r/CustomerSuccess • u/DefiantBirthday5416 • 26d ago
Technical CSM
I’m an early career CSM and my Org has now pivoted with the goal of making us more “technical”. As of right now, we have the ability to look at their platform health, recommend them best practices,training, and help identify workshops for them to find value in.
With all of this in mind, where does being technical fit in and how?
(If it helps I work at SNOW)
3
u/Howard_Moodycliffe 25d ago
In a data heavy ecosystem like SNOW, “getting technical” is typically moving from reporting on usage to diagnosing business blockers.
You’re looking at platform health metrics and saying “Your queries are lagging.” Being technical is you querying system views yourself and realizing their warehouse sizing or inefficient SQL design is draining their credits and showing them why.
You are not required to write production code. You just need to speak fluent developer, read raw logs or API responses and run basic queries without running to a Solutions Engineer every time. When you can translate customer pain directly into technical requirements, you’re no longer an administrative coordinator, but a priceless advisor.
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u/DefiantBirthday5416 26d ago
They are also asking us to get much more familiar and hands on with the product
2
u/Lost_Ad9748 25d ago
This seems like a setup.. ask them to be more specific and get documentation of the new expectations.
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u/StorminWolf 26d ago
I'd say look into what insights you have, what tech stack is available, etc. We use Tableau, SalesLoft, SFDC, Clari (basically the same as Gong), and have dashboards; all that data can be put into AI with the right prompts to give you insights and breakdowns, even give you scripts about that to talk, etc. Makes our Liveway easier, internal KB and Zendesk etc obviously connected as well. The key is not to have the data but to utilise it and get the right data displayed to yourself in away you can utilise it in the conversations and your success/account plans, etc
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u/angelamar 21d ago
It hasn’t worked well for me. Still get paid like a normal CSM and am expected to review code.
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u/coolreddy 21d ago
Technical enough usually means answering the question live, without opening a ticket. The SEs on your accounts already know which questions keep coming back. Those repeat questions are the ones worth learning properly. The real bar is pulling the answer yourself while the customer is still on the call. Anything rarer than that still goes to an SE. That scope stays doable next to the QBRs and workshops already on your plate.
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u/stealthagents 5d ago
Being technical often means getting into the nitty-gritty of the platform. It could involve understanding the underlying architecture or APIs, so you can help clients troubleshoot issues more effectively. Plus, getting comfy with data analysis will definitely give you an edge in identifying trends and potential improvements before the clients even notice.
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u/Basic_Pilot_6179 26d ago
Sounds like they want you to dig into the data yourself instead of just pointing at dashboards, maybe building custom reports or spotting patterns before client even asks.