[CALL FOR TOPICS] What should we discuss in CS Leadership Office Hours this week?

[Deleted User]

We're doing a call for topics for our CS Leadership Office Hours call this Thursday June 25 at 11:30am EST.

In the comments below, write out the topic you'd be most interested in talking about with fellow leaders. 

If you see a topic that resonates, go ahead and click that heart button!

 

@Alex Farmer @Brian Hartley @Gabriel Fallas @Alex Turkovic @Matt Timmins @Phyllis Windham @Sara Robba @Jung Kim 

Shaun Porcar

How about staffing plans and hiring?

• What resources do you rely on to manage your hiring plan? 
• How are you balancing current and anticipated needs, especially for those whose growth has been affected by Covid (whether up or down)?
• How are you working with other leaders in the company to manage competing priorities?
• What are some of your best practices regarding communication and level of detail to appropriately manage expectations internally (primarily with interviewers) and externally with candidates?
• What are you actively doing to the improve the candidate experience? Anything on your stop doing list?

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

Path to leadership. I know people like to tell their story on how they made their way to become a leader. Would love to hear from our distinguished members of our GGR community on what was the Aha moment, the catalyst, or the breakthrough that got them there.

Gabriel Fallas

I like the topic of staffing. Particularly, how do you plan/scale your projects and which ones do you prioritize as your team beings to grow? 

Gabriel Fallas

I have a couple of topics I'd love to hear the communities thoughts on: 

• Professional Development: what action plans are you executing to keep yourself and your team motivated and in a growth trajectory.
• Voice of the Customer - @Kristi Faltorusso's webinar on this was golden and it would be phenomenal as group discussion topic.

Phyllis Windham

@Jeff Breunsbach How about a discussion related to fostering collaboration within your CS Team and across the internal business?  Basically how do you encourage collaboration?

 

Matt Timmins

I like the headcount and hiring plan topic! Not necessarily this week but at one session would love to raise the topic I posted a separate thread on yesterday about playbooks/best practices folks use to help mitigate churn risk in the mid market brought on by corporate events where the larger new parent company uses an incumbent competitor vendor

Effie Mansdorf

I would like to hear the different comp/OKR/KPI measurements and plans from other companies. Discuss pros and Cons of each model.

Renee Murphy

I am very curious on how to replicate the value of Customer visits in these times - I am not sure how to replicate the dedicated attention and discovery that happens in those visits.  As well as how to diversify my network, hiring strategies and understanding how to evaluate non traditional candidates in a time where hiring is so sparse and critical.  

David Ellin

@Jeff Breunsbach, I'd like you to discuss the current negotiations going on for major league baseball. I likely won't be able to join tomorrow (first one I'll miss) and I don't want to miss a great CS-related topic!

Kristi Faltorusso

Thank you @Gabriel Fallas 

Brian Hartley

Love this!  

I might also add; given the current environment is your company open to hiring more remote employees.

[Deleted User]

This might be a great Podcast type series Kevin! Love this. 

[Deleted User]

This is a great one Renee - I'll get this on our list!

[Deleted User]

This is a big one - I wonder if we should also send a survey out to gauge trends in the community around this.

[Deleted User]

Awesome, I'll get this down on the list Matt. 

[Deleted User]

Thanks Phyllis - this is a great topic to understand how as leaders your going to build impactful and effective relationships with your executive counterparts. 

[Deleted User]

Shaun - appreciate the thorough questions! This might be the winner for Thursday! We'll see what else comes in today.

Effie Mansdorf

Survey would be great to get some data. 

Shea Nussman

I'll add to this one! How do we promote true partnership with the sales organization without opening the floodgates. Often the "partnership" with sales seems to feel like a one way street.  

Kathleen Gauder

We should talk about mental health - how we cope with burnout, how we recognize it in ourselves and in our colleagues or people who report to us. How can we as a community create a safe space for our entire company to be open and honest about mental health struggles? Though 1 in 2 of us will experience depression in our lifetimes, there is such a stigma surrounding mental illness that no one talks about it. Also, entrepreneurs are much more likely to suffer from mental health challenges and are much more likely to self harm than the general population. 

Alex Farmer

Using customer communities to deliver customer success

How are businesses using customer communities to augment/unify CS initiatives.  Ie: how do customers engage with our business in an online platform and connect with other customers?  Has interplay with onboarding, tech-touch, support, training, customer meet-ups, etc.

Jan Young

Hi @Kristi Faltorusso, I missed your webinar-- is there a recording? Or is it the podcast from a couple of weeks ago? I'm new to this forum and just started digging in to the blog and podcast pages...

Thanks!

Kristi Faltorusso

Yes, I actually just posted on LinkedIn today with a link to the Blog and the Webinar recording. 

Jan Young

Great! I'll connect with you there too-- thanks!

Shaun Porcar

Thanks Jeff. I'm humbled since there are so many great ideas here!

Jack Rasmussen

How about discussing the need for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and why it is so important especially today. Maybe go over different initiatives that help cultivate a culture of welcomeness. In other words, policies that specifically bring different minds together to form a business that is open-minded and relentless in tackling today's problems through serving customers by truly representing them with a range of employees from all over the world. This echos Shaun's query about staffing and hiring plans. 

Anita Toth

@Kristi Faltorusso  I see your post on LI but don't see a link to the blog or webinar. Are you able to share it here?

Dana Gibilaro

@Jeff Breunsbach Is this a call for all members? And does it get recorded and saved somewhere? Thanks!

Renee Murphy

Same for me @Kristi Faltorusso 

Kristi Faltorusso

@Jay Mohammed @Anita Toth @Jan Young Here is the link to the blog and your can request the recording. Thanks for your interest.

https://decibel.frame.ai/blog/recap-voc-for-a-customer-first-culture-with-kristi-faltorusso