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Hi there,
I spent alarmingly little time in the breakout sessions at Pulse. Instead, I was running around the Moscone Center, reaping the results of my questionable decisions. (Would you plan to host a 3-hour happy hour, then a breakfast roundtable at 7am the next day? Would you mind writing down your answer and mailing it to me 3 months ago?) That said, I could not be more glad that I spent my time crafting conversation spaces for CS Ops people. Feedback from conversation participants included:
- “One of my favorite and most valuable pieces of the entire conference”
- “This is an incredible event”
- “Ultimately found the community and human connections I was missing”
- “Most valuable time of the entire event. Incredible discussion, connecting with strong, talented peers, and tons of actionable insights & ideas.”
Each of these quotes comes from a different CS Ops conversation event. Random CS Ops people were asked to prepare nothing, and then given a loosely structured environment to meet. It was flabbergasting to have such gut-level, superlative results, day after day. What had I tapped into?
I have a theory.
When you put yourself among people who you could tell your full list of everything that you believe is important, and they would say, “Yes, absolutely, so true,” there’s some deep part of you that gets to let go. A tension slips away. With them, you have nothing to prove, plus they heap credit on you for your efforts. You come away with far more than the ideas and tactics that are part of the conversation. You come away with enthusiasm.
This is my greatest takeaway from Pulse. As a CS Ops community, if we are only exchanging knowledge, then we’re all just tweaking the design of our car without putting any fuel in the tank. Find people who care about CS Ops the way that you do, and simply spend time together. Not working, just enjoying their company. I saw it, and I have the Pulse data to prove it: that investment will pay off.
New this month! At Pulse, we unveiled a fresh look for Gainsight’s official GameChanger Community. It’s easier on the eyes, and easier to navigate, especially if you’re there to talk about something other than Gainsight features.
Use the “Customer Success Inspiration” section to post any CS Ops question, idea, or resource.
Meetup: The CS Ops of Digital-Led CS
Join us September 27 at 10am Pacific to meet peers working in digital-led CS. Our topic will be "Digital-Led Onboarding". We’ll settle in briefly before moving to breakout rooms for discussion (and storytelling!). Each group will take notes to help us come back together to share the most impactful takeaways. This is the same format as our last session, which was focused on "Putting a low usage customer back on track" -- check out the summary video.
Register for Onboarding Meetup
Everything from Pulse
- For the first time ever, we have videos of every breakout session in the Pulse Library. The CS Ops track is an obvious field of daisies to lie down in and roll around, but you’ll also find relevant content spread through all the tracks.
- The Gainsight Global Admins meetup group recently compared their takeaways from Pulse.
I was talking with an admin who’s interviewing after a layoff. With beginner-level admin experience, the initial interviews were a struggle, but then the 2nd interviews started to roll in. Here are four pieces of advice directly from that experience:
- “Take the certification exams, it will help you stand out and help you learn more about Gainsight. I wish I would’ve done these earlier in my search!”
- “Do introductions and try to be active in the admin Slack channel. I think that has been a good way for me to have people recognize who I am and my situation. I met the managers who were hiring through the Slack channel after they posted about the jobs they were hiring for so I think that helped a lot!”
- “Do all the free courses and exercises that Gainsight provides. Look into the live training courses. It’s a good way to stay active in Gainsight while you’re looking!”
- “My favorite: Apply to everything and anything! Regardless of how many years of Gainsight experience they want!”
You may have your Level 1 Certification, but we know that there’s no substitute for building your confidence with hands-on experience! We’ve just launched practice exercises, created in collaboration with real-world admins. They’re made from real-world use cases, so they also give you a great education in the types of things you would build as an admin. (You can reach out to training@gainsight.com for a short-term Gainsight instance, if you can’t use your employer’s instance to do the exercises.)
It’s always good fun to ask Gainsight admins about their previous careers, because there’s no one path. We recently published several new career stories in our series, adding the stories of a former librarian, former teacher, and former CSM.
As you learn Gainsight, are you feeling that awkwardness -- and even shame -- of struggling with the simplest things? I discovered this podcast episode just this week, and it left me feeling heartened and empowered about being a beginner.
Spotify | Apple | Google | Web
I've posted all our step-by-step recommendations for landing your first full-time admin role. Learn more about a role in CS Ops and the compensation.
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Seth Wylie | Director of CS Ops & Admin Community
He/Him/His | Based in Boston, MA
Gainsight Certified Administrator