Organizations are changing in a SaaS world. Education organizations are not just being paired with Services organizations anymore as learning is no longer a “point in time” or “bum in seat” services type activity. It’s a continuous, subscription-based, expert-infused experience – well at least it’s starting to be. It’s becoming a part of the customer experience and we are starting to see learning & development partnering with customer success, support, products etc. This is exciting!
Learning teams continue to play such an important role in customer adoption and success and have been in the business of customer success for years. Now more than ever we need to attach learning strategically across marketing, pre-sales, sales, services, and post activities in order increase adoption, retention, company revenues and decrease cost.
In my last company becoming the Chief Customer Officer after being the Chief Knowledge Officer, bringing together Customer Experience, Knowledge Services, Customer Support, Product Management and Renewals, allowed us to iterate and innovate a first of a kind take on the Customer Journey.
We embedded learning right into the company’s operational process, from product market fit to pre-sales and all the way to renewals (connecting the product strategy with customer care, learning and adoption). This led to measurable adoption impact and high product renewals.
We also created a new Digital Knowledge Network, which was featured at the fall CEdMA (Computer Education Management Association https://www.cedma.org/) conference, that provided an entirely new experience for learners (customer, partner, employee). Leveraging AI technology (curtesy of Coveo) and a one stop shop knowledge model, we created a unique digital platform for learning & adoption. This inspires me to think about the future…at LearnExperts, we think about the future of learning and how to create a differentiated Education as a Service platform and experience. More to come on this…and has been lots of fun to imagine and create.
As Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and innovative technology continues to advance, I believe our learning world will disrupt quickly. Education organizations should anticipate how it will disrupt and be center stage: positioning themselves as the customer adoption and success experts, driving the adoption and stickiness of technology in impactful ways. This is what CEOs will care about as they are measured on stickiness, hyper-focused on new ways to drive adoption faster.
I believe AI will automate learning & adoption, so we need to imagine what that might look like, what our role will be as adoption organizations, and how we augment. Maybe there will be a new role to emerge as Chief Adoption Officer? <huge smile> The facts tell us that digital learning is outpacing instructor-led – humans are adopting digital options now (we thought that would happen 10 years ago). Disruption of traditional learning has passed, now the disruption of digital learning as we know it is coming…I believe it will be much faster than the transition of instructor-led to self-directed. So, let’s get talking about this!
People want to learn & adopt quicker than ever, especially if it can help them do something faster with bigger impact. If you need help building your learning program with customer adoption at the center, LearnExperts can help!
This post was originally featured through CEdMA. If you’re looking for a great Technology Education Association to join, this is an amazing one – built by Education business experts and run by the members. I’ve made many friends and advisors over the years who could relate to exactly what stage, set of challenges, and passion I had in the Education space.