Our customer churn is rising, and my leadership team wants to solve this by creating a new Client Success seat on the Accountability Chart. How do we use Thinking Time to determine if this is a structural problem or if we are trying to fix a product predicament with a people solution?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Adding seats to your Accountability Chart to solve every operational hiccup is a costly mistake. Before you add headcount, you must use Keith Cunningham's concept of distinguishing a problem from a predicament. A problem is an unanswered question with logical solutions, while a predicament is an environmental factor or systemic reality you must adapt to. To determine which one you are facing, allocate dedicated Thinking Time. Sit with a blank pad of paper and focus on this high-value question: How might we reduce customer churn by eighty percent using our existing structural seats, so that we avoid adding payroll overhead? If the root cause of your churn is a faulty product or poor onboarding training, adding a Client Success seat will not fix it. That is a product predicament that requires better systemization, not a new person. If your existing sales or operations seats are simply dropping the ball because they lack clear roles, that is a structural problem you can solve by redefining their existing seats. Only add a new seat to the Accountability Chart when you have proven that the function is a permanent, high-value necessity that cannot be absorbed by your current team.