: Tailoring interactions to individual customer needs. Integration with Gainsight: Seamlessly working within the existing Gainsight ecosystem. Data-Driven Insights: Utilizing data to inform and optimize communication strategies. * Note – this information on point 1 was sourced from Google’s AI summary of JO, but it’s a good quick synopsis of what can be achieved through the use of this important Gainsight function. 2. The Significance of a JO-Focused Administrator Having a dedicated JO administrator is essential. This role extends beyond traditional operations, as it involves: Integration with Other Gainsight Areas: Expanding the administrator's scope. External Communication Flows: Collaborating with marketing, CX/CS, and training teams. Leveraging Data for CX: Shifting focus from data manipulation to using data to enhance the customer experience. 3. Background and Experience in Customer Communications My journey into this role began with a psychology background, which led to a hybrid marketing/communications position. This experience evolved into email marketing and change management, where I honed skills in: Audience Logic and Targeting: Crafting relevant content for specific groups. Content Creation: Developing engaging and informative materials. Internal Team Strategy and Project Planning: Organizing and executing communication initiatives. Email Design and Basic HTML: Creating visually appealing and functional emails. Currently, I oversee customer enablement email programs, partner on internal enablement, and assist various customer-facing teams at Recorded Future. 4. An Approach to Effective Communications in JO To maximize the effectiveness of JO, some recommendations that work for me include: Developing Stakeholder Request Guidelines: Streamlining the process for JO requests. Creating Project Documents: Ensuring consistency for recurring programs. Cataloging Internal and External Programs: Maintaining an organized overview of all activities. Utilizing Dashboards and Reports: Tracking engagement and identifying areas for improvement. For more in-depth suggestions, I shared some of my insights on driving higher deliverability and open rates , and creating compelling content , in these earlier DCS Scoops posts. Look for the next post in this series for a deeper dive into the role of a dedicated JO admin, which will be expanding to cover topics including: Campaign planning – what not to miss, best practices Documentation – organizing audience criteria, flows, building legible designs Data designs and audience filters – future-proof audience sources with templates Dynamic JO best practices – learning while growing, benchmarking JOs Have feedback on any of the above, anything you’d like to hear more about (or anything that I’ve left out)? Let me know – leave a comment!