Preventing Inception Churn: A Customer Success Review Framework for SaaS Startups

This article examines 'inception churn'—deals signed by sales that are doomed to fail from the start because the product cannot solve the customer's problem. Dave Kellogg proposes a Prospective Customer Success Review Committee (PCSRC) as a check-and-balance mechanism, inspired by manufacturing's Andon Cord principle, to flag and prevent high-risk deals before implementation begins. The framework addresses financial losses, team burnout, and reputational damage caused by taking deals without proper customer success viability assessment.