Interview with an Expert: How Chris Green Helped Elevate Clarity, Speed, and Scale Globally
"Suddenly, we weren’t just reacting. We were optimizing."
- Chris Green, StarCompliance
Chris Green isn’t just an operations leader. He’s a bass-playing, girl-dad x 3 from the U.S. Midwest who thrives on rhythm - whether it’s musical or organizational. After nearly two decades in client-facing roles, he knows how vital tempo and harmony are in service delivery. As Associate Director of Client Support Services at StarCompliance, Chris helps lead a globally distributed team that supports the company’s enterprise compliance software users.
When he joined the organization, the team had already transitioned to Jira Service Management (JSM) but was still refining how to make the most of it. Drawing from his prior experience implementing JSM from the ground up, Chris saw clear opportunities to simplify workflows, improve visibility, and create more consistency across regions. “We were spending more time managing the work than doing the work,” he says. “That had to change.” Through collaboration and continuous improvement, the team has strengthened how JSM supports their operations, bringing greater clarity, speed, and scalability to client support at StarCompliance.
The Chaos Before JSM
StarCompliance serves clients around the globe, with support teams based in the US, UK, and India. Before Jira Service Management (JSM), that geographic spread created complexity that the existing tools couldn’t handle. Ticket assignment was manual and inconsistent. Regional coverage was hard to balance. Escalations across departments were handled informally and often got lost in the shuffle.
“I can only imagine what it was like then,” Chris recalls. “There was little visibility, structure, or accountability. Everything sounded reactive, like the team was constantly playing catch-up”.
While the transition to JSM brought structure to ticket management, many of the same challenges persisted early on. The team had the right platform in place but wasn’t yet unlocking its full potential. Reporting remained limited, with performance data scattered across spreadsheets. Trend analysis still required manual effort, and onboarding new agents was slow due to a fragmented knowledge base. As client volume continued to grow, these cracks widened, reinforcing the need to take JSM further and truly make it work for the global team.
Enter JSM (and a few, smart add-ons)
When Chris stepped into his role, there was room and a need to take Jira Service Management further. The team’s next evolution came through the thoughtful addition of a few key Marketplace apps designed to strengthen automation, reporting, and process consistency.
Among the new tools adopted were:
- Smart Assignments and Rotations for Jira Service Management (SARJ) by Trundl
- Checklists for Jira by HeroCoders
- Time in Status Reports by SaaSJet
- Custom Charts for Jira by Old Street Solutions (a Tempo company)
"We brought in a few key apps to help tailor JSM to our workflow and process preferences," Chris says. "Automated ticket assignment, visibility into bottlenecks, and better reporting were all part of that equation."
The collective impact was meaningful: Checklists brought task consistency; Time in Status revealed delays; Custom Charts helped communicate progress visually; and automated assignments ensured that tickets landed with the right people without manual juggling.
Chris told me: "Suddenly, we weren’t just reacting. We were optimizing."
From Manual to Meaningful Work
One of the biggest improvements came in the form of automation. Agents no longer spent time triaging tickets, updating statuses, or notifying internal stakeholders. Instead, automation rules did the heavy lifting, freeing the team to focus on complex problem-solving.
"Our old way of working created mental fatigue. You'd lose hours to admin tasks. JSM flipped that. Now our people spend their energy where it matters."
Collaboration across departments improved, too. Handoffs between Support, Product, and Engineering were now tracked and more structured.
"That visibility has been critical," Chris notes. "It also helped raise our credibility internally. People saw the support team as strategic, not just reactive."
Chris's Favorite Automations?
- Top Accounts Ticket Automation
What it does?
When a new ticket is created for a Top Account client, this automation adds an internal comment to flag the ticket as belonging to a high-priority customer. It also automatically adds the relevant Customer Success Managers (CSMs) as request participants, ensuring they’re looped in from the very start.
Why it matters?
This automation guarantees that high-value clients receive prompt, informed responses. By instantly alerting the team and involving CSMs, it reduces the risk of delays, improves visibility, and helps maintain strong client relationships with proactive communication.
How has it evolved over time?
Originally, the process relied on agents to manually tag Top Accounts and notify the CSM team. Over time, it was refined to automatically identify these accounts and handle notifications, minimizing human error and standardizing how Top Account requests are handled across the team. - Client Sensitivity Automation
What it does?
This automation adds an internal flag on tickets for clients who require direct confirmation before closure. Instead of following the standard SLA-driven resolution workflow, these tickets remain open until the client explicitly confirms they’re satisfied with the outcome.
Why it matters?
Some clients prefer a more hands-on, personalized support experience. This automation ensures that their preferences are consistently honored, preventing accidental closures and reinforcing trust with key stakeholders. It also helps agents quickly identify tickets that need an extra level of client interaction before completion.
How has it evolved over time?
Initially, these preferences were tracked manually or handled inconsistently across teams. Over time, the process was automated by integrating client sensitivity tags and workflow rules, standardizing the approach and reducing the chance of oversight while maintaining flexibility for client-specific needs. - In Implementation & Product Visibility Automation
What it does?
This automation surfaces tickets from clients marked as "In Implementation" along with their associated product(s) from the Organization details into the Unassigned Ticket Queue. Because these Customer fields aren’t natively available in Jira Service Management using JQL, the automation bridges that gap by dynamically tagging and routing these tickets for visibility.
Why it matters?
Tickets from clients in implementation are often time-sensitive and critical to onboarding success. By automatically pulling them into a shared queue, the team gains better visibility and can prioritize support for these accounts. This ensures no new implementation request slips through the cracks, improving both response times and client onboarding experience.
How has it evolved over time?
Originally, tracking implementation-stage clients relied on manual filters or spreadsheets outside Jira. Over time, the automation was refined to leverage Organization-level data and conditional logic, allowing "In Implementation" and product information to flow directly into the support view. This streamlined the process, reduced manual effort, and gave the team a more accurate, real-time picture of active implementations.
Delivering (and Measuring) Better Customer Experience
JSM didn’t just streamline internal operations. It also helped reshape the client experience.
- Faster routing meant clients talked to the right person sooner.
- Improved collaboration led to better answers on complex issues.
- Real-time dashboards and trend reports made it easier to prioritize further process improvements.
"Our service went from good to great," Chris says. "We can prove it, too. Leadership sees the metrics and the progress."
Customer satisfaction scores improved, and internal stakeholders started using the support team as a model for how to run service delivery.
Internal Buy-in and Rollout Strategy
Even though I wasn’t a part of the initial rollout, I’ve seen first hand how leadership buy-in depends on connecting Jira Service Management to measurable business outcomes. For our team, that meant showing how structure, automation, and visibility would translate into faster response times, clearer accountability, and higher client satisfaction. One leadership could see the data, improvements in resolution times, SLA adherence, and customer feedback, they understood the value. The key is to frame JSM not as a tool for support, but as a framework for operational excellence that benefits the entire organization.
A JSM rollout isn’t a “set-it-and-forget-it” project – it’s a continuous evolution. The initial deployment can be done in a few months, but the real transformation happens as teams refine automations, workflows, and reporting around how they actually operate. In our case, by the time I joined, the foundation was already there, but we’ve continued optimizing ever since. The timeline depends less on the software itself and more on how willing teams are to align their processes and iterate based on what the data shows.
Chris' Advice for Others
Chris is quick to point out that tools don’t solve problems—people do. But the right tools can make it a lot easier. His tips for others:
- Start simple, then scale. It’s better to have a clean, functional setup than an overly complex one that no one maintains.
- Automate with purpose. Automations should free people to focus on higher-value work, not just add noise.
- Engage the users. The team working on tickets every day often have the best insights into what needs to be improved.
- Keep evolving. Tools like JSM are powerful, but they’re only as effective as the processes behind them and the apps that fit your process. Regularly review metrics, listen to feedback, and refine.
Ultimately, success with JSM isn’t about rolling out a new platform, it’s about building a culture of continuous improvement and visibility.
Final Thoughts
Chris Green didn’t just adopt Jira Service Management. He elevated it into a foundation for operational excellence. By combining automation, structure, and visibility, he empowered his teams to work smarter, respond faster, and continuously improve.
"We’re not done," he says. "But we’re miles ahead of where we started."
Chris frequently shares his expertise in the Atlassian Community, and if you’d like to add him to your JSM peer network you can easily find him on LinkedIn (by the way, he’s hiring).
Dave Rosenlund is an Atlassian Community Champion and the instigator behind the virtual Atlassian Community Events chapter, ITSM/ESM Masters. He’s also a founding leader of the Program/Project Masters chapter. In his day job, he works for Platinum Atlassian Solution Partner, Trundl.
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Dave Rosenlund _Trundl_
About this author
Global Director, Products @Trundl
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