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Are you an educator and looking for something new? Recently I have been working with several start-up organizations looking to build out their Customer Education offerings for the first time. Finding resources that are tech savvy and have a firm command of learning and design is a major challenge. So there is demand in the market for someone that understands the basics of learning theory,  the difference between teaching and telling, and can break down complex topics into consumable learning objects. 

But many have trouble transferring those skills from academia to the tech world. These two industries are vastly different in the ways in which learning priorities are set, the volume of targeted learners, and--most importantly--what timelines you face in tech versus traditional education.

Having made this transition myself, here are some recommendations that can help you on your journey:

1. Don't just go into "tech".  Are you interested in cyber security? Does social media annoy you or do you love it? Are you someone who likes to create things from scratch? Do you have an eye for design and think of a 100 ways to improve the usability of a: (web page | application | operating system)? Try to find something specific in Tech that interests you and motivates you to learn more. Once you have found your passion, it is time to research.

2. Try out some Tech education certifications, courses, content to learn new skills. Here are some things to try:

1. • Go get certified on an application you love, like an Adobe Certification, Oracle Certifications, or any one of a hundred more that are out there.

   • Using your skills in learning and development critique the snot (yes, that's a technical term) out of the education experience you have.  Chances are you will find things that could have been done better. Note them and experiment with how you might implement them at scale for 1,000 of learners. 

   • Go build a website or cell phone app from scratch. Experiment. Check out how you can build a mobile app without code in 8 steps.

3. Learn from those that have done so already or are also in the process of making this transition. Check out the Customer Education Laboratories podcast, for starters. Don't be shy about doing some old-fashioned informational interviews with those that are instructional designers, customer education leaders or technical trainers.

4. Be prepared to step into a very different culture of communication, both verbal and written. Tech values efficiency. So, brevity in verbal communication and succinct, often acronym rich written  communication is the norm.  This can be frustrating to many I have worked with that are coming from different industries. Plan on it taking at least a few months to get used to the mode of communication in software and technology work environments.  Find a good acronym list and give yourself time to research and read up on related technology, development methodologies, coding languages, etc. even if you are not going directly into programming. 

Oh, and once you have done all of that, don't forget to hit me up. Chances are I am looking for someone with your skills. Good luck!

If your education program consists of videos, docs and some Customer Success onboarding sessions, you are planning your revolution armed with a slingshot. 

A strategic education plan can bring everyone along in the revolution, not just your product champions. When you are developing your growth strategy to increase feature usage, add-on tools, or just to expand the footprint of your product within your existing customer base, a learning strategy can be essential.

If your product is "disruptive" or if you are looking to fundamentally change the way a target group of users perform work on a daily basis, a video, knowledge sharing session, or a really slick user interface is often not enough to get them over our natural tendency to resist change. Humans  are creatures of habit. It is part of us. In general, people do not change behavior from passive learning. 

That being said, with most new, innovative products, you will find that a small percentage, around 10 - 12%, will catch onto your solution and become your product champions. If you are tracking a penetration of product usage within your user population of 10 - 12% it is entirely possible that the videos, docs, and initial onboarding sessions are having little to no effect on the remaining 88 - 90% of your users.  

Early on in your product development lifecycle, the quick growth of product champions may lead you to believe that everything is working just fine. Once you get into large expansion of potential users it becomes apparent that you are missing a critical portion of your user population.  A solid education strategy not only provides a step-by-step guide for the non-early adopters to obtain value from your solution but, more importantly, creates a path for them to grow into product champions. Thus shoring up a pipeline of advocates while you continue to expand and grow.

Contact Education with Efficiency today to learn how a responsive and well-structured education program can be a secret weapon for your market revolution.

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