Customer to Customer Success Manager Journey

[MartinaBlanco]

Do you ever think back and wonder how did I end up here? Lately, I have been doing that a lot for very good reasons. Growing up, I always just lived life in the moment and did not really have a plan for what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Some people have their careers planned out and know exactly what they want to do. Me…not so much. As someone who likes to have everything organized and planned out (some might say I have a type A personality) this is tough for me because I knew what skills I was good at but not what career I wanted to pursue. I stumbled into a career in education after taking a few college classes and continued to roll with it. Before I knew it, I was an intern teacher and got hired to teach a classroom full of 8-year-olds. Fast forward 17 years and I am working for Instructure, one of the top-rated ed tech companies, as a Customer Success Manager. 

So how did I actually get into the role that I am in now? 

For my entire career in education, all of my jobs have built on my previous role just at a grander scale. I went from being a teacher who taught students to teaching teachers how to implement ed tech in their classrooms at the district level. My transition continued into managing district-adopted ed tech platforms and ensuring district-level and school staff were successful with the implementation. As a Customer Success Manager, I now do this on a much grander scale by working with K-12 and Higher Ed customers from all over the world to build strategic plans to help increase LMS adoption and track LMS insights to better target users in need of additional support.

My career journey took me from being an Instructure customer to a Customer Success Manager at Instructure. And…a journey would not be complete without learning some lessons along the way.

1. Be Patient
• Some things just take time, but it is important to take a moment to breathe and recognize that everyone is doing the best they can.
2. Build Relationships
• The relationship customers have with their customer success manager is extremely valuable. It is important to recognize we are all people and to take time to get to know each other. Having the ability to have open communication is key. 
3. Ask Questions
• It is okay to ask questions and to continue to have and ask more questions. As a customer, I had tons of questions and appreciated being given the opportunity to voice them.

As for now, my journey has led me here. I love being a Customer Success Manager for a product and company that values openness, relationships, equality, ownership, and simplicity. The biggest reward is that I can continue to foster long-term relationships with customers and assist them with their product adoption and implementation and ensuring that they have a positive experience.