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.
🔓 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
🧵 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
🧵 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
🔓 78: Begin again
Expanding the number of use cases your community addresses beyond Support.
🔓 62: Read the room
Presenting your strategy to an executive audience.
Community Industry News:
Executive readouts and alignment:
Elements we discussed:
Opportunity Statement/Why
Scope
Research
Company/Community Goals
Business ROI
Health Metrics/Benchmarks
Integrated Approach/Collaboration
Strategy Components
Personas
Programs
Staffing Plans/Resources Required
Platforms
Milestones & Roadmap
Next Steps
Aftershow: