Alex Topiler

Red flags I’ve learned to spot in customer relationships - from 12 years in the trenches: After years 12 in Customer Success, Product, and HealthTech I’ve learned that churn rarely happens overnight - it starts as a whisper. Here are the signs I listen for👇 🚩 "We’re too busy for onboarding right now.” At Blue Cross, I learned: customers who skip structured onboarding churn 3x faster. Now, onboarding isn’t optional - it’s mission-critical. 🚩 Low usage but "everything’s great.” Data doesn’t lie. At HCA, tracking telehealth logins helped me spot adoption issues early. Fixed one provider’s workflow and doubled virtual visits in 60 days. 🚩 The executive sponsor disappears after kickoff. If leadership isn’t engaged, the account is already at risk. I escalate this at Day 30, not at renewal time. 🚩 Recurring support tickets on the same issue. At Hypeline, I documented patterns and turned them into process improvements. Cut repetitive requests by 20% in two months. Band-aids don’t work - fix the wound. 🚩 Customer only reaches out when something’s broken. Reactive relationships don’t renew. I schedule proactive check-ins even when things are "fine.” 🚩 "Can you just add this feature?” without context. Feature requests are symptoms, not solutions. My go-to question: “What outcome are you trying to drive?” The fix is rarely just a feature. 🚩 Silence after delivery. The quietest customers churn the loudest. At Hypeline, gathering post-delivery feedback (4.7/5 avg. satisfaction) helped surface hidden risks early. The best CSMs treat early warning signs like smoke detectors - not fire alarms. By the time you’re fighting churn, it’s already too late. 12 years in, I’ve learned Customer Success is part detective, part therapist, part data analyst. What red flags have you learned to catch early? #CustomerSuccess #ChurnPrevention #CSM #HealthTech #SaaS #AccountManagement

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Product + Partnerships: Not a Handoff. A Handshake 🤝 I had the privilege of speaking at Catalyst in a wonderful Seattle, an incredible gathering of partnership leaders - and the perfect place to reframe how product and partnerships should work together. Too often, product teams operate in isolation: talk to customers, build features, ship. But when you’re building a platform, that’s not enough. Real value is co-created - by customers, developers, and critically, by partners. Here are the five principles I shared with the Catalyst audience - ones I believe every product and partnership leaders should rally around: 1. Shared North Star Align on who you're building for and why. Ideal customer profile, strategic focus, and desired outcomes must be shared - not assumed. 2. Intentional Ecosystem Strategy Great product strategy isn’t just about what you build - it’s about what you intentionally don’t, so partners can innovate, specialize, and scale customer value. 3. Early Collaboration Bring partnership teams in before roadmaps are set. They know what’s working in the market, what gaps customers are filling themselves, and where a “build vs. partner vs. buy” conversation is overdue. 4. Shared KPIs Whether it’s revenue impact, integration adoption, or retention - define success together. Own outcomes jointly. 5. Mutual Ownership When a partner fills a critical product gap, product should champion it like they built it. And vice versa. Trust and success scale when both sides act as one team. The best outcomes don’t come from one team “supporting” the other - they come from co-defining the problem space and building the solution story together. To the partnership leaders reading this: bring a chair and join your product team at the strategy table early. To the product leaders: Treat your partners like an extension of your roadmap. And I’d love to hear your perspectives... 1. What’s worked for you in building real product–partnership collaboration? 2. What’s still broken? 3. What do you wish the “other side” better understood? P.S. Thank you Asher Mathew and Chris Samila for organizing such a thoughtful and impactful event. It was a real pleasure meeting so many brilliant people and learning from each of you. And to everyone I spoke with during prep - thank you. I learned so much from your experiences, best practices, and candid reflections. You helped shape this talk more than you know, I'm really grateful for everything I learned from you. cc Lisa Hendrickson Richard Gilbert Robert Cohen Matt Dornfeld Udi Shamay Jenny Hopkins James Booker Darren Sepanek Dave Eichler Scott Richards and many others #ProductLeadership #Partnerships #PlatformStrategy #B2B #Catalyst2025 #EcosystemThinking

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