A Customer Success and Product Management Partnership Manifesto

For one of the most important internal relationships, we have established a commitment to our friends in Product Management as to how we can help them in their success.

In a former company I led a team of Customer Success Manager's who were passionate about the customers they worked with, and even more passionate for our product. Frustrations arose that the product wasn't more X, and the Product Management Team didn't Y. This sentiment started to translate into anti-patterns for the effective collaboration of the two teams.

In seeking to improve the faltering sentiment, we sought to identify what was within our power and how we could control the controllables. We agreed to show up as our best selves and in turn made a commitment to ourselves, the product, and the Product Management team about how we could be better. We called it Our Commitment to the Product (see below). With a tongue in cheek nod to the Constitution of the United States of America, it begins "We the People..."

While much of the manifesto might sound cheesy, tinged with audacious and lofty goals, it is intentionally aspirational, and a little over the top, to demonstrate the vision of what a perfect relationship could be.

We did not physically sign the manifesto, or hang it on the walls of our office, but the emotional and mental commitment to its content was enough to remind us of what we aspired to achieve through a close working relationship, that carried such importance.

Your manifesto might look different, but this was ours and served as a great north star to reset and realign to when we found ourselves wandering off the path of good relationship hygiene... ⤵️

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📜 Our Commitment to the Product

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.

By advocating for the customer across the company, we promise unwavering commitment to amplify their voice for the good of the Product. We will make our Product the most valuable solution on the market, for our customers. To that end, we will carry their voice into every room, where Product, Engineering, Design, and Marketing, make decisions and will surface insights that drive meaning, impact, delight and solve their real pains and challenges.

We are more than just product-led, we are customer-led.

The Preamble of Partnership

1. We recognise that our mission, and the mission of Product Management, are inseparable: together we deliver value, together we drive growth, together we delight customers.

2. We pledge to speak candidly, listen actively, and iterate swiftly, so that every feature launched is a feature used, and every customer story is a testimony of value.

The Principles of Collaboration

1. Transparency: Customer insight will be shared with Product Management freely, both positive and constructive, accompanied by clips of calls, quotes, context and reference to people, accounts and commercial value.

2. Reciprocity: Just as Product Management invites our voice in prioritisation, we invite their voice to customer conversations, no matter the health, timeframe, or situation, so that every roadmap reflects the reality of the customer journey.

3. Empathy: We commit to walking in one another’s shoes. When requested, Customer Success Managers shall show up and join sprint demos, design reviews, read PRDs, and test new features. We will share feedback candidly and with love.

4. Respect: We recognise and understand that not every feature can be built in every sprint, a feature's importance is not based on how loud the customer shouts or how passionate we feel about it. With finite resources and time, we understand that their is a trade-off, and compromises must be made.

The Mechanics of Feedback

1. Regular Council: A regular cadence shall convene in which Customer Success and Product Management will gather. We will rotate conducting the meeting and take joint ownership, will play an active and equal role, being attentive and engaged, in reviewing strategic initiatives, customer feedback, upcoming releases, shared success, and surface challenges.

2. Customer Echoes: We shall embed customer quotes, NPS trends, and case studies directly into the product requirements, accompanied by full and complete context of use cases and personas, so that every line of product documentation and specification carries the voice of the customer.

3. Rapid Response: A triage channel shall be maintained for urgent issues; both teams shall staff it, both teams shall own it, and both teams shall resolve it with as minimal delay as is reliable and possible.

4. Systems of Record: within the feature request collaboration platform, design review tool, PRDs, and any other artefact or system of record, as appointed by Product Management, we will document fully and contribute feedback constructively. We will not share erroneous spreadsheets, documents, decks or notes of our own making for the purposes that should be accomplished through identified systems and methods.

5. Roadmap Evangelism: We will become leaders in delivering the Product Roadmap to customers with precision, positioning our Product as the platform of choice, then gathering real‑time feedback to inform future releases.

6. Demo Excellence: We will maintain personal demo environments, covering diverse scenarios, so that every customer conversation highlights relevant capabilities according to their pains and business challenges, which shall in turn spark new ideas. We will challenge and persuade with demo excellence, not flatter nor regale with a list of flashy features.

The Guardians of Quality

1. Acceptance Criteria: Every committed and planned feature shall carry clear, measurable success criteria co‑written by Customer Success and Product Management.

2. Beta Fellowship: Before general availability, select Customer Success champions shall assist selected pilot customers through beta programs, gathering insights, gauging sentiment, and flagging risks and technical inaccuracies.

3. Post‑Launch Vigil: For every release, CSMs, Support Engineers, Product Managers and Product Marketeers shall monitor performance, usage, support tickets, and usage adoption dashboards, celebrate wins, rally around the customer, or pivot as needed.

The Celebration of Wins

1. Shared Credits: Every renewal, every upsell, every delighted testimonial is a shared victory for the entire company. Our team celebrations go beyond the GTM team and shall include a nod to the entire company, with Product Management as guests of honour.

2. Hall of Fame: We shall maintain a digital trophy cabinet, spotlighting the features that solved the toughest customer problems, biggest paper cuts, most aggrievous complaints and frustrations, and solved the most impactful business challenges, with shout‑outs by the CSM who advocated to the PM who delivered.

In conclusion. We, the Customer Success Team, extend our hand in partnership to the Product Management Team. United in purpose, aligned in practice and by our commitment to customers, we don't build just features, but sustainable growth, a platform of true value, that delights and brings joy, and ultimately legacy of shared success.

This Manifesto is our guide, our promise, and our celebration of collaboration, now and for all releases to come.

Signed, the Customer Success Team.