Process: Customer Onboarding
Scope: Signed contract to first value
Drafted: July 2026
Seven steps, four teams, five handoffs. The table shows who owns each step and what passes to the next; the numbered flow underneath reads as a straight sequence.
| # | Step | Owner | Input to output | Handoff to |
|---|
| 1 | Deal closed and handoff logged | Sales (AE) | Signed contract to account brief | Onboarding |
| 2 | Kickoff scheduled | Onboarding Manager | Account brief to kickoff date and agenda | None |
| 3 | Technical setup | Implementation | Requirements to configured environment | None |
| 4 | Data migration | Implementation | Customer data to loaded and validated | CSM |
| 5 | Admin training | CSM | Configured account to trained admins | None |
| 6 | Go-live check | CSM | Trained admins to live account | Support |
| 7 | 30-day value review | CSM | Usage data to first-value confirmation | None |
The flow, step by step
- Sales closes the deal and logs the handoff with a completed account brief.
- The onboarding manager schedules kickoff and sets the agenda from the brief.
- Implementation configures the environment against the agreed requirements.
- Implementation migrates and validates the customer's data, then hands the account to the CSM.
- The CSM trains the customer's admins on the configured account.
- The CSM runs the go-live check and loops in Support for ongoing coverage.
- At 30 days, the CSM reviews usage and confirms first value.
Where handoffs stall
- Sales to Onboarding (step 1 to 2). When the account brief is thin, kickoff slips while Onboarding chases context. This is the most common delay.
- Implementation to CSM (step 4 to 5). Data validation and training sit with different teams and share no checklist, so accounts sometimes stall between them.
- CSM to Support (step 6 to 7). Support often meets the account cold at go-live; a short handoff note would close the gap.
I've marked steps 3 and 4 as the longest in elapsed time based on how you described them, worth confirming against your actual cycle times before this becomes the canonical map.
