The Customer Success Pro Podcast Designing a Value Led Customer Success Organization with Jim Richmond
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Mar 25, 2026 
Jim Richmond, Chief Customer Officer at Smartling with 20+ years in SaaS and martech, explains designing value-led customer organizations. He discusses rethinking QBRs to focus on outcomes, using role specialization to scale post-sales, and how AI boosts CSM productivity. Short, tactical stories and experiments illustrate discovery, renewals, and building playbooks from data.
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Replace Feature QBRs With Outcome QBRs
- Shift QBRs from product metrics to customer outcomes and position your team as a guide, not the story's hero.
- Jim Richmond replaced feature-led slides with conversations about market entry, compliance, risk, and the customer's actual goals.
Assume Nothing About AI Sophistication
- Customers sit on a spectrum of AI sophistication so you must assume nothing and practice radical curiosity in discovery.
- Jim found big companies can be cautious and small ones can be experimental, so tailor language and approach per customer.
Automaker Prioritized Speed Over Cost
- Jim visited an automaker who prioritized speed above all else, surprising him given their scale and investments.
- That discovery reframed Smartling's work to enable 14-market overnight turnarounds rather than just cost or quality metrics.