Latest / The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers / Reality Bytes #25 - DEX and Learning

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Reality Bytes #25 - DEX and Learning · The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers

• 0:01
  Welcome it, Changemakers to the Deck Show with Tim Flower and Tom McGraw.
• 0:07
  Let's get into it. Hello, changemakers, Welcome back to the Deck Shows
• 0:12
  show within a show within a show, which is one of those episodes of
• 0:16
  reality bites where we get to talk to a fellow next thinker. And when
• 0:21
  we started this show, we just thought that we know we work with a
• 0:24
  lot of fascinating people, we know we work for a fascinating company. This
• 0:27
  is just a great opportunity to make more shows, have more guests, cover
• 0:32
  more topics, and of course it has it has developed into precisely that.
• 0:37
  But one of the things I'm really struck by as well when I look back
• 0:40
  on these episodes that we've done, is the way that we're sort of also
• 0:43
  gradually building up a portrait of the modern tech vendor in terms of where we're
• 0:49
  moving. We're moving across all different departments, we're moving across different technical capacities,
• 0:55
  different marketing capacities. And it's not just that we're giving you a sort
• 0:59
  of hope, not just with giving a monotonous next thing self portrait, but
• 1:03
  that we're looking at what the exigencies are in a company such as this,
• 1:07
  and we're using them as ways of opening up into wider perspectives on the industry
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  at large and on technology today. And this was certainly occurring to me when
• 1:18
  I when I considered the guests we were talking to today. She's Agascar Busca.
• 1:23
  I may have massacred your name, Maga. You can tell me about
• 1:26
  in a second. She's product education manager for Product Operations. And it's just
• 1:30
  a really fascinating person that we work with who is all about the sort of
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  development of a product and the conveying of product knowledge to its users, which
• 1:41
  is I think a really important and interesting topic. So let me welcome you
• 1:44
  Agative the show. We're very very glad to have you on for the first
• 1:47
  time. How are you feeling today? Thanks? So, I'm feeling great.
• 1:49
  And you'll pronounce my name and a perfect way. I do you believe
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  her? I don't know. I'll say thank you very much, certainly,
• 1:59
  and we would I a sort of gave a perhaps of the best overview of
• 2:04
  your role. However, good my name pronunciation was it? But maybe you
• 2:08
  should maybe you should explain explain it to us first of all yourself. Sure.
• 2:13
  Thanks, So, As as you've mentioned Tom, I'm a product education
• 2:15
  manager with next Thing for one and a half years or right now, and
• 2:21
  in my role, I design and execute strategies to provide the best learning experience
• 2:24
  for Nexting users. So you know, in very simple words, I help
• 2:29
  Nexting employees, partners and customers just easily learn about our products. And as
• 2:32
  you can imagine, I don't do that alone. I work with a great
• 2:38
  team of technical writers, instructional designers, and learning management system coordinators who developed
• 2:45
  together with me, who develop an update our learning content for each product release
• 2:50
  that we have just to ensure that it follows the evolution of our products.
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  And in our small team, we also didn't do this alone. We work
• 2:59
  with product managers who are our subject under experts if it comes to product and
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  also with a great team of various enablement experts across next Thing to make sure
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  that each and every next Thing users is taken care and can quickly learn about
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  our products. Fantastic and something I've always wanted I get interested to your answers
• 3:20
  today is what's your background? How did you get into this space? And
• 3:24
  also what do you think makes you so well suited to it? Sure?
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  So I think you know, I think I'm well suited because I'm a big
• 3:32
  EmPATH and also a storyteller. I can easily understand the needs of other people,
• 3:39
  including the you know, the learning needs, and I create stories that
• 3:43
  are meaningful to others and help them to learn. So let me tell a
• 3:46
  story about myself and how I get here. I was born in Poland in
• 3:52
  the early eighties and the communism times, where everything around me was just a
• 3:55
  little bit gray and you couldn't see, like there were not many colors around
• 4:00
  me. So as a kid, I read many books that brought that color
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  and joy. And through these books, I became really fascinated with stories and
• 4:08
  other people's perspectives, and I wanted to change this great world around me,
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  you know. And my initial idea was to do this through influencing organizations and
• 4:16
  societies, you know, those kind of dreams that kids have. So I
• 4:20
  follow my dream. I obtained a master's degree in sociology, and later on
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  I understood that the change starts on the individual level and mainly through change of
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  skills, attitude, and perspective. And that's why I became a certified trainer
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  and then coach, working in the system psychonomic approach, meaning systems, you
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  know, those big organizations changing them That was my dream, and psychodynamic means
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  really working with the individual on those things that sometimes you don't even realize you
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  have and just to change the perspectives. And then in the past eighteen years,
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  I've worked with various business organizations such as ABB or BA shall ubs,
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  helping them develop various recruitment and learning strategies and programs, just shaping the way
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  how these organizations change themselves in those particular areas like controlling for ABB where I
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  did them was responsible for trainings, global trainings around controlling or security at at
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  ubs and just changing the world around also those organizations via learning others and in
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  my current role at Next Thing, I helped to tell the story about dex
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  why the experience of employees is more important than ever and how Next Thing Infinity
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  can help other organizations achieve this goal. M amazing. So one thing I
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  was also curious with regards I getive a sort of large space is how would
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  you articulate the tension between innovation number one hand, and usability on the other
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  In the browder B to B space brought to B to B software space specific
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  quickly and where does training and certification enter in that and what does it got
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  to be careful of as a practice. Yes, so innovation allows organization to
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  develop themselves and their employees, clients, partners. And then innovation means change
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  and changes a natural part of our lives, of course, but it also
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  requires more effort at the individual level, employee level and organizational level, and
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  then effort to change processes and technologies, learn new ways of working, develop
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  new skills, and then training and other learning programs. They simply help organizations
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  and employees get go smoothly through the change, quickly learn new technologies and processes
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  and become experts again. And I think it's particularly important in the B to
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  B space, where those technologies that are being offered are a bit more sophisticated
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  and therefore require some more time to be adopted. Well, I forgot in
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  my excitement to welcome you, Aga, I did neglect to mention I believe
• 7:04
  we're joined also by Sean Andina. We're always joined on video shows by the
• 7:09
  Reality Bites, by representatives for Reality Bites Crew. So let me now hand
• 7:15
  the mic cover to Sean, who I know has brought some questions for you.
• 7:16
  Also, Hey Sean, Hey did Hey? Everyone hi Aga, thanks
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  for joining us today. I just had a couple of questions. I was
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  curious, like, when you first came to next think what stood out to
• 7:28
  you about the technology, and then did you see anywhere where you could find
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  the biggest impact for training in certification modules. Sure? So definitely Nexting technology
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  for me makes a difference on the three levels, individual, organizational, and
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  global. I think individual because each and every employee who has Nexting Collector installed
• 7:51
  on their own device doesn't really need any more to worry about the issues related
• 7:58
  to the workplace and can focus on the day to day tasks. So that's
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  where our technology makes a difference on the individual level. If it comes to
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  the organizational level, our technology help our clients not only take care about employee
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  well being related to the digital experience, but also help helps optimize processes and
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  save costs. And finally, global level, we make a difference because Nexting
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  offers technology that helps the light employees at work and we change the business words
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  the mindset of the business world related to the human experience at work, and
• 8:39
  Nexting technology brings that great insight with its seed diagnosed fixed integration capabilities. However,
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  those capabilities they might be unknown among our new clients and partners, our
• 8:50
  new hires joining Nexting existing clients and partners. And here's where the training and
• 8:54
  certifications come in place. So with our learning materials that we have, we
• 9:00
  help Nexting users quickly learn how to bring the digital employee experience to the next
• 9:05
  level and basically how to benefit the most from all the capabilities that next Thing
• 9:09
  technology provides to all the users. Excellent, And I guess I assume you're
• 9:13
  quite hands on with the products, right like, so I'm curious to know
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  what do you think of the differences between your perspective on it, because you're
• 9:24
  pretty close to the product and then the people that you're trying to help.
• 9:28
  Is there much of a gap there that you have to bridge or how is
• 9:31
  that relationship? M Yes, and it's an interesting question. So I am
• 9:37
  actually the first one I would say, to learn about Nexting products before we
• 9:43
  make them available to any other users. So for me, what I do
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  is I very often put a hot on my head, this head of an
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  Nexting user who doesn't know much about the product um and then that's it's very
• 10:01
  important for me to have this beginner's mindset because that helps me to understand what
• 10:07
  our users expect from our product and also from the trainings that we provide from
• 10:13
  any kind of educational material. And only then after I become an expert,
• 10:18
  work with our subject matter experts, our product managers and all other next thinkers
• 10:24
  who know more about the product than I do, and I slowly become experts
• 10:28
  and with the team, I then provide the share that knowledge about the product
• 10:33
  and help other people develop the skills. So it's every time, it's just
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  you know, being having finding this balance between having this beginner's mindset and being
• 10:43
  an expert. I would say, good balance. That's that would be the
• 10:48
  key thing for me. That sounds great. I'm curious if you actually get
• 10:52
  to put on a physical hat, maybe like a cowboy hat or something else.
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  Maybe just something to think about to really get into it, you know,
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  but not what what my friends always tell me. They usually see me
• 11:03
  with sunglasses. I have the head. But yeah, that works more or
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  less. It's maybe that this this thing I have instead, So for I
• 11:13
  had another credit, I guess for existing nexting users, folks that are quite
• 11:18
  familiar with the product, how would you describe your relationship with them? Are
• 11:22
  you working closely with them once they become familiar with the next Thing product or
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  try to walk us through that relationship if there is one. Yeah. So,
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  so it's critical to be close to nexting users and customers UM for me
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  to hear them and their needs and at the same time, you know,
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  to understand those needs. I don't need to bother our customers with meetings and
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  questions. UM. I'm of course at their disposal when questions arise, when
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  they would like to show ideas or feedback, also by our customer success team
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  and through various meetings I attend UM. But then the main way how I
• 12:00
  like feedback as I constantly identify the learning needs through the feedback phones that we
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  make available at the end of each online course. And it's important to me
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  that I do not spend a lot of time bathering customers unless they ask me
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  for because learning is all about just being at the right moment and at the
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  right time. So the main goal for us is to help customers quickly use
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  the product and only they need to get some help then when learning comes into
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  place. But definitely what we also do is together with the UX team at
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  next Week, will also run researchers, surveys, interviews related to product education
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  to make sure that what we offer, if it comes to education, is
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  exactly fitted into the needs of our partners and clients. That is really great,
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  A can you talk us through the process for you as it starts,
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  for instance, with a new product coming down the pipe, how do you
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  anticipate, how do you prepare and how do you start to get involved?
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  Sure, so learning development starts with learning needs analysis, and I would say,
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  as you can see, probably I'm very structured person, so I also
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  have here like three levels, I would say, and I want to share
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  with you. I do the analysis when I start developing the training on a
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  level of related to new products. So learning needs related to new products.
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  What nexting users need to know about our new products to quickly get up to
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  speed before at the moment we release a new products, or sometimes even before
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  for those next in users who participate in our elder Adopters programs. I also
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  do the analysis of the learning needs related to the existing products that change.
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  So what's changing, what changes? What challenges the existing users my encounter?
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  Well, learning about the new version of our product and how to proactively help
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  users overcome those challenges because they always some it's a natural thing. And this
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  is where I find the responses to those challenges in the format of a small
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  trainings, some extra information sharing notes for our administrators, etc. And then
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  also there is an important part and the analysis I do around learning needs analysis
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  related to particular roles. So what problems users try to solve using next thing
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  depending on their role and how they can how I can help them use Nexting
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  capabilities in the smartest way to achieve their particular goals. So there'll be different
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  learning needs for our nexting users who are Nexting admins, but also other for
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  next wing managers and other for it support teams who level one support teams for
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  example, who sometimes don't even open our nexting web interface because they are able
• 14:56
  to use the smart amplify so solution. And that's um, that's when I
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  start, and after what we do with the team, as we we have
• 15:07
  the different ways and methods to help our users to learn, and we develop
• 15:13
  content and offer them in various ways. I would say, But then learning
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  needs analysis is the starting point. And then monitoring the and collecting the feedback
• 15:22
  about our solutions. It's also that that that it closes the cycle. I
• 15:28
  would say, Um, and allows us to constantly, um, deliver new
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  content and develop the existing content. Very good structured approach. I think it's
• 15:39
  it's very clear and it's obviously imperative. At the next thing that it's a
• 15:43
  highly usable platform. So why is training such an important part of the organization.
• 15:52
  Yes, it's a it's a very good question, um And let me
• 15:56
  maybe start with to answer. Let me start with one story. So imagine
• 16:02
  we all buy an air conditioner. It's pretty hot in different parts of the
• 16:07
  world right now, so that's kind of a thing that some people buy.
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  And let's say, DNA, what you're gonna do as you buy that in
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  conditioner, but before turning it on for the first time, you're gonna actually
• 16:21
  read the instruction, read the guide, and just to learn the theory about
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  how it works. You don't really want to press any button before you read
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  it. That's your style. Maybe, Tom, what you're gonna do is
• 16:34
  you want to learn about the experiences of others or with using that particular model,
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  So you're going to jump into YouTube and listen to a video of someone
• 16:41
  who've already used that model. Sean, you might be having a different approach.
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  You're gonna read the forums and exchange some comments on that particular model with
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  the others. Share your thoughts, read about the other thoughts. What I
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  am I gonna do is I will just simply press the buttons, start using
• 16:57
  the earth conditioner, and I will read an instruction or try to find extra
• 17:03
  resources only if I encounter some problems, and we all would react in different
• 17:08
  ways because we have different learning styles. That's natural and all of the people
• 17:15
  do have different learning styles. And for those users nexting users with those different
• 17:19
  learning styles, we have really a great offering. So for those who like
• 17:26
  to first go through the theory before jumping into our product, we have a
• 17:30
  comprehensive online documentation. For these users who like to learn by experience just read
• 17:38
  other stories like this YouTube video about air conditioner. Who would like to learn
• 17:45
  more about the what different clients encounter, we have our online courses on a
• 17:48
  learned portal. In those courses, we have a company called Canopy Corp.
• 17:53
  With different characters in different roles in it departments with different challenges related to it
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  and we explain how to solve them with next thing and if users would like
• 18:04
  to learn a bit more. In addition to those stories, exchange ideas,
• 18:08
  lend through reflection, debate's knowledge sharing. We have live webinars at next Thing
• 18:15
  that allowed to Nexting users to meet other next Wing users from other companies also
• 18:19
  next Thing experts and just discuss about the product. And finally, if you
• 18:25
  are like in my example myself, you just turn next Thing without reading anything,
• 18:30
  like you turn an air conditioner, you can just turn. You can
• 18:33
  just go to next Wing web interface and finder and in product documentation on each
• 18:40
  page. If you have a problem, you just simply open a panel on
• 18:44
  that is available on the right side of the next Thing page, find more
• 18:48
  information with the links to even more resources. And that's how you can learn
• 18:52
  on the job. So those different ways of learning help next thinkers to and
• 19:00
  clients and partners to easily adopt the product. And even if the platform is
• 19:07
  easy to use, we all like to start using in different ways. Like
• 19:11
  we approach everything that is new to us like in that air conditioner story,
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  great approach and love the variety of resources that we have that matches up the
• 19:22
  different kinds of levels. So this year, as we've covered frequently on the
• 19:27
  show, it's a real bumper year for innovation at next Thing. Can you
• 19:33
  give your unique perspective on the opportunities that these new products offer for the customers,
• 19:38
  old customers, new customers, and different professional profiles. Yes, so
• 19:45
  you know, when I look at what products we have already released this year
• 19:49
  and what we are about to release, I can say that this year's innovation
• 19:55
  is around mainly simplification and also automate. For example, Amplify introduced at the
• 20:03
  beginning of this year, it allows level one support teams to quickly solve employee
• 20:07
  issues without the end user involvement. It's simplification and also Experienced Central launched in
• 20:14
  Q one this year, it helps IT leaders to proactively build a next driven
• 20:18
  organization. And with Nexting Assist announced in Q two, those customers who have
• 20:25
  no time or willingness to learn our nexting query language preferred to just easily jump
• 20:32
  into the product. They can do advanced investigations using the AI powered assistant.
• 20:37
  And finally, we will soon introduce a new product that will help users see,
• 20:40
  diagnose, and fix recurring complex IT issues with really minimum minimum human innovation.
• 20:47
  And that's about automation. So I would say simplification and automation, that's
• 20:52
  what innovation means. For next thing. This year for me at least,
• 20:57
  can it be a busy year for your aga? It is? It is,
• 21:02
  it's exciting, it's it's amazing, that's quite it. That's quite a
• 21:06
  journey you've made personally and professionally, ben It. So it's one of the
• 21:08
  best stories we've had here from a Next thinker and being an absolute pleasure having
• 21:14
  you on the show. Igger. It's such an interesting topic think learning and
• 21:17
  best of luck with your with your very busy year, and thanks so much
• 21:19
  for coming on the deck Shot. We'd love to have you back. Thank
• 21:22
  you again. It was great to be here with you. Thank you so
• 21:26
  much. To make sure that you never miss an episode, subscribe to the
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  show in Apple podcast Spotify, your favorite podcast player, and if you're listening
• 21:37
  on Apple Podcasts, make sure to leave a rating of the show. Just
• 21:40
  have the number of stars you think the podcast deserves. If you'd like to
• 21:44
  learn more about how next Think can help you improve your digital employee experience,
• 21:48
  head over to nextthink dot com. Thank you so much for listening. Until
• 21:52
  next time,