Why CS and Product Managers Clash — and How to Fix It at SaaS Companies

Hisanori Yamada (Sansan) and Yoshitaka Miyata (freee VP of Product) debate why CS and PdM teams conflict and share concrete frameworks for shared prioritization.

• Miyata used a 5-criterion scorecard at freee — product vision fit, dev cost, MQL impact, win rate, churn rate — with each function leader scoring candidates independently; total score determined backlog priority.
• CS and PdM conflict for two structural reasons: domain-expert PMs ignore CS early on, and at scale PM headcount cannot keep pace with feedback volume.
• In B2B, business processes differ by industry, so aggregate data analysis (common in B2C) is insufficient — direct customer insight via CS and Sales is the primary product input.
• Advanced customers buy on 12–24 month roadmap vision, not current completeness; CS must be able to articulate future product direction to retain them.
• Yamada distinguishes Light Success (frontline user adoption) from Deep Success (executive business outcome); prioritizing only Deep Success without Light Success leaves CS without internal champions.
• ALL STAR SAAS FUND’s Osaki checks during due diligence whether CS and PM describe the company’s core value in the same words — misalignment is a red flag.
• CS-to-PMM is a natural career path; Miyata’s freee PMM team of 5–10 people functions more as cross-functional business enablement than traditional product marketing.

2025-06-26 · Watch on YouTube