I’ve spent my entire career in technology, starting out at IBM where I worked in a number of different technical and customer-facing roles over 13 years. Early on, I supported senior executives with their technical needs, from hardware and software setup through to troubleshooting and one-on-one training, which gave me a strong customer service foundation.

Later, I moved into IBM’s mobile computing division, which operated more like a startup inside a large enterprise. I’ve always enjoyed the technical side of the industry, but throughout my career people consistently told me I should move into sales and leadership roles, both of which eventually happened.

After IBM, I joined a startup business focused on mobile security and sales enablement software. I quickly realized I loved the pace and variety of a startup environment, where you’re exposed to a lot of different parts of the business rather than being one small cog in a larger machine.

When I first learnt about Summize, the thing that immediately attracted me to the company was the energy of the business. Summize has that fast-moving, collaborative environment that I’ve always enjoyed in high-growth companies and it was obvious to me that across the business there was strong alignment around the vision, the product and the culture.

More than that, the legal tech space is really interesting. Throughout my customer success and sales career, I’d seen first-hand how time-consuming and complex contract processes can become, particularly for commercial and legal teams trying to move quickly. Seeing how Summize’s contract lifecycle management (CLM) software could simplify that experience immediately resonated.

For me, customer success is about helping customers solve problems and making sure they get real value from the platform. A big part of that is understanding the product deeply and being able to step in and help when challenges arise, whether that’s around adoption, workflows, renewals or expansion opportunities.

I’ve always been someone who likes getting involved directly. Throughout my career, I’ve worked closely with customers, customer success managers, product teams and commercial teams to help move situations in the right direction. A lot of that comes down to asking the right questions, listening carefully and understand the root cause of a problem before bringing the right people together to solve it.

At Summize, customer success also has a strong commercial element. It’s not just about supporting customers day to day, but helping them grow their use of the platform over time and identifying where Summize can add value across the business.