Meet Philip Miller, Senior Customer Success Manager at Progress

Today, we shine a spotlight on Philip Miller, who has been recognized for “Own Our Tomorrow, Today,” one of the ProgressPROUD core values we strive to embody every day.

Philip Miller was introduced to technology at an early age. A born problem-solver, it just made sense for him to transition into customer success management soon into his career.

Now, as a Senior Customer Success Manager at Progress, Philip is able to talk to customers about the challenges they face in their respective industries. Each day brings a new opportunity to learn, innovate and share the knowledge he’s acquired—and if he can throw in a “Dad Brag” here and there, it’s a day well spent.

Read more about Philip, his career and his hobbies in the interview below.

How did you get into the tech field?

When I was a child, my dad insisted that I learn how to use technology, understand how it works and know how to use it in everyday life. I have fond memories of flipping through instruction manuals to try and solve a problem that we had usually created, and less fond memories of re-building Windows over an entire weekend and looking for the message “insert disk 12 of 28” to fix an issue we had found.

Fast forward to my early twenties and I got into sales, specifically hardware sales. I found it interesting to a point, but my passions have always been more multi-disciplinary. As I progressed through my career, I started working at an external consulting company for, at the time, MarkLogic.

I really enjoyed working with the people and discussing customers’ problems with them. I enjoyed teaching them how to use our data platform to solve these problems. Because I was in a customer-focused role, it was only natural that I transitioned to the customer success management (CSM) team.

Why is it important to always be looking ahead when working in tech?

I tell my kids that they should learn something new every day, not out of obligation but out of passion. The same is true when working in tech. The industry moves fast, and businesses and organizations should be building not just for now but also for the future. This is what I try to take into my conversations with my customers—not only looking at the future of tech but also the future of their industries, and the challenges and opportunities they are trying to solve now and in the future.

Looking ahead allows you to take a step back and see the full picture, and then learning something new becomes a lot easier. The key is bringing that knowledge back to the customer and your business and understanding how you can use it to improve your tech and customer experience.

No one is buying tech for today; they want to invest in tech that is going to see them into the future.

What is your favorite part of your job right now?

Talking to customers about their challenges and opportunities and learning about so many different industries. These are always fascinating conversations that I don’t think many people have the chance to experience, and many aren’t aware of how much they affect their daily lives.

I also help run our Community Program and virtual events series. This is also about speaking to customers, partners and industry experts, as well as looking at challenges and opportunities from the enterprise that can be solved using our tech. It’s great to work with such a passionate group of people, both internally supporting these events and externally with customers and partners who want to share their stories. It allows for some great insights into what can be achieved, and even though we’re soon going to be going into our third year of running these, we never seem to run out of topics, themes and stories to tell.

It’s a real testament to the power and agility of the data platform, and with so many more opportunities to collaborate with other stakeholders and technologies at Progress, I am sure there will be many more to come.

What do you think makes Progress a great company?

When MarkLogic was acquired by Progress, I took the time to look into the complete tech stack and learn how customers can leverage these technologies together. I feel that Progress now has one of the most complete combinations of key technologies to innovate and catalyze change in the future. Not only that, but we all share so many of our cultural ideas and practices that allow everyone in the organization to flourish.

When you’re not working, what do you like to do?

I have several passions. First and foremost is supporting my kids, who are now young adults, to give them the best start to their future and cheer them on in their successes, even if that means giving the occasional “Dad Brag” and perhaps embarrassing them a little. Second, and one that my girls have come to share in, is entertainment. Movies, theater, concerts, musicals—you name it, we go. It’s something I’ve had a life-long passion for, and if you’re lucky enough to catch me on a good day, I’ll tell you all about my time in performing arts as a youth.

For myself, I read and watch videos across a variety of subjects, from the sciences to the humanities as well as fiction. If something piques my interest, I’ll read a book in a few days. I also love to game. I have an embarrassingly large collection of platforms and games, and love to lose myself in some fantasy or sci-fi adventure.

If you weren’t doing the job you have now, what do you think you’d be doing?

Not sure what I would be doing, but if you were to ask what my dream job is, it would be treading the boards on a Westend or Broadway stage. I had a misspent youth in the performing arts (and yes, that includes singing, although I never mastered the art of dancing). My daughters have inherited this passion, and my oldest is going to stage school. The dream would be to perform with her and her sister if she also chooses to go down that route, if they could get over their embarrassing dad.

What are you most excited about for the future of Progress?

I think I would have to say what comes next. Progress has a great track record of investing in and acquiring technologies that seem to compliment the tech stack. MarkLogic is just the latest in a long line of data-related technologies that are being used by so many enterprises to solve today’s and tomorrow’s problems. Plus, I’m looking forward to meeting more of my new colleagues, all of whom have made me and the rest of the team feel really welcome.

With the team of people we have, the technology we have and the tech we are investing in, we have something unique to offer customers.

To get to know other Progressers like Philip, read more of our employee interviews here.

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