War-game a customer success QBR script before value slides, forecast claims, and exec asks harden into how every renewal conversation gets scored.
Customer success QBR scripts fail when the draft invents value proof adoption never measured, when health scores dual-count the same account as green and as at-risk, when CS still promises custom roadmap commits in private Slack, and when revops cannot show which QBRs actually cleared under the published path. A neat slide template is not evidence.
Lock one QBR script
State the proposed agenda and evidence standards, which segments and regions it covers, who owns health-score audit and exception relief, what success looks like after two quarters of renewal rate and executive attendance, and the kill criteria if shadow roadmap commits or fairness disputes past a named threshold. Attach the current QBR inventory, sample health scores, renewal outcomes, and the measured path from invite to closed renewal. If CS, product, and finance disagree on whether the script buys renewals or just deferred commit fights, reconcile before seating.
Name the decision you will make if the war game finds nothing new, and the hold criteria if any segment still lacks a named owner or a verified exception path.
Hostile chairs
- Customer exec. Fear that "value review" still means a product pitch with no named outcomes.
- Customer success. Health math that looks clean while at-risk cohorts cannot be listed.
- Product. Talk tracks that invent roadmap commits the plan never wrote.
- Finance. Renewal language that still hosts retired discount rates.
- Skeptic. The claim that looks strongest and is least sourced.
Optional legal seat if MSA renewal language binds the form. Same pack for every seat.
Run it in private
Feed Pingpong the QBR script and exhibits. First pass steelmans the agenda. Later passes attack from the seats above. Final pass turns surviving objections into clearer evidence standards, a published exception path, or a hold. Delete invented "customers already see the value" claims and dual-counted health scores.
Force a day-after narrative: what happens if a customer exec screenshots mismatched roadmap terms, if CS still teaches unwritten discounts, or if finance cannot list the open exception cohort. If those stories are stronger than your mitigation plan, fix the package before you publish it. Separate a customer success QBR script from a customer success playbook or a renewal forecast model so each decision stays testable.
Ask every seat to mark which evidence steps are optional in practice. Optional health audits become skipped within a month if nobody names the owner and the time box. Related: war-game a customer education track, pretend you are the customer success lead, war-game a customer reference program, and the war-game decisions hub. Process: how to run a Pingpong.