In this conversation we are joined by Emily Brogan, the Customer Education Manager at Dovetail. Emily’s experience (and ours!) expresses and dives into the importance of putting the customer first, and the role of Dovetail in providing customer insights. Emily shares her experience in building the Dovetail Academy and the challenges of scaling customer success and education – particularly focusing on collaboration and listening to customers as the company grows. The need for simplicity, customer-centricity, and continuous learning is key in this journey. Join us for another great conversation with these takeaways:

Takeaways

  • Put the customer first and prioritize their needs in customer education.
  • Build a customer education program that scales and allows customers to self-serve.
  • Collaborate with different teams in the organization to align on the customer journey.
  • Listen to customers and use their feedback to improve and refine the education program.

Listen in as we explore the ever-evolving intersection of community management and customer education with Brian Oblinger. Brian is a seasoned veteran in community management, and shares invaluable insights drawn from his extensive career, underscoring the power of learning from past endeavors. Our discussion ventures beyond the surface, examining how industry giants have leveraged platforms like North Pass to foster innovation in digital customer education, ultimately enhancing product engagement and retention.

We tackle the strategic and technical challenges of creating a frictionless user experience across learning management systems and community forums, sharing practical steps for incorporating single sign-on and prioritizing user experience in program roadmaps. The transformative potential of integrating community into educational strategies is not just a dream—it’s a reality we’re passionate about, and we want to share that passion with you.

Brian Oblinger is a revered community management expert with a wealth of experience dating back to the mid-90s. As the co-host of the In Before the Lock podcast, he shares his extensive knowledge to help others avoid past mistakes in community engagement. His expertise is rooted in building strategies that intertwine community and customer education, showcasing his proficiency in creating symbiotic relationships that enhance digital learning experiences.

About the Show

CELab is the Customer Education Lab for Innovative Customer Success, Enablement, and Marketing Teams. Our mission is to explore how to build Customer Education programs, experiment with new approaches, and exterminate the myths and bad advice that stop growth dead in its tracks.

Listen in as we discuss:

  • Guest intro Brian Oblinger
  • Brian’s favorite pasta
  • CE use in businesses
  • Fusion of community and customer education
  • Brian shares wisdom on digital training
  • Philosophy of customer-centric resource accessibility
  • Tackling technical challenges for a frictionless user experience
  • Unified experiences in customer platforms
  • Seamless navigation between learning and forums
  • Aligning community and learning within organizations
  • Importance of flexible, customer-focused organizational design
  • Weekly challenges and gamification in customer-led learning
  • Long-term benefits of a strategic community-building approach
  • Developing engaging community learning platforms
  • Integrating social learning and user involvement in content creation
  • And – please – if you’ve found value in this podcast, share with your friends, your peers, and your network to help us “Find the Others”!

Resources:

Brian Oblinger LinkedIn

Before the Lock Podcast

Northpass

Thought Industries

TechSmith

Dave Derington LinkedIn

Adam Avramescu LinkedIn

Two of the key activities in the life of a Customer Education professional are crucial skills to have: Collaboration with Product Teams and getting their buy-in.

In this episode we welcome Jesse Evans, Director of Customer Education at Honeybook – and Box and Meta alum. This is an action packed episode where we’ll dive into all things Product and learn how to engage, collaborate, and develop your relationship with Product and Product Marketing to make a difference.

  • Collaborating with product teams for customer education
  • Product development and adoption challenges in SaaS organizations
  • Overcoming objections and misconceptions in product development
  • Customer education and product adoption
  • Using marketing campaigns to boost product adoption
  • Product education and in-app tours for enterprise software
  • In-app education and collaboration between customer education and product teams.
  • Product and education collaboration.
  • Product release process and collaboration between education and product teams.
  • Product education and its impact on customer success.
  • Demonstrating value to product teams through customer insights.
  • Customer education within product teams.

Ever wonder how the minds behind world-class customer education programs construct the experiences that not only stick but also spur action? That’s exactly what we’re talking about in this episode with instructional design virtuoso Julie Dirksen. Julie, David, and Adam navigate the transformative power of digital customer training – with Julie’s insights, gleaned from her years of experience, and books including “Design for How People Learn” and “Talk to the Elephant.” The episode peels back the layers on why industry giants like Walmart and Freshworks are betting big on modern, engaging learning platforms to foster customer retention and engagement.

Julie provides a treasure trove of strategies for fostering behavior change within customer education. We delve into the COM-B model and how it dissects behavior into capability, opportunity, and motivation, shaping the design of customer education programs. We also highlight the significance of collaboration between UX and customer education in system efficiency, sharing firsthand experiences from financial applications to healthcare environments.

Gear up for an episode that promises to enrich your understanding of instructional design and arm you with techniques to enhance learning experiences across the board.

About the Show

CELab is the Customer Education Lab for Innovative Customer Success, Enablement, and Marketing Teams. Our mission is to explore how to build Customer Education programs, experiment with new approaches, and exterminate the myths and bad advice that stop growth dead in its tracks.

Listen in as we discuss:

  • Intro and background – Julie Dirksen
  • Julie’s new book “Talk to the Elephant”
  • Balancing compliance and autonomy in education
  • Overcoming assumptions, understanding user barriers – long pants in the gym
  • Long pants in the gym story
  • COM-B model for customer education program design
  • UX design’s critical role in system efficiency
  • Integrating UX and customer education for success
  • Making behaviors easy within environments
  • Defining behaviors, selecting appropriate granularity
  • Kathy Sierra’s influence, using examples, user testing
  • And – please – if you’ve found value in this podcast, share with your friends, your peers, and your network to help us “Find the Others”!

Resources:

Julie Dirksen LinkedIn

Books by Julie Dirksen

Usable Learning

Book: Badass: Making Users Awesome

Northpass

TechSmith

Videate

Dave Derington LinkedIn

Adam Avramescu LinkedIn

Have you ever considered how an overlooked design choice could shut out a swath of eager learners? Imagine excluding twenty-five percent of adults from your training programs. That’s the staggering possibility we tackle in Episode 124, as we welcome our friend Sharon Castillo to the show!  Sharon is a Customer Engagement and Education Leader currently working as Sr. Director of content Strategy and Enablement at Okta.

Making training accessible is more than a box-ticking exercise; it’s a strategic imperative that opens the door to a diverse audience, ready to engage with your product. Our conversation not only sheds light on the barriers to learning but also equips content creators with the know-how to craft learning experiences that welcome everyone to the table. Accessibility is a topic we’ve perhaps only touched upon on the CELab podcast, so Sharon shares why accessibility – particularly good accessibility, is also good customer education.  We discuss the kinds of platforms and tools you’ll want to include in your planning, even as a very early-phase program.

So join us as we ‘access accessibility’ for Customer Education!

About the Show

CELab is the Customer Education Lab for Innovative Customer Success, Enablement, and Marketing Teams. Our mission is to explore how to build Customer Education programs, experiment with new approaches, and exterminate the myths and bad advice that stop growth dead in its tracks.

Listen in as we discuss:

  • Importance of accessibility in training programs
  • Balancing content delivery speed with inclusive design
  • Design choices affect learning experience, color, captions
  • Accommodating diverse abilities and learning styles
  • Utilizing tools, guidelines for accessible content creation
  • Collaboration with disabled Subject Matter Experts essential
  • Economic benefits of inclusive eLearning for businesses
  • Pre-adjusting templates, style guides for accessibility
  • Flexibility of eLearning platforms, Rise vs. Storyline
  • Evaluating tools for WCAG conformance, accessibility levels
  • And – please – if you’ve found value in this podcast, share with your friends, your peers, and your network to help us “Find the Others”!

Resources:

Sharon Castillo LinkedIn

Okta

Docebo

Intellum

Thought Industries

Dave Derington LinkedIn

Adam Avramescu LinkedIn

What can Clown Core teach us about Customer Education?  Every year, Adam and Dave take some time to clown around and have a little fun.

So have you ever stumbled into a musical rabbit hole so deep, it turned into a blueprint for revolutionizing customer education? That’s exactly what we did in our latest auditory adventure, as we celebrate our annual fun episode by drawing parallels between the unorthodox methods of the enigmatic band, Clown Core, and the innovative strategies in customer training. The discussion pirouettes from the band’s chaotic yet captivating performances to how digital education platforms keep audiences both educated and entertained. Prepare for an electrifying conversation that dances between genres and redefines engagement in learning.

While our business is serious, we take inspiration from many different fields – including music. The band “Clown Core” blends genres from jazz, funk, electro, r&b, soul, and pop – metal too.  What kinds of insights will come of this episode?  Listen in and make sure you listen to the end to hear a special music session from Alan Koda and Dave. Happy New Year to everyone in our audience!  We look forward to another amazing year.

About the Show

CELab is the Customer Education Lab for Innovative Customer Success, Enablement, and Marketing Teams. Our mission is to explore how to build Customer Education programs, experiment with new approaches, and exterminate the myths and bad advice that stop growth dead in its tracks.

Listen in as we discuss:

  • Clown Core’s chaos linked to customer education
  • Artistic authenticity vs. polished production
  • DIY ethos encourages personal, impactful content
  • Creative collaboration over perfection in education
  • Blending genres for engaging learning experiences
  • Game design principles applied to customer education
  • Audience participation and music by Alan Coda
  • Authenticity and immediacy in art/business
  • Innovative educational strategies from diverse inspirations
  • And – please – if you’ve found value in this podcast, share with your friends, your peers, and your network to help us “Find the Others”!

Resources:

Clown Core

Northpass       

Videate           

Strigo

Dave Derington LinkedIn

Adam Avramescu LinkedIn

It’s the end of 2023! This year we experienced the continuation of the economic trends we saw in 2022, watched complex and troubling geopolitics unfold, experienced more tech layoffs and a difficult fundraising environment, and witnessed the continued rise of AI. It’s been a hectic year so we want to take this quiet moment to reflect on it and consider what’s ahead.

We cover a lot in this end-of-year extravaganza including:

  • Customer education and AI in the workplace
  • Leadership growth and team development
  • Leadership, customer education, and podcast milestones
  • Customer education trends and predictions for 2023
  • AI in customer education, ROI calculations, and live training
  • Customer education, digital success, and consolidation in the industry

And much, much more!

Stay tuned for our annual music episode – coming soon!

What’s the “State of Customer Education”?  Each year Adam and Dave take time to review reports focused on education in B2B SaaS and pull forward the key themes and trends as reported by institutions and vendors that serve the market. Join us as we unpack customer education reports including the TSIA State of Education Services 2023 report and explore the current state of customer education. We underscore the need for companies to shift their focus from growth at all costs to improving free cash flow and profitability, making the monetization of education services more crucial than ever. In this ever-evolving business climate, we touch on the concept of change and the importance of adaptability. You’ll gain valuable insights into the trends shaping the education services industry and the vital role of staying agile in the face of change.

Lastly, we’ll explore the transformative power of video in customer education and success. We’ll examine various reports and studies that underscore the role of video in engaging and educating customers. You’ll also get to hear us debate on the potential of video in replacing other modalities in education and how it can be utilized strategically to meet customer learning needs. This episode promises an exciting journey through the evolving landscape of customer education and the role of video in shaping customer success.

What do we need to pay attention to?  What can we safely ignore?  This is a great time to think through your 2024 playbook and ensure you’re keeping pace with market changes.

About the Show

CELab is the Customer Education Lab for Innovative Customer Success, Enablement, and Marketing Teams. Our mission is to explore how to build Customer Education programs, experiment with new approaches, and exterminate the myths and bad advice that stop growth dead in its tracks.

Listen in as we discuss:

  • World Mental Health Day
  • Overview of the TSIA State of Education Services 2023 report
  • The role of mobile and customer engagement in education
  • Thinkific Digital Learning Trends 2023 report
  • Various reports and studies that highlight the role of video in engaging and educating customers
  • Potential of video in replacing other modalities in education and how it can be strategically used to meet customer learning needs
  • Delivering learning content on mobile devices and social media platforms
  • Using video as a tool for customer success, customer experience, and customer education
  • Video can increase engagement, reduce costs, and improve self-service options
  • Understanding how people prefer to learn and using video strategically to meet their needs.
  • And – please – if you’ve found value in this podcast, share with your friends, your peers, and your network to help us “Find the Others”!

Resources:

TSIA’s 2023 State of Education Services

Thought Industries’ State of External Enterprise Learning 2023

Thinkific’s Digital Learning Trends 2023 Report

Videate’s 2023 State of SaaS Customer Success and Product Training Videos

Intellum – 2023 Report – The State of Education Initiative Ownership

NorthPass

Dave Derington LinkedIn

Adam Avramescu LinkedIn

Are you prepared to transform the way you perceive learning and interaction with technology? We’re thrilled to share fascinating insights from Barry Kelly, CEO of Thought Industries, on the future of customer education. Barry, with his remarkable understanding and vast experience, guides us through a diverse array of topics, including the astonishing potential of AI and natural language processing in the learning industry, as well as the concept of ‘headless technology.’

Barry is the co-founder and CEO of Thought Industries, a company dedicated to revolutionizing learning experiences through technology. He brings over a decade of experience in the field, starting his journey at Berkeley College of Music where he was part of building an online music school with a focus on external learning, Thought Industries empowers businesses to enhance their learning programs, offering capabilities such as content delivery, monetization, integration, and more. Barry’s passion for innovative learning solutions and his insights into AI, NLP (natural language processing), and headless technology positions him as a leader in the education technology sector.

About the Show

CELab is the Customer Education Lab for Innovative Customer Success, Enablement, and Marketing Teams. Our mission is to explore how to build Customer Education programs, experiment with new approaches, and exterminate the myths and bad advice that stop growth dead in its tracks.

Listen in as we discuss:

  • International Stout Day
  • Barry’s intro and background
  • AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in education
  • Headless technology and its benefits – security, scalability, and customization
  • Embedding learning directly into software platforms
  • Learning at the moment of need
  • Role of community in learning – peer-based communication and collaboration
  • How AI is revolutionizing the way we learn, create content, and understand proficiency
  • Natural language processing
  • Transformative potential of Helium’s headless technology
  • How AI and NLP can help in embedding learning experiences into software platforms
  • Importance of community in education

Resources:

Barry Kelly

Thought Industries

Dave Derington LinkedIn

Adam Avramescu LinkedIn

We’re always excited to talk with leaders about their platforms and roadmap – and this episode is no exception.  You’ll want to join us to learn how Docebo is leading the way with AI-powered Customer Education and Enablement.

Meet Alessio Artuffo, a man with a fascinating journey from Italy to Athens, Georgia, who’s been instrumental in transforming Docebo, an open-source tech entity, into a full-fledged SaaS company. As the President and COO of Docebo, Alessio has unique insights to share about the challenges of building an international business and the specific strategies needed to make that trans-Atlantic leap. We explore the intersection of technology and education, focusing on the role of AI. We dive into the acquisition of Adugo, a ChatGPT-based platform that’s shaking up interaction models for customers and employees alike. If you’re interested in how AI is changing the face of learning, customer advocacy and partner training, strap in for a fascinating discussion.

About the Show

CELab is the Customer Education Lab for Innovative Customer Success, Enablement, and Marketing Teams. Our mission is to explore how to build Customer Education programs, experiment with new approaches, and exterminate the myths and bad advice that stop growth dead in its tracks.

Listen in as we discuss:

  • Alessio’s journey from Italy to Athens, Georgia and transforming Docebo
  • International Pirate Day and Butterscotch Pudding Day
  • Building a mature and stable product and transitioning to remote work
  • Challenges of building an international company and the growth of Docebo
  • Importance of customer education and learning in the technology space
  • Docebo acquisition of Adugo, a chatGPT-based platform
  • The role of AI in partner training and customer advocacy
  • Visiting the studio and the importance of collaboration
  • Importance of educational content sharing between different teams
  • The role of Docebo in customer education and partner training
  • Alessio’s view on being a generalist in the learning technology space
  • The future direction of Docebo in the field of customer education
  • Importance of community support in solving customer problems and inquiries
  • And – please – if you’ve found value in this podcast, share with your friends, your peers, and your network to help us “Find the Others”!

Resources:

Alessio Artuffo LinkedIn

Docebo

Dave Derington LinkedIn

Adam Avramescu LinkedIn