# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for the week ending May 7, 2021

Published: 7 May 2021
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-may-7-2021

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Renewal rate

You have to [scroll down this article](https://www.process.st/saas-renewal-best-practices/)before you get to the informative bit on how to measure this metric but don't because I could just [link you to this one](https://www.csmpractice.com/renewal-rate/#:~:text=It%20is%20the%20ratio%20of,than%20is%20lost%20to%20churn.)). So read the first part anyway: Don't be a jerk when it comes to renewals. If you have to be, maybe it's you, not your customers (keep scrolling again to see the 5 main reasons why people unsubscribe). The difference between retention and renewals is described more in this [comprehensive Profitwell article on Renewal Rates](https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/renewal-rate).

Link: https://www.process.st/saas-renewal-best-practices/

## 2. CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Take a (deep) read of [this extensive guide for building great customer success teams](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/extensive-guide-building-your-first-great-customer-success-queener/) - CS is not just about limiting churn, but it also creates a department and practice to convince existing customers to buy even more from you. As Jason Lemkin said back in 2015: "[Customer Success is where 90% of the revenue is](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexmcclafferty/2015/05/18/customer-success/)”. Want a working example? Chart Mogul expands on this and [explains its approach to a (successful) success management strategy](https://blog.chartmogul.com/proactive-customer-success/).

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/extensive-guide-building-your-first-great-customer-success-queener/

## 3. FINANCE

Founders - take a good review of this! How many of these mistakes are you making? (I'm making a few but less than I was) : [8 Finance Mistakes Growing SaaS Businesses Make (and How to Fix Them)](https://www.saasbrief.com/edition/weekly-trends-social-media-2020-11-21).

Link: https://www.saasbrief.com/edition/weekly-trends-social-media-2020-11-21

## 4. FRAMEWORKS

Beyond metrics, a successful framework can distill complex processes or models to make execution more of a simple recipe. Kinda why OKR's exist. Sarah Tavel has [compiled a great list of compelling Frameworks](https://sarahtavel.medium.com/frameworks-12c220e775eb) covering the 10x model, the hierarchy of engagement, hype cycles, and more!

Link: https://sarahtavel.medium.com/frameworks-12c220e775eb

## 5. PRICING

Usage-based pricing 2.0. Usage-based pricing helps minimize friction during customer onboarding, as customers only pay for what they’re using. This strategy typically sees [best-in-class net-dollar retention](https://www.bvp.com/atlas/state-of-the-cloud-2021#Usage-based-pricing) results. The cool thing is that the current understanding of ways UBP is being applied in forward thinking SaaS companies is so fresh that [this article is an updated understanding of UBP](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/usage-based-pricing-2-0) from November 2020 - but [here is that playbook anyway](https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9xjxb9wjioiol0/The%20Usage-Based%20Pricing%20Playbook.pdf?dl=0)(as a downloadable PDF) It's evolving fast as a new best practice. One of my favorite slides in that playbook is slide 324 - a flowchart that helps organizations decide if a usage-based pricing model is for them.

Link: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/state-of-the-cloud-2021#Usage-based-pricing

## 6. POC’s

(aka Proof of Concepts) are [a powerful sales tool](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/saas-poc-paid-pilot-program/) and a critical part of a customer journey, especially when it comes to those long-ass enterprise sales. But oftentimes they can be just as big an anchor in sales as an accelerator (hands up if you feel me on that one?). [Here are some pro tips if your POC’s get stuck](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/troubleshooting-enterprise-proof-of-concepts) from Heavybit with some pro tips on Leveraging the PoC to Move that deal forward.

Link: https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/saas-poc-paid-pilot-program/

## 7. CUSTOMER JOURNEY

When it comes to measuring success, clearly [mapping out a Customer Success Journey via a visual map](https://www.custify.com/how-to-create-a-customer-success-journey-map) is a great way to know at what areas a Customer Success Team needs to be involved in (and what their responsibilities will be) [via a variety of engagement models](https://www.gainsight.com/blog/map-customer-journey-engagement-models/). You can also access a [sweet design process here.](https://valchanova.me/customer-journey-map-how-to-template)

Link: https://www.custify.com/how-to-create-a-customer-success-journey-map

## 8. FINANCIAL FORECAST

Your new financial year is just around the corner! Just kidding, but now is always the second-best time to get started(the first being two months ago). [This is a great article](https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-financial-plan/) with a complimentary [excel download here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/peu5jijdvp1wahd/SaaS-Financial-Model-v1.64.xlsx?dl=0) from [The SaaS CFO](https://www.thesaascfo.com/) - it's a SaaS Financial Plan for Startups (and also works for most SMB’s). It also comes with a handy complimentary [video tutorial](https://youtu.be/yZbniuVi1aY) to the worksheet.

Link: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-financial-plan/

## 9. MARKET RESEARCH

Love it or hate it - knowing how big the market is of people willing to pay for your stuff is kind of a big deal. [Here is a pretty comprehensive step-by-step guide for startup market research](https://www.ezlauncher.com/blog/startup-market-research/) and [this article has a great template for all of us B2B market researchers](https://www.kalungi.com/blog/market-research-survey-template) (which is harder than B2C).

Link: https://www.ezlauncher.com/blog/startup-market-research/

## 10. CASE STUDY

Netflix is my favorite case study regarding a speed-focused tech company,. They (amazingly to me) [de-prioritized uptime in favor of speed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTKIT6STSVM&feature=youtu.be) and also [become their own CDN](https://openconnect.netflix.com/en) as part of their speedy-experience solutions.

**BONUS**: Bringing this one back from the archives - because of #10 above and also as it's so relevant in our Zoom-dominated world now some are returning to offices: It is a hilarious Chrome Extension featured on Product Hunt called [Netflix Hangouts](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/netflix-hangouts). It basically disguises Netflix in a fake four-person conference call. Such a terrible idea? yeah, but nah, but yeah.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTKIT6STSVM&feature=youtu.be

## POD OF THE WEEK

You may or may not have heard about NFT's lately and [the number of money people who are prepared to pay](https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325054/beeple-christies-nft-sale-cost-everydays-69-million). You may also squint at this news and still not understand what it is. Me too, but it's [not just art](https://www.fastcompany.com/90629515/nfts-are-much-bigger-than-an-art-fad-heres-how-they-could-change-the-world) - [a16z got us all covered on explaining what NFT's are](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711?i=1000514696024) (and why they are seeing these remarkable payouts).

Link: https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325054/beeple-christies-nft-sale-cost-everydays-69-million