Onboarding
One definition of how a new customer moves from closed won to first value: the stages, the milestones, the entry and exit criteria, the owners and the escalation rules. Held as your GTM system's memory, so it means the same thing whichever CSM is running it, and it improves by what time to value actually showed.
The moments onboarding is decided, and what governs it
Onboarding is where retention is largely determined and where the operating model is least written down. Most of it lives in the habits of whoever has done it most.
01 | The Current Way
02 | AI Added On
03 | AI-Native
A new customer starts
A checklist and a template
Tasks get tracked. What actually constitutes progress is left to the CSM running it.
A generated plan
A plausible onboarding plan appears immediately. It has no view on what evidence proves a milestone is met.
Stages with entry and exit criteria
Progress is judged against defined criteria and the evidence each requires, so a milestone means the same thing every time.
Two CSMs run onboarding
Two different processes
Both follow the template and interpret readiness their own way, and the outcomes diverge.
Two plans, same divergence
Generation produces two competent plans that still encode two different views of what good means.
One model, applied consistently
Both work the same stages and criteria, so variance comes from the customer rather than from who was assigned.
Something blocks progress
Escalated when it is obvious
The blocker is raised once it has already cost weeks, because nothing defined the threshold.
Status, not escalation
Project status gets summarised accurately without anything stating when a delay becomes a problem.
Escalation conditions are stated
Each blocker type has a defined threshold and owner, so escalation happens on a rule rather than on somebody noticing.
Activity looks healthy, value is late
Milestones count activity
Steps are ticked off on schedule and the customer is no closer to the outcome they bought.
Activity reported faster
The same activity-centric milestones, summarised more quickly and just as disconnected from value.
Milestones require evidence
A milestone is met when its stated evidence exists, which stops a tidy plan from concealing a stalled outcome.
Time to value data accumulates
The model never changes
Onboarding is reviewed as performance. The stages and sequencing that produced it are not.
Better plans, same sequence
Plans generate more fluently against an ordering nobody has tested against outcomes.
Outcomes reorder the stages
Time to value, blockers and retention show which milestones mattered and in what order. Any change to the sequence needs customer success leadership's approval before it takes effect.
Capabilities that reason with this memory
Sales
Deal Health
Sales
Daily Brief | Sales
Prospecting
Daily Brief | Prospecting
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An advantage competitors cannot buy back: years of success and failure, codified.
One approved model of how a new customer reaches first value: the stages, the milestones, the entry and exit criteria, the responsibilities, the dependencies, the time to value expectations and the escalation conditions. Every onboarding capability applies that same model.
A checklist records tasks. This defines what constitutes progress and what evidence proves it. The distinction shows when every task is complete and the customer still has not reached value, which a checklist cannot detect and a criteria-based model can.
Because activity-centric milestones drift from outcomes. Ticking a step says work happened, not that the customer moved closer to value. Stating what evidence a milestone requires is what keeps a tidy plan from concealing a stalled implementation.
By treating time to value as a test of the model. When milestones are defined and evidenced, retention and value outcomes show which ones actually predicted success and which sequencing worked, and the model can be revised and tested rather than re-argued.
Onboarding is the company's model of how any new customer reaches first value. A success plan is this particular customer's goals, milestones and owners. Onboarding is the path, the success plan is the instance, and adoption evidence is how you know the destination was reached.