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Customer Onboarding Case Study Panel

Sales & GTM

What it tests

Post-sale thinking, solution design instinct, and ability to communicate a complex implementation plan concisely to a panel

Format

  1. 1Candidate receives a scenario: a new enterprise customer has just signed and needs to deploy a specific product capability (e.g., an AI agent for CX) within 60 days
  2. 2They have 24 hours to prepare a short slide deck (5 slides max) with an onboarding plan: milestones, key risks, stakeholder roles, and success metrics
  3. 3Present to a panel of 2–3 interviewers (AE leader, CS lead, and sometimes a product rep) within 30 minutes
  4. 4Panel asks: 'What's the biggest risk to hitting 60 days?', 'How do you handle pushback from IT on integration timelines?', 'How do you define success at day 30 vs. day 60?'

What to look for

  • Do they sequence onboarding logically — or dump a list of tasks with no priority or dependency mapping?
  • Are their success metrics outcome-based (adoption rate, ticket deflection) or just activity-based (training sessions completed)?
  • Can they anticipate customer-side blockers (IT, procurement, internal buy-in) before being prompted?
  • 5 slides max is a constraint — do they respect it and communicate clearly, or balloon to 12 slides?

Adaptation guide

Swap the scenario to match your product's typical implementation complexity. For expansion AE roles focused on upsells, reframe as 'customer has been live 6 months, here is their usage data — build a QBR and expansion plan.'

Full description

Format:

  1. Candidate receives a scenario: a new enterprise customer has just signed and needs to deploy a specific product capability within 60 days
  2. They have 24 hours to prepare a short slide deck (5 slides max) with an onboarding plan: milestones, key risks, stakeholder roles, and success metrics
  3. Present to a panel of 2–3 interviewers (AE leader, CS lead, product rep) within 30 minutes
  4. Panel asks: "What's the biggest risk to hitting 60 days?", "How do you handle pushback from IT on integration timelines?", "How do you define success at day 30 vs. day 60?"

Time: 30 minutes (presentation + Q&A)

What to look for:

  • Do they sequence onboarding logically — or dump a list of tasks with no priority or dependency mapping?
  • Are their success metrics outcome-based (adoption rate, ticket deflection) or just activity-based (training sessions completed)?
  • Can they anticipate customer-side blockers (IT, procurement, internal buy-in) before being prompted?
  • 5 slides max is a constraint — do they respect it and communicate clearly, or balloon to 12 slides?

Adaptation: Swap the scenario to match your product's typical implementation complexity. For expansion AE roles focused on upsells, reframe as "customer has been live 6 months, here is their usage data — build a QBR and expansion plan."