Back to library
ZendeskZendesk

Account Portfolio Prioritization Exercise

Customer Success

What it tests

Capacity planning judgment, risk scoring instincts, and ability to make defensible triage decisions across a large book of business

Format

  1. 1Candidate receives a spreadsheet: 20 accounts with ARR, renewal date, NPS score, usage trend, last touch date, and open support tickets
  2. 2Task: in 25 minutes, segment accounts into 3 tiers (high-touch, low-touch, at-risk), identify the top 3 accounts requiring immediate action, and write a one-paragraph rationale
  3. 3Live discussion: interviewer probes the prioritization logic — 'Why did you put Account F in low-touch when they have 3 open tickets?'
  4. 4Final question: if you could only contact 5 accounts this week, which 5 and why?

What to look for

  • Do they build a clear scoring model, or make gut-feel decisions they can't defend?
  • Do they weight renewal date appropriately, or overweight NPS?
  • Can they articulate the tradeoffs of their triage — who might slip through the cracks?
  • Is their 'top 5 this week' list driven by risk and revenue, or just recency bias?

Adaptation guide

Size the portfolio to match the actual book of business for the role (20 accounts for enterprise, 80+ for scale/digital CSM roles). Add a 'capacity constraint' — candidate can only do 3 outreach calls this week.

Full description

Format:

  1. Candidate receives a spreadsheet: 20 accounts with ARR, renewal date, NPS score, usage trend, last touch date, and open support tickets
  2. Task: in 25 minutes, segment accounts into 3 tiers (high-touch, low-touch, at-risk), identify the top 3 accounts requiring immediate action, and write a one-paragraph rationale
  3. Live discussion: interviewer probes the prioritization logic — "Why did you put Account F in low-touch when they have 3 open tickets?"
  4. Final question: if you could only contact 5 accounts this week, which 5 and why?

Time: 45 minutes

What to look for:

  • Do they build a clear scoring model, or make gut-feel decisions they can't defend?
  • Do they weight renewal date appropriately, or overweight NPS?
  • Can they articulate the tradeoffs of their triage — who might slip through the cracks?
  • Is their "top 5 this week" list driven by risk and revenue, or just recency bias?

Adaptation: Size the portfolio to match the actual book of business for the role (20 accounts for enterprise, 80+ for scale/digital CSM roles). Add a "capacity constraint" — candidate can only do 3 outreach calls this week.