Purpose: Make expectations crystal clear for Client Success Owners (CSOs). These exemplars map the delivery team charter to concrete, observable behaviors specific to the CSO role. Use this in weekly 1:1s and performance reviews.
Note: All examples below are anonymized. Do not include PII or sensitive client data in this file.
1. Presence & participation
Standard
Good exemplar (The bar)
Bad exemplar (Anti-pattern)
Show up prepared, engaged, and with a POV
Scenario: Client steering meeting. CSO opens the meeting with a clear summary of the current phase, explicitly states the decisions needed today, and guides the client through the agenda, rather than waiting for the client to ask for updates.
Scenario: Internal alignment sync. CSO joins 5 minutes late, says “I haven’t had time to look at the board yet, what’s our status?” and expects the Service Lead to drive the narrative.
Be coachable and actively seek feedback
Scenario: Post-mortem on a rocky deliverable. CSO asks the Head of Delivery, “Where did I fail to set expectations early enough here, and how could I have framed the delay better?”
Scenario: 1:1 Feedback. When told a client felt surprised by a scope change, CSO immediately blames the engineering team for not finishing faster, rather than owning the communication miss.
Speak up early—silence is risk
Scenario: Scope creep detected. CSO notices the client asking for “just one more chart” in Slack and immediately posts in the internal channel: “Flagging potential scope creep on [Initiative]. Let’s discuss in our sync before I reply.”
Scenario: Quietly accepting risk. CSO hears a client mention a hard deadline change in a passing conversation but doesn’t document it or alert the Service Lead until the end of the week.
2. Ownership & accountability
Standard
Good exemplar (The bar)
Bad exemplar (Anti-pattern)
Own outcomes, not just tasks
Scenario: Unblocking a dependency. Instead of just asking the client for data access once and waiting, the CSO follows up, offers to jump on a 5-minute call to troubleshoot, and escalates to the client sponsor when it becomes a blocker.
Scenario: “I sent an email.” CSO says, “I asked them for the credentials on Tuesday, they haven’t replied,” and treats the task as complete on their end, while the project stalls.
Finish what you start
Scenario: Closing out a phase. CSO ensures all Linear tickets for a milestone are marked Done, sends a final summary email to the client confirming completion, and transitions smoothly to the next phase.
Scenario: Orphaned threads. CSO starts a Slack thread asking the Service Lead for an estimate, gets the estimate, but never replies to acknowledge it or inform the client, leaving the team wondering if the work is approved.
Drive work forward—don’t wait
Scenario: Ambiguous client request. CSO drafts a proposed approach based on their understanding, sends it to the Service Lead for a quick gut-check, and presents it to the client as a recommendation.
Scenario: Waiting for permission. CSO waits for the Head of Delivery to explicitly tell them to schedule the weekly client touchpoint.
Always have a Plan B
Scenario: Key team member out sick. CSO proactively messaging the client: “Alex is out today, so feature X will push to tomorrow, but we are prioritizing Y in the meantime to keep momentum.”
Scenario: Single point of failure. CSO only realizes a critical dependency is missed on the day of delivery and has no mitigation plan to offer the client.
3. Delivery excellence
Standard
Good exemplar (The bar)
Bad exemplar (Anti-pattern)
Focus on outcomes over activity
Scenario: Weekly update email. CSO writes: “This week we unlocked the new data pipeline (outcome), which means your marketing team can now pull reports 2 days faster.”
Scenario: Activity laundry list. CSO writes: “This week we closed 15 Linear tickets, had 3 internal meetings, and wrote 500 lines of code.”
Simplify complexity into clear actions
Scenario: Explaining technical debt. CSO translates a complex infrastructure issue: “We need to spend this week refactoring the database to ensure the app doesn’t crash when you launch your holiday campaign next month.”
Scenario: Jargon dumping. CSO forwards an highly technical message from the Service Lead directly to the client without context or translation, causing confusion.
4. Communication discipline
Standard
Good exemplar (The bar)
Bad exemplar (Anti-pattern)
No surprises—escalate early
Scenario: Timeline slip. CSO alerts the Head of Delivery on Wednesday that Friday’s delivery is at risk, drafts a client comms plan, and gets alignment before the client expects the deliverable.
Scenario: The Friday afternoon bomb. CSO waits until 4:30 PM on Friday to tell the client (and internal leadership) that the major milestone won’t be hit.
Always communicate: status, risks, asks, next steps
Scenario: Status update. CSO uses the standard framework in Slack: “Status: On track. Risk: Waiting on API keys. Ask: Please ping your IT team today. Next: We will begin integration tomorrow if keys are received.”
Scenario: Vague updates. CSO posts in the client Slack: “Everything is going well!” while internally the team is blocked.
5. Collaboration
Standard
Good exemplar (The bar)
Bad exemplar (Anti-pattern)
Optimize for team success
Scenario: Protecting team focus. CSO intercepts a sudden client request, tells the client “Let me review this with the team,” and batches it for the next planning sync, rather than interrupting the Service Lead immediately.
Scenario: Throwing the team under the bus. CSO tells the client, “Yeah, the engineering team is moving really slow this week, I’ll yell at them,” damaging trust.
Align before execution
Scenario: Promising a new feature. CSO says to the client, “That sounds valuable. Let me sync with our Service Lead on feasibility and I’ll get back to you tomorrow with a timeline,” and then has that internal sync.
Scenario: Unilateral commitments. CSO tells the client, “Sure, we can definitely build that by Friday,” without consulting the Service Lead on effort or capacity.
6. Continuous improvement
Standard
Good exemplar (The bar)
Bad exemplar (Anti-pattern)
Reflect and improve
Scenario: Retrospective. CSO brings specific data to the retro: “I noticed I dropped the ball on following up on X last sprint; I’m setting a daily reminder system for myself this sprint to fix that.”
Scenario: Defensive retro. CSO dismisses feedback about poor communication, saying “I’m just really busy, it’s fine.”