Matthew Burns has worn many hats in his professional career. After more than a decade of sales experience in both marketing and account management roles, he transitioned to the next perfect fit: a customer success role with monday.com.
Burns is passionate about the monday.com mission, empowering employees to be happy and productive.
Long gone are the days of dreading group projects. Monday.com is determined to add a strong dose of transparency, ownership and accountability to project management tools, which help teams and managers accomplish tasks successfully. Essentially, the company helps teams work together better.
The customer success team has grown since Burns first joined, but they still enjoy high-engagement and collaboration with customers.
“My first impression of the customer success team was one of wonder,” Burns said.
A sense of fun is also deeply ingrained in the team’s culture. And with his personal goal to qualify for the Pokemon World Championship, it should be no surprise that Burns and his team know how to unwind outside the office.
We caught up with Burns to learn more about life at monday.com and his position as the head of U.S. customer success.
Can you walk us through a day in the life on the monday.com customer success team?
A day in the life of our customer success team revolves around a wide variety of experiences. We manage incoming customer requests, or help with customers one-on-one or one-to-many in the form of screen shares and hosting different webinars.
We also work closely with our product and development teams to ensure the quality of our platform and to help realize and implement new features and experiences for our customers on monday.com.
How has the customer success team measured up since your very first impression of “of wonder”?
It was much smaller back then yet we've always maintained a high level of engagement with our clients. They love the fact that we are able to help them with everything from their understanding of the platform to their workflows that help grow their businesses.
What are some of the team's biggest challenges, and how are they unique to the company or industry?
Our team’s biggest challenges are dealing with the sheer volume of requests and customers. With over 10,000 people signing up to try the platform every day, it's an exciting challenge as we build a team that can handle the scale of our growing business. It's unique to us because of how many different types of teams and options customers have for growing their business using monday.com.
How do you give feedback, and why do you approach it that way?
The way that I give feedback is how I would hope to receive it — direct and honest. I always provide the context of my headspace when offering feedback to help people know what I’m thinking and how I hope they will feel in order to align as quickly as possible. This tactic translates to giving feedback up to management as well.
The way that I give feedback is how I would hope to receive it...”
How does your team bond? How do you celebrate wins?
Our team bonds every day in and out of the office. In the office, we have weekly global syncs along with our daily stand ups. We collect and share customer feedback in a board on monday.com that's visible to our entire company. We collect both needs and wins, which everyone celebrates together, especially when a need gets brought to the platform and our customers inform us how much it helps them.
Out of the office, we have monthly karaoke jam sessions and host regular events just for our team. We even try to include our remote team in these events when possible.
What do you look for in a manager, and how has that shaped the way you manage?
I look for someone who asks good questions. I strongly feel that the types of questions you ask impact the way that you grow as an individual and as a professional. It has changed the way I manage people. I often take a few moments to ask myself the question that I want to ask my teammate so that I can hopefully deliver the best possible coaching. This tactic also helps me be as receptive as possible to feedback in order to help me continue growing as well.
What's one surprising fact about you?
I've played more than a few collectible card games in a competitive setting. I still intend to get to the Pokemon World Championships one day.
