Old Dogs Can Learn New Tech: How These CS Leaders Sharpened Their Technical Chops

“After three years, even the school dog can bark poems.”

Asked how he broke into the technical side of customer success, Implementation Engineer Kyu Gavin Kim from Clyde shared a Korean proverb. Another variation of the adage — “After three years, even the school dog can be wise” — illuminates the key to breaking into technical CS: exposure. 

“While working as an Integrations manager, the breadth of the integration I encountered exposed me to developers’ documentation pages,” Kim said. “Reading that documentation got me started.”

Next, he invested in experiential learning: “Reading about tools doesn’t make me an expert in those tools — I have to use them to fully know them.”

Scott Dzialo, VP of customer success at Braze, echoed the sentiment. 

“In customer success, there is a spirit of continuous learning,” Dzialo said. “For me, actually getting hands on with our technology was absolutely vital.” 

When Built In NYC spoke with technical CS experts about blurring the line between IT and traditional customer success, a clear motif emerged. Engaging with the product at a fundamental level is crucial for professionals looking to grow into a more technical role. From debugging to using the product as a customer would, there is no substitute for sustained, firsthand learning. 

Another means of breaking into technical CS? Lifelong curiosity.

“I readily admit I can always learn something new,” DICE FM Client Success Manager Jenn LR Hernandez said.

Any CSM might have a bone to pick with another famous aphorism that suggests old dogs can’t learn new tech. As the leaders from Clyde, Braze, DigitalOcean, ActionIQ and DICE FM have proven, the potential for growth in New York tech is limitless. 

 

 

Clyde is a product experience and ownership platform that helps brands take control of their customer’s post-purchase journey.

 

Tell us about your current role and the career path that brought you here.

Curiosity and the need to evolve one of the oldest industries: commerce. I work as an implementation engineer at Clyde. Clyde empowers merchants to fulfill the core tenet of traditional commerce by removing the barriers between the consumer and the merchant when they need to connect the most. It keeps the relationships and commerce sustainable — as we continue to shape the societal impacts of our e-commerce evolution.

I work to connect software platforms and users in a stable, functional and accessible manner. My work has always involved connecting and building systems that make sense to us, but not always to those whose jobs have been flooded with technology over the last decade. I loved balancing the perspectives of those yearning for simplicity and want to continue to be that bridge as we evolve e-commerce.

 

How did you develop the technical skills needed to step into this role? 

These days, an effective implementation engineer works with APIs and Javascript SDKs. While starting in New York as an Integrations manager, I was fortunate enough to work with technical staff both internally and externally. The breadth and the volume of the integration exposed me to the developers’ documentation pages across numerous e-commerce players. Reading documentation and building simple integrations got me started.

We’ve all had too much time to ponder over our lives to this point, and where we want to take it from here. In 2020, I brushed up on the computer science knowledge learned as a student at my science and tech high school and at a southern college as an engineering major — then built a landing page with my own backend and frontend. After getting the word out, I took on any and every trivial e-commerce opportunity that arose in my network. No work was too small as long as it involved connecting technology vendors — and even more so if it involved coding in Shopify. This work opened up the playground and taught me to apply coding in a practical e-commerce setting.

No work was too small as long as it involved connecting technology vendors — and even more so if it involved coding.”

 

How have you continued to develop your technical skills in your current position?

I keep reading and writing. 

My subscription to startup and tech news platforms, such as Built In keep me company during the loneliest parts of the day. In addition, I’ve listed my email as a potential customer for e-commerce and integration platforms, which means I receive key updates from the main players. I like to be aware of the tools out there, so that we can arrive at innovative solutions for keeping it simple.

 

 

 

 

 

Braze is a comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers interactions between consumers and brands they love.

 

Tell us about your current role and the career path that brought you here.

About seven years ago, I was a design manager at a credit card service company focusing on building out our UI/UX testing program. I quickly learned that a large corporate work environment wasn’t for me: I wanted to work at a place that was smaller, more agile, and where I could really make an impact – that’s when I stumbled upon customer success at Braze. 

The customer success function built on all of the things I loved about building relationships with customers while introducing me to a wide range of other topics like CRM marketing strategy, API and SDK technical debugging, organizational structuring and more. 

Customer success is often a jack-of-all-trades role, requiring customer success managers (CSMs) to constantly learn and uplevel themselves to meet the shifting needs of their clients.

That spirit of continuous learning is what originally drew me to the role. All these years later, it’s what has kept me at Braze. Today, I run a global team of CSMs who are focused on servicing 20 of our largest customer accounts. I’ve loved the shift into management and having the opportunity to foster a team of talent that looks so much like I did seven years ago.

Customer success is often a jack-of-all-trades role, requiring CSMs to  learn and uplevel themselves to meet the shifting needs of their clients.”

 

How did you develop the technical skills needed to step into this role?

Early in my career, I invested heavily into intimately understanding the technology I was supporting. This sounds like a no brainer, but it goes beyond reading documentation and learning the generic talk track of how your tech works. 

 

 

For me, actually getting hands on with our technology was absolutely vital. Debugging was probably one of the best ways I learned the basics of Braze and all the ways a custom configuration can cause complications. I got my hands dirty with installing, supporting and debugging our tech. Not only did this give me a renewed sense of empathy for what our customers need to navigate when they decide to purchase Braze, it also introduced me to a wider range of technical topics I never would have learned before.

 

How have you continued to develop your technical skills in your current position?

I think customers will always push you to be on your toes and keep up with your technical education. Every day, I spend hours on calls with our customers, talking through the intricacies of their marketing programs. 

Every company has a distinctive tech stack powering unique user experiences, and learning about those subtleties is often the fastest way to broaden your understanding and approach to solving technical problems. 

It’s also important to note that a good tech employee should never stop developing their technical skills. Tech is ever-evolving: There’s always a new paradigm to learn and a new piece of tech to experiment with. Continuing to foster a personal goal of self-education is arguably the best thing you can do to never lose your technical edge.

 

 

 

DigitalOcean is the cloud company that empowers developers around the world to create modern applications.

 

Tell us about your current role and the career path that brought you here.

I joined DigitalOcean in late 2016 and in 2019 started managing the customer success managers team. As a CSM, and now as a manager, I draw on skills developed from my career in the investment management industry and in enterprise technology sales.

I started out in investment management within a quant group and in portfolio control and compliance for institutional investors. I’ve always had an interest in the digital economy and technology, so I eventually transitioned to an enterprise sales role at Oracle. 

These roles provide opportunities to leverage analytic and client-facing skills to enable business transformation. Outside of work, I connected to SMBs and startups by participating in mentorship programs that developed board members for small businesses and non-profit organizations. The knowledge and skills I learned there are still integral to my workflow today.

If there was a detailed tutorial or write-up, I knew that this issue was impactful for customers.”

 

How did you develop the technical skills needed to step into this role?

One of the first things I did was review the product documentation, support articles and community Q&A forums on our website. The support and community content were especially helpful because, if there was a detailed tutorial or write-up, I knew that this issue was impactful for customers or was frequently asked. Our support and content teams are very technical, so reviewing their documents also gave me insight into how the products worked in various customer environments.

In addition to reviewing the DigitalOcean content, I signed up for the AWS certification and bought the cloud architect textbook. This grounded me in the fundamental technology of cloud computing. I combined this with regular sessions with my solutions engineer to go over any questions I had and to review how to apply my learnings to our customers’ workloads. 

 

How have you continued to develop your technical skills in your current position?

Because I’m not on the frontlines I don’t get to use technical skills as much, but here’s how I develop and encourage my team to gain these skills.

 

 

 

 

 

ActionIQ is a customer data platform designed to help modern marketers transform customer experiences by providing them access to vital customer data.

 

Tell us about your current role and the career path that brought you here.

I am currently an engagement manager on the professional services team at AIQ. Prior to joining AIQ, I built up my customer-facing experience as a cybersecurity consultant.

 

How did you develop the technical skills needed to step into this role? 

I have a computer science degree, which started my interest in building up technical skills and keeping up with new technologies. Technical skills come in many variations, with focuses in devops, cloud, data, networking and more. As a consultant I had the opportunity to explore the different aspects of technology and discover the specific area that I enjoy.

Previously, I was staffed on a project to design a security framework around personal identifiable information (PII) data, which required me to understand the entire data lifecycle and the steps it took to get data ready — cleaned, joined, etc. It was a one-year hands-on project where I embedded myself within different teams to actually go through the SQL transformation, including different data sources and end points where data was used. We also worked to transform data into dashboards and reporting. 

This project sparked my interest in data pipelines, data models and the data lifecycle. Thanks to this experience, I noticed a gap: clients don’t fully understand how their data works across their organizations and how to efficiently use it. I then started to find more opportunities to be able to help my clients understand their data. 

I noticed a gap: clients don’t fully understand how their data works across their organizations and how to efficiently use it.”

 

How have you continued to develop your technical skills in your current position?

After I joined AIQ, I learned many skills beyond data pipelines and lifecycles. Working closely with my clients, I encountered a wide range of technical challenges: integrations with other systems, solution architecture to fit our solution with their existing marketing stacks and identity solutions that help AIQ correctly identify customer records. 

To meet new challenges, I have tried to develop my technical skills to provide value to my clients.

 

 

 

 

DICE is an events company that has created a platform for fans to experience more of the shows they love.

 

Tell us about your current role and the career path that brought you here.

I started my career in music as a gig worker. I loved working shows, starting as a hospitality runner and street teamer and eventually making my way into event production. I also freelanced as a concert writer and band photographer before landing in the box office with ticketing ops. 

Something about being on the ground and in the action really ignited two passions of mine: live music and throwing a great party.

I was always curious about the fancy credentials I would be issued for entry into a festival or access to the pit. What was the journey for that wristband to land on my arm? One summer I was lucky enough to land a contract job at a ticketing company — RIP Ticketfly — stuffing hard tickets to be mailed out to fans. The rest is history.

Exceptional and gracious people have made my route to manager of the US client success team possible. At DICE, my team is laying the groundwork to provide swift, world-class service to our partners of all sizes. I am building a crew of sharp and collaborative folks who can work cross-departmentally, communicate skillfully and have a keen eye for detail.

Technical skills are unique in two ways: they’re quantifiable, and they’re a vessel for continued education.”

 

How did you develop the technical skills needed to step into this role?

I first joined the customer support team at Ticketfly as a phone agent. Realizing that product adoption by clients directly affected the consumer experience early on was huge. But it was being a lover of learning that propelled me to assemble my technical suite. It helped me develop across departments: client support, festival account management and field operations. Now, as a manager, I value folks who couple initiative with unwavering practice.

Technical skills are unique in two ways: they’re quantifiable, and they’re a vessel for continued education. The more you do fee changes or artist updates and event builds for a client, the experience you get under your belt. The more tasks you complete, the more confidence you’ll gain. Soon, you’re ready to move to a new, larger task. 

I often think of working backwards when it comes to mastery: What are you trying to accomplish? How? And why? 

Before I could manage RFID festivals, I had to comprehend event entry and access control. Before I could even approach that concept, I had to create events in the product again and again to recognize nuances and adjust. Keeping at it and looking for ways to work smarter was key.

 

How have you continued to develop your technical skills in your current position?

Right now, implementing best practices and standardizing workflows are top of mind for my team. The DICE platform is a steady evolution of exciting new features and improvements. 

Being a platform expert is crucial. Keeping product updates and client feedback close to the chest allows client success to hone technical skills in-house. If we can empower a venue or promoter to have autonomy, we foster meaningful relationships to truly set them up for success.

 

 

I readily admit I can always learn something new. The one thing I impart to my staff is that collaboration and learning together is a team effort, myself included. I am grateful they regularly show me things I do not know, no matter how modest. I may not be out in the field anymore, but it doesn’t mean my own education stops.