Deciding where CS should report to will depend on many different factors, and those will be unique to your organisation. There is no one correct way to structure an organisation, especially when it comes to finding the best place for Customer Success to report to. There are, however, general considerations that will steer you in a better direction. The intent in diving into the following is to give you ideas for consideration, not to necessarily give you a definitive answer.

We the people of the Customer Success Team, in order to form a more perfect partnership with the Product Management Team commit to; establish clear communication, insure continuous feedback, promote shared ownership, and secure customer delight for all stakeholders, and in so doing do establish this manifesto.

When Customer Success professionals meet one of the first discussion topics will be "so what flavour of Customer Success do you do?" or in other words, "how does your company approach Customer Success?". Understanding the different approaches is key to building the right Customer Success strategy for your company.

Once you've decided on a CS function, next it is important to understand why the Customer Success role and function is different from that of Account Management, and why the two can co-exit and are mutually exclusive.

Understanding where you are in the evolution of your Customer Success organisation will help you identify what to prepare for next. If...

Here are 4 ‘laws’ which knit nicely together in explaining a perspective of Customer Success as a business function and discipline.