‘Win The World’ — Inside The Collaboration Fueling Miro’s CS Teams

Jusleen Sodiwal doesn’t enjoy working in slow-paced environments, which is why she decided she no longer wanted to spend her days lobbying on Capitol Hill. 

So Sodiwal moved away from bureaucracy and red tape to take a leap into the tech industry. While working at a startup, one of her team members used Miro’s platform during a brainstorming session — and she was blown away. 

“I’m usually not engaged in meetings, and that was the one meeting where I thought, ‘I could do this forever,’” she said. 

After a few conversations with friends who recommended working at Miro, Sodiwal joined the company as a strategic customer success manager. Now, she gets to help others find joy in meetings as well. 

Of course, not everyone is aware of the platform’s impact before accepting a role at the company. In fact, Veronica Murillo had no idea what the company offered when a recruiter reached out to her on LinkedIn. 

At the time, Murillo was happy in her customer success role at another employer. But once she started using the platform and discovered how helpful and enjoyable it was, she decided to go through the interview process and ultimately landed a position as a strategic CSM.  

“I’ve been really loving it here since I joined,” Murillo said. 

Murillo loves her job in part because of the company’s focus on building relationships, which is something that also appealed to Robby Ahn. After spending some time working in hospitality management, he decided to go to business school and developed an interest in customer success. 

Ahn discovered Miro when a few of his former colleagues went to work at the company. He saw how successful their careers had become, and he knew he wanted to be a part of the organization’s empowering environment, and joined as an enterprise CSM. “It was a no-brainer,” he said. 

Miro has given Sodiwal, Murillo and Ahn the chance to collaborate and connect with their peers while making it possible to help teams and individuals across the globe do the very same. For Sodiwal, this impact on the world’s workforce is one of the reasons why she’s proud of her job. 

“If people have a better experience at work, that results in better output, which means a better world for all of us,” she said. 

 

 

 

‘Play As a Team to Win The World’ 

One single person cannot build a better world on their own, which is why collaboration is one of the core ingredients fueling the success of Miro’s CS teams. 

Murillo said teamwork is involved in every workday for CSMs, sustained through email, Slack and, of course, the Miro platform. Given the fact that the team is distributed, it’s important for everyone to stay in sync. 

In Murillo’s mind, CSMs continuously embrace one particular core value: “Play as a team to win the world.” Team members drive global-scale change in various ways, whether they’re working with the executive team or supporting the sales department. 

Ahn added that these efforts are made easier by the inherent helpfulness of his peers, who are always willing to support others. Slack channels dedicated to CSMs also make it simple to share important information and garner feedback. 

Murillo said she and her peers also stay informed through quarterly business reviews, during which time they decide how they’ll succeed in the next quarter. Not only do QBRs enable team members to know their accounts — Miro boards are created to organize opportunities and challenges associated with each one — but these quarterly conversations typically take place in one of the company’s offices, making it easy to share ideas.  

 

 

Having in-person support was especially helpful when Murillo ran into a roadblock with one of her accounts. As she was gathering people’s opinions on how to circumvent the issue, she learned people on other teams had faced similar challenges, which enabled her to gather information that helped bolster her client relationship. 

“Little did the customer know they were collaborating with my entire team, because we had all come up with this plan that I delivered and implemented that worked really well,” Murillo said. “Even though our customers technically have one dedicated CSM, they really have 10, because we’re all collaborating behind the scenes to deliver the value that they're getting.”

Even though our customers have one dedicated CSM, they really have 10 because we’re all collaborating behind the scenes to deliver the value that they’re getting.”

 

 

Cultivating Camaraderie with Celebration

With all of the hard work that takes place across Miro’s CS teams, it’s important for team members to acknowledge each other’s efforts — and celebrate together. 

Murillo said that CSMs have started sharing peer-to-peer shoutouts during “Win Wednesdays,” where CSM leaders share specific team member’s accomplishments through a global Slack channel. CSMs also end their monthly team meetings by sharing a large Kudoboard that showcases praise from teammates, cross-functional partners and customers. 

According to Ahn, team members frequently use a Slack channel that’s integrated with employee engagement software Lattice, which allows them to send shoutouts to their colleagues. 

“You get to see all the ways that we’re helping each other, and you realize just how expansive our company is,” he said. 

Team members celebrate each other in person, as well, Ahn noted. From acknowledging work anniversaries and birthdays to engaging in cooking classes, employees have endless ways to step away from work and enjoy each other’s company. 

When Murillo and her peers are in the office, they ensure they get plenty of time to bond during the day. They’ll often share lunch outdoors together and will occasionally take part in other activities, such as workout classes and local tourist excursions. 

“Nothing beats coming together in person,” she said. 
 

 

The ‘Big Why’

If we spend the majority of our lives working, then why not work with people we enjoy being around and work on a product that fuels the most innovative and impactful organizations around the world? 

That’s what Sodiwal considers the “big why” behind her decision to work at Miro. Having the chance to support an impactful product alongside people whom she respects and enjoys working with makes her work meaningful. 

When Ahn onboarded two years ago, he could sense how much the company prioritized its people. Since then, these initial feelings have given way to an overall sense of belonging and empowerment. 

“I have a lot of autonomy and flexibility to work the way I need to,” Ahn said. 

I have a lot of autonomy and flexibility to work the way I need to.”

 

Being able to define his own way of working is important for Ahn, considering he spends his days changing customers’ lives alongside his teammates; an element of his job he enjoys the most. 

“The fun part of my job is identifying a problem and bringing together the right people to understand how we’re going to solve it as a team,” he said. 

While Miro oversees a relatively large employee base of nearly 1,800 individuals across the globe, the company still fosters a startup environment in which people are encouraged to drive change themselves. Murillo feels like her ideas matter, which is a stark contrast to her experiences at much larger organizations. 

“If I tell my manager or any of our leaders that I think we could be doing something better, they’ll say, ‘OK, let’s test it out,’” she said. 

By empowering employees to make important decisions, Miro gives everyone the chance to define the future. With new challenges to overcome every day, team members see themselves — and the organization — continuously evolve for the better. 

“Miro has challenged me to grow and think differently,” Murillo said. “If you’re looking to sharpen different skill sets, then this is the place to be.”