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.
🔓 110: Uniquely people-powered
Erica and Brian return to discuss the impact of AI on community, customer marketing, and education — and what to do about it.
🔓 109: Various forms of hybridity
Should your community be public, private, or a hybrid of both? What about free vs. paid? Erica and Brian break it all down.
🔓 108: The Ericas
And The Erica Goes To…Erica! 🏆🥳
Brian is joined by a gaggle of family, friends, and co-workers to present Erica with awards on her birthday.
🔓 107: Under the surface
Erica 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:
Resources:
🔓 106: The Golden Hoodie
Brian and Erica deep dive into customer awards programs and how to get them right.
🔓 105: Measurin’ vibes
Erica 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:
🔓 104: A really great activation
Erica and Brian talk about their favorite community activations for in-person conferences.
🔓 103: Part of the master plan
Brian 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
The 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:
🔓 101: They want the ugly
Erica and Brian navigate through developer landing pages and communities from Google, Salesforce, Apple, Visa, and more.
Developer Community
Developer Landing Pages/Communities:
🔓 100: Win the interview
Erica 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
Nick Emmett joined Alvaria as Senior Community & Knowledge Manager
Paul Bradley joined Kaplan as Vice President, Kaplan Community
Farhan Chowdry joined Deen Developers as Community Lead for Forge
Mattie Fairchild joined OP Lab as Head of Developer Relations
Top 10 interview questions and how to answer them:
Role Specific:
What has been the biggest thing you’ve learned at your current role that you think would be relevant to this role? How would it inform you in this role?
What was the most recent community program you built and how did you build it?
Tell me about what you saw when you looked at our community?
Strategy:
Provide an example where you encountered someone or a part of the organization that was not bought into Community. How did you overcome it?
How do you balance the needs of the community and the needs of the business?
What would you say is the most important element to building a vibrant community?
What level of resources do you expect to need to be successful with the community here?
Metrics/Measurement/ROI:
How did you measure success, what were your key metrics, and what insights did you draw from them?
Collaboration:
How have you brought community input/feedback to XYZ teams in your past experience?
Content Strategy:
What was your content strategy when building community?
🔓 99: Looking to break in
How 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…
How to get into the industry from scratch:
🔓 98: 10x Community Pros
Erica 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
Nicola Balkind joined Skillshare as Program & Community Manager, Creator Success
Traits of a “10x Community Pro”:
Business Acumen:
Outcome Focused:
Exec Comms:
Analytical + Storyteller:
People Leadership:
Budgets / Headcount / Resource Allocation:
Experience / Evidence of Repeatable Success:
Operationally Sound:
Curious / Lifelong Learner:
Personable / Social:
🔓 97: People, time, money, and outcomes
How to operationalize your plans and collaborate for success from pre-launch to maturity.
🔓 96: Our favorite things
On this special Thanksgiving episode, Erica and Brian dig into the things that make their personal and professional lives easier.
🔓 95: An expectation that you’re listening
How to get started collecting feedback and ideas from your community when you can’t commit to full-blown ideation and complex processes.
🧵 94: Popping up every day
“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
Why 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
Devan La Spisa was promoted to Manager, Community Engagement at Zendesk
Lisa Wilberding joined Grafana Labs as Customer & Community Manager
Arielle Nissenblatt joined SquadCast.fm as Head of Community & Content
Olga Koenig joined mogenius as Community and Developer Relations Manager
Monique van den Berg was promoted to Head of Online Communities at Atlassian
Community During a Downturn
🧵 92: Early indicators
“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
How to make navigating your community intuitive and fast for your users.
Community Industry News:
Navigation: