When contemplating a career switch from education to software a few years back – as nervous as I was to make the leap – I was confident my teaching skillset would serve me well. Looking back, I think I underestimated the relevance of my experience. The parallels between teaching and working in a startup are pretty striking after all: long-term planning and project management? Check. Inter- personal skills and written communication? Check. On-the-fly adaptability and resilience working under deadline in a stressful environment? Well, you get the picture. What I didn’t expect was how the deeper professional knowledge and educational theory I had accumulated over 12 years could be directly applied to onboarding. Educational theory might not be the first place you’ll look when to trying to build software. But a few key concepts will help your users get the information they need, when they need it.
When it comes to guiding customers to success, a one-size-fits-all approach just won’t work. Instead, try differentiating your onboarding so all types of customers can master your product. I spent 12 years as an educator, designing curriculums and making sure every student truly learned the subject matter.
One of the fundamental challenges of teaching is that not every student
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker