The context behind
the recovery plan.
As the new manager, I inherit declining retention, uneven handoffs, an unresolved customer issue and a team taking on more responsibility.
Case facts from the supplied assignment. This briefing summarizes the situation before introducing recommendations.
The decline spans every segment.
| Segment | Q−2 NRR | Q−1 NRR | Pattern in the packet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise · top 20 accounts | 112% | 96% | Includes the export-bug account; three other accounts flagged configuration issues after handoff. |
| Mid-market | 106% | 93% | Five of nine accounts transitioned from Implementation with incomplete configuration. |
| SMB / Growth | 104% | 95% | Decline concentrated in ramping CSM portfolios; blockers are going unescalated. |
| Team total | 108% | 94% | A 14 percentage-point decline. |
Enterprise: resolved, open and unknown are different situations.
Calloway Health — resolved: its minor configuration gaps were resolved without issue. I would not treat that history alone as an active recovery case.
Jordan’s unnamed Enterprise account — still open: Section B places the top-20 account with the P3 export bug in Enterprise; Section D describes Jordan’s escalation. This is a separate account from Calloway, with an unresolved export failure after seven weeks.
Three other Enterprise accounts — investigate: Section B flags configuration issues but does not identify all the accounts or give their current status. Calloway may be among them; the packet does not establish that. I would reconcile the account records before classifying these risks as open or resolved.
The named handoff log does not fully account for the Enterprise issues described in the segment summary. A resolved Calloway issue does not establish that the Enterprise segment is healthy.
Q−1 is the most recently completed quarter; Q−2 is the quarter before that. The packet describes the decline over the last two quarters. It does not supply a dollar bridge separating churn, contraction and expansion.
CSMs are quietly absorbing cleanup.
Several accounts arrived with incomplete configuration and no documented success plan. As the new manager, I discovered the pattern by reading the handoff log.
| Account / handoff | Configuration / success plan | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Brightline Corp · Mid-market 14 weeks ago | Incomplete: 3 of 8 modules No success plan | Marcus completed configuration over three weeks without escalating. |
| Fenwick Group · Mid-market 11 weeks ago | Career-site integration incomplete No success plan | Priya flagged it once to the Implementation lead, received no response, and closed the gap herself. |
| Calloway Health · Enterprise 9 weeks ago | Partially complete Success plan documented | Minor gaps were resolved without issue. |
| Reyna Systems · Mid-market 6 weeks ago | SSO misconfigured No success plan | Alicia escalated to the Implementation manager; the ticket remains open. |
| Tildon Bank · SMB 4 weeks ago | Complete Success plan documented | Clean handoff. |
This five-account log is a sample. The five-of-nine mid-market figure comes from the segment summary, not from counting these rows.
Jordan’s escalation has stalled.
The customer issue · Ticket #4482
A top-20 account’s custom-field export fails silently. The account relies on the export for board reporting. Engineering triaged the issue as P3; it remains unresolved after seven weeks.
- Week 1: Jordan opens the ticket and flags the board-reporting need.
- Week 3: Jordan follows up; the board meeting is ten days away. No response is logged.
- Week 6: Jordan flags renewal impact and copies the previous manager. Engineering says P1/P2 work comes first; no ETA.
- Week 7: No further Engineering update.
The board deadline referenced in week 3 has passed by the current point in the case. The packet does not state what happened at that meeting.
The people situation
Jordan is generally the strongest performer and the team’s informal go-to for help. He missed another account’s QBR-deck deadline last week while chasing the Engineering issue.
“Honestly, I'm carrying a lot right now and no one else pulls their weight around here.”
As the new manager, I hear in our first 1:1 that Jordan has repeatedly raised the bug without progress. He does not directly ask me to intervene and seems resigned.
As the new manager, I am not expected to promise resolution of a bug outside my control.
Experience and workload are uneven.
| CSM | Tenure | Accounts | Portfolio ARR | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan Ellis | 3.5 years | 14 | $2.1M | Senior, strongest performer, informal team helper. |
| Alicia Grant | 4 years | 13 | $1.9M | Most tenured; steady book. |
| Priya Shah | 2 years | 12 | $1.4M | Solid performer; earlier handoff escalations went unanswered. |
| Marcus Webb | 14 months | 10 | $1.1M | Absorbed a bad handoff manually. |
| Sofia Ruiz | 3 months | 8 | $0.7M | Ramping on product and process. |
| Devon Park | 2 months | 7 | $0.6M | Ramping on product and process. |
Calculated roster totals: 64 accounts and $7.8M current portfolio ARR. These totals are not the missing starting-ARR denominator for the NRR calculation.
New scope arrives next quarter.
The organizational change
Leadership has decided CS will take over the first 30 days of configuration validation from Implementation. The exact handoff boundary has not been finalized.
As the new manager, I have no direct authority over Implementation or Engineering and must influence both relationships.
The assignment
As the new manager, I need to deliver a plan to my leader in two weeks. The presentation must cover diagnosis, the first 90 days, what to leave alone initially, Jordan’s development, partner relationships and day-30/60/90 reporting.
Interview format: 20–25 minutes of presentation followed by 10–15 minutes of Q&A.