In Before The Lock is a podcast from Erica Kuhl and Brian Oblinger about community, customer experience, and leadership at scale. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and everywhere that podcasts are found.
🔓 89: To delete or not to delete
How to handle the archiving of old, outdated, and irrelevant content from your community.
🧵 88: A part of who they are
“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
Erica 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
Paola Johnson was promoted to Director, Community and Customer Advocacy at Thoughtspot
Jessica West joined Temporal Technologies to manage Developer Relations and Community
Caroline Valitutto joined Well Traveled as Community Manager
Matt Cross joined Pros & Content Community as Community Manager
Community User Guidelines:
🧵 86: It’s all about culture
“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
Erica and Brian dive deep on how to translate your strategy into action.
Community Industry News:
Krystal Wu joined OpenSpace as Sr. Community Program Manager
Jennifer Hudnet was promoted to Sr. Community Manager at Salesforce
Karolina Linda was promoted to Director of Community Management at Dynatrace
Sabrina Hockett was promoted to Manager, Community Advocacy and Marketing at Mulesoft
Aaron Weiss joined Procore Technologies as Senior Community Manager
Corey Denis was promoted to Head of Community, Social, Content - Small Business, CS at Intuit
Oana Filip joined Pixieset as Communication and Community Manager
Carmelito Bauer joined ZAM as Contractor Associate Community Manager
Translating Your Strategy To Action
Aftershow:
🧵 84: Don’t expect miracles
“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
Erica and Brian explore how Autodesk, Splunk, and Salesforce built pages for their superuser programs.
Community Industry News:
Superuser Program Pages:
🧵 82: A room full of mercenaries
“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
Erica 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
Celina Zamora joined ServiceNow as Community Engagement Manager & Strategist
Ben Garrison joined Zscaler as Technical Moderator and Knowledge Manager
Kimberly Ndola joined Wonder as Community & Content Strategist
Cat Martinez joined Twilio as Principal Developer Community Engagement Manager, Developer Programs
Donna Nicholson was promoted to Community Engagement Manager at Reddit
Melodie Malfa was promoted to Senior Community Manager at Yelp
Erin H was promoted to Community Engagement Manager at Reddit
Clare Stager joined Seed Health as Employee Experience and Internal Community Manager
Engagement Programs:
🧵 80: Get aligned
“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
Erica’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
Expanding the number of use cases your community addresses beyond Support.
🧵 77: Shattered
“How do you rebuild trust in a community where trust has been shattered?” — Cole Zerr
🔓 76: Combo pages
Erica and Brian explore Zendesk and Atlassian community landing pages.
Community Industry News:
Combo home pages:
Aftershow: #vanlife
🧵 75: We’re not that important
“How do you handle ‘turning off’ when your community is always on?” — Alex Angel
🔓 74: Leading thought
How to bring Thought Leadership into your community to expand your reach, engage senior personas, and inject your perspective into an industry.
Community Industry News:
Thought Leadership + Community:
🧵 73: Very boondoggle-y
“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
How 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
Victor Rubio Rivera was promoted to Sr. Manager, Community Engagement at Public.com
Jocelyn Hsu was promoted to Director, Creator Community at Picsart
Peter Broadley was promoted to Manager, Community Strategy and Engagement at CSA Group
Christopher Shernaman joined CiscoMeraki as Community Platform Operations Manager
Advocacy:
🧵 71: It ain’t dead
“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
“How can you gauge the 'health' of a community? What indicators or behaviors do you look for?” – Jessica Erhart