In this episode of The Disruptive Leader, Ranya interviews Kevin Dunn, Senior Manager of Customer Education and Community at Airtable and former leader of HubSpot Academy.
They dive deep into customer education, community building, and AI’s impact on these initiatives.
Episode Highlights:
- Kevin’s transition from HubSpot to Airtable and the challenges of building a customer education program from scratch
- The launch of Airtable Academy and its expansion to all users
- The dual impact of customer education: empowering individuals and driving business growth
- Challenges in creating and maintaining educational content for rapidly evolving tech products
- Insights from Kevin’s experience hosting the Agency Unfiltered podcast
- The importance of integrating learning management systems with other business tools to measure ROI
- How project management principles influence the development of educational initiatives
- The role of AI in revolutionizing content creation for customer education programs
- Kevin’s approach to building high-performing teams and fostering a culture of transparency and trust
- Essential advice for aspiring talent looking to launch academies or communities
Key Takeaways:
- Customer education programs can significantly impact both individual growth and company revenue.
- Integrating educational data with other business metrics is crucial for demonstrating ROI.
- AI is becoming an essential tool in streamlining content creation for education programs.
- A successful education program requires a deep understanding of customer needs and experiences.
- Transparency, trust, and empowering team autonomy are crucial for high-performing teams.
Notable Quotes:
- “Certified or educated customers yield better, more sophisticated product usage. And we anticipate it will yield a positive Delta on things like retention and renewal.” – Kevin Dunn.
- “The folks that can embed AI into the curriculum development process are going to replace the ones that don’t.” – Kevin Dunn on the impact of AI in customer education.
- “You just have to treat your teams and collaborators, your direct reports. They’re humans, and I care deeply about them and their work. And you’ll be able to get better and more direct at feedback and create a high-performance culture.” – Kevin Dunn on leadership.
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Kevin Dunn on LinkedIn for more customer education and community-building insights.
