Jan Young, MBA, CSPO, CSM

Project Manager

I help Heads of CS become VPs and get a seat at the Executive Table | Customer-Led Growth Advisor | 2X Top 25 CS Influencer | Top 50 CS Influencer | Top 50 Women Leaders in CS | Top 100 CS Strategist | Investor

Why do some CS leaders command executive respect, while others, despite strong results, keep fighting to be heard?

I've been in Tech for 20+ years and been through two exits as VP Client Services. Here's what I've learned:

✨ EVERYTHING has changed.

The speed. The AI transformation. The business models. The way we need to lead.

I see CS leaders working until midnight, delivering great results... and still getting told "we need to cut CS headcount."

Sound familiar?

The old playbooks stopped working.

AI is reshaping how we work, how we go to market, how we serve customers. Your 2023 playbook is irrelevant.

Today, you need SYSTEMS.

Here's what I know from coaching hundreds of CS leaders:

Those who break through have mastered The Modern CS Growth System, 4 pillars of executive impact:

💡 Modern Management & Change Leadership - Lead in the AI era  
💡 AI Fluency, Automation & Autonomy - Transform operations, pricing, GTM
💡 Business & Customer Economics - Speak profitability, not just retention  
💡 Repeatable Customer Revenue & Team Systems - Build scalable frameworks, not heroic firefighting  

This is a systematic approach to demonstrating executive-level impact in the language your fellow executives understand.

👉👉 This is what CS Business Leaders master. Not pieces. The whole system.

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WHO I WORK WITH

CS leaders who've built a department but aren't getting traction:

✔  You deliver strong results, but executives still see CS as a cost center
✔  You're excluded from strategic decisions where your insights would be valuable
✔  You’re told "do more with less" instead of getting resources
✔  You know modern CS should look different, but you're stuck in outdated frameworks

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HOW WE WORK TOGETHER

⚡️ CS BUSINESS LEADERSHIP ACCELERATOR - Master the 4 pillars and build the Modern CS Growth System specific to your goals/challenges through executive peer community + project-based frameworks + personalized coaching.  

🔗 https://go.stepupxchange.com/csbl-accelerator

📬 NEWSLETTER:  I publish a weekly newsletter on modern CS strategies

📧 DM me and I'll share which resources fit you

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RESULTS

✅ Become an award-winning executive
✅ Reposition your team as a strategic revenue driver
✅ Transition from firefighting to repeatable, scalable systems
✅ Innovate with AI to drive profitable customer revenue growth

The modern CS leaders who succeed aren't keeping up with change: They're leading it. 

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📬 Newsletter: janyoungcx.com/#newsletter  
📧 DM me: discuss your challenges  
🎯 Follow for daily insights

Founding Member

RevRoom is a trusted space where curious revenue leaders are collaborating on the future of B2B Go to Market alignment and GTM-Led-Growth.

We were all asked the same question independently. We all gave the same answer.

When ChurnZero asked a group of CS leaders for our 2026 predictions, we didn't compare notes beforehand. 

We had limited space and were told to be specific.

Yet, a clear pattern emerged across the board.
🔸  AI was the theme throughout.
🔸  We didn't talk about playbooks. We talked about Systems. 
🔸  We didn't just talk about CS + AI. We talked about Revenue & Profitability.

A huge thank you to ChurnZero for asking me to contribute alongside such incredible leaders. 

Here is the reality I see coming for our industry:

“Customer success is the frontline of survival for both traditional SaaS and AI-first startups, shifting the mission from simple adoption to high-precision Value Engineering.

To win, leaders are replacing generalists with specialized GTM squads, using Forward-Deployed CSMs and Consumption Leads for high-touch growth, while AI CS Ops and Program Managers architect the data-driven systems that power scaled, touch-free renewals and expansions.

As AI agents automate the routine, the human CSM role will become elevated, requiring the deep EQ and business acumen necessary to turn experimental AI budgets into the predictable, profitable revenue our boards now demand.”

📌  The consensus is clear: 
AI is forcing us to restructure our teams, our roles, and our unit economics to survive in a new market model.


🚨  But there is one trend I think is still flying under the radar:  Agentic Suggestion.

👉  Right now, we prompt AI. By the end of 2026, AI will prompt us.

We are moving toward systems that understand our goals and suggest work, anticipating needs before we even articulate them. 

This will require massive Change Leadership, not just for our teams, but for ourselves.


📌  I’m digging into these trends and How to Take Action in my newsletter this Saturday, AND I have some live events on these themes in the next two weeks.

Get the Insights: 
👉 Read the ChurnZero 2026 Forecast: https://lnkd.in/gEj3Bvu2 
👉 Get my Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gBrhN3As

📆  If you are ready to build the system that supports this future, join my StepUpXchange NexGen CS Leadership Masterclass and learn about the Modern CS Growth System on Jan 20th:  https://lnkd.in/gsETU8a2

📆  If you’re really serious, join the StepUpXchange VIP Inner Circle. You’ll get an exclusive invite to Fireside Focus on Jan 15 that is usually reserved for members of the CS Business Leadership Accelerator. 

📢 This will be an intimate conversation with Ralphie (Ralphette) White, VP CS of Deepgram.  Ralphie is one of the leaders who has been at the forefront of the AI + CS [r]evolution. If you don't want to miss out...
https://lnkd.in/gpxwVFWB

The Customer Success Progressive

The Customer Success Progressive is a cross-industry problem solving community for CS leaders!

It is a LinkedIn-based community platform designed to bring together leaders from various industries who are invested in Customer Success.
Focus industries to start with include Tech SaaS, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Engineering SaaS, Professional Services & Automotive/Mobility.

Our goal is to foster cross-industry conversations, ideation & collaboration within the customer success space, in order to help CS leaders improve their performance & help their customers achieve value.
We believe that structured, community-driven and fearlessly open-minded cross-industry collaboration, will benefit everyone involved - especially the customer.

Curious to learn more? Visit The Customer Success Progressive page, give us a Follow, and stay tuned for exciting updates!

CS Progressive Consulting - the consulting arm of The CS Progressive, helps startups build & run world-class Customer Success programs.

Founder

CxXchange

Board Member

Customer Success Network

- Helping to lead the CSN Cafés in Munich

The Customer Success Network is the first global Customer Success peer-learning community for CS professionals. Created in 2018, our community offers the opportunities to learn, get fast answers, connect, find jobs, grow and crowd-source valuable content of quality.

Regional Chapter Lead - Munich

Onward Technologies Limited

Onward Tech is a trusted business partner to OEMs in the Healthcare & Life Sciences, Transportation & Mobility and Industrial Equipment & Heavy Machinery industries. 

Our team of 3000+ highly qualified Engineers help our customers successfully achieve business outcomes through professional services in the areas of Digital, Embedded, Mechanical & IT. 

As a trusted client partner to my customers, I am responsible for helping them achieve their business goals through a combination of: 

1. Consultative Selling
2. Customer Relationship Management 
3. Successful Project Execution

thereby ensuring Customer Success.

Vice President Client Relations

Genesis Group

Tasked with exploring new opportunities for Blockchain in the Healthcare & Life Sciences and Gaming industries.

Responsible for developing new growth opportunities in the areas of Cloud Computing and Blockchain Technology.

Specific focus on growing and retaining B2B revenue for Genesis Cloud, an Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) company, focused on AI-ML.
Focus on seamless Onboarding, increased Product adoption, and Customer retention & expansion by focussing on Customer Delight.
Help customers maximize value by fast-tracking TTFV.

Head of Business Development

Blockchain Consulting GmbH

Responsible for managing a sales and service team clocking multi-million dollars in revenue for Genesis Mining, one of the world's largest Blockchain companies - an internal customer to Blockchain Consulting GmbH.

Strong focus on customer success and revenue retention & growth through alignment of sales, service and marketing teams, and by leveraging the power of the Salesforce CRM platform.

Key focus on structuring a Customer Success program to enable better onboarding, adoption, retention, expansion and advocacy in order to reduce churn & increase new & recurring revenue.
Helped achieve industry leading metrics : GRR, NRR, NPS & CSAT.
Helped customers achieve and exceed their ROI goals.

B2B and B2C Sales. 

Led the Design, Development & Rollout of internal Salesforce project. 

The role also included mentoring and leading Product Management teams in the areas of Digital Transformation (CX & App Modernization), Blockchain for HLSI and Tokenization, using a Design Thinking based approach.

Head - Sales / GTM Lead

L&T Technology Services Limited

Responsible for managing the Europe-wide relationship with a Fortune 100 company.
Responsibilities included regular meetings with C-level and engineering teams to understand business problems and formulate growth plans.
Key focus was on customer success, and growing the volume and quality of the engagement.
Bid Management, engaging cross functional teams.

Senior Key Account Manager

Responsible for building and leading a large team focussed on Test Automation solutions for global engineering clients, positioning of the Test Automation horizontal's services and customer relationship management.
Industries focused on include Life Sciences, Automotive and Industrial Products.
ISV Management.

Senior Project Manager

iPLON India

Helped build the India Go-To-Market strategy for one of Germany's most innovative Solar PV Energy companies.

Renewable Energy Consultant

Saara Systems

My role at Saara Systems was to lead the various customer programs we were managing. 
Projects included design and deployment of a Remote Monitoring System for Solar PV powered Mobile Base Stations, across 500 rural locations in India.

Head - Programs

Build a team focussed on delivering Test Automation solutions using the NI LabVIEW platform.

Industries focused on include Life Sciences, Automotive and Industrial Products.

Project Lead

I come from a GTM background with experience across 7 industries including Life Sciences, Automotive, SaaS & Blockchain.
This experience includes Customer Success, Account Management, Consultative Selling, Enablement & Implementation. 

I’m the Founder of The CS Progressive, a cross-industry problem-solving community for Customer Success leaders. 
Focus industries include Healthcare & Life Sciences, Engineering SaaS, Tech SaaS and Professional Services.
CS Progressive Consulting - the consulting arm of The CS Progressive, helps startups build & run world-class Customer Success programs.

My customers & teams love working with me because I bring with me an ‘All in on Customer Success’ attitude, the ability to bring teams together to achieve common goals, a die-hard resourcefulness, and a strategic mindset. 

—-

❇️ Delivering Customer Success at the intersection of Digital Engineering & Digital Transformation. 

✅ 24+ years experience working across multiple industries & technology platforms, with a proven track record of successful transitions.
Industries & platforms include Life Sciences, Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial Products, Renewable Energy, National Instruments, AI, Blockchain, Cloud computing & SaaS (Salesforce).

✳️ Deep expertise in leading Engineering & Digital Transformation programs, Sales, Key Account Management & Customer Success.

💹 Built, enabled and led highly motivated teams that achieved over $550 Million in sales over a 10 year period & executed 15+ projects & 5 large programs.

♥️ Firm believer in a Design Thinking & Customer Success focused approach.

🌻 Love taking long walks with my dog, Yogi.

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