One of the first things I listened for when talking to Netskope was a real-world understanding of typical technology customer challenges, tackling vital problems such as employees’ access to networks and resources, but knowing it would take real work to make these solutions ubiquitous. Put differently, when I met with the Netskope team, I saw a real “corporate self-awareness” I wasn’t accustomed to. Many growth companies see and talk about the possibilities and changing the world without a real appreciation for what it takes to deliver outstanding customer value–at scale. I appreciated that Netskope was clear: we have an immense opportunity if we build it right, and that is what they offered me, an amazing opportunity but one where I would have a chance to build it right.
For me, my career has, at times, had a see-saw effect, leading very large teams at scale and driving impact in big ways at some amazing companies. But then the see-saw inevitably goes back in the other direction and I’ve longed for the chance to work closely with cross-functional teams and truly build something. Netskope is one of the greatest opportunities I’ve ever seen to take my experience working with customers and apply it to a true build opportunity.
As Chief Customer Officer, I’m convinced in my vision that we need to be the world leader in helping our customers secure their enterprises. Enterprises have different needs and having worked closely with them for most of my career, I’m excited to take all of my experiences and bring them to Netskope. To me, it’s all about trust—earning and renewing it, each and every day.
As I’ve joined and started talking with Netskope customers, it has become clear to me that our customers are entrusting us with a critical part of their company’s resources and the way they run their enterprise. So, we need to be very careful with that trust. In my past role at Salesforce, trust was one of our key principles, so I’ve lived in this world and know how serious it is. We, at Netskope, must always be prioritizing our platforms’ stability, scalability, and reliability if customers are going to run their business on our platform. That raises the question, “How do we deliver the kind of service and experience that enterprises expect?” The answer lies in systems-based thinking about enterprise-grade scale.
Right now, I am asking my team and others how do we build the right mechanisms (automated, ideally!), processes, alignment of process, and engineering so that everything we do can scale.It’s not going to happen overnight;it’s a journey, and we have to be very careful not to try and overscale. Sometimes, we’ll need to nail it, then scale it. That’s the approach I want my team to take.
In addition to thinking about how we can scale, I am also working to get a better understanding of what our customers need from Netskope to be successful with our platform. I want to make sure we have great content for customers to self-serve for their own questions and find out how we can help the product team continuously learn where our customers struggle so we can build an even better platform. I want to make sure we build the best onboarding and enablement systems for our customers and our team to make the time spent understanding how to take advantage of the product as short and efficient as it can be. It’s all about asking, “How do we build an on-ramp that makes sense for the customer and the size or complexity they are at?” In this world, customers value several common things: sense of urgency, expertise, access to knowledge, and empathy. No rocket science here; just a good reminder to nail the basics, each and every time.
But above all else, I want our customers to sleep well at night knowing that Netskope is there: it’s working, it’s reliable, and it’s dependable.
I’m really passionate about our customers and finding new ways to help them. I relish the chance to add to an organization that is just as zealous about helping customers. I want our customers to say,