Webinar Recap
The recent Intellum webinar titled "Tearing Down the Walls: The Next Stage of Customer Learning at Atlassian" took the audience on a journey through Atlassian's transformative approach in educational strategies. Shannon Howard, the Director of Customer and Content Marketing, along with key speakers Dave and Marshall from Atlassian, led the discussion.
The main focus here was on the ambitious move from traditional P&L-focused educational services to democratization and widespread access to learning materials. Marshall Lee, Director of Customer Education at Atlassian, explained how this transition began around 2020, emphasizing a shift from paid to free on-demand courses, removing barriers to entry. He noted, "The largest barrier to entry was any amount of payment period."
By reimagining the Atlassian learning ecosystem, they adopted an approach integrating learning into the flow of work and empowering users to personalize their learning experiences. This involved rebuilds like breaking free from the confines of a centralized, single LMS system to deploying modular, readily accessible content hosted on a headless content management system.
Partnering with community members has been a highlight, according to Lee, who pointed out, "We're seeing what happens when we empower our community members to co-create with us." This collaboration not only sped up content creation but introduced a varied array of learning experiences shaped by user demand and creativity.
A significant outcome has been the engagement statistics: those who participated in education programs showcased a sustained increase in product engagement, with numbers indicating up to 2.5 times more activity than those who did not engage. This tangible success has justified internal investment in learning as a core component of customer and product success strategies.
Reflecting on future aspirations, the conversation pivoted to insights drawn from experimental strategies like the successful use of social media as a novel avenue for distributing learning content. The approach displaying a blend of entertainment and instruction has significantly ramped up outside interest and engagement in Atlassian's educational offerings. Kevin, a new team member's words, illustrated this best: by designing for platforms like YouTube from the start, rather than adapting existing content, "it blew all of our previous attempts at social learning out of the water."
Finally, looking ahead, Atlassian teased the opening of new prospects for community co-designed learning experiences and intended to maintain momentum in integrating these innovative educational strategies into their operations globally.
