Customer Success Management Handbook

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Managing the Customer Engagement

Customer Success Managers will typically manage customer engagements via a GitLab project in the account-management group. This project will be based off the Enterprise or the Commercial Customer Success Plan Template and customized to match the customer’s needs as outlined above. The project is pre-loaded with milestones, issues, labels, and a README template to help kick off the project and outline a proof of concept, implementation, and customer onboarding. The following is a short introduction video on GitLab’s first iteration of the Customer Success Plan.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

CSMs will need to occasionally transfer accounts they have been working with to another CSM (e.g. a CSM changes territories, a realignment occurs in Sales, a need to equalize books of business, etc.), and they should use this handbook page to help guide them through important questions and topics during the handoff.

Below are checkpoints during the account handoff process that CSMs can use to keep track of information they will need in order to successfully transition accounts. For the sake of this page, most of this guidance is directed towards the new CSM but is helpful information for everyone involved.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Overview

One of the primary tools CSMs have to become a trusted advisor and assess and improve account health is the customer cadence call. This is an opportunity for the CSM and the customer team to sync on business outcomes, priorities, progress on initiatives, and concerns, and it is a great opportunity to bring in other GitLab team members that the CSM feels should be included (for example, Product to review feature requests and the roadmap).

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Objective

Define the process for how the CSM interacts with the systems and processes designed to provide customers with technical support.

Establishing Customers in Support Systems

During the onboarding process, the CSM will ensure that customers are correctly established in the support system. GitLab manages support requests through a system called Zendesk. GitLab has integrated the GitLab instance of Salesforce with Zendesk to facilitate the establishment of users in Zendesk. The integration synchronizes account-level data so that the Zendesk ticket has accurate information on the customers’ purchase of products that include support.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

At GitLab, successful partnerships between our Customer Success Managers and their customer executives are crucial to the success of our customers and our business. As CSMs position themselves to be more strategic and reach Director, VP, and CISO personas, we have to adjust our communication styles and consider how to cater them to executives. This page provides guidance on how CSMs can effectively partner with executives to drive value for our customers.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

FY23 Goals (Big Rocks)

Objective: Define the 3 ‘big rocks’ to take on in FY23 with the overall goal of moving our team forwards. These rocks need to move us forwards as a team and as individuals, enabling us to scale, be impactful, and be inspired/fulfilled in our roles.

What are ‘big rocks’? As outlined in this article, they are our priorities, our mission-critical objectives that we need to solve for in the coming year. We arrived at this list through CSM leadership discussions and final input from individual contributors.

This page describes best practices for an internship for learning with the CSM team.

Internships are a great way for a GitLab team member to learn about being a Customer Success Manager at GitLab. Use this guide for planning and executing an internship under an IC CSM who acts as the ‘Intern Mentor’.

How to find a mentor in the CSM team

The first step you will need to take in order to start an internship in Customer Success is to find a mentor from the CSM team. Feel free to reach out to any CSMs, particularly ones who are in a similar timezone to you to discuss an internship, or to reach out to a CSM Manager for guidance.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Onboarding for Customer Success Managers is a guided, methodical process to ensure new team members have the knowledge they need to be effective.

There is a lot to learn to make you a great GitLab Customer Success Manager. It is important for new team members to gain competency on how our platform solutions provide customer value, and how we partner with customers to build a productive relationship. This handbook page will provide an overview of what can be expected during the onboarding journey including learning objectives, milestones, and ways in which a manager and onboarding buddy can support a new team member during their onboarding.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

As part of GitLab’s paid time off policy, team members are encouraged to take time off. However, as customer-facing team members this can feel difficult, so this page is intended to help guide CSMs to ensure they can regularly take time off, avoid burnout, and keep their customers successful.

Before you go

To take PTO, please follow the guidelines in the PTO policy and be sure to enter your time off in Time Off by Deel.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

CSM Rhythm of Business

A successful CSM is pulled into various tasks across multiple territories and accounts. It is critical for a CSM to manage time effectively and concentrate on tasks that have the most positive impact for GitLab and the customer.

The CSM Rhythm of Business has been designed to focus CSM efforts on the most fruitful daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly tasks.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Customer Onboarding is the beginning phase of the customer lifecycle.

Overview

The customer onboarding phase is critical to getting a customer started on a successful journey with GitLab. This is our opportunity to ensure the customer achieves value and success from the start of their GitLab usage.

Onboarding steps

The onboarding process should begin when the customer opportunity reaches stage “5-Negotiating” for Booked ARR in order to introduce the CSM while we have high-touch engagement to close the opportunity. Once an opportunity that will newly qualify a customer for CSM alignment reaches stage 5, a Gainsight CTA will be created for the CSM Manager to assign the customer to a CSM. The assigned CSM should then start the onboarding process with the rest of the account team.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Background

Escalations can take at least two different forms:

1. Account Escalation.  This occurs when the customer expresses or a GitLab team member identifies that a customer is facing a challenging situation that may or may not relate to a specific support ticket. Anyone in GitLab can open an account escalation and circulate it to the leadership of the appropriate group to find a DRI.
2. Support Ticket Attention Requests (STAR).  This occurs when an open support ticket is deemed moving too slowly.

The purpose of this handbook entry is to describe the process for account escalations.  Please see the Support Ticket Attention Requests for details on how to request a support ticket escalation.

View the Customer Success Handbook homepage for additional related handbook pages.

Overview

The Customer Success team is distributed across different customer segments, depending on the customer’s Annual Recurring Revenue or the purchase of GitLab’s Success Plan Services (SPS).

Segments

CSM CSE CSA Renewals Managers

The following Digital Programs constitute “Customer Success Services” as included with your Subscription to Software, governed by the GitLab Subscription Agreement available at: https://about.gitlab.com/terms.

Digital Programs

Programs are developed using input from CSMs, customers, and other GitLab resources. Our goal is to provide customers with useful ways to serve themselves. We provide the following:

• Onboarding resources for customers
• Survey results
• Stage enablement email series
• Newsletters
• Webinar setup and insight
• Education, best practices, and planning resources for customers and GitLab team members
• Gainsight playbook setup and maintenance

For more information about Customer Programs, including how to request new or contribute to existing programs, or add contacts to Gainsight, see the Customer Programs page.

Process for Engaging with Partners in CSM-Assigned Customer Accounts

CSM-Assigned Customer Accounts

Pre-Customer Kick-Off or 1st Engagement

1. GitLab Partner team introduces CSM & SAE/AE to Partner - ideally before sale closes to not slow down post-sales implementation

2. CSM and SAE/AE connects with Partner to align on the role the Partner will play post-sale.

   • If the Partner has an ongoing engagement with the customer, CSM & Partner to align on post-sale Kick-Off call, collaborating on the Kick-Off deck content and ownership/roles for the call

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Overview

An Executive Business Review (EBR) is a strategic meeting with stakeholders from both GitLab and the customer. It is an extension of the account planning process and part of the CSM’s regular business rhythm. The EBR aims to demonstrate to the Economic Buyer the value they are getting in their partnership with GitLab. It is interactive from both sides, discussing the customer’s desired business outcomes and related metrics, progress against these metrics and desired outcomes, and aligning on strategic next steps. The most crucial element in all EBRs is giving the customer stakeholders the time to speak about what matters to them, and creating a framework to enable them to do so.

CSME (Customer Success Management and Engineering)

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

FY24 Annual OKRs (Big Rocks) Objective: The 3 ‘big rocks’ to take on in FY24 with the overall goal of moving our team forwards. These rocks need to move us forwards as a team and as individuals, enabling us to scale, be impactful, and be inspired/fulfilled in our roles.

What are ‘big rocks’? As outlined in this article, they are our priorities, our mission-critical objectives that we need to solve for in the coming year. We arrived at this list through CSM leadership discussions and final input from individual contributors.

Retrospectives

Program Objective

The objective of this retrospective program is to facilitate a structured and collaborative process for reflecting on Renewal events in our book of business, identify areas for improvement, implementing actionable changes to enhance future performance and share learnings across the organization.

Scope

The scope of this program is limited to Customer Renewal events occuring during FY25 that are managed by the CSE, CSM and RM teams.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

What is a Leadership Recurring Check-In Call?

The Leadership Recurring Check-In call is a strategic discussion with customer leadership to ensure we are progressing toward our success plan objectives together. While an Executive Business Review (EBR) aims to establish business goals and report on progress annually, the Leadership Recurring Check-In allows for a more focused conversation with leadership to allow for progress checks, and review the prioritization of objectives. It is less granular than a cadence call, but more focused than an EBR, and still has the aims of being strategic and requiring company leadership, even if they are not at the executive level.

Oliver Falk’s README

Oliver Falk, Manager, Customer Success Engineering, EMEA

This page is intended to help others understand what it might be like to work with me, especially people who haven’t worked with me before.

It’s also a well-intentioned effort at building some trust by being intentionally vulnerable, and to share my ideas of a good working relationship to reduce the anxiety of people who might be on my team.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

What is Service Ping

Service Ping generates customer analytics on self-managed instances that enable GitLab to collaborate with our customers to accelerate value attribution, achieve return-on-investment (ROI) goals, and accomplish business outcomes with the GitLab solution. Specifically, it helps GitLab understand product adoption to:

1. Ensure adoption is aligned to business outcomes (i.e., goals, timelines, etc).
2. Understand usage for industry and best practice recommendations
3. Recommend features or capabilities that maximize solution value based on:
   • Gaps in adoption
   • New features or capabilities that can be leveraged
4. Enable User Cohorts and GitLab DevOps Score that provides an overview of customers’ adoption of Concurrent DevOps from planning to monitoring
5. Track usage and adoption over time

For the definition of each metric, please see our Service Ping Metrics Dictionary.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

As part of the CSM’s mandate to drive stage adoption and expansion with customers, we need to define exactly what it means to adopt a stage at GitLab. For more information on how stage expansion is recorded and reported on, please visit this page The detail below is a guide to defining what it takes to say a customer has adopted that stage within GitLab. We define stage adoption as >25% of the account using a stage as defined below. Less than 25% (roughly) is presumed to be a pilot or work in progress toward a significant foothold of a stage providing value within the company.

View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages.

Overview

The CSM team’s primary focus is to align with a customer’s desired business outcomes, enable the customer in their current use cases, and expand their platform adoption.

Customers who adopt additional DevOps use cases with GitLab see an increased return on investment (ROI). They receive this ROI by increasing operational efficiencies, delivering better products faster, and reducing security and compliance risks.