CELab: The Customer Education Lab CELab

How do we price our Customer Education programs? It's a hugely challenging task, even for the experienced - and one that CELab listeners have asked for!



We welcome Mindy Barenblat to the show - an Austin-based an education & enablement strategist and consultant, formerly GM/VP of Education Service at Blackbaud and Eloqua. Tune as we discuss:




Subscription-based learning model with ala carte options



Integrating training with product sales



Pricing and packaging for software products



Integrating training with product sales.

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