How would you teach CS to students in 90 minutes?

Walter Zepeda

I have been invited to teach a class to students in their last year of Business about CS (which they don't even know exists).

• How would you teach CS in 90 minutes?
• What topics would you definitely cover?
• What fun exercises could we do in class?
•  What content should they come prepared with before the class?

Thank you for your ideas!

Marco Carrubba

Hello Walter, we just recently run a session for new graduates and these are the topics we spoke about:

- startups, and the concept of Cloud as an enabler to agility/fail fast
- Cloud demystified - what is it, who hyperscalers, why so popular
- startups and their characteristics (ideas, team, product, market, technology, money which enables new ideas)and how some of them changed over time e.g. how do you create ideas today by using the internet vs 20 years ago
- focus on generating money and the popularity and concept of subscription model
- shift from ownership to usership 
- trend of Customer Success in ownership to keep customers happy
- Customer Success ideas, concept, model
- CS as a philosophy, going across silos and what this means for traditional setup marketing vs sales vs support
- Skills needed to become a CSM
- Two of my CSM then spoke about "what is a day like in Customer Success"

Hope this helps!

Marco

Walter Zepeda

Marco, thank you very much for your help. I'll definitely follow your advice!

Benedict Fritz

Hey Walter! I think starting from building an understanding of the problem CS solves, and then building up from there might help the material resonate. Some rough bullet points/outline that jump to mind:

- Why does CS exist?
     - The move from one-time purchases to subscriptions
- What subscriptions do folks in the class have? (maybe this counts as an exercise/activity)
     - Netflix? Spotify? Microsoft Office? GSuite?
- What keeps folks subscribed to those services?
- The value proposition and delivery mechanism of a subscription like Netflix is clear enough, but obviously things get more complicated in a business context
- You'd probably cancel Netflix if they stopped continually adding new shows, and a business will churn out of your product if they don't see continual value
- Walk through typical CS responsibilities as they relate to that value delivery so customers maintain and expand subscriptions

What topics would you definitely cover?

I think the distinction that's easiest to miss for most folks is between customer success and customer service. The explanation I've seen work the most (mostly when explaining arrows.to to friends/family ?) is the proactive/reactive split. Emphasizing that success is a process happening without an explicit prompt, but as a core part of how the customer engages with the product, really helps.

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Benedict Fritz
Building arrows.to for high-touch customer onboardings
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-06-2020 20:43
From: Walter Zepeda
Subject: How would you teach CS to students in 90 minutes?

I have been invited to teach a class to students in their last year of Business about CS (which they don't even know exists).

• How would you teach CS in 90 minutes?
• What topics would you definitely cover?
• What fun exercises could we do in class?
•  What content should they come prepared with before the class?

Thank you for your ideas!


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Walter Zepeda
Head of Customer Success at Actimo America
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Walter Zepeda

Awesome pointers Benedict! I think the flow is great and the exercise idea is definitely a winner. Thank you very much!

Jason Passanisi

I did this earlier same lecture at my alma mater last year. It was fun, but challenging. It is hard to speak to students that don't have experience with business.

It was hard to hold their attention and speak about things they would care about. A fun exercise I thought of was to use a Tesla to drive from SF to NY. You need a plan on how to get there, and you will face certain challenges on the way. Some of those challenges can be met by tech (snow conditions- all wheel drive). 

Best of luck and have fun shaping young minds!

Jason

Walter Zepeda

Great example Jason, thanks!!