What a quarter! Thankful to still be here and excited about how I get to evolve and grow with my community.
Today's growth excitement is due to the On Deck Customer Success Fellowship cohort that has been everything that I hoped it would be. The program was built to bring CS leaders together from around the world to share experiences and learn through a trusted community.
In January, the ODCS#2 cohort had our kick-off, orientation, and onboarding. What better way to level up your #customeronboarding than by experiencing what it feels like to be heard, valued, and engaged at every step of the journey.
Kudos to Kelly Hook and Alexandra for coordinating such an inspiring and invigorating program. Looking forward to the rest of the experience and a lifetime of learning!
Josh Neal
The conversation with Rashida Hodge, VP of CS at Microsoft, was the best discussion I’ve been a part of in a long time!! — So many quotes, advice, and reframing techniques I’ve saved and will take to heart.
ODCS and Kelly Hook have created the top Customer Success fellowship in the industry. Very excited to participate and have my team join as Fellows.
I've never met so many thoughtful, intelligent, *kind* people willing to share their experience! Strong recommend, if Customer Success is your thing.
This week we kicked off our mastermind groups along with the business management track at @beondeck Customer Success Fellowship #ODCS2! I'm looking forward to many more thoughtful energizing discussions and learning from all of you in the months to come Austin S Gardner Monica Trivedi Mike Egan Kristin Biddie Ryan D. Gözde Görce Richard Rans.
This morning, our first business management session focused on developing a framework for CS hiring. Led by Rav Dhaliwal, he highlighted the risks and rewards of finding a balance between hiring fast and hiring well. While I wish I could share more from his presentation this familiar quote that he shared always gives me pause to consider the impact of how we hire on culture and experience (on both sides of the table) and our success as leaders — “The most important decisions that leaders make are not the “what” decisions but the “who” decisions.” Jim Collins of Good to Great.
Jeri Lim
I had my H1 performance/feedback session with our VP of customer success and absolutely rocked it. Thanks to the support & encouragement from the ODCS community, I got the confidence boost I needed to really highlight my contributions & clearly showed how I’ve been adding value @ Twilio during the 1st half of 2021. On a separate note, I gave my first-ever talk @ a tech conference.
I was one of the featured speakers for the Women in SaaS virtual conference, where I spoke about the value of taking risks for career growth & development.
Clayton Costa
ODCS has been a GREAT opportunity to learn the latest on CS from the very best in the field, meet other CS practitioners like me, that I would hardly have a chance to get to know, and have access to a constantly evolving library of resources on the subject that is not available anywhere else.
I cannot recommend ODCS highly enough!! Upon joining the inagural fellowship in July, I was delighted by the immediate sense of community that Kelly Hook created for us! All of the fellows genuinely want to share their successes for the benefit of others. And the guest speakers were AMAZING. Thanks to one of our guest speakers Lauren Costella, I was able to learn and have now implemented a new meeting structure that I use when facilitating my bi-weekly Leads Sync. The team LOVES it, and we are well on our way to optimizing this new rhythm to have more productive and focused meetings with increased accountability and collaboration. If you or someone you know is a Customer Success leader looking to sharpen their strategic skills, don’t miss out on this opportunity!!
Have really enjoyed my experience in ODCS. I was looking to expand my CS community and was able to do that both locally and globally. Also, definitely feeling more confident in driving change and outcomes from peer discussions and guest lectures. The content from our guest lectures was exceptional and I’ve already transferred some of my learnings into my work. Looking forward to more time with ODCS1 fellows!
In #CustomerSuccess, we are relentlessly pursuing customer value. The outstanding team at On Deck, Kelly Hook & Alexandra B. at #ODCS live and breathe this. Here are some value-add nuggets worth sharing, 2 months into the CS leadership cohort...
- Hiring: Since CS is highly-contextual, you must invest time building a candidate scorecard that fits the type of customer engagement model in your biz. Thanks Rav Dhaliwal for an outstanding session series!
- CS Ops: We hear it all the time..."invest in #csOps early". It's so true: The more you invest in Ops, the more dividends it'll pay your organization. Always be building towards tight data, integrations, reporting, process, etc., especially early on.
- CS drives exponential growth: If you help get 1 customer successful, that 1 will influence 3+ new leads. Ensure these get value, which in-turn will influence 9+ new leads, and so on. Champion your customer's value, and they will champion your solution. #clg
PS: Thanks for the sweet #swag! Enjoying the read!
I’ve grow substantially in a short amount of time. Working with peers and sessions, I’ve built a small (but growing) knowledge base for myself that I’m constantly tapping into to prepare our company for growth: Customer Journey Best Practices, Software Suites (pros/cons), Hiring Strategies, and orchestrating the handoff between Sales & CS. I’m excited about the new annual model in ODCS and looking forward to meeting the new fellows!
Anyone who knows me will know that I have a huge passion for Customer Success, as well as the importance of a great onboarding experience. On Deck’s Customer Success fellowship has nailed both of these things, and it’s only the beginning of the ODCS program!
Shout out to Alexandra B. and Kelly Hook for organising such an epic Fellowship. 👏🏻
Sitting down this Friday morning and feeling a little reflective, a lot grateful and really happy.
I'm doing the most exciting work of my career right now. I'm learning every day and the work I'm doing will have company-wide impact. This kind of opportunity is something that doesn't come along many times in someone's career.
That said, it's HARD. It's hard because it's new. And because it's a very visible project, it's stressful and full of pressure. Normally, I'd be losing sleep, I'd be snapping at my family and I'd be working insane hours.
I'm not. At all.
Why not? I'm prioritizing investment in myself instead of working insane hours to prove something (to who?!).
This year, I was accepted into an elite group of Customer Success professionals. This community kicked off just two weeks ago and I've already had exciting and meaningful conversations with many leaders who I've learned a great deal from in short discussions. People like Jung Kim and Amit Nangare, like Josh Neal and upcoming with Michelle Uribe and Jolyn Isabelo. Thank you all for your time - and Maddie Blumenthal I can't wait to reconnect with you later today!! Been way too long, girl!!
Thank you to Kelly Hook and Alexandra B. for running this amazing program. Connecting leaders to learn is one thing, connecting humans who are all going through similar experiences is another. And you're doing both. On DeckCS is a game changer - I can't wait to start Mastermind sessions next week. #ODCS2
And to my leadership team - Allison Corley Jana Farrill Morrelli and Farkhanda Stewart at Smartsheet, Thank you for this huge opportunity. And to my good friend and colleague Michelle Hackett, MBA thank YOU for the referral to On Deck.
Anyone reading this, we are hiring across CS and company-wide. Come join us. We're having some fun and building something awesome.
So surprised to get this little box of love from the On Deck team as part of the #odcs2 cohort! I have been wanting to read the orange Customer Success #2 book from Nick Mehta (one of my idols) for a while (the blue one was amazing)! Thank you so so much Kelly Hook Alexandra B. for being awesome ❤️ it's only been 2.5 weeks and I've already learnt so much and found tremendous value in this group. Looking forward to more learnings! 🙏🙏🙏🧦🧦🧦
John Bowman
I'm grateful for the amazing speakers and content that was shared. I'm based in Pittsburgh and there isn't a lot of amazing Customer Success content available here yet (i'm working on it!). Without On Deck, I would have never been able to get access to the amazing line up of speakers and the learnings I achieved just being in the same Zoom Room as them. Most of all, I'm thankful for my Mastermind group. They were an amazing group of people that were at a similar stage in their carriers and it was time well spent to hear their problems, share my own, and work on solutions together.
I am SO thrilled to announce that I’ve been accepted to the second cohort of the On Deck Customer Success (#ODCS) Fellowship!
On Deck Customer Success is a continuous community for senior CS operators who want to build customer-centric cultures and maximize their potential through professional development and access to a trusted peer network. The chance to learn from some of the best minds in the industry with speakers like my idol Nick Mehta is a dream come true. I’m so excited to collaborate and foster relationships with my cohort of amazing CS Leaders from across the world--with former fellows coming from Google, Slack, Outreach, Box and more!
A special thank you to Alexandra B. for being an amazing program coordinator and helping me throughout the entire application process. Without you I wouldn’t have this amazing opportunity! And a big thank you to Kelly Hook for organizing such an impactful program.
Can’t wait to get started--onward and upward! 🚀🎉
Michelle Hackett
During the ODSC-1 program, listening to the VP + C-level speakers has further validated the priorities that I am driving for my organization and in other cases, has given me ideas on where I need to pivot. I have had 2 extremely valuable sessions with Rob which has confirmed that the work that I am doing at a “winner” company is in line with the path that I seek for my career. Rod additionally connected me with other industry leaders in his network which has been invaluable. Through the program, I have gained more confidence to drive my organizations’ strategy in alignment with industry standards.
Yolanda Lau
It's been such a rewarding experience. It's been so fun (and educational) to connect with fellow CS leaders — and our mastermind group is THE best!
I’m looking forward to joining On Deck Customer Success 2nd cohort in November! Truth is, I almost didn’t apply.
I saw exceptional leaders in cohort one and thought I may not get accepted as an individual contributor. I’m not shy about wanting to grow into a leadership role one day, but until then I’ll continue to focus on professional growth and learning from the amazing CS community any chance I get.
If you’ve been hesitant to apply, please take that chance. Apply by October 24 to join the next onboarding cohort kicking off on November 30. (Program details in comments)
The On Deck Leadership Program has been one of the best investments I have made in my professional journey! I was not completely sure what to expect when I started but from my first interaction with the program management it was a little too good to believe. Everything from the topics we we hit, the real time scenarios, the networking, no fluff working sessions with my peers globally...... it was incredible! I am glad to have a tribe of 80 CS peers globally I can learn from and win together!
Big shoutout to my mastermind cohort - Ellie Wu, CCXP, Victoria Waterman, John Bowman, Fred Tsai, Jung Kim, Sabrina B.!
Some of my most insightful sessions and learnings were with - Maranda Dziekonski, Allison Pickens, Nick Mehta, Rod Cherkas, Nils Vinje, Rav Dhaliwal,
I wish I could tag all 80 of us here! Thank you for all the insights and learnings Laura Lakhwara, Richard Rans, Brian LaFaille, Brian Hartley, Shari Srebnick, Mike Lee, Steve Schwartz, Vipul Kalia, Jeff Justice Williams, Alex Farmer, Deepak Venugopal, Kevin Raymond
Thank you Kelly Hook for a flawless execution!
Applications Open for the next Cohort below.
Thanks to my Netomi team for sticking through my choppy schedule these past few weeks of training and ofcourse my leadership Puneet Mehta for cheering me on and encouraging me to continue #leadership learning.
Rounding out the final week of the first On Deck #customersuccess fellowship! Special thank you to
Some key highlights:
- Rod Cherkas & best practices for executive communication management, as well as hive mind icebreakers that bring people/process/tools in alignment
- Allison Pickens & the investor mindset, covering individual & collective strategy
- fellow mastermind sessions & key leader connections (read: safe space, productive resources, collective industry insights) shoutout to John Bowman Fred Tsai Ranjani Ahrens Karla Kannan
- templates (asset repository -- gamechanger)
- scaling in its full mastery (Brian LaFaille)
+ leadership, management, coaching, and the list goes on.
10/10 would do again - thank you Kelly Hook and Alexandra B. for the ultimate quest of bring value to CS leaders across the globe.
Jelle Russner-Stafleu
I am excited to be an ODCS fellow long-term! I really enjoyed working with my Mastermind group and was able to immediately put into practice some of the learnings from the Deep Dive with Rav Dhaliwal in terms of pipelining and screening/testing, amongst many more. Furthermore, the ‘coloured cloak state of mind’ to induce a feeling of invincibility as taught by Nils Vinje during another Deep Dive will resonate with me for a long, long time.
I'm thrilled to share I'm participating in On Deck's first-ever Customer Success (ODCS#1) Fellowship cohort. The program was built to bring CS leaders together from around the world to share experiences and learn through a trusted community.
We had our kick-off and orientation over the last two days, and I'm blown away by the level of engagement and talent across the group. I've met some great individuals already, picked up on a few thoughtful words of wisdom, and I learned you can run a pretty killer presentation with Prezi Video + Zoom (check it out!).
Hats off to Kelly Hook and team for coordinating such a purposeful and impactful program. Looking forward to the next 8 weeks!
#odcs #customersuccess #customerexperience
If you are a CS leader or an IC looking to take your career to the next level, you should apply now to the second cohort of On Deck's Customer Success (ODCS) Fellowship.
As a founding fellow, I am continuously impressed with the caliber of fellows and the diversity of their experience, the amazing programming delivered by the most forward-thinking CS professionals, and the community that we have been able to create over the last 9 weeks.
If you're interested in learning more, please don't hesitate to send me a message.
Huge shout out to Kelly Hook and Alexandra Barr for building a great program and innovating based on fellow feedback!
ODCS2 is now "On Deck"!
These past 8 weeks have flown by since we started with ODCS1, and I'm so glad I was able to be part of it. I'm excited to see where the program goes and how it continues to evolve.
The guest speakers, the deep dive topics, the fun socials, and the entire cohort of incredibly smart people - all organized and orchestrated by 2 powerhouses, Kelly Hook and Alexandra B..
HIGHLY recommend.
I'm honored to have been selected to join the inaugural On Deck Customer Success Fellowship.
The On Deck Customer Success Fellowship [ODCS] is a community and brain trust of world-class CS experts in SaaS. The 8-week fellowship program is highly curated and a safe place to expand knowledge, build meaningful relationships, and collectively improve the customer experience for senior customer success operators and executives. The program is structured to facilitate highly relevant peer-to-peer connections while workshopping challenging CS business management topics.
Kelly Hook - I look forward to kicking off in July!
Highly Recommend
Highly Satisfied
Incredible Network
Incredible Speaker Lineup
Incredibly well run (Kelly Hook and Alexandra B.)
Please message me if you have questions, this program has been a game changer!
Love this from @beondeck @KellyHook. Business leaders can up their game in customer success strategy and execution.
It also bolsters sales, marketing, operations, company culture, and CX.
#CX
Calling all CS Leaders and Senior CS Operators!
Very excited to share this with you all.
🛎 Announcing: On Deck Customer Success 🛎
ODCS is an 8-week remote program for senior CS operators and executives who want to expand their knowledge, build customer-centric cultures, and maximize their potential as leaders.
During the program, you and up to 80 other CS experts will:
• Explore frameworks for common CS challenges like churn mitigation, onboarding & more
• Exchange best practices through meaningful discussions
• Gain new perspectives on key leadership principles
If you're a high-performing operator or CS executive who genuinely cares about the customer experience, ODCS will help you maximize your potential as a leader and empower your teams to put customers first.
Link to learn more apply in comments!
Another great session thanks to our special guest Chris Koehler, Chief Marketing Officer at Box, also former Global VP of Customer Success at Box, for taking the time to join our book club!
We talked about how Sales, Marketing, and Customer teams can work together seamlessly towards not only pipeline generation but, most importantly, on retention and growth by:
Step #1 - Aligning on the Customer Journey
Step #2 - Adopting shared goals on Growth and Retention
Step #3 - Having a shared Database
Step #4 - Collaborating on the 1 to many (Tech Touch) communications
Special shout out to our attendees Thomas Deely Yolanda Lau, Colin Slade, and Jim O'Neill, for string up a very engaging conversation around how to partner up with other teams to bring more value to our customers.
Last but not least, special thanks to Kelly Hook & Alexandra B. for helping us organize these sessions! 💫
Looking forward to our next session! PS: Stay tuned for our next guest speaker 🚀