Shape Up Pitch: Customer Success Platform
Problem
TechStart Solutions currently experiences a 35% annual customer churn rate, which is significantly above the industry benchmark of 15-20% for B2B SaaS companies. Analysis of exit interviews and usage data reveals three primary causes:
New customers struggle to configure the platform correctly during their first 30 days. Without guided setup, 40% of users never activate core features, leading to poor perceived value and early cancellation.
The customer success team only engages when customers reach out or when renewal dates approach. This reactive approach means problems escalate unnoticed until customers have already decided to leave. Internal data shows that 60% of churned customers had declining usage patterns 60-90 days before cancellation, but no proactive intervention occurred.
Customer health data exists across multiple systems including the main product database, support ticketing system, email communications, and manual spreadsheets. Customer success managers spend approximately 8 hours per week consolidating information rather than engaging with customers.
Business Impact:
With an average contract value of $24,000 annually and 200 active customers, the current 35% churn rate represents $1.68M in lost annual recurring revenue. Additionally, acquiring new customers costs approximately 5-7 times more than retaining existing ones. Reducing churn by even 10 percentage points would improve annual revenue by $480,000 and significantly increase customer lifetime value.
Appetite
Six-week cycle
This appetite reflects the urgency of the problem balanced against the need to build a robust foundation. A six-week cycle allows sufficient time to integrate with existing systems, build reliable health scoring algorithms, and create a functional dashboard for customer success managers.
Team allocation: One senior full-stack developer, one designer, and one customer success manager as domain expert for three days per week. This represents a meaningful but not excessive investment given the potential revenue impact.
Solution
The solution centers on a unified Customer Success Platform that consolidates customer health data and enables proactive engagement. The core concept involves three interconnected components:
Component 1: Health Score Dashboard
The central interface presents a real-time overview of all customer accounts with visual health indicators. Each customer receives a computed health score from 0-100 based on usage frequency, feature adoption breadth, support ticket volume, and engagement with communications.
The dashboard uses a traffic light color system: green for healthy accounts above 70, yellow for at-risk accounts between 40-69, and red for critical accounts below 40.
Component 2: Automated Alert System
The system monitors customer behavior continuously and generates alerts when concerning patterns emerge. Three trigger categories drive notifications:
- Sudden drops in usage (50% decrease week-over-week)
- Feature abandonment (core feature unused for 14 days)
- Support escalation (multiple tickets in 48 hours)
When triggered, alerts appear in both the dashboard interface and via email to the assigned customer success manager.
Component 3: Guided Onboarding Wizard
New customers encounter a step-by-step configuration wizard on first login. The wizard consists of five sequential stages:
- Account setup
- Team member invitations
- Integration connections
- Feature activation checklist
- Success milestone definition
The wizard tracks completion status for each customer account, feeding directly into the health score algorithm.
Rabbit Holes (To Avoid)
Several potential complexities must be explicitly avoided to maintain the six-week appetite:
While predictive churn modeling using ML would provide additional value, developing, training, and validating models extends beyond six weeks. The initial version uses rule-based scoring with weighted factors.
Complete integration with every possible system creates scope creep. The initial version focuses on three data sources: product usage logs, support tickets, and email engagement.
Building native iOS and Android applications would consume the entire cycle. The initial release targets desktop web browsers only with responsive design.
Features like automated email campaigns involve complex rule engines. The initial version provides alerts and suggestions but requires manual manager action.
No-Gos (Out of Scope)
These features are explicitly out of scope to maintain focus:
This cycle builds tools for internal customer success teams only. No features exposed directly to customers.
Managers receive predefined reports and exports. No drag-and-drop report designer.
Standard database record locking with last-edit-wins approach. No presence indicators.
System begins collecting data from launch date forward. No backfilling of historical patterns.
All interface text and communications in English only.
Success Metrics
The initiative will be considered successful if, three months after launch:
- ✓Customer success managers use the platform daily as their primary workflow tool
- ✓Average time to identify at-risk accounts decreases from weeks to hours
- ✓Proactive outreach increases by at least 50% compared to pre-platform levels
- ✓Customer health scores show measurable correlation with actual renewal behavior
Product Backlog
| Epic | Func # | Story # | User Story | Accept Criteria | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User Onboarding | O001 | US001 | As new customer admin I want to access onboarding wizard on first login so that I can configure my account properly | Wizard appears on first login; 5 steps completed sequentially; Progress saved between sessions | Must have |
| User Onboarding | O001 | US002 | As new customer admin I want to invite team members during onboarding so that they can start using platform immediately | Bulk email invitation; Role assignment available; Invitation tracking dashboard | Must have |
| User Onboarding | O001 | US003 | As new end user I want to complete interactive product tour so that I understand core features | 7 interactive steps; Skip option available; Tour can be restarted from help menu | Should have |
| Health Monitoring | H001 | US004 | As customer success manager I want to view customer health score dashboard so that I can identify at-risk accounts | Real-time health score (0-100); Traffic light indicators; Filtering by score range | Must have |
| Health Monitoring | H001 | US005 | As customer success manager I want to receive alerts for declining engagement so that I can reach out proactively | Email notifications; In-app alerts; Configurable thresholds | Must have |
| Health Monitoring | H001 | US006 | As customer success manager I want to track feature adoption metrics per customer so that I can guide them to value | Usage heatmap by feature; Week-over-week comparison; Export to CSV | Should have |
| Engagement Tools | E001 | US007 | As customer success manager I want to schedule automated check-in emails so that customers feel supported | Email template library; Trigger-based sending; Response tracking | Should have |
| Engagement Tools | E001 | US008 | As customer success manager I want to create in-app announcements so that customers learn about new features | WYSIWYG editor; Target specific customer segments; Schedule publishing | Could have |
| Engagement Tools | E001 | US009 | As customer success manager I want to set up milestone celebrations so that customers feel recognized | Achievement badges; Automated congratulation messages; Usage milestone tracking | Could have |
| Knowledge Base | K001 | US010 | As end user I want to search documentation within app so that I can solve issues myself | Full-text search; Contextual article suggestions; Article rating system | Should have |
| Knowledge Base | K001 | US011 | As end user I want to watch video tutorials so that I can learn visually | Embedded video player; Categorized library; Progress tracking | Could have |
| Knowledge Base | K001 | US012 | As support specialist I want to update help articles so that customers have current information | Version control; Publishing workflow; Analytics on article views | Should have |
| Analytics & Reporting | A001 | US013 | As executive I want to view churn prediction report so that I can allocate resources effectively | ML-based churn probability; 30-60-90 day forecasts; Export functionality | Must have |
| Analytics & Reporting | A001 | US014 | As customer success manager I want to generate customer journey reports so that I can optimize touchpoints | Timeline visualization; Interaction mapping; Comparison across cohorts | Should have |
| Analytics & Reporting | A001 | US015 | As product manager I want to analyze feature usage trends so that I can prioritize development | Usage graphs over time; Cohort analysis; Feature correlation matrix | Could have |
| Communication Hub | C001 | US016 | As customer success manager I want to log customer interactions so that team has complete context | Note-taking interface; Tag system; Search and filter | Must have |
| Communication Hub | C001 | US017 | As customer success manager I want to integrate with email client so that I can work from one place | Gmail/Outlook sync; Two-way communication; Automatic logging | Should have |
| Communication Hub | C001 | US018 | As end user I want to submit support ticket from app so that I can get help quickly | Form with attachment support; Priority selection; Status tracking | Must have |
Backlog Summary
Total User Stories: 18
Epics: 6 (User Onboarding, Health Monitoring, Engagement Tools, Knowledge Base, Analytics, Communication Hub)
Priority Distribution
Must Have: 7 stories (39%)
Should Have: 7 stories (39%)
Could Have: 4 stories (22%)