Do You Map Competencies or Skills for All the Roles in Your CS Org?

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erickingsbury
erickingsbury Member Posts: 6 Navigator
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edited August 2023 in CS Org Conversations

I'm really curious to hear from folks whether they map out the competencies or skills for all the roles in their orgs. I know this is a common practice in Sales but I've seen it less frequently in Customer Success.

Do You Map Competencies or Skills for All the Roles in Your CS Org?

This is a public poll: others will see what you voted for.
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  • Jeffrey Kushmerek
    Jeffrey Kushmerek Member Posts: 98 Expert
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    Yes

    It depends on the stage. At an early stage its all about the "jobs to be done"

  • Sabhar Jain
    Sabhar Jain Member Posts: 6 Navigator
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    Exactly, It depends and many times it is judged on the basis of customers they are communicating with and handling.

  • erickingsbury
    erickingsbury Member Posts: 6 Navigator
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    https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/11316#Comment_11316

    Totally, I've just been finding that it's also uncommon at medium and even later stage SaaS companies and I'm curious if others are seeing the same.

  • Chad Horenfeldt
    Chad Horenfeldt Member Posts: 58 Expert
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    Yes
    If you've never done this before, it takes tremendous effort. As Jeff says, it's worth it depending on the size of the team. Everyone wants to know where they stand and how to advance (ie get paid more). You usually priotize it when it's started to bubble up as an issue. You just have to balance it against other priorities. I've always found it was worth the investment. 
  • slav419
    slav419 Member Posts: 2 Navigator
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    No

    Curious if anyone is willing to share their approach to this? Although we haven't completed this body of work yet (just getting started at the moment), pre-COVID I did with my leadership team at the time and I think we may have overcomplicated the end result so looking to learn from that misstep and also learn from any of you willing to share their framework or output for this kind of an effort.

  • kmcmullen
    kmcmullen Member Posts: 14 Navigator
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    Yes

    I've found mapping to core competencies helps with a few things: 1) CSM career development - together you can identify their native genius; what comes naturally to them vs. areas they can work on. Competencies can also change as you process in career levels as a CSM. I've found this helps it from turning into a "check list" of things to do to get to the next role vs. them actually developing skills that progress them to the next level. 2) keeps the busy work away. I think it's an easy pitfall to get into doing a bunch of side-projects so you can say you did them, but if you can't map them to a competency that they've either identified fills their cup or is a competency they are working on then it can be an easy way to have people be comfortable saying no and/or being able to tie their extracurriculars back to something meaningful, especially as we all know not every project wraps neatly with a bow.

    I've found the Korn Ferry principles easy ones to start with that apply to relatively every business and role. You can tweak them in ways that make sense for your business, and you don't have to make it as complex as they are but it is a great established framework.

    The current competencies we have are: Optimizes Work Processes, Drives Results, Strategic Mindset, Collaboration & teamwork, and Manage Ambiguity.

    Happy to share our 'scorecard' & how we measure and track this!

  • sujitjanardanan
    sujitjanardanan Member Posts: 1 Newcomer
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    Yes
    https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/11341#Comment_11341

    Would love to learn more on how you do this. Will be great if we could connect. Thank you, Sujit

  • slav419
    slav419 Member Posts: 2 Navigator
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    https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/11342#Comment_11342

    Ditto 😁

  • erickingsbury
    erickingsbury Member Posts: 6 Navigator
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    GGR has been kind enough to publish my approach to building out CS competencies on their blog for anyone interested. Check it out. @slav419 @Sujit Janardanan

  • katberryman
    katberryman Member Posts: 1 Navigator
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    Yes
    We utilize a competency model with my organization today.  It has helped greatly with career development but also has enabled us to understand the team.  I’m in a position where I came into a team that was primarily “super support” and evolving to a greater focus on value, adoption and retention.  We can really pinpoint the areas our team needs to focus on expanding their skills and development via a competency model. 

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