Welcome to the EVP Talent blog! This blog series exists to demystify common startup roles, create clearer pathways and tell the stories of exceptional operators within the EVP Portfolio.
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Fergus Gillanders is an Account Manager who recently transitioned into a Product Manager role at Ignition, an Australian-founded, global startup providing a client engagement and commerce platform for professional services businesses, with a focus on the accounting sector.
We had the pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with Fergus to learn more about his experience and what he does as an Account Manager & Product Manager at Ignition.
How do you explain what you do as an Account Manager?
A lot of the Account Manager role is related to training, supporting and almost being like that big brother to our customers. We give them a guide as to how they should be working with our product and also share ideas of what they can do in the future.
Broadly speaking, can you give us a sense of what activities you’re accountable or responsible for?
There are two main metrics we are guided by as a team, payments volume and the amount of clients that are being sent proposals. We then split those by region; APAC, Americas and EMEA. Within that we look at our clients’ health score and NPS. There's 20 or so different indicators that plug into the health score metric that can be tracked over time. For example if the account is set up properly, if the client is working, sending and engaging with our platform and if they're collecting payments. So the health score is very much the one that we're driven on early on in the account management space. NPS looks at whether our customers are promoters or detractors of our product.
What could a day, week or month look like for you as an Account Manager?
A lot of time for us is spent interacting with customers. We have five or six meetings a day and do educational training sessions in the format of a Q&A to get people up and running. Throughout the day there is admin that sits on the back of those meetings. For example tidying up notes, sharing action items and notes on how the customer can improve and scheduling.
Tell us about your past experience and journey to Ignition
Before Ignition I was working at the National Sporting Organization for sailing. Through that I got a promotion and went down to Sydney and worked at the National Program for Education and Training. I developed all of our training materials and resources so that people can teach sailing. Then through a friend of a friend, I worked my way into Ignition and started working with customers who had subscribed but didn't do anything with the software.
I then moved into an Account Manager role where I spent about two years. The main part of that role was to ensure that customers knew how to use the tooling, knew where to find the information and if there was a big change, we would book in a meeting and do some development with them. Through that experience I was constantly looking at the problem and solving the symptom of it. Instead of wanting to solve that symptom, I started to shift to think about how I can actually solve this at the root cause of the problem itself. That’s what drove me to the product space. Eventually I shifted into a Product Manager role and I’m now in the thick of it and loving it
What prior experience set you up to succeed at Ignition as an Account Manager? And What skills have helped set you up to now succeed in Product?
Whether it was over a coffee, a three hour dinner or six hour sailing course, all of my past experience was involved in speaking to people. So that ability to talk to anyone set me up to succeed in all my roles at Ignition.
Once I was at Ignition, one of the key things that helped set me up for the Product Manager role was being able to show initiative. I spent time and energy focused on trying to think about the improvements we had to make rather than just thinking here's an issue, you solve it.
Was there anything that you needed to upskill in or unlearn from your prior experience that was no longer serving you?
In terms of upskilling for the Product Management role I started by doing a three day Introduction to Product Management Course online through Brainmates. It helped me understand the fundamental principles of product through the product life cycle, from discovery through to delivery. In the next 12 months as an account manager, I used what I had learnt to communicate to the product team and assist with product development.
I had to adjust to a different development cycle and be patient. I would ask questions like; why isn't something happening this next quarter? Why aren't we focusing on this? Over time I learnt to give things the space to be worked through and understood the prioritisation decisions that sat behind product development.
Who do you work most closely with as an Account Manager?
I worked most closely with the people in the APAC Account Management Team. If I had any questions or bug bears we would conversate in that group. Outside of that, I would connect with the Customer Success Team who looked after customers from zero days of subscribing to 90 days. Then the Marketing Team who would help us run events and online webinars.
What do you love about Ignition? What is hard?
I love that at Ignition we’re open to having conversations about anything. Right from our CEO down, anyone can have their say and contribute to the conversation. I have been amazed that we have been able to keep that as we have grown.
The hard part of working within this environment is that things are ever changing. Sometimes when new people get brought onboard or new ideas come in, their process can impact the original processes that were there. So it's finding the balance between shifting to a new process that we think is going to be good and moving forward as we have done previously.
What misconceptions do people have about your role as an Account Manager?
Account Management can look and feel different depending on where you do it. Sometimes it’s all about training and support, and in other contexts it is more about strategic thinking, helping your customers optimise their use of your product.
What does good look like as an Account Manager?
I think one of the best indicators of what good looks like is how open and candid your customer conversations are. One example that comes to mind was a customer who was telling me about his trip to Canada and how he was going to spend three days a week working on his business as opposed to the five days a week he used to spend when he traveled overseas - all because Ignition has changed his life. He also said he would stop being an accountant before he would cancel his subscription with us. Those are clear signs you’ve been doing a good job as an Account Manager.
To what extent do you believe good Account Managers need to have a Product mindset and be close to the product?
The main part of my Account Manager role was ensuring that I knew the product inside and out and if someone came to me with a question, I could easily go back to them and say, this is what's happening, this is where you're going wrong or this is how you can improve. It's also about how you communicate with the customer. So if they wish there is a new feature, but it’s not on the roadmap, being able to be real with them and explain why we aren’t prioritising it at the moment.
We call it digging and lifting. If they present you with a statement and they're explaining something in a minor detail, you might want to try and lift them up to a higher level view. Or if they're too high level, we need to dig in and understand the root cause. By doing that we are able to communicate back to the team the root cause. That’s a very different piece of feedback because it is actionable.
Do you have a moment, day, team or piece of work that you’re immensely proud of since starting at Ignition?
Our New Zealand market hadn't been looked at a lot. I put my product hat on and said, I'm going to try and change something here to improve the process. I gave it some dedicated focus and ensured we provided great resources and a good onboarding process for our new New Zealand customers. After a few months we ran an end of financial year campaign for them. Seeing the uptick we created for the company and the amazing praise we received was a big personal moment for me.
What advice would you give yourself or a friend starting as an Account Manager?
Don't shy away from the difficult conversations. Early on I was cautious to pick up the phone and have difficult conversations with customers. I would imagine what the conversations were and what the outcome would be before even making the call.
So I think just picking up the phone and having that conversation, you might be surprised that the call was incredibly helpful or less negative than you thought.
What advice would you give an Account Manager looking to make the shift into Product?
Try and allocate some of your time to expand your knowledge. Really focus on what you want to explore. Learn the skills and start to apply them. People love initiative. They don't want to tell you what to do. You need to show you have the drive to make an impact.
****
Interested in Sales and Product roles? Check out Talent_OS to see opportunities across the EVP Portfolio, or reach out to Fred or Charmaine from EVP's Talent Team!
Welcome to the EVP Talent blog! This blog series exists to demystify common startup roles, create clearer pathways and tell the stories of exceptional operators within the EVP Portfolio.
****
Fergus Gillanders is an Account Manager who recently transitioned into a Product Manager role at Ignition, an Australian-founded, global startup providing a client engagement and commerce platform for professional services businesses, with a focus on the accounting sector.
We had the pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with Fergus to learn more about his experience and what he does as an Account Manager & Product Manager at Ignition.
How do you explain what you do as an Account Manager?
A lot of the Account Manager role is related to training, supporting and almost being like that big brother to our customers. We give them a guide as to how they should be working with our product and also share ideas of what they can do in the future.
Broadly speaking, can you give us a sense of what activities you’re accountable or responsible for?
There are two main metrics we are guided by as a team, payments volume and the amount of clients that are being sent proposals. We then split those by region; APAC, Americas and EMEA. Within that we look at our clients’ health score and NPS. There's 20 or so different indicators that plug into the health score metric that can be tracked over time. For example if the account is set up properly, if the client is working, sending and engaging with our platform and if they're collecting payments. So the health score is very much the one that we're driven on early on in the account management space. NPS looks at whether our customers are promoters or detractors of our product.
What could a day, week or month look like for you as an Account Manager?
A lot of time for us is spent interacting with customers. We have five or six meetings a day and do educational training sessions in the format of a Q&A to get people up and running. Throughout the day there is admin that sits on the back of those meetings. For example tidying up notes, sharing action items and notes on how the customer can improve and scheduling.
Tell us about your past experience and journey to Ignition
Before Ignition I was working at the National Sporting Organization for sailing. Through that I got a promotion and went down to Sydney and worked at the National Program for Education and Training. I developed all of our training materials and resources so that people can teach sailing. Then through a friend of a friend, I worked my way into Ignition and started working with customers who had subscribed but didn't do anything with the software.
I then moved into an Account Manager role where I spent about two years. The main part of that role was to ensure that customers knew how to use the tooling, knew where to find the information and if there was a big change, we would book in a meeting and do some development with them. Through that experience I was constantly looking at the problem and solving the symptom of it. Instead of wanting to solve that symptom, I started to shift to think about how I can actually solve this at the root cause of the problem itself. That’s what drove me to the product space. Eventually I shifted into a Product Manager role and I’m now in the thick of it and loving it
What prior experience set you up to succeed at Ignition as an Account Manager? And What skills have helped set you up to now succeed in Product?
Whether it was over a coffee, a three hour dinner or six hour sailing course, all of my past experience was involved in speaking to people. So that ability to talk to anyone set me up to succeed in all my roles at Ignition.
Once I was at Ignition, one of the key things that helped set me up for the Product Manager role was being able to show initiative. I spent time and energy focused on trying to think about the improvements we had to make rather than just thinking here's an issue, you solve it.
Was there anything that you needed to upskill in or unlearn from your prior experience that was no longer serving you?
In terms of upskilling for the Product Management role I started by doing a three day Introduction to Product Management Course online through Brainmates. It helped me understand the fundamental principles of product through the product life cycle, from discovery through to delivery. In the next 12 months as an account manager, I used what I had learnt to communicate to the product team and assist with product development.
I had to adjust to a different development cycle and be patient. I would ask questions like; why isn't something happening this next quarter? Why aren't we focusing on this? Over time I learnt to give things the space to be worked through and understood the prioritisation decisions that sat behind product development.
Who do you work most closely with as an Account Manager?
I worked most closely with the people in the APAC Account Management Team. If I had any questions or bug bears we would conversate in that group. Outside of that, I would connect with the Customer Success Team who looked after customers from zero days of subscribing to 90 days. Then the Marketing Team who would help us run events and online webinars.
What do you love about Ignition? What is hard?
I love that at Ignition we’re open to having conversations about anything. Right from our CEO down, anyone can have their say and contribute to the conversation. I have been amazed that we have been able to keep that as we have grown.
The hard part of working within this environment is that things are ever changing. Sometimes when new people get brought onboard or new ideas come in, their process can impact the original processes that were there. So it's finding the balance between shifting to a new process that we think is going to be good and moving forward as we have done previously.
What misconceptions do people have about your role as an Account Manager?
Account Management can look and feel different depending on where you do it. Sometimes it’s all about training and support, and in other contexts it is more about strategic thinking, helping your customers optimise their use of your product.
What does good look like as an Account Manager?
I think one of the best indicators of what good looks like is how open and candid your customer conversations are. One example that comes to mind was a customer who was telling me about his trip to Canada and how he was going to spend three days a week working on his business as opposed to the five days a week he used to spend when he traveled overseas - all because Ignition has changed his life. He also said he would stop being an accountant before he would cancel his subscription with us. Those are clear signs you’ve been doing a good job as an Account Manager.
To what extent do you believe good Account Managers need to have a Product mindset and be close to the product?
The main part of my Account Manager role was ensuring that I knew the product inside and out and if someone came to me with a question, I could easily go back to them and say, this is what's happening, this is where you're going wrong or this is how you can improve. It's also about how you communicate with the customer. So if they wish there is a new feature, but it’s not on the roadmap, being able to be real with them and explain why we aren’t prioritising it at the moment.
We call it digging and lifting. If they present you with a statement and they're explaining something in a minor detail, you might want to try and lift them up to a higher level view. Or if they're too high level, we need to dig in and understand the root cause. By doing that we are able to communicate back to the team the root cause. That’s a very different piece of feedback because it is actionable.
Do you have a moment, day, team or piece of work that you’re immensely proud of since starting at Ignition?
Our New Zealand market hadn't been looked at a lot. I put my product hat on and said, I'm going to try and change something here to improve the process. I gave it some dedicated focus and ensured we provided great resources and a good onboarding process for our new New Zealand customers. After a few months we ran an end of financial year campaign for them. Seeing the uptick we created for the company and the amazing praise we received was a big personal moment for me.
What advice would you give yourself or a friend starting as an Account Manager?
Don't shy away from the difficult conversations. Early on I was cautious to pick up the phone and have difficult conversations with customers. I would imagine what the conversations were and what the outcome would be before even making the call.
So I think just picking up the phone and having that conversation, you might be surprised that the call was incredibly helpful or less negative than you thought.
What advice would you give an Account Manager looking to make the shift into Product?
Try and allocate some of your time to expand your knowledge. Really focus on what you want to explore. Learn the skills and start to apply them. People love initiative. They don't want to tell you what to do. You need to show you have the drive to make an impact.
****
Interested in Sales and Product roles? Check out Talent_OS to see opportunities across the EVP Portfolio, or reach out to Fred or Charmaine from EVP's Talent Team!