How to align -- or at least start down the path of working in a more structured way:

• Establishing a regular cadence of meetings between representatives of CS and Product that has a specific agenda and outcomes
• Documenting and communicating the goals and metrics of these two groups and having some common metrics
• Setting the right expectations internally and with customers on what will be released
• Providing CS with proper training on how to discuss what’s being released and what isn’t

• Go through the roadmap to see if anything has changed. Discuss what has been moved up or pushed back.
• Discuss high priority customer features and confirm the prioritization and next steps
• Confirm what is in the next release and the impact that this will have on customers
• Go through any major bugs so that Product understands the impact of these bugs and confirm a resolution path
• Cs teams should make a point to highlight both the positives and the negatives. Engineers tend not to get a lot of credit for their contributions.

To get product and CS on the same page doesn’t mean setting up a weekly meeting between these functions or a joint slack Channel.

A good starting point is to review the current agenda and purpose of the regular CS/Product meeting. CS teams need to embed themselves more into the production process and really understand how decisions are made. This will help CS set the right expectations with customers and prevent further miscommunication and games of broken telephone.

CS can ensure feature requests are submitted correctly. They can train themselves on how to properly communicate product changes to customers. CS can prevent unnecessary friction with Product by pre-emptively reviewing the feature requests and bugs that are being submitted.

They can also make certain that items are prioritized correctly, have the right amount of details (such as Screenshots), and are classified appropriately. CS needs to stand behind its product team and support it.

There is an overarching desire for the two functions to strengthen their ties and work more closely together. There is even talk of having customer success and product merge which may make sense in some organizations.

Becoming true partners requires that each group give a little more to each other. Take that extra moment to really show that the relationship matters and that you care. It will make all the difference.