CELab: The Customer Education Lab

In this episode we welcome Katie Felton - Director of Academies, Global Education Services at Anthology Inc. to continue our exploration into Pricing and Packaging for Customer Education. This episode dives deep into the world of customer education programs for software companies, featuring an EdTech expert. Here are some key highlights: Launching a Unified Academy: Learn how a company with 40+ products overcame language and product alignment challenges to create a single training platform. Pricing & Packaging Strategies: Discover how to price software training subscriptions based on contract value and explore tiered pricing models with real-world examples. Balancing Revenue & Customer Success: We discuss the importance of creating valuable training content that supports customer success, even when it impacts revenue generation in the short term. Merging Product Training & Professional Learning: Explore the benefits and challenges of combining product training with broader professional development programs. Sales & Marketing Alignment: Get insights on how to handle customer discount requests and ensure marketing and sales teams are aligned. If you're involved in the EdTech industry or building customer education programs for software products, this episode is packed with valuable insights!

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.