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Hi there,

I had three striking experiences recently, and a realization snapped into focus that's proving to be a daily touchstone for me. Here's what happened:

1. I told a story. As part of Gainsight’s celebration of Pride, I wrote a blog post, Why I Keep Coming Out at Work. I merely talked about my life. I was taken aback, though, to get replies that went way beyond messages of support. People told me that my story was meaningful to them. They took something away from it. Our experiences communicate more truth than we realize.
    
2. We ran a virtual roundtable to offer career coaching to Gainsight Level 1 Certified Associate Administrators. The greatest theme in the feedback survey was: “I want to hear what other admins have done.” (FYI, we’ve published the career stories of eight admins: Anita Beck, Kelly Nissl, Sagan Shirlin, and Katie Baker + Victoria Barry + Patrick McCrudden + Jessica Palmer + Ben Wanless.) When people have the opportunity, they don’t only want synthesized information. They ask for stories.
    
3. I’ve had a spring & summer packed with six in-person major events for work. When we’re in person, but not in meetings, I’ve been struck by how people talk about experiences and situations that they’ve been in, or that they’ve witnessed. These stories -- and our commentary about them -- communicate what’s valuable to us, and the ‘why’ behind our perspectives.

So, here's what I realized:

When we all went virtual, we narrowed the focus of our conversations to knowledge, execution, and strategy. We’re missing interactions where we mention some story that’s merely ‘charmingly relevant’ or ‘helpfully intriguing.’ Those stories, though, help us understand others, help us think about ourselves, and grease the wheels of any organization.

This observation belongs in a CS Ops newsletter for two reasons:

• We work cross-functionally and we lead through influence. The more people whose perspectives we understand -- not just their strategic priorities, but their gut-level motivations -- the better work we will do. There’s power in asking, “What’s up in your world?” and giving the conversation the time to go wherever it might.
   
• We are inventing a new career, and inventing new programs. Whose story might you find ‘helpfully intriguing’? I'm already giving myself more space for those in my conversations, and facilitating conversations that help others do the same.

Meetup: The CS Ops of Digital-Led CS

CS Ops is responsible for customer ‘listening posts’

Still in line with the theme of stories, there’s a small explosion of content about how to hear from your customers:

• The six most recent episodes of nuffsaid’s podcast cover Voice of the Customer programs
• On July 20th, Emily Ryan’s LinkedIn Live series about CS Ops will welcome Mary Poppen, Chief Strategy & Customer Officer at involve.ai, to talk about Voice of the Customer
• Mary Poppen also joined Gain Grow Retain’s monthly CS Ops Office Hours to talk about using data to understand customers’ needs; the takeaways include her key points and notes from the breakout room conversations

Get together

If you’ve ever been to a Gainsight event, you know that our Events team does extraordinary work. I'm working with them to set up numerous ways for CS Ops folks to find and network with each other at Pulse in San Francisco in August. Come for the sessions, leave with new partners-in-crime! Learn more and register

Brace yourself! Here are the Pulse sessions that relate to CS Ops. (Find the speakers in the full agenda)

• Achieving Higher Retention Through Automated Customer Journeys
• Best Practices for Efficiently Structuring and Scaling Your CS Org
• Building a Customer Success Organization Through Business Transformation
• Building a World-Class Global Ops Strategy
• Building the PLG Plane While We Are Flying
• How to Be a Human-First Customer Success Team
• Accelerate Value Across Your Base With Dynamic Segmentation
• Build Your Customer Health Score Strategy
• Is a Career in CS Ops for You? Let’s Find Out!
• Making Your First Year With Gainsight a Success
• Strength in Numbers: Empowering Your Growing CS Ops Team
• The Neuroscience of Memorable Content
• Digital and Scale Are Not Just for the Longtail
• Evolving From a Reactive to a Proactive to a Predictive CS Organization
• Scaling Customer Success Using Data Analytics, Digital Success Programs and Partners
• The New(ish) Kids on the Block: Building a Shared Mission between Community Ops and CS Ops
• 3 Ways to Secure a Seat at the Table in Customer Success Leadership
• Earning a Seat at the Table: Moving from a Reactive to a Proactive Customer Success Organization at a Cybersecurity Company
• Growing, Adapting, and Enhancing Your CS Organization with Gainsight
• How We Accelerated Our Customer Success Maturity Rapidly to IPO
• NXT-Level: The Upside to the NXT Upgrade
• No Customer Left Behind: Taking ALL Your Customers on a Journey to Value
• Why Operationalizing Your CS Function is Now a Must Do
• How to Communicate Your Value as a CS Leader
• How to Use Your Data to Drive Optimal Customer Engagement and a Customer-Centric Culture
• The Ultimate Playbook to Building and Developing Customer Success Operations
• Developing a Strategic Data Structure to Support CS Ops
• Growing and Optimizing Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
• Launching CS in an Established Enterprise
• World Class Enablement for Customer Success Leaders and Teams
• A “Couch to 5K” Data Program
• CS Role in On-Prem to SaaS Transition
• How to Be the Change Management Superhero
• Automating Success After Onboarding
• Delivering Customer Value Through a Built-In Maturity Model and Adoption Plans
• Letters to My Former CS Self: Best Practices for Developing Your CS Strategy
• To Implementation and Beyond: The Story of Building Success with Gainsight

Thinking about a job in CS Ops? 

Learn about the role and the compensation. If your entry-point could be Gainsight Administration, learn about making the transition.

Come meet folks any time:

• CS Ops Leadership Slack
• Global Gainsight Admins Slack
• Official Gainsight Gamechanger Community

Know someone who should receive this email? They can get added to the list.

Seth Wylie | Director of CS Ops & Admin Community
He/Him/His | Based in Boston, MA
Gainsight Certified Administrator