Customer Onboarding Plan (30/60/90)

---
name: customer-onboarding-plan
description: Use when building a 30/60/90 day onboarding plan for a NEW customer (not a new hire). Triggers on "customer onboarding plan", "new customer 30/60/90", "kickoff plan", "implementation plan".
---

# Customer Onboarding Plan (30/60/90)

The first 90 days predict the renewal. Customers who hit time-to-value in their first 60-90 days renew at 90%+ rates; customers who don't, renew at 50% or worse. The onboarding plan exists to make the first 90 days make-or-break, on purpose, with named milestones — not let them drift.

## Required inputs

1. **Customer + ARR + segment**
2. **Use case they bought for** — original problem, in their words
3. **Stated success criterion** — how THEY will know this worked (not how you will)
4. **Stakeholder map** — champion, exec sponsor, end users, technical contacts
5. **Implementation complexity** — out-of-the-box / mid-config / heavy custom integration
6. **Their internal capacity** — are they over-committed? do they have a project owner internally?
7. **Hand-off context from sales** — what was promised, what was sold, what's at risk

If the customer doesn't have a stated success criterion, this is the FIRST thing to fix. Without it, you're optimizing for "they like us," which doesn't predict renewal.

## Structure

### Pre-Day 1: Internal sales-to-CS handoff
Before the customer kickoff:
- Read the deal notes — original pain, what was promised, who pushed back
- Confirm: any commitments sales made that you need to deliver
- Risk-flag any stretches sold ("they were promised X, we don't have X")

### Days 1-30: Configure & activate (THE TRIANGLE)
Goal: customer has logged in, configured the basics, and seen the FIRST signal of value.

Week 1:
- Kickoff call with champion + exec sponsor + technical lead — 60 min, agenda pre-shared
- Tech setup — accounts provisioned, SSO, integrations scoped
- Stated success criterion confirmed in writing (or revised together)

Week 2-3:
- Configuration / data load (with named technical owner on customer side)
- First-use workshop — 5-7 active users, hands-on, not slideware
- Champion working session — review of customer's actual workflow, mapped to product

Week 4:
- **Day-30 milestone**: first measurable proof of value. Specific. Not "they're using it." Examples:
  - "Their team ran their first report end-to-end and it matched manual baseline"
  - "5+ users completed core workflow at least once"
  - "Pilot integration is live and processing real data"

### Days 31-60: Expand usage & embed
Goal: this is now part of how their team works, not a side project.

- Second cohort onboarded (next 5-10 users)
- Add-on workflow activated (the next thing beyond the initial use case)
- First QBR-lite check-in with champion + exec sponsor
- Identify the internal champion's manager — start that relationship

**Day-60 milestone**: weekly active usage at or above benchmark for the segment. Champion can name a specific outcome they've seen.

### Days 61-90: Lock in the outcome & set up year 2
Goal: their stated success criterion is met, and they know it.

- Outcome measurement — measure against the stated success criterion (NOT product usage)
- Internal showcase — champion presents a win to their team / leadership
- Year-2 conversation — what's the next phase? what new use cases are emerging?
- Multi-threading audit — are there 3+ active stakeholders engaged, not just the champion?

**Day-90 milestone**: champion can quote the value they got in their own words. Exec sponsor has been engaged at least twice. At least 2 expansion ideas surfaced.

## Owners (named, every milestone)
- **Customer-side project owner** — must be one named person, not "the team"
- **CSM-side owner** — you
- **Solutions / SA / Tech** — for technical milestones
- **Exec sponsor** — both sides — owned cadence (default: monthly touch in days 1-90)

## Leading indicators (check weekly)
- Days since last champion conversation
- Number of active users vs target
- Configuration progress vs plan
- Any unresolved blocker > 7 days old

If a leading indicator turns red, the playbook is failing — revise, don't grind.

## Anti-patterns

- "Schedule training" as the milestone — training isn't an outcome
- Onboarding plan with no customer-side owner named — guaranteed slip
- Login count as the success metric — logins aren't value
- All milestones owned by CSM — customer hasn't bought into their own onboarding
- 90-day plan with no Day-90 outcome measurement — you'll never know if it worked

## Tone

Direct. Customers (especially the champion) want to know exactly what's expected of them. Vague plans waste their time and yours.

## Output format

Markdown with weekly granularity in Days 1-30, biweekly in 31-60, milestones for 61-90. Named owners. Leading indicators section. End with the kickoff call agenda (verbatim) for Week 1.