Professional development in Customer Success through a community : A case study of Customer Success Nordics

Customer Success is a relatively new field in business that has begun to gain recognition as one of the organization’s key departments. It is a highly influential strategic discipline critical for customer retention and sustainable revenue growth, particularly within SaaS organizations. Despite its increasing strategic importance, academic research on the Customer Success segment has remained quite limited, and the field still lacks formal academic programs to support the professional development of individuals working in the field. In response to this gap of knowledge, professionals in this field have spontaneously begun to form nonfirm epistemic communities, dedicated to co-creating knowledge, sharing industry insights, exchanging best practices, and providing mutual support for ongoing professional development. This research addresses a gap in academic research by identifying how these specialized communities support the professional development of individuals within this evolving field. The research utilized a qualitative approach, employing an intensive case study methodology focused on a community called Customer Success Nordics, the only official Customer Success community in Helsinki, Finland, which emerged nearly a decade ago from the initiative of another global network. The central research objective was to identify how Customer Success communities support the professional development of Customer Success professionals, and it was explored through two research questions: what needs Customer Success professionals have regarding their professional development, and how they pursue it; and how professionals perceive the role of a Customer Success community in their professional development. The empirical data was gathered through eight individual semi-structured interviews with community members, and resulting data was later analysed using thematic analysis. The main results indicate that Customer Success professionals view ongoing development as critical for career stability and for remaining relevant in a field characterized by rapid change. Professionals emphasize the need to be multiskilled, prioritizing soft skills, organizational abilities, and industry expertise, and primarily address these needs through informal learning, which serves as the dominating method for professional development in this field. Developmental needs are continuously influenced by emerging trends, particularly the integration of Artificial Intelligence to enhance operational efficiency and scale processes. The Customer Success community offers substantial and multifaceted benefits for professional development: members leverage the network for gaining job-specific knowledge, benchmarking against peers and accessing exclusive, real-world examples that are not available through formal channels. Participation provides essential peer support to mitigate the occasionally isolated nature of the role and empowers job seekers in career development through mentorship and recruitment guidance. Furthermore, active engagement fosters enhanced professional confidence and a collective sense of identity, effectively validating Customer Success as a legitimate and established profession and helping members navigate its varied organizational definitions. Overall, this study reveals that a Customer Success community offers its members invaluable resources, proving highly effective for professional development. The findings contribute to the academic understanding of the relatively underexplored field of Customer Success, particularly from the perspective of professional development and communities.