Customers are smart, and they are usually pretty familiar with our product. They use it all the time and have figured out a lot of the tips and tricks to make it work for their environment. To reach this point, customers sometimes need to contact Customer Support. And, incoming requests are more often created to check if there is a feature that can do what they have in mind, and less to report that something doesn’t work as expected. We connect everyday with new users who are trying to get familiar with their new TalentLMS portal, or old users who, as they admit, have the memory of a goldfish, and all start with the same line: "I would like to do X. So, where is this button?" Sometimes, things are easy, and our structure and service matches the expectations of our customers. But there are also times that there is not a simple button for performing an action, or our system has not been designed in the way users happen to need, which turns out to be frustrating. But we’ve noticed a strange paradox: it’s when your customers have a problem and you fix it that they are actually even more satisfied than if they never had a problem in the first place. This phenomenon makes the job more challenging for our team and leads to new exciting features. Inspired from such cases, it’s worth mentioning an existing feature that has saved much time for our customers and a new feature that it will be much appreciated when it soon arrives: the Custom Reports, and a new Action button that assigns courses to users depending on the "score" of the user within the course. Custom Reports If you are registered to a Plus plan or higher, then you most probably have noticed that you have access to custom reports. You missed that? Too bad! With Custom Reports you can create coherent reports, run filtered lists of learners and then perform mass actions on them. Have you ever thought about how you can remove a course from a group of users? It can be easily done by creating a custom report under the event "select users that belong to group", run the report and then select to unenroll users from the course from the mass action button. Cool, eh? New Action How neat would it be to assign courses based on the score a learner gets on a course? Well, from the next release this feature will become available. Sweet! Let’s see how this feature works: A learner who needs training on handling a particular type of machines completes a course with a 60% passing score. He can be automatically assigned to the next course, "Machine Basics". On the other hand, a learner that gets a 95% passing score on the same course will be assigned to the course "Advanced Machines". If your user requires more training, give it to him! All you need to do is to set up the rule from the Events Engine, and Actions, and the rest are taken care from the system. Note that the course score is calculated from the average scores of all completed Tests & Assignments within the course. TalentLMS features are born from your ideas and needs! TalentLMS features are born from your ideas and needs!Click To Tweet eLearning is constantly changing, and having a tool that can really train people with less effort for you is a great advantage. And, from our part, providing a team that can listen to your thoughts and turn them into features is a feature in and of itself. So, the next time you wonder, "Where is this button?", it all starts with a small click here.   About the author: Maria is the Customer Support and Training Assistant for TalentLMS. She likes solving problems and helping people get the best out of their eLearning portal. The post Where is this button? appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Is it truly possible to create a rapid eLearning program? It really depends on who is creating the program and what they are using to create it. Rapid eLearning is not a magic solution to hopelessly lengthy content that needs to be consolidated into "digestible chunks". Nor is it the learning objective contest where an instructional designer decides which one makes it to the eLearning program and which one is struck out. Rapid eLearning implementation is a skill acquired by instructional designers over the years. There are several criteria that help edit lengthy content to fit into a rapid eLearning program. In this article, we’ll share the top practices for economizing a subject area into a quick learning fix. First things first, what is rapid eLearning? Rapid eLearning is any of these: An eLearning program that can be developed in less than a month The primary resource for the program is the SME Complete content is available in the form of PowerPoint slides or PDF Assessment with feedback and tracking capabilities are present An eLearning program that can be completed in an hour or two If you need a program that complies with these points, you have your hands on a rapid eLearning program. If you are pressed for time and are working on projects simultaneously, rapid eLearning may be your best bet. But that does not mean a compromise on quality of content and experience. How can you create effective rapid eLearning courses? 1. Find the authoring tool that works best for you The right authoring tool does not necessarily mean the most expensive or the best selling one. Choose a tool that is easy to use and understand - one with a short learning curve. Also, the tool should yield a quick "first view" of the course. This means that you should be able to see your end product while you are still working on the process. Note that many course authoring tools provide prototyping. They also contain a wide array of wizards and themes to quickly create the course. The layout, navigation, glossary, resources and many other important sections are built-in and ready to use. Rapid prototyping also has provisions for multi-device and platform testing. 2. Create a template for anything you can Talk to your organization, particularly to the line managers who need to see performance updates in employees. What style of communication and content delivery works best? Create one master template that everyone is comfortable with. Use this template for all your prototypes. This helps cut time from moving back and forth between managers and SME. It also helps create the right mood for learning. Learners are gradually sensitized to the master template and are able to realize their learning expectations. They are also familiar with the structure of the template. A couple of quick tips to follow for template design: Make sure your eLearning template is device-independent. It should be experienced easily and smoothly on all types of devices and operating systems. Keep in mind the various learning styles of your audiences. Integrate multimedia like videos, audio, interactive text and references accordingly. Include reinforcement exercises for each module. Try to create a game-format to keep things engaging and interesting. Make use of the concept of Learning Objects and try to create content in a re-usable fashion from the get-go. It not only saves time, it also ensures uniformity and consistency. 3. Prototype, change, repeat A blueprint of your eLearning program is extremely important to get an accurate response from your stakeholders/clients. Ideally, you should work on a very simple storyboard that incorporates some basic rules. Work on the prototype immediately after working with the client. This ensures you tie in all requirements early and both you and the client have a mutual agreement on the project. Changes at this stage are also less drastic and more forgiving. It is more important to integrate changes in the in-process prototype than a complete prototype. A rough sketch or a basic prototype is all you need in the planning stages. In case the client is not happy, you can always go another way by re-starting the prototype design. 4. Ask for feedback, fast After you have shared the prototype with the client, and once you enter the development phase, you need to do one more thing in between. Create a "first impression" or a "first look" model of your eLearning project using the actual design elements (font, style, colors, the breakdown of the flow, etc). Create at least one complete module and share with the client for feedback. Remember, frequent feedback is the only way to get things right. Include details on page design, the navigation, the course structure, the image descriptions, interactivity features and any important design detail. Share any new changes immediately with the client to receive a quick sign-off. 5. Keep yourself updated We cannot stress the importance of this point enough. Keeping yourself up to date with the latest eLearning tools is the key to getting things done faster. Latest tool updates also include latest versions, so keep your tools updated! Revising your skills ensures that you have access to technology tools that aid in speeding up your development process. For example, some course authoring tools offer platform-independent resolution capabilities. This means that, no matter what the resolution of the viewing device, your eLearning solutions will always be displayed with the correct quality. Now this and many such updates like these can earn you a good reputation, quickly. 6. Diversify your team’s skills Apart from updating your professional skills, you also need to ensure your team is updated. Is there a need for a new position? Is your existing team lacking skills? For example, many instructional designers simply hit a wall when they set out to implement their designs. This is because of their limited development capabilities. A programmer or a graphic designer will quickly be able to make up for the lack of development capabilities. Instruction design and eLearning development is truly a team effort. 7. Evaluate the initial structure Ensure the entire navigation and flow of your program follows the desired sequence of your storyline. Share this with the client for any last-minute changes. Locking in the flow and navigation really helps build things faster. It also helps identify what else is needed. Rapid eLearning is not just about prototyping and outlining design. Rather, these actions help define loops, gaps and surpluses in your design. Rapid eLearning is about excellent client relationship and satisfaction. Follow these six steps to achieve faster eLearning production and smoother future projects. The post From Idea To Course: The 7 Steps Towards Rapid eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

For individuals of a team to work well together, they must have boundaries around the work that they contribute.  The team itself has boundaries that must be clear to stakeholders in the business.  Defining these boundaries explicitly is rarely done or communicated.  Team engagement is at risk when the boundaries are unclear internally or externally.  The leader and team can use these exercises  to make the boundaries internal and external explicit. Want and Have People want to make an impact.  They want to be engaged and in community with others who are also engaged and making an impact.  When things are hectic, individuals and teams often need to step back and 'repack their bags'.  Here are four questions (from Mike Donahue) that I like to reset: What do I HAVE that I WANT?What do I HAVE that I DON'T WANT?What do I not HAVE that I WANT?What do I not HAVE that I DON'T WANT? Start with individual team members answering these questions alone, and share with the team for clarity and alignment. Role Clarity Revisit individual team member roles to ensure that they align to individual jobs and team boundaries.   Competency models for roles are lengthy and difficult to keep top of mind, so I prefer to have each individual carve out 3-5 Key Accountabilities.  A Key Accountability defines a critical, measurable outcome that a role must deliver for the organization to be successful.  If your group finds this challenging, start with these four things to wordsmith a Key Accountability:AUDIENCE - what is the role, for example, Supervisor of a Call Center?BEHAVIOR - what must this role deliver (done), for example, Track Escalated Calls?CONDITION - are there specific job aids, frequency or conditions, for example, Monthly?DEGREE - how will 'done' be measured, for example, 100% accuracy using the Call Center Dashboard by end of month? Purpose Many start to develop teams with this step, but building on the knowns (what I personally Want/Have, my specific role) is a safe path to seeing the big picture of a shared purpose.  Work up from the weeds of the first two SCOPE activities first to build trust in the team. This is the single easiest way to engage a team and without it, disengage a team. The Purpose Statement answers the following questions:Who are our stakeholders / customers /  constituents?What value do we bring to them?  How do they measure our value?  Do we measure it the same way? What emotional words resonate with our sense of purpose? There's a simple process for creating a team Purpose Statement (some might call this vision or mission):  use three verbs and one noun. Although the process is simple, agreeing on the final product is not.  Use these facilitation steps to move from divergent to convergent:List all the verbs on a flip-chart.  There's no critique here, just brainstorming.List possible nouns on a flip-chart.  Again, just brainstorming.Finish the 'puzzle' by finding three verbs and a noun (with a couple of other words if necessary to sound correct) that resonates with the entire team. Here's a sample of the process using my personal Purpose Statement: Verbs: learn, lead, affirm, grow, nurture, develop, build, affirm, sustainNouns: people, team, leadership, growth, self, profit, quality, engagement Final version  (after much adjusting…)I ignite, affirm and sustain learning in self and others.   Notice I've added a couple of words to make it sensible.  If I am emotional self-aware and notice myself getting stressed, I can repeat these words to myself to self-regulate.  Does my stress have anything to do with my Purpose?  Usually not.  This is useful for individual team members as well as the team as a whole.  ​Consider asking the team members to craft an individual Purpose Statement first, and then work together to create a team version.  Continue to reinforce and remind each other of the purpose when the team or individuals run into conflict.

We should never underestimate the personal transition that individuals go through as they move from one level to the next.

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Record Keeping: Performance, Conduct & Ethics Adapted from an article by Emma Pratt - October 27, 2016 In this digital age issues around record keeping are often a source of angst and sometimes confusion for coaches. Throw in the data protection and privacy laws that prevail in different geographies and guidance provided by professional bodies and it can be hard to see the wood for the trees. This brief article attempts to lay down some working principles for record keeping and some strategies to help you apply them. Working Principles By way of a disclaimer, the principles outlined below are the opinion of the author and do not constitute legal advice. If you wish to get a formal legal opinion you should make contact with a lawyer specialising in Privacy & Data Protection in your legal jurisdiction. Respecting Confidentiality Confidential client information should: Be stored securely (whether offline or online). Many in this era of cyber-theft think about the possibility of being hacked but of equal concern could be paper records that are left on a desk overnight for the someone to read, records locked in a filing cabinet that are destroyed by floods or simply leaving your briefcase on the bus or train Only be shared if you are legally permitted to do and if it is in the client’s best interest Be retained for as long as it may usefully be required or for a period which is legally mandated. Many professions (and commissioners) require you to hold records for defined periods of time (such as 8 years) and in these scenarios this requirement takes precedence over the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) guidance which states that records should be held for no longer than is necessary. Maintain Accurate Records Your records should be a comprehensive, clear and accurate representation of the coaching that you provided. In essence, this means that records should be written so that anyone, including the client, can understand your notes without your input. Many who use profession-specific notation take exception to this interpretation but regardless of your viewpoint as the movement towards client engagement, transparency and note-sharing (with clients) advances it’s likely to mean that your notes will need to be readable by a non professional, most notably the person paying the bill. They must also be completed as soon as possible after coaching has been provided. Obviously, this point is open to interpretation but having discussed it with many supervisors and practice owners the general consensus appears to be within 24 hours. If you disagree with this timeframe (and many do) consider a scenario where you see several clients per day and you write up your notes 2 days after you’ve seen a client. Then imagine being cross-examined by a prosecution lawyer in a criminal negligence case about your ability to recall the exact details of one consultation amongst 16-20 un-recorded consultations. Skills Development Whilst you may not view this as a conventional "record keeping" activity most coaches are required to maintain and develop their knowledge and skills. With this in mind, it makes sense to keep a full and accurate log of when, what and how CPD (Continuing Professional Development) was undertaken. Consent You should maintain a record of the fact that your client has granted you the right to work with them. Record Keeping Strategies The following strategies assume the use of a practice management system of some sort rather than a paper-based record keeping system. Confidentiality Your system should: Be password protected Encrypted in flight (as the information is transmitted over the internet) Be backed up daily (minimum) and to a separate physical location by the service provider Be capable of long-term retention and immediate deletion dependent upon circumstances Be capable of revoking access to users remotely Be capable of limiting access by user role so that users who don’t need to see sensitive information don’t get access to it Accurate Records Your system should be capable of: Time/date stamping notes so that you have a definitive (unalterable) record of when the note or assessment was made. Locking down notes or assessments after a defined period of time so that they cannot be retrospectively amended Capturing text-based notes with appropriate tools to aid assessment, coaching and outcomes, including annotation tools, images etc Skills Tracking Your system should be capable of recording time spent on CPD as well as details about the activity that was undertaken. In addition, it is advantageous if the system can provide some sort of auditable list of the CPD activity that you have undertaken over a given period of time. Consent Your system should be capable of recording that consent has been granted along with a time/date stamp of when it was granted. The post Record Keeping: Performance, Conduct & Ethics appeared first on The Performance Solution.

Learn the three conditions that we as leaders should be setting for our teams to create and execute innovative change.

While growing up in the ’90s, I was always a sucker for stories that involved the hero stating that they’re "putting together a team". Movies like this always followed a very specific formula and were made up of standard cinematic elements that filled my younger self with a sense of delight and wonder. It was around this time that I was introduced to the 1960 production of The Magnificent Seven - a piece of cinema history that rightfully earned its place in the US National Film Registry as a culturally, historically and aesthetically important film that should be preserved for generations to come. In lieu of the recent 2016 remake, the 1960 masterpiece (itself in turn a reimagining of 1954’s Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai) has leapt back into the collective forefront and its portrayal of a rag-tag bunch of guns-for-hire by a star-studded cast of Hollywood greats has stuck in my mind as an awesome inspiration point for working as part of a team, especially in today’s workplace. Sure - working together with a group of colleagues on a project may not be as glamorous or glorious as helping to defend a helpless, penniless village from a band of murderous, marauding thieves. However, I have never been happier in my line of work than when collaborating successfully with a team, each of us filling in our niche (or not so niche) roles, and striving towards a common goal. Teamwork vs. Group work It is important to understand some of the subtle differences between a team and a group. Even though linguistically the words are sometimes used interchangeably, notice, for example, that we refer to a group of football players as a "football team". Inversely, football teams are pooled together and play against each other as opponents in the "Group Stage". The main difference is that the team’s strength comes from each individual’s commitment to the team’s common, and well-defined, goal, like "Win the Premiere League Cup", "defend the helpless village", that sort of thing. Groups, on the other hand, can be better defined as collections of like-minded individuals who have formed up for a reason, for a more general cause - for example, a special interest group. When applied to a work environment, the differences become more pronounced. We have all worked as part of a group, either in our professional careers or as part of our schooling. Members within groups tend to work almost completely interdependently of each other, perhaps they’re even comprised of individuals from different departments. There is often a clearly defined leader or manager who dominates the group’s decisions, assigns roles, and expects clear results. When putting together a work team, however, the definitions change. Within the work team it is not uncommon that the leader operates as a facilitator: essentially responsible for pooling together the talent they feel is required to accomplish the team’s goal. Team members can work completely interdependently, however they tend to work more successfully as part of a whole. Teams often come together to discuss their progress or findings, and reach a collective decision as to how the team will achieve their definition of success. In teams, it is far more common to see work assigned very specifically and according to an individuals’ strengths or weaknesses, in favour of serving the team’s overarching goal. It is at this point where the importance of specialisation within the team becomes an observable part of a team’s effectiveness. A team of specialists Yul Brynner’s character in the 1960 Western brings together a colourful arrangement of gunslingers, for an assortment of reasons. Within the rag-tag group, in both the original film and the remake, are individuals who are highly specialised in certain aspects of combat or survival: the Tracker, the Sharp-shooter, the Thief, the Demolitions Expert etc. The list of potential tropes is endless when it comes to creating charters for the silver screen. The element to keep in mind in the real world is that the team’s success and survival depends on what each individual can bring to the table that is both similar and different to the other members within the team. It is of vital importance that the team has common elements among them: for example, a certain degree of skill, or a certain level of professionalism. However, it is the team’s variety within unity which increases their chance of success, up to "sevenfold" (pun intended). It is fortunate that as of late, particularly when it comes to product design and user experience design, companies are observably moving more so towards hiring capable designers with specialised experience among them as opposed to the outdated model of expecting newly hired design team members to wear many different hats, assume multiple unrelated roles, all of which can lead to persons who are jacks of all trade, yet masters of none. Our work here is done It is an amazing feeling to be part of a team that "just works". I can recall an episode from my career where our team entered a corporate hackathon, and we had just 48 hours to design and develop a working concept for a mobile application. Our Creative Director knew the team well, and it showed in how quickly we all filled out our niche roles and started working as a collective and cohesive unit: who could bang out 30 unique icons in an hour, who could get straight to work wireframing the concept, and who should be coming up the rear applying beautiful UI elements and an overall styling to the project before handing over assets? The end result was an outstanding success, and each member of the team felt both valued and valuable. 48 hours later we rode into the sunset on horseback, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction, and stronger bonds between us as a team. So next time you find yourself in need of defending a penniless village, or of creating your next killer-app, think about whether you want to assign just any odd group, or a lone-wolf freelance designer to work on the project, or if you want to form up a specialised team who you trust will get the job done, each in their own way to the best of their abilities. Until next time partner!   About the author: After travelling the world over for years as an English Language Teaching consultant, George specialized in designing UI/UX solutions for businesses for mobile and desktop devices. He is excited to bring his background in both education and design with him to TalentLMS. The post The Magnificent Seven: The importance of specialisation within teamwork appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes at Epignosis HQ, home to the makers of TalentLMS and eFrontPro, so you can have a steady stream of releases and the top class support that comes with them. In this post, we’ll have a look at a non exhaustive list of tools, products and services that our various teams use to get their work done. Xero - Accounting We use Xero to stay ahead of our accounting, and it does the job smoothly and efficiently. We especially appreciate the real-time consolidation of invoicing with bank accounts that helps us know exactly where we stand financially. Salesforce - CRM We picked Salesforce among several competitors mainly due to its deep functionality and status as the de facto standard CRM platform. Its current interface could use some retouching, but there’s an upcoming UI update, codenamed Lightning, that seems pretty solid. Stripe - Subscriptions We can’t say enough good things about Stripe. Having worked with PayPal in the past, we found the ease of getting started with Stripe rejuvenating. Their service understands developers needs — and that shows in every possible way. OneSkyApp - Translations We use OneSkyApp to translate our products in various languages. The best part is the tight integration between the core translation software and a universal community of translators. In the past, we used Transifex and its Gengo integration. It worked fine but started getting too costly. Sorry Transifex, but maybe lower your price? Rackspace - Infrastructure We decided on Rackspace as our hosting provider for two main reasons: simplicity (compared to providers like Amazon it was much easier to be productive) and support (they offered unlimited chat based support, which was something not offered by most big hosting providers). Rackspace is also on par with Amazon on industry certifications and other important metrics. Not that cheap, though. Amazon S3 & Amazon Cloudfront - Storage & CDN Our "hybrid" hosting environment blends Rackspace with Amazon’s S3 for long term storage of customer files. We opted for S3 due to its combination of low cost, security and flexibility. On top of it, we leverage Amazon’s Cloudfront as our CDN solution. S3 and Cloudfront are not that easy to work with, compared to Rackspace’s Cloud Files solution, but they are much more flexible and cost-effective. Sparkpost - Transactional emails For a long time we used Mandrill for our transactional emails (the emails that are sent through the application). However, after the Mandrill fiasco, we had to look for an alternative solution. We didn’t have to look far, though, as Sparkpost offered a painless and affordable migration process. Mailchimp - Newsletters We use Mailchimp to send newsletters to our growing communities. It is a solid product with rich functionality and very good deliverability — both of which come at a price. G Suite - Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Calendar We use Google’s suite of business productivity solutions for handling company email, file sharing, and meetings scheduling. It is from Google, so you know that it works. Asana - Project management Asana is our choice for "light" product management. Most of the company’s projects are run through Asana. An added benefit is the transparency that it offers on the inner workings of the company. Everyone can be kept informed on what all the other teams are doing without a formal meeting or communication session. Slack - Thematic communication We are not yet fully committed on Slack, but seems like a nice alternative to Skype’s informational chaos. Having all conversations in a searchable system is the biggest benefit I see, combined with the kind of transparency that is also present in Asana. Skype & Skype Manager - VOIP We are heavy users of Skype for informal, day-to-day communication. A simple internal rule is that as long as you are "green" on skype, you are working. We also use it to support our international phone numbers through its VOIP functionality. Google Analytics - Traffic analysis Whatever Google’s reasons for creating this and giving it for free may be, we can’t really complain for such a deep and usable product for traffic analysis. Semrush - SEO optimization Semrush is one of those products that you cannot believe exist. It is the Swiss army knife of the marketeer, giving us insight on our competition, website SEO and myriads of other types of information. Inspectlet - Insights on visitors Inspectlet records the sessions of your visitors on your website and lets you review afterwards. This helps your marketing department understand how specific individuals interact with your site, where they spend most of their time, and what they find unimportant. It helped us spot some improvement opportunities that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Ninja Outreach - Outreach Backlinks and guest blogging is a standard way to increase your traffic. It can, however, be really complex to find people that are relevant to your industry and communicate with them efficiently. This is where Ninja Outreach comes to the rescue, as it can automate this process in several meaningful ways. Unbounce - Landing pages We use Unbounce to build landing pages and A/B test them in the context of various marketing activities. This a full-featured product that helps your marketing team perform many different tests without bothering your programmers and designers. Hackpad - Documents collaboration We are heavy users of Hackpad for real-time content editing. One way or another, all our documents pass through Hackpad. We like the program because of its usability, no-brain sharing tools, and flat learning curve. Instabug - Tracking mobile applications We are building a number of mobile applications at the moment, and Instabug solves an important problem we had; that of tracking crashes and allowing end-users to send meaningful feedback. I especially like the ability to take screenshots and add comments on them. Workable - Hiring Hiring is an integral part of the growing process of a company, and Epignosis does a lot of both (growing and hiring). Workable helps us keep this process organized, while also offering a searchable built-in CV library. InterviewZen - Programming tests Speaking of hiring, take a look on InterviewZen. This little gem of a service allows you to create programming challenges and record the programmers while they try to solve it. This process can give you incredible insight on the skills and seniority of a programmer. Uservoice & Zendesk - Support Support is an essential part of our offering. We currently support customers via Uservoice (for TalentLMS) and Zendesk (for eFrontPro). Both products have their pros and cons, with Zendesk being a more complete product and Uservoice having a feature-voting mechanism which we find invaluable for prioritizing further development. BrowserStack - Browser compatibility If you have worked on support then you understand what it means to have a client saying that your app does not work on some old version of an obsolete browser. BrowserStack has a convenient answer to this problem, as it lets you test your application on any browser you can imagine. GitHub - All the code you can eat We use GitHub to control the development of our software. Despite a number of stability issues now and then, GitHub has nailed it when it comes to the usability and flexibility aspect of managing big software projects. What I really like is the ability to mention issues on software commits that then become comments on related open issues. Adobe Creative Cloud - Photoshop and more The tools of choice for most senior designers, Adobe Creative Cloud includes the full Adobe suite of products, but most importantly, Photoshop and Illustrator. Balsamiq - Low fidelity mockups Balsamiq is a joy to use for creating low fidelity prototypes. Our team uses it to sketch the flow of our apps before building more detailed photoshop mockups and designs. This process saves enormous amounts of time for our designers and product owners. Invision - Collaborate on designs Efficiently collaborating on design prototypes is a difficult problem. Invision tackles it in a efficient way by letting people comment directly on designs. Zeplin - Design specifics Zeplin is another little gem that improves the communication between designers and programmers. It allows programmers to get details like spacing, colors and font selections directly from designs. GotoMeeting & Zoom.us - Video conferencing We often conduct product presentations to potential clients through GotoMeeting and Zoom.us. Both are nice and rather inexpensive products that you can also use to host Webinars. Baremetrics & Chartmogul - KPIs Keeping track of the health of your SAAS is important. Baremetrics and Chartmogul are two excellent products that can help you digest your numbers. We use both, as each has a subset of different features that we find useful. Chartmogul offers more opportunities to slice and dice your data, while Baremetrics is generally more visually attractive. UptimeRobot - Stay alive There are numerous tools that help you build a status page for your service. The main benefit is that they reassure your customers you can maintain a good uptime record. They can also be used internally as a notification service for your operation team in case of an emergency. We opted in favor of UptimeRobot due to its minimal design and price. 99Designs & UpWork - Freelancers for micro tasks We have used 99Designs and UpWork (previously oDesk) for various small tasks, from banner creation to blog writing. 99 design is primarily for visual designs and is based on contests that give you many suggestions from which you select a few that pass to next stage. In Upwork, on the other hand, you opt in favor of a freelancer based solely on personal communication and previous reviews. Both need considerable management effort from your team — and your results may vary, but nonetheless both are worthy additions to your toolbox. Adwords & Adroll - CPC campaigns A lot of our marketing effort revolves around Adwords. Optimizing an Adwords campaign requires a lot of effort and specialized skills, as the complexity and keywords competition has skyrocketed in the last years. A nice alternative can be Adroll. We used Adroll for retargeting campaigns in the past with good results. It offered a more polished interface when compared to Adwords. However, now that Adwords offers retargeting, among myriads of other things, it makes little sense for us to use Adroll on top of it. GetApp & Capterra - Directories Software directories can be an effective way to promote your products. Two prominent such directories that we use are GetApp and Capterra, as they bring targeted traffic that can be easily converted to customers. Just make sure you have a great product listing and strong testimonials. Encodemagic - Media transcoding This started as an internal project but is now also a product by itself. Encodemagic offers a unique blend of conversion profiles between multimedia files. Most other conversion services are limited to video files (e.g., AVI to MPG4), but it also offers some unique conversions like Powerpoint-to-Video. Grumpicon - Turns your SVG images to CSS Last but not least, my favorite little toy of the past, Grumpicon. This tool does something simple; it converts SVG files to (reusable) CSS. We have used this technique with all of eFrontPro’s icons and it has worked greatly. Conclusion In this post we made a small list of the kinds of tools we use day-in, day-out at Epignosis to get our job done. We whole-heartedly suggest those tools if you happen to have a similar use case, and we are interested in knowing what other products and services you have to recommend! The post With a little help from our friends: the services we use to build our business appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

I believe that there is a big difference between the roles of leader and manager.  Leaders spend more time on strategy and managers spend more time on efficient operations, though each role has to sometimes play the other.  What is most critical about the impact of each role is that the person fits the job.   This seems obvious, but I see many mistakes made here.  When you meet a great person, your bias is to grab them quickly and put them wherever you have a spot.  This is the fastest way to disengage a stellar candidate.  Let the job speak before the candidate. Finding the magic match between the candidate and the job ensures a productive future including engagement.  Once you have the right people in the jobs best for them, how can you meld a kick-butt team from these very unique jobs and individuals through engagement?  There are three critical steps:Build the BASE of the teamDefine the SCOPE of the teamInitiate the MAGIC of the team  It's important to define ENGAGEMENT.  I do not think that an engaged team is the same thing as everyone on the team liking each other.  I do believe that trust in each other within a team is a prerequisite for team engagement, and that's different than 'liking'.  You can easily think a person you work well with but you don't really like them.  Often people with very opposite skills can work together well, but choose not to have a relationship outside of that work by choice.  It's not that they hate each other, they just don't connect socially.  That's a nice way of saying you really don't want to hang out with them outside of work.  By establishing these three interventions - BASE, SCOPE and MAGIC - you can create a process for renewing the engagement of the team through trust, without requiring a daily love fest.  The Metric - you'll know your team is engaged when they hit a major disagreement and work their way through it without being offended or needing their boss to pave the way.