What do the career path and the day-in-the-life look like for a VP of Customer Success at Paperless Parts?
We connected with Katharine Libby to find out!
Interested in learning more about Paperless Parts and their job openings? Make sure to check out their company page on VentureFizz!
Where did you grow up? What did your parents do for work?
I grew up in a small town in central Massachusetts, Westborough. I was lucky enough to grow up with a stay at home mom until I was in about 3rd grade when she went back and was the Director of Admissions at Tufts Veterinary Medical school and then worked at Becker College before moving to NH. She worked as a store manager for a boutique until she recently retired. My dad was in sales for lawn equipment and then for Kodak and recently moved on to focus on his passion, small contracting work.
Where did you go to college? What did you study and what were some of your initial jobs out of school?
I went to Keene State College and played field hockey there. I studied Occupational Safety and Health Management with a minor in psychology. I wanted to work in lost prevention for insurance but ended up taking a job with Unum insurance as an Individual Disability Benefit Specialist, managing claims. It taught me so much about customer communication and dealing with difficult situations.
What has attributed to your success thus far and has helped propel you to the position you have now?
Great personal pride in my career and wanting to be independently successful as a female leader. Now that I am a mother, I want to provide a great life for my daughter and also be a great example for her.
I was lucky to have leaders that gave me the opportunity to take on projects that extended outside of my experience and that led through influence and teaching. I was always a hard worker but when I transitioned into the technology world, I had great leadership that helped coach me and gave me opportunities to work on projects that helped grow my responsibilities. I also attribute my success to strong relationships, not just within my department/group but across the organization.
Can you share the high-level responsibilities of your current position as a VP of Customer Success at Paperless Parts?
I am responsible for customer success post implementation/onboarding. That means that when our implementation team finishes onboarding them, the customer success managers take over to ensure we are driving adoption, utilization, and maintain a high retention rate. I also oversee the support group.
I am responsible for customer retention, setting strategy and building processes for our Customer Success and Support teams, hiring and developing great talent, and partnering with the other leaders to deliver on our company objectives.
Any tips for someone considering a career in your field?
Always be balanced in your evaluation of customer needs, but never lose sight of the customer. Customers truly don’t want a “yes” person.
Day in the Life
Coffee, tea, or nothing?
Coffee, always.
What time do you start working?
It varies, but I am usually fully online by 8:30am after we get the little one out the door.
What are three things that motivate you in your role?
Delivering amazing experiences for our customers, the people on my team - help them be successful, opportunity to innovate and make a material difference.
Every day is different, but can you outline what a typical day looks like for you?
Combination of working on process, documentation, and collaboration with other leaders to move my team and company objectives forward, meeting with customers, meeting with my team members, reviewing our system data to understand customer status and team deliverables.
What time do you typically wrap up the work day?
It varies day to day. If I am on daycare pick up, it’s 5pm and then I wrap up anything that needs to be done for the day after Vivi goes to bed. Between 5:30 and 6pm on the days I am not on pick up.
Do you log back in at night or do you shut it down completely?
See above :) I shut it down completely from dinner to bedtime. Dinner is family time and I love to cook for my family!
Any productivity hacks?
I put my 1:1 and team meetings on the same day - I bubble up themes that are relevant to the team.
Block your calendar with the actual tasks you want to accomplish in that time and stick to it! (silence email during that time)
What are the 3 apps that you can’t live without?
Evernote, My Bright Day (need those updates on the little one), Asana
What professional accomplishment are you proudest of?
I will put two here:
- There is no greater accomplishment than seeing the people you hire into an organization get promoted. I see the previous leadership team that worked for me at Acquia and I am so proud of the impact they have made for the company and the very well deserved promotions they have received.
- Being promoted to VP of Customer Success at Acquia and navigating that promotion as a new mom!
Who do you admire or call upon for professional advice?
I have a personal “board of directors” - it consists of someone who tells me what I want to hear, someone who will tell me what I need to hear, and someone that is in the middle that I brainstorm with. I am extremely lucky to have many people I have worked with that I admire and respect that I can call on for advice at any time. These individuals are previous Account Management / Customer Success leaders I have worked for and senior leaders from other departments like finance, services, support and operations.
I am also very lucky to have a husband that works in technology and understands the challenges I face. He is a great sounding board!
