CSM learning path
Foundations first, then the twelve customer-success lessons - diagnosis through renewal.
Foundation · 60 minPlatform story and application mapThis is the map you carry into every deal and every account. It teaches the one sentence that explains why Time Champ exists (paid hours are easy to count, delivered value is not, and the gap is where money leaks), and it places the 12 applications on a staircase so you always know what question each one answers and where a conversation currently sits.Foundation · 60 minBuyer and user personasDeals and renewals turn on getting the right message to the right person. This teaches the economic buyer, the operational champion, the end users and the likely blockers for each industry, what each one actually cares about, and the trap of pitching an executive's value story to a line manager or vice versa.Foundation · 60 minTime to outcome and valueThis is the honesty engine of the whole programme. It teaches the difference between capacity released and cash recovered, why a finding is not yet a result, and how to express value as a testable hypothesis the customer owns rather than a vendor promise.Foundation · 60 minData capture and trustCapture is where deals get blocked and accounts lose employee trust. This teaches what the platform captures (activity evidence, monitored work, completed work), how capture policy and agent modes are presented, and the discipline of treating privacy as a first-class design concern rather than a feature to minimise.Foundation · 55 minOrganization and access scopeAlmost every 'the numbers are wrong' complaint and every 'who can see my data' objection traces back to how the organisation and access are modelled. This teaches the shape of the customer model, why role and scope determine both trust and metric correctness, and how CSMs validate it before anyone reads a dashboard.Foundation · 60 minRead metrics with contextThis is the single most important analytical habit in the programme. It teaches the five questions to ask of every metric before you trust it, the attendance-versus-utilisation distinction that trips up everyone, and how both sales and CSM use this to avoid the credibility-destroying mistake of acting on an unqualified number.Foundation · 55 minStandalone and combined capabilitiesThe difference between a trusted advisor and a bundle-pusher is the ability to say what one app does on its own and what genuinely improves when two are combined. This teaches independent value per app, the real incremental value of combinations, and the honest limits that keep you from promising seamless integration you cannot stand behind.Foundation · 55 minUse the demo labThe demo lab is your proof surface and your practice ground. This teaches how it is laid out, how to prepare a question-first path instead of a click-everything tour, and the discipline of showing a business question, the screen that answers it, the evidence, the honest interpretation and the next step.Foundation · 60 minCustomer-safe claims and escalationThis is the guardrail that protects every other module. It teaches the three tiers of claim (verified fact, demo-shown behaviour, and not-yet-confirmed), the exact language for each, the specific topics that must always escalate, and why a disciplined 'I will confirm that' beats a confident guess every single time.Foundation · 60 minCommercial eligibility and implementation boundariesThis module draws the line between what a seller or CSM may state about packaging, integration and implementation and what must go to a specialist. It teaches the categories of commercial and implementation question, the honest default (name an escalation owner rather than guess), and how to keep momentum while holding that line.CSM lesson · 75 minCustomer diagnosis and success planningA new CSM inherits a signed contract, not a success plan. This lesson teaches you to turn 'what they bought' into 'what has to become true for them to renew and expand', anchored to a baseline you can measure and an owner on the customer side who will act. Without this, the account drifts into feature usage with no outcome anyone agreed to.CSM lesson · 90 minImplementation literacy and validationYou do not have to configure the platform, but you must be able to read whether an implementation is trustworthy. If capture coverage is partial, a mapping is wrong, a standard is unset or permissions leak, every metric the customer sees is quietly wrong - and you will be the one explaining it in a QBR. This lesson makes you literate enough to validate and to triage, and clear about the escalation boundary.CSM lesson · 90 minRole-specific onboardingOnboarding fails when everyone is trained on everything at once. Admins need setup to be correct before managers can trust data; managers need a routine before employees see any benefit; employees need to understand what is captured and why before adoption sticks. This lesson teaches you to sequence onboarding by role with concrete exit criteria, so value appears in the first 30 days rather than month six.CSM lesson · 120 minTrain a customer effectivelyA trained customer is one who can do the job without you, not one who watched you do it. This lesson gives you a repeatable training loop and has you build and rehearse a real 20-minute manager session on Time Champ, with a learner task and facilitator notes - so training produces a routine a manager will run next Monday, not a demo they forget by Friday.CSM lesson · 90 minInvestigate metrics and discrepanciesThe single most common CSM fire drill is 'your number does not match ours'. This lesson gives you a fixed investigation order that resolves most discrepancies without engineering, teaches you to tell a real difference from a definitional one, and has you write an escalation packet precise enough that a specialist does not have to redo your work.CSM lesson · 75 minBuild operating routinesDashboards do not create value; decisions do. This lesson teaches you to convert the applications into a cadence - daily exception triage, weekly output and adherence review, monthly outcome check - each with a tight agenda and an action log that assigns an owner and a due date. A routine is the difference between a tool that is logged into and a tool that is relied on.CSM lesson · 90 minDiagnose adoption gaps'Adoption is low' is not a diagnosis. This lesson gives you a five-layer model that pinpoints whether the problem is that the customer is not entitled, not configured, not using, not using in a routine, or using but not getting the outcome - because each layer needs a completely different fix. A capability adoption assessment built this way turns a vague worry into a targeted, follow-up-able plan.CSM lesson · 120 minProve value and run a business reviewA QBR either earns the renewal or exposes that there was never a value story. This lesson teaches you to build the review on a defensible baseline, to pre-empt the confounders that would otherwise sink your claim, and to be scrupulous about the difference between capacity released and cash realised - so the customer validates the numbers rather than quietly discounting them.CSM lesson · 90 minQualify expansion and manage a pilotExpansion done well is the natural next step of a realised outcome; done badly it is a feature pitch that burns trust. This lesson teaches you to qualify expansion the way a disciplined AE qualifies a deal - unmet objective, evidence, buyer, data readiness, success criteria - and to check honestly whether the capability is already included before you try to sell it, with a no-expansion alternative ready.CSM lesson · 75 minRisk, objections and escalationEvery account hits trouble; the ones that churn are the ones where the CSM saw it, worried about it, and did nothing structured. This lesson gives you a recovery response for each of the five common risks and teaches you to write an escalation record with a named owner and a date - because a risk without an owner is a risk nobody is actually managing.CSM lesson · 60 minRenewal and sales partnershipA renewal is won across the whole year and merely confirmed at the end - or it is lost quietly and discovered too late. This lesson teaches you to assemble a renewal readiness pack that tells the truth about outcomes and risks, respects what the roadmap can and cannot promise, and hands expansion to sales cleanly, so the commercial conversation rests on evidence you have been building since C01.CSM lesson · 120 minCustomer simulation and certificationThis is the capstone: a single simulated account run start to finish, assembling the skills from C01-C11 into the artifacts a real CSM produces in their first quarter. It certifies that you can not only explain the method but run it under observation, with the honesty disciplines intact - because the certification gate is practical score 80 or above, no critical error, and manager review.