Saving a Flagship Account Without a Champion
Description You're joining Northbeam as a Senior Customer Success Manager. Northbeam builds contract-management software for mid-market and enterprise legal and procurement teams. You inherit a portfolio of 42 accounts, mostly $50K–$250K…
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What You'll Be Doing
Description
You're joining Northbeam as a Senior Customer Success Manager. Northbeam builds contract-management software for mid-market and enterprise legal and procurement teams. You inherit a portfolio of 42 accounts, mostly $50K–$250K ARR.
Your VP of Customer Success flags one account first thing Monday morning: "Calder Logistics is 45 days from renewal and their health score just fell off a cliff. I need to know what's going on and what you're doing about it — but don't lose sight of the rest of your book while you're at it."
The account data:
| Account | ARR | Health Score (this Q vs. last Q) | Renewal Date | Signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calder Logistics | $210K | 41 (down from 82) | 45 days out | Champion (VP Operations) departed 5 weeks ago; no new primary contact assigned; 3 unresolved high-severity support tickets |
| Brightline Health | $95K | 58 (yellow, slowly declining) | 60 days out | Usage flat but trending down; no major trigger event |
| Ferro Manufacturing | $140K | 63 (yellow) | 50 days out | Has requested a pricing renegotiation ahead of renewal |
Portfolio-wide: Average health score across your 42 accounts fell from 74 to 68 quarter-over-quarter. Company-wide net revenue retention (NRR) dropped from 108% to 96% last quarter.
From Calder's most recent support ticket: "We haven't heard from anyone at Northbeam since [the champion] left — we're not sure who owns this relationship anymore."
From last quarter's CS team retro: Accounts that lose their champion without a documented transition plan churn at roughly 3x the base rate.
You have 45 minutes to diagnose Calder's risk and build a plan — for Calder and for how you're managing the rest of your book this week.
Constraints to Consider
- No additional CS headcount this quarter: You cannot pull in another CSM to help cover your portfolio while you focus on Calder.
- Pricing floor is fixed this quarter: You cannot offer a renewal discount below policy to save Calder, even given the risk.
- The product integration Calder's departed champion had requested is not on the committed roadmap. You cannot promise it will ship.
- You do not yet have an identified new economic buyer or champion at Calder. You have to identify or build that relationship essentially from scratch.
- You present your plan to your VP of Customer Success in 2 business days. You do not have weeks to build the relationship back before you need a plan.
AI Usage Guidance
We expect you to use AI tools. We evaluate how you use them — not whether you use them. Evidence of iteration, redirection, and critical evaluation scores higher than a polished output with no process documentation.
The single highest-signal indicator: your video answer to the mandatory AI question. If you cannot name a specific moment where you redirected AI output, evaluators will assume you did not.
Mandatory AI question for your video: Walk me through one moment where you disagreed with, pushed back on, or redirected what the AI gave you — and what you did instead. Name the specific moment. Explain what the AI produced that didn't meet the bar, what you did differently, and why.
Video guidance for this role: Speak naturally and conversationally, as if you're briefing your VP of Customer Success directly. We're listening for the quality of your diagnostic and prioritization logic — not verbal polish.
Submission: Upload each deliverable as a separate file directly on the Provn platform: your Account Save & Portfolio Triage Plan, your README document (Sections A, B, and C), and your video walkthrough (MP4 or MOV).
What You'll Accomplish
Demonstrate the ability to diagnose the real driver of account risk from imperfect signals, not just the surface-level trigger
Show portfolio-level prioritization — triaging across multiple at-risk accounts, not fixating on the loudest one
Operate with commercial and business acumen: connect the renewal conversation to a quantifiable outcome, and make honest trade-offs about what CS can and cannot promise
Communicate a risk, a plan, and an escalation ask in terms a VP of Customer Success can act on
Show how you worked with AI to accelerate your process — including at least one moment where you redirected it
How Your Work Will Be Scored
What to Submit
File 1 — Account Save & Portfolio Triage Plan:
Format: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .md
A structured plan presenting your diagnosis of Calder's risk, your prioritization decision across your full portfolio (not just Calder), and how you're addressing the relationship gap at Calder given no identified new contact. No required format or template — structure it as you would for your VP of Customer Success. Must include: the specific risk you're most concerned about and why, what you're choosing not to prioritize this week and why, and your 2-day and 45-day milestones. Length: 1–2 pages equivalent.
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File 2 — README Document:
Format: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .md
Three required sections — Section A — Diagnosis & Trade-offs (300–500 words): Walk through what you believe is actually driving Calder's risk (not just "the champion left"), what alternative explanation you considered and rejected, and the trade-off in your plan that you're least certain about. Section B — Stakeholder & Measurement Plan: Two parts required. Part B1: How you'd approach re-establishing the relationship at Calder without a known contact, and what (if anything) you'd escalate internally — to whom, and why. Part B2: The specific metric you'd use to know Calder's risk is actually improving, anchored to a number above, with a timeframe and what you'd change if it doesn't move. Section C — AI Usage Log (Mandatory): In a short section of your README, document your AI collaboration process. For each significant interaction with an AI tool, briefly note: what you asked the AI to help with / what it gave you / what you kept, changed, or rejected — and why. Three interactions documented is sufficient.
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File 3 — Video Walkthrough (8–10 minutes):
Format: .mp4, .mov, .webm
Record as MP4 or MOV and upload directly on the Provn platform as a separate file. Cover: (1) your diagnosis of what's driving Calder's risk; (2) your plan and the portfolio-triage trade-off you made; (3) your stakeholder plan for Calder and what you're escalating; (4) mandatory AI question (see AI Usage Guidance above); (5) what you'd do differently with more time or a stronger existing relationship at the account. Speak as if you're briefing your VP of Customer Success directly.
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