Q: You've had the rare experience of leading both product and customer success organizations. How has that shaped your perspective on the relationship between the two functions?
Aidan: Having sat on both sides of the table, what's become increasingly clear to me is that product and customer success are really two sides of the same coin. They're both ultimately in the business of solving customer problems and driving revenue growth.
The challenge is that in many organizations, these functions operate in silos. Product is off building new features based on their own roadmap, while customer success is left to enable and onboard users on a product that may not fully meet their needs. This disconnect leads to friction, churn, and missed opportunities.
When I moved from running product to leading customer success, I found myself asking the same fundamental questions - why are customers buying our product? What outcomes are they looking to achieve? Where are we falling short in delivering on those outcomes? The data I needed to answer those questions was the same, regardless of which side of the org chart I sat on.
Q: There's been a lot of debate recently about where customer success should sit within the organizational structure. What's your take?
Aidan: My view is that customer success and product should both roll up under the same leader, ideally a Chief Revenue Officer or Chief Operating Officer. The key is that they're both subject to the same revenue goals and incentives.
The argument for this is simple - if product doesn't have enough customer feedback, they're going to build the wrong things. And if customer success is constantly putting out fires because the product is broken, you'll end up with this ever-expanding CS team that's really just a band-aid for poor product-market fit.
By aligning these teams under common leadership and metrics, you ensure that everyone is rowing in the same direction. Product is incentivized to build features that drive retention and expansion, while CS has a direct line to provide the customer insights needed to make that happen.
The risk of just lumping CS under sales is that you get a very short-term, new-logo focus. Traditional CROs come from a sales background, and they often default to what they know best. But in a SaaS world, retention is the name of the game. Sacrificing the customer experience for a quick win will come back to bite you in the long run.
Q: For a startup that's just beginning to build out their CS function, what advice would you offer to ensure they're set up for success?
Aidan: The beauty of being at an early stage is that you have the opportunity to get it right from the start. You're not saddled with legacy org structures or processes that are hard to unwind.
The first step is to be crystal clear on how you define success. If you're VC-backed, that's probably some combination of growth and retention. Everything you do in CS should ladder up to those goals. Every initiative, every headcount, every tool should be evaluated through the lens of whether it's moving the needle on revenue.
The second piece is investing in data infrastructure early. You need to be able to connect the dots between product usage, customer sentiment, and financial outcomes. That means having a solid data foundation that allows you to track the right metrics and run the right analyses.
Tools like ChurnZero can be really powerful for this - it allows you to instrument your product, pull in signals from your CRM and other systems, and get a unified view of customer health. Importantly, it's not just a CS tool - it's a revenue tool. Product, sales, and marketing should all be looking at that same data to inform their strategies.
My last piece of advice would be to establish a regular cadence of communication between CS and product. Whether it's weekly standups, monthly business reviews, or quarterly planning sessions, there needs to be a consistent flow of feedback and alignment. CS should feel empowered to surface customer pain points and opportunities, and product should be transparently sharing their roadmap and decision-making process. That ongoing dialog is what keeps everyone accountable and ensures you're always putting the customer first.
Q: Looking ahead, how do you see the role of customer success evolving, particularly as it relates to driving business growth?
Aidan: I think we're at an inflection point where CS is being recognized as a true revenue driver, not just a cost center. The companies that are going to win are the ones that leverage CS as a strategic differentiator.
What that looks like in practice is CS taking a more proactive, data-driven approach to account management. It's not just about reacting to churn risks or upsell opportunities as they arise, but proactively identifying those moments and taking action.
That's where AI and machine learning can be really powerful. Being able to predict which customers are most likely to expand based on their usage patterns, or intervene with a high-risk account before they even raise their hand. Those are the kinds of capabilities that will separate the winners from the losers in the coming years.
But even with all the fancy technology, it still comes back to nailing the fundamentals. Do you deeply understand your customers' needs? Are you consistently delivering on your promise and providing real value? Is there a culture of customer-centricity that permeates every level of the organization?
If you get those things right, and you have the data to back it up, the growth will follow. And customer success will be leading the charge, lockstep with product, to make it happen.
In Conclusion
Our conversation with Aidan underscored the critical importance of aligning product and customer success efforts to drive efficient growth. Some key themes emerged:
- Product and CS should be seen as two sides of the same coin, both in service of solving customer problems and driving revenue.
- Organizational structures that silo these functions lead to friction, churn, and missed opportunities. Aligning them under common leadership and metrics is key.
- Early-stage startups have a unique opportunity to build a customer-centric culture and data infrastructure from the ground up, setting themselves up for long-term success.
The future of CS is proactive, data-driven, and deeply intertwined with product strategy. AI and machine learning will play an increasingly important role, but the fundamentals of customer understanding and value delivery are still paramount.
As more and more companies recognize the strategic importance of customer success, leaders like Aidan who can bridge the gap between product and CS will be in high demand. His experience offers a compelling playbook for any organization looking to harness the power of customer-centricity to drive sustainable growth.
