Harald’s Curious Corner

Harald Overaa

Harald’s Curious Corner is where curiosity meets connection. Harald chases that question with a guest, gathers perspectives from voices across the industry, and then steps back to reflect on what it all means. The show unfolds like a story arc, part exploration, part roundtable, part reflection, blending imagination with analysis. The result: trusted insights, meaningful conversations, and forward-looking takeaways that shine a light on where learning is headed next.

  1. 8H AGO

    Why Customer Education Needs Strategy First

    Customer education fails when teams rush to buy technology before looking at the problem they’re trying to solve. In this episode, I sit down with Vicky Kennedy, Founder and Chief Education Architect of Echtus, to explore why so many customer education programmes look impressive on the surface but fail to drive meaningful business outcomes. Vicky brings a rare blend of experience across higher education, tech, product, and strategy and makes the case that education should be treated as a strategic lever, not a content factory or a box-ticking exercise. We explore the gap between programmes that look good and programmes that truly shift behaviour, and why that gap usually starts much earlier than teams think. We also get into AI, enterprise education architecture, and why messy foundations only lead to faster mess when automation enters the picture. If you are trying to connect education to adoption, retention, or growth, this conversation is full of practical perspectives. Some curious takeaways: Start with the business problem, not the platformBuild learning experiences that change behaviour, not just content that looks polishedGet your strategy and data right before asking AI to scale anythingEpisode highlights: (00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner (01:34) From higher education to customer education strategy (04:14) Why Vicky started Echtus (06:56) Why outcomes should come before courses (09:07) How org design creates silos around education (13:42) Why enterprise education architecture matters (18:07) The gap between polished and effective programmes (20:39) What real learning needs to change behaviour (23:25) Why strategy should come before platforms (27:35) The mistakes teams make when selecting platforms (36:29) Vicky’s vision for agentic personalisation (39:43) What education strategy needs more of and less of Connect with the guest: Vicky Kennedy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickykennedy/  Explore Echtus: https://www.echtus.com/  Follow me on the following sites: Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    45 min

  2. APR 2

    How Customer Education Drives Growth: A Panel Discussion

    Customer education is a growth engine. If you can’t tie education to retention, revenue, and product adoption, you’re leaving real impact on the table. In this episode, I sit down with our Customer Educational Panel, Kristine Kukich, Dan Braithwaite, Melissa Kruminas, and Clea Mahoney, for a deep dive into what’s actually happening in customer education today. From reducing support tickets by up to 50% to driving expansion through certification programs, we explore how leading teams are proving the business value of education and where it fits inside modern organizations. We explore how customer education teams are tying learning to real business outcomes, using cohort analysis to better understand its impact on retention, revenue, and adoption, before turning to a practical conversation about AI, in-app education, and personalization and which of those trends are actually delivering value. If you’re building or scaling a customer education program, this conversation will push you to think beyond content creation and start driving measurable business outcomes. Some curious takeaways: Customer education should support real customer outcomes, not just training activityStrong metrics come from comparing educated and non-educated customer cohortsAI can improve learning experiences, but strategy still matters more than tools Episode highlights: (00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner (01:30) Meet the panelists (04:10) Where does customer education live in organizations? (09:10) Measuring customer education success (11:13) Proving ROI with the Kirkpatrick model (13:21) Cohort analysis and the three buckets of value (18:47) Monetizing customer education programs (22:03) Tech trends and experiments for 2026 (23:05) Frictionless learning and AI learning assistants (31:58) Tips for someone starting in customer education (42:29) Stop selling sugar pills  Connect with the guest: Kristine Kukich on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinekukich/ Dan Braithwaite on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjamesbraithwaite/ Melissa Kruminas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-kruminas/ Clea Mahoney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleamahoney/  Explore CEdMA: https://www.cedma.org/  Explore Mediaocean: https://www.mediaocean.com/ Explore Docebo: https://www.docebo.com/ Explore Rewst: https://rewst.io/  Follow me on the following sites: Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    44 min

  3. MAR 26

    How HubSpot Academy Revolutionized Customer Education

    Customer education is the key to long-term growth. If you can't connect education to customer success, you're missing out. In this episode, I sit down with Courtney Sembler, former Senior Director at HubSpot Academy, and now Managing Partner and COO at AlignedCX, to explore how customer education has become a core driver of business success. We dive into the evolution of HubSpot Academy, how they scaled educational programs, and the importance of being customer-centric in every educational initiative. We discuss how to build a passionate and effective customer education team, why aiming for something big can yield surprising results, and how education can impact retention and acquisition. If you’re working in customer education, this conversation will challenge you to think beyond just teaching and focus on true customer outcomes. Some curious takeaways: Connect customer education to business outcomes or risk missing the markShift from focusing on course completions to driving real customer successBuild a passionate, customer-centric team to scale educational impact Episode highlights: (00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner (01:19) How Courtney got into conservation work (03:23) Where Courtney grew up and found customer education (05:40) When you move from support into the academy (09:46) How education became a lead generation engine (12:52) The freemium model meets customer education (15:36) Pioneering the micro-credentialing category (17:53) Lessons for new customer education leaders (21:53) How to prove value with triangles up communication (27:16) Building internal relationships before you need them (30:22) AI content versus human trust in education (34:12) Stakeholder management and proving ROI (36:18) What Courtney is most proud of at HubSpot Academy (38:27) Lessons from moving to the consulting side Connect with the guest: Courtney Sembler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/  Explore Hubspot Academy: https://academy.hubspot.com/  Explore AlignedCX: https://www.alignedcx.com/ Email The Forever Wild Fund: theforeverwildfund@gmail.com  Follow me on the following sites: Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    45 min

  4. MAR 19

    What Great Customer Education Looks Like at Scale

    Customer education can’t just focus on clicks. It has to focus on the jobs to be done. That is the big question at the heart of this episode. What is customer education really for, and how do you prove it matters? To explore that, I spoke with Debbie Smith, a long-time customer education leader and current President of TSIA’s Customer Education Management Association (CEdMA). Debbie has spent years helping organisations connect education to adoption, retention, certification, and measurable commercial impact. We discuss why customer education should be built around what users are trying to achieve, not just where they should click. Debbie also breaks down the difference between badging and real certification, why forcing learning rarely works, and how strong integrations and clean data make it easier to prove value across the business. Some curious takeaways: Build customer education around user goals and jobs to be done, not content completionsStart with badging, prove impact, then scale into certificationTie learning data to CRM and business metrics or risk losing strategic influence Episode highlights: (00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner (01:16) How Debbie found proof that learning drives revenue (03:53) Where customer education sits and why that matters (06:11) Why customer education should focus on jobs to be done (07:07) Why forced learning rarely works for customers (08:28) How to design learning for different customer audiences (13:40) What real certification means and why it matters (18:28) Why credentials are becoming more valuable over time (19:31) What a strong certification tech stack needs (24:16) The integrations customer education teams cannot ignore (25:14) How to build a certification programme that holds up (29:30) How AI can support smarter exam creation (31:03) Why new teams should start with badges first (35:12) Why partners need certification that actually means something (40:48) How to manage up by speaking the language of metrics Connect with the guest: Debbie Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiecareysmith/  Explore CEdMA: https://www.cedma.org/  Follow me on the following sites: Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    45 min

  5. MAR 11

    How to Tie Learning to Revenue

    Data is power. If you can’t tie learning to revenue, you’re guessing. Customer education has moved from a support function to a growth strategy. In this episode, I sit down with John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, to explore how external learning is evolving into a true revenue driver. We unpack what maturity really looks like in customer education, why integration is the only way to prove impact, and how AI and in-the-flow learning are reshaping the ecosystem. If you are responsible for training customers, partners, or sales teams, this conversation challenges you to think beyond completions and towards commercial outcomes. Some curious takeaways: Tie learning data to business data or risk becoming invisibleMove from tracking engagement metrics to measuring revenue impactUse AI intentionally to reduce admin and elevate strategic work Episode highlights: (00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner (02:06) When customer education starts driving revenue (03:54) What real maturity in customer education looks like (05:42) Why cost savings are not enough (13:29) How to choose the right LMS for your context (17:40) From 16 vendors to over 1000 (21:52) Why disciplined buying prevents regret (22:52) AI hype versus measurable value (25:39) What headless learning actually means (30:07) Learning in the flow of work in practice (34:08) AI inside sales and customer support (36:39) Why specialists innovate first (38:09) Mapping the customer education ecosystem (40:13) Integration as the proof of business impact (45:25) Three changes learning technology needs Connect with the guest: John Leh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnleh/  Explore Talented Learning: https://talentedlearning.com/  Follow me on the following sites: Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    46 min

  6. MAR 5

    Dave Derington’s Journey From Music to Customer Education

    Customer education shouldn’t stop at “You’re trained.” It’s just the start. What truly matters is whether a scientific approach to learning drives real outcomes, transforming how customers engage with your product and the results they achieve. In this episode, I get curious with Dave Derington, former scientist turned expert in customer education and Co-founder and Co-host of CELab. Dave’s journey began with science, veered to customer support, and ultimately led to becoming a key player in educational transformation. With his background in physics, chemistry, and even game design, Dave's unique blend of analytical thinking and creative problem-solving has made him a standout in customer education. We explore how Dave’s diverse background shaped his customer education approach, focusing on data-driven, hypothesis-based learning. He discusses how traditional training methods often fail to create lasting impact and stresses the need to understand the entire customer journey and build resonant educational experiences. At the core of this conversation is a simple idea: The future of customer education sits at the intersection of rigor and creativity, learning that’s experimental, engaging, and drives real impact. Some curious takeaways: AI can speed things up, but without judgment and QA it quickly turns into content noisePrioritise outcomes over completion by using hypotheses, data, and experimentationShip minimal viable learning quickly and keep content up-to-date with “zero-day” updates alongside product releases Episode highlights: (00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner (04:55) Why customer education needs more than just training (07:47) Customer education is about understanding the whole picture (11:14) The future of SaaS education lies in fluid roles (15:13) Good customer education balances speed, relevance, and flexibility (18:00) When to aim for certification or credentialling (20:14) Why AI needs a human navigator in customer education (23:26) AI handles the science, humans bring the art (30:32) The future of customer education is defined by context and care (33:47)  What we want to let go of and keep in customer education Connect with the guest: Dave Derington on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derington/  Explore CELab: https://customer.education/  Follow me on the following sites:Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    43 min

  7. MAR 4

    Customer Education As A Growth Engine

    Customer education is evolving. But is it driving real business impact or just more training? In Arc 3 of Harald’s Curious Corner, I explore the connection between skills, customer education, and performance. Through conversations with leaders across L&D and customer learning, one theme keeps surfacing: training alone isn’t enough. What matters is whether learning moves the needle on adoption, retention, and growth. This season involves discussion on why skills data is becoming foundational and why customer education must be built around real jobs to be done, not just content libraries. If you’re responsible for proving impact, aligning learning to business outcomes, or building a skills-based organisation, this arc will challenge how you think about customer education. Follow me on the following sites: Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    1 min

  8. FEB 26

    Hot Off the Press: Sentiment Survey Deep-dive

    This is a special episode of Harald’s Curious Corner, recorded right as the L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2026 is released and the conversation across our field starts to shift. Instead of a typical interview arc, this one is more of a pulse check from the survey’s results: what’s rising, what’s fading, and what it tells us about where L&D is heading next. To make sense of it, I sat down with Donald Taylor, L&D veteran researcher, strategist, and "pulse-taker" of the industry. Donald has chaired the Learning Technologies Conference for 25 years, and his annual survey has become one of the clearest signals we have on what L&D is thinking, worrying about, and moving towards. We talk about why AI has finally “topped out”, why learning analytics is slipping, and why “showing value” is climbing fast. But the real thread is identity. If content can be generated at ultra-low cost, the job can’t be “make more content”. It has to be getting closer to the business, mapping unknown territory, and proving impact in a way leaders actually understand. Some curious takeaways: Treat AI like electricity: it powers everything, but it is not the strategyStop falling in love with the tool and start falling in love with the problemIf you want to survive the pressure, build your network inside the business, not just your content library Episode highlights: (00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner (01:56) The biggest surprises in the L&D Global Sentiment Survey (07:37) Why experimentation and testing fast matters (10:16) What the survey’s challenge themes are really saying (14:10) How to apply the report’s insights to your strategy (17:13) What “AI topping out” actually means for L&D (20:16) Understanding the shift from personalisation to adaptive learning (27:17) The shift from learning analytics to “showing value” (29:53) How L&D can seize the opportunity amidst rising pressure (35:35) Three things Donald wants to add and remove in the survey Connect with the guest: Donald Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldhtaylor/ Download the Global Sentiment Survey 2026: https://donaldhtaylor.co.uk/research_base/global-sentiment-survey-2026/   Follow me on the following sites: Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/  Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/

    40 min
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About

Harald’s Curious Corner is where curiosity meets connection. Harald chases that question with a guest, gathers perspectives from voices across the industry, and then steps back to reflect on what it all means. The show unfolds like a story arc, part exploration, part roundtable, part reflection, blending imagination with analysis. The result: trusted insights, meaningful conversations, and forward-looking takeaways that shine a light on where learning is headed next.

Information

  • Creator
    Harald Overaa
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    21
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Harald Overaa