Customer Success Management Handbook

The Customer Success Management team at GitLab is a part of the Customer Success department, acting as trusted advisors to our customers and helping them realize value faster.

Customer Success Segments

Mission Statement

Accelerate customer success by aligning passionate CSMs with customers to:

  • Drive adoption aligned with business outcomes
  • Enable customers in current and future GitLab use cases
  • Expand ROI from GitLab

What is a Customer Success Manager (CSM) at GitLab?

CSMs are accountable for customer adoption, measurable outcomes, customer satisfaction, and creating true customer advocacy. We create successful customers by enabling, training, and nurturing them throughout their journey. The following areas incorporate the remit of a CSM:

  • Customer Adoption - Ensure the customer is working towards or adopting their desired use cases to maturity. Ensure the successful onboarding of all intended users. Identify areas of adoption risk and establish mitigating plays and programs.
  • Delivering Positive Business Outcomes - Ensure customers are meeting and exceeding their desired business outcomes so that customers can quantify and support their investment.
  • Trusted Advisor - Establish “trusted advisor” relationships with the management and technical teams on the customer side while working seamlessly with our account team to deliver a best-in-class customer experience.
  • Account Expansion - Lead adoption expansion beyond the customer’s desired use cases and further customer return on investment (ROI). Partner with Sales to identify expansion opportunities and ensure we realize the expansion potential of a customer account.
  • Leading Business Reviews - Review and celebrate progress towards, or achievement of, the customer’s desired business outcomes. Address challenges with a plan for mitigation, align on upcoming and future customer business objectives.

High-Level Responsibilities of a CSM

Responsibility Context How We Measure DCI Roles
Success Plans Mutually agreed (Customer | GitLab) adoption plans that outline desired outcomes (e.g., improve cycle time), technical milestones required (e.g., migrate to GitLab, overcome constraints), timelines and DRIs.

These plans enable us to be proactive and ensure progress towards the customer's goals. As trusted advisors, we understand what drives value for our customers and help them achieve it.
Every customer must have an active success plan DRI: CSM

Consulted: AE, SA, Customer

Informed: Leadership
Onboarding There are several onboarding steps in both the new and existing customer onboarding playbooks. The CSM's role is to ensure all of these topics and enablements have been covered and documented. All customers are to be taken through the appropriate playbook (New, Existing Customer) DRI: CSM

Consulted: AE, SA, Customer

Informed: Leadership
Cadence Calls The cadence call is a proactive call. For this call to be proactive, the CSM's responsibility includes those listed in the linked cadence call page Call frequency:
  • Customer is engaged weekly or biweekly, monthly at a very minimum


A CSM/CSE can expect to conduct a minimum number of calls as follows:
  • CSMs: 5-7 calls per week
  • CSEs: 15 calls per week
DRI: CSM

Consulted: AE, Customer

Informed: SA, Leadership
Adoption & Expansion
  • Driving platform adoption (use cases and licenses) in line with a customer's desired business outcomes is at the heart of the CSM role
  • Understand what the customer is currently adopting and partner with the customer on enabling this use case/feature
  • When an enablement or expansion playbook is open, the CSM actively drives the associated motion in the customer account
At any given time, a CSM will be actively driving expansion with half of their book (3-4 customers) DRI: CSM

Consulted: AE, Customer

Informed: SA, Leadership
Executive Business Reviews
  • We hold the business review at month 6, giving enough time passed to celebrate milestones achieved and enough time remaining to get adoption back on track where needed.
  • The CSM is the DRI for scheduling, preparing for, presenting, and following up on the EBR, and partners with both the account team and the customer in the creation of the presentation.
1 EBR per customer per year at a minimum DRI: CSM

Consulted: AE, Customer

Informed: SA, Leadership
Renewal
  • It is the job of the CSM to ask the 'soft' renewal question 3-4 months before the renewal
  • This conversation and the outcome of this conversation are tracked in Gainsight using the 'renewal call' meeting type (within the timeline entry)
Every customer regardless of segment or region DRI: CSM, AE, Renewals team

Consulted: Customer

Informed: Leadership
Managing Risk
  • A CSM actively manages risk in a customer account, quickly turning a customer to red when there is any potential risk of contraction or churn (even if this is unconfirmed)
  • The CSM is responsible for frequent communication to the account team about risk in their accounts and triggering/leading the escalation process where needed
Risk is actively managed for all customers DRI: CSM

Consulted: AE, Leadership

Informed: Renewals team

Please reference this page for an overview of the CSM Rhythm of Business (daily to yearly) Please reference this page for an overview of the areas your CSM will engage with you in: CSM Points of Engagement

Customer Journey

GitLab Customer Journey Map

Journey Stage Activities
Pre-Sales & Alignment
Onboard
Enable
Expand
Optimize & Renew

FY25 Vision & Strategy -3 Pillars

Big Rock (Annual Strategy) Archive

Handbook Directory

CSM Team Metrics Overview (VIDEO)

Changelog

CSM Learning & Development

CSM Activities

Driving Platform Adoption

Landing Zones

Customer Metrics

Platform Metrics

Other Lifecycle Management Activities

Digital Customer Programs

CSM Managers


CSM Tools

The following articulates where collaboration and customer management is owned:

  1. Customer Collaboration Projects: Shared project between GitLab team members and customer. Used to prioritize/plan work with customer.
  2. Google Drive: Internal. Used to capture call notes and other customer related documents.
  3. Chorus: Internal. Used to record Zoom calls.
    1. Using Calendly with Chorus: Instructions on Calendly set up with Chorus.
  4. Gainsight: Internal. Used to track customer health score, logging customer activity (i.e. calls, emails, meetings)
  5. Issue Prioritization Dashboard: Internal. Used to track customer requested issues.

Education and Enablement

In Customer Success Management, it is important to be continuously learning more about our product and related industry topics. The education and enablement handbook page provides a dashboard of aggregated resources that we encourage you to use to get up to speed.

SFDC useful reports

Tracking opportunities for your assigned Strategic Account Executive (SAEs)

To ensure that opportunities are listed with the correct Order Type, this Salesforce report shows you all of the opportunities that have closed, or are soon to close, with your SAEs. Tracking Order Type is important since CSM team quota and compensation depend on this. Please reference the latest Sales Compensation Plan information to know what is counted.

Next steps for you:

  1. Customize this SFDC report where “Account Owner = your SAEs”; “CSM = You”
  2. Save report
  3. Subscribe to report when “Record Count Greater Than 0” and Frequency = Weekly (You’ll get a weekly email as a reminder to look at the report)
  4. If you find an opp that is tagged incorrectly, chatter (@Sales-Support) in the opportunity and let them know there is a mistake (example)

Account Engagement
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Managing the Customer …
Account Handoff CSM-to-CSM Checklist
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. CSMs will need to …
Adoption Landing Zones
Cadence Calls
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Overview One of the …
CSM and Support Interaction
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Objective Define the …
CSM Aspiring Leaders Program
A guide to help CSMs level up their skills to be ready for leadership
CSM Development
Available development paths and resources for Customer Success Managers at GitLab.
CSM Executive Relationships
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. At GitLab, successful …
CSM FY23 Big Rocks
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. FY23 Goals (Big Rocks) …
CSM Internship Program
This page describes best practices for an internship for learning with the CSM team. Internships are …
CSM Issue Tracking and OKRs
Field guide for CSMs on team OKRs
CSM Manager Handbook
Field guide for CSM Managers on standard and recurring practices.
CSM November 2021 Engagement Survey
Results and action on the annual GitLab Engagement Survey for Customer Success Managers.
CSM Onboarding
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Onboarding for Customer …
CSM Paid Time Off
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. As part of GitLab’s …
CSM Quaterly Business Reviews (QBRs)
Overview of CSM's Quarterly Business Review process
CSM Responsibilities and Services
There are various services a Customer Success Manager will provide to ensure that customers get the best value possible out of their relationship with GitLab.
CSM Rhythm of Business
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. CSM Rhythm of Business A …
CSM Strategies for Mitigating Risk In Customer Accounts
CSM Strategies for Mitigating Risk In Customer Accounts
Customer Health Assessment and Management
This page covers the factors to consider for customer health, guidelines for selecting the appropriate rating, communication guidelines, CSM responsibilities and instructions for the account triage issue creation.
Customer Onboarding
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Customer Onboarding is the …
Customer Renewal Tracking
The Renewals team at GitLab is a part of the Customer Success department.
Customer Success Escalations Process
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Background Escalations can …
Customer Success READMEs
Learn about the Customer Success teammates
Customer Success Teams
View the Customer Success Handbook homepage for additional related handbook pages. Overview The …
DevSecOps Adoption Tracking in Gainsight
CSM guidance on how to track and log progress on DevSecOps usecase adoption
Digital Customer Programs
The following Digital Programs constitute “Customer Success Services” as included with …
Engaging with Partners
Process for Engaging with Partners in CSM-Assigned Customer Accounts CSM-Assigned Customer Accounts …
Engaging with Professional Services
Guidelines for CSMs on how best to engage with professional services.
Executive Business Reviews (EBRs)
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Overview An Executive …
FY24 Big Rocks
CSME (Customer Success Management and Engineering) View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional …
FY25 CS Retrospective Program
Retrospectives Program Objective The objective of this retrospective program is to facilitate a …
Leadership Recurring Check-Ins
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. What is a Leadership …
Researching Customer Questions
Strategies on how to research customer questions to find answers.
Roleplay Scenarios
This handbook page collects links to all roleplaying scenarios, for CSMs to utilize to improve their conversations and enable them to be audible-ready.
Service Ping FAQ
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. What is Service Ping …
Stage Adoption Metrics
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. 2023-06-15 Note The …
Success Plans
A success plan is a roadmap that connects a customer's desired business outcomes to GitLab solutions. It is a living document, developed by the CSM.
Using Calendly as a CSM
Best practices and setup guide for Customer Success Managers using Calendly to manage customer requests for meetings.
Using Gainsight as a CSM
The key aspects of how Customer Success Managers use Gainsight to drive success for customers.
Using Issue Prioritization Dashboard as a CSM
The key aspects of how Customer Success Managers use Sisense Issue Prioritization Dashboard to drive success for customers.
Using the Customer Collaboration Project as a CSM
Best practices and setup guide for Customer Success Managers using Customer Collaboration Projects to manage customer data, requests, and collaborations.
Workshops and Enablement Sessions
View the CSM Handbook homepage for additional CSM-related handbook pages. Overview The CSM …
Last modified March 7, 2025: Fix broken links (b1d67d8e)