Operating Intel

Field Notes.

Unvarnished observations on transformation, AI, and the messy reality of scaling teams.

Customer success is changing fast. Teams are getting cut, AI tools are being deployed before they work, and the CFO now sits at every renewal table. These posts look at what is actually happening inside CS orgs, not what the vendor demos promise. Real retention problems. Real experiments. Real things breaking and getting fixed.

Modern co-working office in Bengaluru with professionals working at laptops and a city skyline view

Customer SuccessAug 18, 2026

Customer Success and GTM Are Moving to India's GCCs. Most Haven't Moved the Authority With It.

GCC hiring in India is on track to hit roughly half a million jobs this year, and customer success and GTM functions are increasingly part of it. Most centers still run like relabeled cost plays. Here's what actually separates a GCC that owns a function from one that just executes it.

Read Essay 6 MIN READ

Recent Essays

Professional reviewing data on multiple screens in a modern office setting

customer success managerJul 28, 2026

What Makes a Customer Success Manager Actually Good at Their Job

Most CSM job descriptions are a list of activities: QBRs, health monitoring, renewal management, stakeholder engagement. The best CSMs do all of those things. So do mediocre ones. The difference is not what they do but how they think about the customer relationship. Here is what actually separates strong CSMs from the rest.

10 MIN READ

Customer SuccessJul 28, 2026

What Customer Success Actually Means in 2026 (It Is Not Support)

Customer success has been one of the most misnamed functions in B2B for a decade. In most companies it is sophisticated support with a different job title. The companies where CS actually drives revenue have built something different. Here is the distinction that separates the function from the label.

10 MIN READ

Two professionals in a collaborative working conversation at a bright modern workspace

Customer SuccessJul 24, 2026

Customer Success Strategy for B2B SaaS: What Separates Good From Great

Most B2B SaaS companies have a customer success function. Most of them are doing a version of the same thing - health scores, QBRs, check-in cadences. The ones that are genuinely driving retention and expansion are making different decisions underneath the familiar structure. Here is what actually separates good customer success from great.

12 MIN READ

Customer service professional wearing a headset at a modern workstation with a screen

Customer SuccessJul 21, 2026

AI for Customer Service: The Honest Version in 2026

The press release version of AI in customer service is about deflection rates and cost reduction. The honest version is more complicated. Some things got faster. Some things got worse. And the teams that are doing it well made choices that the vendor demos do not show you. Here is what is actually happening.

12 MIN READ

Two professionals reviewing a laptop screen in a strategic planning session

Customer SuccessJun 27, 2026

What Skills Do Customer Success Managers Actually Need in 2026

AI now handles QBR prep, account summaries, and health score alerts. The CSM skills that got you hired are not the ones that keep you relevant. Here is what actually matters in 2026 - and why most teams are still training for the wrong job.

6 MIN READ

Executive presenting in a boardroom with financial charts and data on screen behind them

AI ROIJun 23, 2026

How to Present AI ROI to Your Board When the Numbers Don't Add Up Yet

Only 39% of companies report measurable EBIT impact from AI. If your board is asking for ROI and you don't have clean numbers yet, here's how to reframe the conversation - lead with the operational metrics that predict financial return before it appears on a P&L.

6 MIN READ

Team reviewing a workflow process map on a whiteboard during an operational planning session

AI-Enabled OperationsJun 19, 2026

Why Your Workflow Automation Platform Isn't Delivering What You Expected

88% of companies are running some form of workflow automation. Only 39% report any business impact. The gap isn't the tool. Here's what's actually getting in the way.

8 MIN READ

Abstract visualization of AI automation replacing traditional software interfaces

AI-Enabled OperationsJun 19, 2026

AI Agents Are Replacing SaaS Tools. Here's What That Actually Means for Your Team.

Enterprise software vendors are repositioning their own products as AI agents. That should tell you something. Here's which tools survive, which don't, and what to do before your next renewal cycle.

7 MIN READ

Professional reviewing notes in an early customer onboarding meeting

Customer SuccessJun 18, 2026

Customer Churn Doesn't Happen at Renewal. It Happens in the First 30 Days.

Most churn prevention efforts focus on late-stage accounts. The actual decision happens months earlier - in the first weeks after signing. Here's what that means for how CS teams should allocate their time.

8 MIN READ

A professional team in a focused meeting, representing the customer success restructuring conversations happening across enterprise organizations in 2026

Customer SuccessJun 16, 2026

Customer Success Teams Are Being Cut While Still in AI Pilot Mode

63% of customer success teams are still running AI pilots. Their headcount is already down. The tools the restructuring model depends on aren't operational yet. The people those tools were meant to support are already gone. That gap is not a technology problem.

7 MIN READ

Person at a desk reviewing a laptop screen, representing the gap between AI deployment metrics and real customer experience

Customer SuccessJun 10, 2026

Your AI Is Answering Your Customers. Your Customers Are Leaving Anyway.

Your AI is handling the volume. Customers are quietly losing faith. TELUS Digital found two-thirds of enterprises can't measure whether their CX AI is actually working. Forrester warned this would damage customer trust in 2026. The data says it already has - silently, without anyone looking.

7 MIN READ

Two business professionals in a serious meeting reviewing documents - representing the shift from champion relationship to CFO budget scrutiny

Customer SuccessJun 5, 2026

Your Champion Loved Your Product. Their CFO Just Killed the Renewal.

CS teams spend years building champions. But in 2026, the renewal decision has moved to finance - and your champion can't save you if they can't answer a CFO's ROI question. Here's what changed, and what the CS motion needs to look like now.

8 MIN READ

Business leader reviewing growth strategy at a desk, representing the shift from AI cost-cutting to AI-enabled revenue growth

AI StrategyJun 1, 2026

You've Been Using AI to Cut Costs. Your Competitors Are Using It to Win Customers.

Most companies deployed AI to reduce costs. A smaller group deployed it to understand their customers better and grow revenue. In 2026, the gap between those two decisions is becoming visible in the numbers - and increasingly hard to close.

7 MIN READ

Bar charts and data visualization showing financial analytics

Customer SuccessMay 31, 2026

The Bill Is Coming Due for the CS Layoffs of 2023 and 2024

Companies cut customer success headcount in 2023 and 2024. The savings were real. Now, 18 to 24 months later, the renewals those accounts would have had are quietly not happening. Here's what the data is showing - and what to do with it.

8 MIN READ

Robot arm playing chess representing AI versus human strategy

Customer SuccessMay 31, 2026

AI Agents Won't Save Your Retention Numbers. Here's What Actually Will.

Most enterprise companies deployed AI in customer success to cut costs. NRR kept declining anyway. The problem isn't the technology - it's that efficiency and retention are different jobs, and most AI deployments were scoped for the wrong one.

8 MIN READ