
In Before The Lock
In Before The Lock is a podcast from Erica Kuhl and Brian Oblinger about community, customer experience, and leadership at scale.
Latest episodes

May 3, 2022 • 5min
🧵 69: It pains me to this day
“What is one thing you wish you’d done better in the early days of your community careers?” – Scott Baldwin

Apr 26, 2022 • 1h 8min
🔓 68: The real work begins
Erica and Brian discuss the actions and activities you need to engage in directly after launching your community. Community Industry News: Aima Atigari joined Remotebase as Community Manager Tom Norman joined Craft Docs as Community Manager Lalitha Wemel joined TechStars as Global Director, Engagement and Community Nofar Ben Dror Paecht joined AppsFlyer as Head of Customer Community Margaux Miller was promoted to Director of Community at Toptal Maria Perminova was promoted to Community Operations & Strategy Manager at Miro Mark Pergola joined AWS as Sr. Community Content Manager Kathryn Percy joined Workday as Manager, Community Operations Piper Wilson joined Higher Logic as Consultant, Strategic Services Emma-Jade Whightman joined n8n as Sr. Community Manager Alexandria Fuertes joined Keepler as Director of Community Sarah Connor joined Tackle.io as Community Manager Related episodes: Episode 40: The unsexy reality of launch planning Episode 36: The stress test

Apr 19, 2022 • 5min
🧵 67: Stuck in a loop
"Growing into management is an exciting opportunity, however, the team still isn’t large enough for you to step away from the IC work (yet). How do you balance the player / coach model in Community?" — Krystal Wu

Apr 12, 2022 • 1h 15min
🔓 66: Like magic
Taking an integrated approach to building the dream customer community experience. Community Industry News: Chitra HL joined Oracle as CX Community Manager Holly Schell joined Paper as Community Engagement Specialist Madeline Johannsen was promoted to Team Lead, Multimedia Community Content at Alteryx Jodi Meier joined Juniper Networks as Community Engagement Lead Cheryl Rasmussen was promoted to Manager of Community, Strategy, and Development at Palo Alto Networks Joshua Brown was promoted to Senior Community Manager at FuturLab Andreia Tulcidás was promoted to Community Advocacy and Engagement Team Lead at OutSystems Erica Moss joined HubSpot as Principle Marketing Manager, Community Sydney Sherman joined Tray.io as Community Manager Examples: Intuit Dataiku GoodData

Apr 5, 2022 • 4min
🧵 65: Try a bunch of stuff
“How can I manage and set engagement expectations/goals when our community members don’t use our service/product everyday therefore may not interact daily/weekly with a community space?” — Hannah Rafter

Mar 29, 2022 • 1h 8min
🔓 64: Inception
How to persuade others through the use of an age old framework. Community Industry News: Vincent Mayers joined Gradle as Director, Community Operations Vinicius Camilo joined Distrito as Investor Community Manager Ahmet Uysal joined Sunrise UPC as Community Manager Tuvy Le was promoted to Senior Program Manager at Github Nic Tolstoshev joined Gravitee as Senior Community Manager Saumya Bagga was promoted to Senior Community Specialist at G2 Robert McIntosh joined beThirsty as Community Builder Allison Able joined Automation Anywhere as Senior Manager, Community Christie Fidura started a new role as Director, Salesforce Developer Community at Salesforce Persuasion Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice Brian’s framework

Mar 22, 2022 • 4min
🧵 63: Just two?
“What would be your strategy for a community that holds two distinct personas? In this case, HR managers / People Ops and then their employees? Essentially these two different audiences would be coming together into one community.” — Lizzie LaCour

Mar 15, 2022 • 1h 46min
🔓 62: Read the room
Presenting your strategy to an executive audience. Community Industry News: Sweta Shetty joined Hindustan Times as Community Manager Amanda Martin was promoted to Head of Community at Unbounce Kemi Kale was promoted to Head of Community Management, Community and Impact at Meta Jelena Zanko was promoted to Director, Community Management at Imply Commsor raises $50M in a Series B round Brian joined Commsor as SVP, New Products Community-Led Product Ideas Survey Executive readouts and alignment: 23: Be bold. Be brief. Be gone. 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: Jada on the process

Mar 8, 2022 • 1min
🧵 61: We have a couple
“What are the top reasons you see new communities fail?” — Vishwas Katti Brought to you by Commsor.

Mar 1, 2022 • 55min
🔓 60: Just a couple lines of code
Developer communities and working with DevRel. 🇺🇦 Community Industry News: Ashley Dodge promoted to VP, Community at Copado Luiza Drăghicean joined AhoyConnect as Community & Growth Advisor Michael Shillingford was promoted to Director of Community at Brandwatch Delphin Miloudi-Druelle joined Lifestory as Community Sidekick Michel Da Silva promoted to Senior Community Strategist at Khoros Mattie Fairchild joined Manticore Games as Senior Director, Community and DevRel Johnny Quirk joined Shares as Head of Community Dani Weinstein is looking for his next gig Developer Communities / DevRel: SalesForce Developer Forums StackOverflow Digital Ocean Tutorials Sponsored by: Commsaur exists to provide education, empowerment, and experimentation for those exploring, learning, and building community in the world of web3. Check out Brian’s Commsaur.