Simplify Your Customer Interactions Today | Maxime Marchand

Hey CX Nation,

In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #263, we welcomed Maxime Marchand, Senior Director of Product Management at GoTo based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 

As the leader in cloud communications and IT, GoTo addresses real-world challenges with practical innovations and a customer-first mindset. They offer secure, reliable, and AI-enabled solutions that are simple to adopt for small and midsize businesses and scalable to enterprises worldwide. 

Customers around the world rely on our products—GoTo Connect, LogMeIn Rescue, LogMeIn Resolve, GoTo Webinar, Grasshopper, and more—for consistent high performance and unbeatable uptime on any device.

In this episode, Maxime and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that his team at GoTo think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.

**Episode #263 Highlight Reel:**

1. Organizational alignment through product management 
2. The journey from engineer to CX leader 
3. How speed, alignment & focus create growth opportunities
4. One-stop platform for managing customer communications
5. Constant customer listening to drive growth

Click here to learn more about Maxime Marchand

Click here to learn more about GoTo

Huge thanks to Max for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer success space into the future.

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Transcript

Summary

Product Management Journey at Goto

Maxime Marchand, Senior Director of Product Management at Goto, shared his career journey from his early days as a software engineer at Ericsson to his current role. He explained how his work on WebRTC technology at Ericsson led to his involvement in developing UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions at Jive, which later became Goto. Maxime described how he transitioned from engineering to product management, focusing on merging different communication channels into a single application for Goto's customers.

Telecom CX Evolution and Technology

The discussion focused on the evolution of customer experience and technology, particularly in the telecommunications industry. Maxime shared his experience working with major telecom carriers in 2011, highlighting the challenges of bringing new technologies to market, such as RCS, which is now poised for widespread adoption after a 15-year development period. They discussed how product and engineering teams often start with customer problems before addressing them with technology, and the importance of cross-party adoption in the development and implementation of new technologies.

AI Adoption and Customer Experience

The discussion focused on the rapid pace of AI adoption and its impact on customer experience, with Maxime and CXChronicles agreeing that companies will need to adapt quickly to AI-driven transformations. They discussed how AI is accelerating change faster than previous technological shifts, and CXChronicles predicted that within 3-5 years, 20% of professionals across various fields will become AI literate and more efficient, creating a new divide between those who embrace AI and those who do not.

Goto Connect: SMB UCC Product

Maxime explained that he works on Goto Connect, a UCC product targeting SMB and distributed enterprise buyers, such as franchisees, car dealership networks, and retail healthcare clinics. He described how the product is structured to serve companies with a few seats to a few thousand seats, focusing on key personas like IT admins and decision-makers. Maxime highlighted the evolution of IT roles across different company sizes, from business owners acting as IT admins in small companies to dedicated IT departments in larger ones, and emphasized the importance of understanding varying user needs and maturity levels when building the product.

Tech Stack Growth in Small Businesses

Adrian and Max discussed the rapid growth of tech stacks in small businesses, highlighting how the number of tools can increase from 5-7 to 17-18 as companies scale. Max explained GoTo's organizational structure, which includes teams for administration, contact centers, and platform management, serving millions of users across various industries with different requirements. They also touched on the complexity of managing billions of call minutes across multiple channels and the importance of proper tool utilization and integration.

Omni-Channel Conversational Platform Evolution

Maxime discussed the importance of building an omni-channel conversational platform, which is an evolution of CX, to enhance customer experience. He emphasized the need for businesses to acknowledge customers on their preferred channel and highlighted the flexibility that omni-channel solutions can bring, such as creating unique customer experiences like tracking pizza orders through a mobile app. CXChronicles added that this technology is now accessible to small and large businesses alike, allowing them to differentiate themselves in the market and cater to younger generations who prefer communicating with businesses via non-voice channels.

Product Management for Small Businesses

Maxime discussed the complexity of product management, which involves planning, development, launching, and educating both internal and external teams. He emphasized the importance of making new features discoverable and self-activating for users, as many people do not proactively seek out product updates. This advice is particularly relevant for small businesses without dedicated product managers, as it provides a practical starting point for developing a product management playbook.

Speed, Alignment, and Focus Strategy

Max discussed his approach to process and organizational alignment as a product manager. He emphasized the importance of speed, alignment, and focus, explaining that his team organizes work around major teams and stack-ranks them based on priority. This approach allows the team to move quickly while maintaining alignment on objectives, even when making mistakes. Max believes this method enables smaller companies to compete with larger ones by delivering great customer experiences.

Speed and Adaptability in Leadership

The discussion focused on leadership and team management, with Maxime emphasizing the importance of speed and adaptability in AI development. Maxime highlighted the need for clear accountability and authority within teams, suggesting that future leaders will demand more autonomy to execute their mandates effectively. The conversation also touched on the structure of teams, with Maxime advocating for a trio-based approach consisting of engineering, UX, and product leads. Both speakers agreed on the critical role of speed in adapting to rapidly changing market trends.

GoTo's Feedback Collection Strategies

Maxime discussed GoTo's comprehensive approach to customer and employee feedback collection. He outlined various methods including app store reviews, in-app surveys, public feedback forums, customer success manager interactions, and AI-powered support conversation analysis. Maxime also detailed their partner feedback strategy, which includes periodic interviews with resellers and integration partners. On the employee side, GoTo uses internal surveys, team retrospectives, and quarterly reviews to gather and analyze feedback, with all information being centralized and accessible through Slack channels.