Circles of Success - Pulse 2017 - Technical CSMs/Customer Success Architects

During Pulse 2017 the Gainsight Client Outcomes Team organized a Circles of Success & Birds of a Feather Program, featuring group discussions for Gainsight customers focused on key topics and challenges. We had such engagement from our customers we wanted to keep the conversation going on Community.



One of the topics we discussed was Technical CSMs/Customer Success Architects. Here are a few of the questions that we discussed:

1. How should I think through the team structure? Who does what and what capabilities to look in the different roles?
   
   
   
2. What are your large differentiators between your CSM group and Technical CSM group?
   
   
   
3. Compared to using a general support team, does assigning a Technical CSM to a customer make the customer more self-sufficient, or more dependent?
   
   
   
4. What is the ideal role of a Technical CSM, to conduct an onboarding/initial setup, or to check in with a customer throughout their lifespan?
   
   
   
5. How have you gotten customers to engage past the technical validation, and into the rollout and adoption process?
   
   
   
6. My TAM organization is looking to use Gainsight but I've built Gainsight around CSMs. Any advice?
   
   
   
7. How do you best manage the customers understand of engagement with CSA vs. CSM's?

Please share your best practices on this thread to keep the conversation going (include the specific question in your post). Please also follow this thread if you're interested in additional Circles of Success activities related to Technical CSMs/Customer Success Architects.