In Before The Lock
107 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago -In Before The Lock is a podcast from Erica Kuhl and Brian Oblinger about community, customer experience, and leadership at scale.
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Episodes
🔓 107: Under the surface
April 09, 2024 04:00 - 1 hour - 33.6 MBErica and Brian talk about the bones of your community and how they work together to create a cohesive experience. Previous episodes about the “above the surface” bits: 🔓 76: Combo pages 🔓 91: A list of links 🔓 101: They want the ugly Resources: Structures & Modalities Examples Permissions & Roles Template
🔓 106: The Golden Hoodie
March 05, 2024 05:00 - 1 hour - 45.6 MBBrian and Erica deep dive into customer awards programs and how to get them right. 🔓 5: A whole bag of crap The Golden Hoodie Alteryx Excellence Awards
🔓 105: Measurin’ vibes
January 30, 2024 14:48 - 55 minutes - 26.1 MBErica and Brian push back hard on the idea that measuring community ROI isn’t important (we can’t believe we had to talk about this or are typing this right now, but here we are). Measurement resources: 🔓 8: Just say No to Page Views 🔓 9: Everyone wants a cool dashboard 🧵 70: Behaviors and indicators 🧵 92: Early indicators Community Metrics Template Erica’s blog: It’s All About That Data Brian’s presentation on measuring ROI Course: Community Measurement Fundamentals
🔓 104: A really great activation
December 12, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 45.9 MBErica and Brian talk about their favorite community activations for in-person conferences.
🔓 103: Part of the master plan
September 12, 2023 04:00 - 25 minutes - 12.7 MBBrian and Erica discuss the launch of Community Strategy Academy. Use code INBEFORE at checkout for 15% off of any course, bundle, or membership.
🔓 102: Scale, success, service, and hubs
July 11, 2023 04:00 - 52 minutes - 25.2 MBThe state of the market, why Customer Success is driving community inside of organizations, and how we can partner to deliver value. Resources about CS + Community: Podcast: 🔓 34: The “S” stands for “Success” Blog: Building Scalable Customer Success Through Communities
🔓 101: They want the ugly
March 21, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 37.5 MBErica and Brian navigate through developer landing pages and communities from Google, Salesforce, Apple, Visa, and more. Developer Community 🔓 60: Just a couple lines of code Developer Landing Pages/Communities: Google Developers Salesforce Developers Apple Developers Intel Developer Zone Fusion Fabric Developers SAP Developers Visa Developer Center
🔓 100: Win the interview
January 19, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 35.5 MBErica and Brian run down the most common interview questions and how to answer them. Community Industry News: Quinn McCully joined Vesta as Community Management and Engagement Specialist Maren Hamilton was promoted to Director of Social & Community at The North Face Ami Defesche joined The Wildcard Alliance as Director of Community Corey Strausman joined Weights & Biases as Community Manager, Growth Dominique Farrar joined Quantive as Director of Community Nick Emmett joi...
🔓 99: Looking to break in
January 03, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 33.7 MBHow to build a career in community from scratch. Community Industry News: Hugh Lashbrooke joined Constantia.io as Director of Community Melissa Spinella was promoted to Principal Community Manager at UKG A word on Generative AI and communities… Giving ChatGPT a spin with community queries A thread about potential community use cases StackOverflow is already trying to ban AI-generated code samples How to get into the industry from scratch: Evan’s top 10 list
🔓 98: 10x Community Pros
December 20, 2022 05:00 - 1 hour - 46.9 MBErica and Brian talk through the traits and skills required to become an elite community professional and people to look to for inspiration. Community Industry News: Amanda Boyle was promoted to Director of Community Engagement at GitHub Christina Brashear joined Colibra as Senior Manager, Community Success Erin Mikail Staples joined Heartex as Senior Developer Community Advocate Sean Dahlberg joined Cisco as Head of Developer Community Nicola Balkind joined Skillshare as Pr...
🔓 97: People, time, money, and outcomes
December 06, 2022 14:44 - 58 minutes - 27 MBHow to operationalize your plans and collaborate for success from pre-launch to maturity. Community Industry News: Holly Rieke joined Board International as Director of Community Jay Elango joined Sprinklr as Community Manager Allison Fasching joined LogicMontior as Director of Customer Community Nichol Goldstein was promoted to Community Manager at Progress Daniel Cmejla joined Apollo.io as Vice President of Community
🔓 96: Our favorite things
November 22, 2022 05:00 - 1 hour - 29.1 MBOn this special Thanksgiving episode, Erica and Brian dig into the things that make their personal and professional lives easier. Community Industry News: Anne Mbugua joined Analog Devices as Community Content Manager Neval Dalgic joined BARTKA INOVASYON as Community Lead Francisco Fonseca joined Lymbus as Community Manager Biswajeeta Rath was promoted to Senior Online Community Manager at BMC Dennis Lemoine was promoted to Principal Community Experiences Program Manager at ...
🔓 95: An expectation that you’re listening
November 08, 2022 05:00 - 52 minutes - 24.3 MBHow to get started collecting feedback and ideas from your community when you can’t commit to full-blown ideation and complex processes. Community Industry News: Jessica Mendez joined Contentsquare as CX Specialist, Community Manager Steven Demoya joined TelevisaUnivision as Help Center Community Manager Mariana Rodriguez joined Coinshift as Community Manager V.J. Watkins joined FinancialForce as Community Manager Faruq Hammed joined RECUR as Community Manager Rima Sengup...
🧵 94: Popping up every day
November 01, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.15 MB“There are lots of new community platforms and tools coming up. How to keep up with all of them?” — Tiffany Oda
🔓 93: Do more with less
October 25, 2022 04:00 - 56 minutes - 26.7 MBWhy community is one of the best investments a company can make during an economic downturn. Community Industry News: Rachel Basoco joined Fidelity Investments as Digital Communities Advancement and Growth Director Jeffrey Roe joined DecisionLink as Senior Community Manager Manouska Jeantus joined Miro as Community Lead Blake Ethridge joined Plex Systems as Community Manager Devan La Spisa was promoted to Manager, Community Engagement at Zendesk Lisa Wilberding joined Gr...
🧵 92: Early indicators
October 04, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 3.03 MB“What do you do if you don’t have access to relevant data to be able to measure the impact your community efforts are having on the business?” — Alex Angel
🔓 91: A list of links
September 27, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 31 MBHow to make navigating your community intuitive and fast for your users. Community Industry News: Colleen Curtis joined Reddit Will Manchin joined AWS as Senior Community Manager Vera DeVera joined Vareto as Head of Community Lauren Clevenger joined Block as Square's Global Head of Seller Community Adrian’s book is out. Go get it. Navigation: Comcast Portal Community Swisscom Optimizely Apple Fitbit Bunnings
🧵 90: Opportunities
September 20, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.55 MB“Thinking more about ambassador programs. The problem with most is that the benefits to the ambassador don’t immediately benefit them personally or professionally. I think that needs to change. Any good examples from programs you’ve seen?” — Joshua Grose
🔓 89: To delete or not to delete
September 13, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 28 MBHow to handle the archiving of old, outdated, and irrelevant content from your community. Community Industry News: Work with Brian Work with Alex Angel Work with Noele Flowers Maria Ogneva was promoted to Sr. Director, Community and Customer Marketing at Invoca Andrew Mishalove joined Matillion as VP, Community Michael Pascucci joined Validity, Inc as Sr. Manager, Online Customer Community Mike Rizzo joined Stack Moxie to assist with community Francis Murphy joined Bra...
🧵 88: A part of who they are
September 06, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.67 MB“What are some crucial qualities of a community leader? Do you suggest promoting from within and how do I know who to target?” — Kelly Klein
🔓 87: Acceptable trash talk
August 30, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 37.6 MBErica and Brian take a close look at how to create compelling community user guidelines. Community Industry News: Evan Patterson joined tender.ai as Head of Community & Partnerships Lizzie LaCour joined Softr as Community Lead Gabrielle Leith joined Grapevine as Community Manager Paola Johnson was promoted to Director, Community and Customer Advocacy at Thoughtspot Kristen Meren joined TalkBase as Community Manager Jessica West joined Temporal Technologies to manage Devel...
🧵 86: It’s all about culture
August 23, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 2.97 MB“Are there certain company characteristics that are indicators whether a community will have a higher chance of success?” — Brian Koffler
🔓 85: A map of your brain
August 16, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 29.1 MBErica and Brian dive deep on how to translate your strategy into action. Community Industry News: Danhel Fajardo joined Vyond as Senior Community Specialist Jephtah Abu joined AhoyConnect as Product Community Manager Krystal Wu joined OpenSpace as Sr. Community Program Manager Dani Weinstein joined SAP as Director, Community Strategy Jennifer Hudnet was promoted to Sr. Community Manager at Salesforce Karolina Linda was promoted to Director of Community Management at Dynat...
🧵 84: Don’t expect miracles
August 09, 2022 04:00 - 8 minutes - 4.24 MB“What are the biggest things you tell companies to watch out for when they come to you with the idea of ‘I want to launch a customer community’ for the first time?” — Udit Lakhotia
🔓 83: Expert elitism
August 02, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 31.2 MBErica and Brian explore how Autodesk, Splunk, and Salesforce built pages for their superuser programs. Community Industry News: DL Grant joined Commsor as Community Operations Manager Isabel Ruiz joined Mews as Community Manager Cody A. was promoted to Community Support Specialist at Reddit Mike H. was promoted to Community Engagement Manager at Reddit Leah Knowles joined Vanta as Community Lead Thea Silayro joined G2i as Community Manager Melissa Ly joined Auditboard a...
🧵 82: A room full of mercenaries
July 26, 2022 04:00 - 7 minutes - 3.65 MB“NFT and Web3 communities: does financial incentive dilute the sense of community? Is financial incentive/interest a good 'common interest'?” — Ilker Akansel
🔓 81: I love a good seasonal engagement program
July 19, 2022 04:00 - 45 minutes - 21.6 MBErica and Brian explore how OpenSpace and Guru delivered great engagement programs. Community Industry News: Valentina Ruffoni joined Disciple Media as Community Experience Lead Caroline Park joined Atlassian as Senior Manager, Community Engagement Kristie Presten joined Tasktop as Community Manager Carla Doty was promoted to Community Director at Yelp Celina Zamora joined ServiceNow as Community Engagement Manager & Strategist Shane Whaley joined FareHarbor as Head of Com...
🧵 80: Get aligned
July 12, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.18 MB“How best to approach when you work for an org that already has a wider community - but you're asked to build a secondary community for something more niche? The wider community is managed by a different department than yours, also.” — Gabrielle Leith
🔓 79: Even Littler Erica
July 09, 2022 06:00 - 21 minutes - 10.3 MBErica’s Mom, Donna, joins Brian on this extra-special birthday episode to talk about an award Erica won in high school, her history as a criminal mastermind, and how the daughter of a dentist became addicted to candy. Happy Birthday, Erica! 🥳
🔓 78: Begin again
July 05, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 30.7 MBExpanding the number of use cases your community addresses beyond Support. Community Industry News: Sarah Wylie joined 6sense as Communities Marketing Manager Lauri Wansley joined HubSpot as Senior Manager, Community Managers Karina Meza was promoted to Community Manager at Fiverr Amanda Petersen joined Siemens as Community Innovation and Incubation Lead Angela Keck joined Understood as Senior Community Manager Saumya Bagga was promoted to Manager, User Community Support...
🧵 77: Shattered
June 28, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 1.83 MB“How do you rebuild trust in a community where trust has been shattered?” — Cole Zerr
🔓 76: Combo pages
June 21, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 35.5 MBErica and Brian explore Zendesk and Atlassian community landing pages. Community Industry News: Katharina Koidl joined Equalture to run Community & Events Emily Lakin was promoted to Head of Creator Community at Patreon Yurii Lazaruk joined CodeControl as Community Manager Ramona Hategan joined Nordcloud as Community Manager Punnya P joined Gurucul as Manager of Online Global Communities Grace Cheung was promoted to Sr. Manager, Community & Social at Lattice Danny Wurst...
🧵 75: We’re not that important
June 14, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.24 MB“How do you handle 'turning off' when your community is always on?” — Alex Angel
🔓 74: Leading thought
June 07, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 33.1 MBHow to bring Thought Leadership into your community to expand your reach, engage senior personas, and inject your perspective into an industry. Community Industry News: Brittany Edwards joined NinjaOne as Technical Content and Community Manager Tracy Maurer joined LumApps as Customer Community Manager Ricardo Navaro joined Stripe as Developer Community Marketing, Global Lead Jami Diaz joined LG NOVA as Sr. Manager, Ecosystem Community Thought Leadership + Community: Communi...
🧵 73: Very boondoggle-y
May 31, 2022 04:00 - 6 minutes - 3.18 MB“What are your thoughts on an in-person Community summit? When is a good time in the Community lifecycle to consider hosting one? What benefits/ROI do you expect from it?” — Lauren
🔓 72: People who say nice things
May 24, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 34 MBHow to build a successful advocacy program. Community Industry News: Jessa Brown joined Alma as Senior Manager, Community Engagement Tess Brown joined Outreach as Senior Program Manager, Community Engagement Marjorie Anderson joined Product School as Director of Community Manuel Hernández joined Thrivable as VP, Community & Partnerships IIham Boulghallat joined Cisco as Head of Community Programs Samantha Sorscher joined Fiverr as Team Lead, Community & Social Impact Vi...
🧵 71: It ain’t dead
May 17, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.09 MB“How do you see the role of email in connecting with your community? And how do you see it changing?” – Hannah Whalen
🧵 70: Behaviors and indicators
May 10, 2022 04:00 - 2 minutes - 1.71 MB“How can you gauge the 'health' of a community? What indicators or behaviors do you look for?” – Jessica Erhart
🧵 69: It pains me to this day
May 03, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.54 MB“What is one thing you wish you’d done better in the early days of your community careers?” – Scott Baldwin
🔓 68: The real work begins
April 26, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 31.4 MBErica and Brian discuss the actions and activities you need to engage in directly after launching your community. Community Industry News: Aima Atigari joined Remotebase as Community Manager Tom Norman joined Craft Docs as Community Manager Lalitha Wemel joined TechStars as Global Director, Engagement and Community Nofar Ben Dror Paecht joined AppsFlyer as Head of Customer Community Margaux Miller was promoted to Director of Community at Toptal Maria Perminova was promoted...
🧵 67: Stuck in a loop
April 19, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.62 MB"Growing into management is an exciting opportunity, however, the team still isn’t large enough for you to step away from the IC work (yet). How do you balance the player / coach model in Community?" — Krystal Wu
🔓 66: Like magic
April 12, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 35 MBTaking an integrated approach to building the dream customer community experience. Community Industry News: Chitra HL joined Oracle as CX Community Manager Holly Schell joined Paper as Community Engagement Specialist Madeline Johannsen was promoted to Team Lead, Multimedia Community Content at Alteryx Jodi Meier joined Juniper Networks as Community Engagement Lead Cheryl Rasmussen was promoted to Manager of Community, Strategy, and Development at Palo Alto Networks Joshua...
🧵 65: Try a bunch of stuff
April 05, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.36 MB“How can I manage and set engagement expectations/goals when our community members don’t use our service/product everyday therefore may not interact daily/weekly with a community space?” — Hannah Rafter
🔓 64: Inception
March 29, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 32.5 MBHow to persuade others through the use of an age old framework. Community Industry News: Vincent Mayers joined Gradle as Director, Community Operations Vinicius Camilo joined Distrito as Investor Community Manager Ahmet Uysal joined Sunrise UPC as Community Manager Tuvy Le was promoted to Senior Program Manager at Github Nic Tolstoshev joined Gravitee as Senior Community Manager Saumya Bagga was promoted to Senior Community Specialist at G2 Robert McIntosh joined beThi...
🧵 63: Just two?
March 22, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.32 MB“What would be your strategy for a community that holds two distinct personas? In this case, HR managers / People Ops and then their employees? Essentially these two different audiences would be coming together into one community.” — Lizzie LaCour
🔓 62: Read the room
March 15, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 48.7 MBPresenting your strategy to an executive audience. Community Industry News: Sweta Shetty joined Hindustan Times as Community Manager Amanda Martin was promoted to Head of Community at Unbounce Kemi Kale was promoted to Head of Community Management, Community and Impact at Meta Jelena Zanko was promoted to Director, Community Management at Imply Commsor raises $50M in a Series B round Brian joined Commsor as SVP, New Products Community-Led Product Ideas Survey Executi...
🧵 61: We have a couple
March 08, 2022 05:00 - 1 minute - 1.05 MB“What are the top reasons you see new communities fail?” — Vishwas Katti Brought to you by Commsor.
🔓 60: Just a couple lines of code
March 01, 2022 05:00 - 55 minutes - 25.7 MBDeveloper communities and working with DevRel. 🇺🇦 Community Industry News: Ashley Dodge promoted to VP, Community at Copado Luiza Drăghicean joined AhoyConnect as Community & Growth Advisor Michael Shillingford was promoted to Director of Community at Brandwatch Delphin Miloudi-Druelle joined Lifestory as Community Sidekick Michel Da Silva promoted to Senior Community Strategist at Khoros Mattie Fairchild joined Manticore Games as Senior Director, Community and DevRel ...
🧵 59: A big difference
February 22, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 1.33 MB“What differentiating values, if any, do you see in having a new customer join a community versus one who has been using your product for a good amount of time?” — Avi Lekowsky Brought to you by Commsor.
🔓 58: Be yourself
February 15, 2022 05:00 - 1 hour - 35.1 MBHow to tell your story and build your personal brand. Community Industry News: Linda Haviland was promoted to Lead Community Manager at DataRobot Sara Leslie joined Katalon as Sr. Director, Online Communities Daliya Spasova joined Kong as Community Manager Logan Ouellette joined Pleo as Events and Community Manager Sourav Das joined NimbleEdge as Community Manager Sara Maloney joined Wellthy as Program Manager, Community Jana Iris joined PlanetScale as Head of Communit...