At Cast & Crew, our unwavering commitment is to serve as a guiding beacon in the entertainment industry, providing help and insight at every juncture. As such, we're thrilled to introduce our latest endeavor, the "Master Your Craft" series. In each edition, we’ll speak to distinguished experts from within Cast & Crew who will generously share their expertise and unique insights into their respective fields.
We're excited to kick off this series by spotlighting our exceptional Product Marketing and Education team, led by Mariola Diaz, Director of Product Marketing at Cast & Crew. Her deep knowledge and experience will set the stage for an enriching discussion with some of Cast & Crew’s best minds.
Mariola: The Cast & Crew Product Marketing and Education team is dynamic, with an unwavering commitment to continuous improvement. Our mission is clear: drive product engagement across all teams, both internal and external. We're dedicated to our users, ensuring their success throughout their entire product journey. Currently, we're focused on creating and enhancing a comprehensive product education program that provides our users with everything they need to make the most out of their product experience. This is just one step toward our overarching goal of empowering our users.
Today, I have the pleasure of chatting with two of our top subject matter experts, Luke Dotzler and Shannon Cruz, who are essential members of our fantastic Product Marketing team. Luke, our Sr. Product Education Manager, brings over a year of invaluable experience at Cast & Crew, while Shannon, our Production Education Program Manager, has been contributing her expertise for three years. It's great to have them both here to share their insights.
Here’s my first question: how long have you been working in the industry?
- Luke: I've been in the product education field for about eight years, and I have almost three more years working on film and television production sets as well.
- Shannon: I've been in the tech / product education field for seven years now. I didn't have any experience in the FTVS industry until starting at Cast & Crew in 2020.
Mariola: This next one’s a two-parter. What are some major projects or innovations you've enjoyed during your time here? Also, what exciting projects do you have your eyes set on in the future?
- Luke: I’m very proud of building EDGE Learning On-Demand, our self-paced education option, from the ground up. When I arrived at Cast & Crew, the company did not yet offer a teaching solution that allowed clients to learn on their own time and at their own pace. Since joining—and with the already outstanding content Shannon had created—EDGE On-Demand has grown to offer the most robust learning content across all our educational platforms.
In the future, I’m looking forward to making our training even more interactive. Our learning content is already top quality but making it interactive will allow our clients to get their hands on the product in a safe testing, learning environment to build confidence before using the product in a real production or project.
- Shannon: During my three years at Cast & Crew, I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to significant projects and innovations. One of the major accomplishments I’m most proud of is the development and fine-tuning of our education resources, along with the implementation of in-product learning enablement. At the start of my journey here, our educational resources were minimal and lacked proper organization and structure. I recognized this as an opportunity for improvement and took the initiative to curate and optimize our Help Center, transforming it into the go-to platform for our users seeking self-service support. This effort complemented the expansion of our engaging how-to video library, carefully crafted to cater to different education styles and empower our users to choose their preferred mode of learning. Alongside this, and in collaboration with Product, we seamlessly integrated product awareness and education directly into our product interface. This strategic move not only heightened product engagement but also significantly enhanced our ability to reach out to all our users effectively.
Looking ahead, I’m excited about the ongoing journey of improvement, working alongside my dedicated colleague, Luke, and the Product Marketing team. I envision further enhancements to our resources and a greater emphasis on in-product learning, all aimed at ensuring our users have the best experience possible while using our products and services.
Mariola: How do you believe Cast & Crew’s educational programs change with and adapt to the fast-paced entertainment industry?
- Luke: We saw a huge change in the industry in 2020 when the pandemic forced productions to go digital to reduce transmission of COVID. We are fully dedicated to making our learning content digital as well, so it’s easier than ever to polish your skills in our products. By doing so, we can be confident that our learning content is always up to date, as it’s easy for us to make changes. Launching our on-demand education option also helps people learn whenever and wherever they want, and at the pace with which they feel most comfortable.
- Shannon: I second what Luke said! In addition, our approach to education programs is intricately designed to evolve and adapt in harmony with the fast-paced and ever-changing entertainment industry. We understand that the entertainment industry is dynamic, with evolving regulations, technologies, and best practices. We closely monitor industry shifts and updates, promptly incorporating relevant changes into our educational materials. Whether it's changes in tax laws, compliance requirements, or shifts in production technologies, our programs are updated in real-time to ensure that our clients and users are always equipped with the latest and most accurate information.
Mariola: How much influence do you think education has on a user’s digital adoption journey?
- Luke: I’ve always felt that learning content should help shorten the time between a client’s first use and their first success with a product. If our learning content can do that, the adoption journey becomes a much quicker, more enjoyable one—one that will also build a client’s confidence with our products.
- Shannon: I believe education plays an immensely influential role in a user’s digital adoption journey. For me, effective education is key to empowering users to seamlessly and successfully adopt our digital products and solutions. Education instills confidence, encouraging users to explore and use advanced features effectively. Moreover, it acts as a catalyst for sustained engagement, ensuring users recognize the value our products bring to their workflows. We want to ensure that our users embark on a digital adoption journey that's smooth, successful, and ultimately enriching for their work and productivity.
Mariola: I mentioned that our mission as a team is to empower our customers at every step of the way. How do you think Cast & Crew accomplishes this while positively contributing to entertainment as a whole?
- Luke: We believe in offering a diverse range of learning resources to cater to different learning styles. With EDGE On-Demand, you can learn at your own pace, covering all Cast & Crew’s products across 50+ courses, each with lessons and knowledge checks. For those who prefer live interaction, we also provide webinars to further strengthen your understanding and address any questions you may have after using EDGE On-Demand. I’ll leave it to Shannon to speak on some of the other resources we have available...
- Shannon: Thanks, Luke! He’s right. There’s no limitation to how one can learn about our products. In addition to what Luke said, we have an organized Help Center for self-service support, curated with over 400 how-to articles, best practice guides, FAQ, and embedded videos. We also have a fantastic video library on our YouTube channel, as well as in-product learning resources. Our many tailored programs ensure that entertainment professionals are equipped with the knowledge and skills to seamlessly integrate our tools into their workflows. This enhances their efficiency, accuracy, and overall productivity, contributing to the industry's growth and success.
Mariola: What do you believe to be the cornerstone of Cast & Crew’s approach to program education, and how is it different from others in our industry?
- Luke: First and foremost, we're committed to keeping our learning content accessible to all. Knowledge should be freely available, regardless of its complexity. We believe that learning about our products should never come with an additional cost. We've also diversified our learning options to accommodate various styles, but we're not stopping there. In fact, we're actively working on making our learning content even more interactive. It's all about empowering our clients to become confident and efficient product users. After all, an educated and confident client is an empowered one.
- Shannon: I wholeheartedly agree. We prioritize diversifying our educational resources, creating a wide array of content that caters to different learning styles and preferences. Additionally, we leverage various platforms without ever charging, making sure our resources are easily accessible. This commitment to comprehensive, accessible, and diverse education is what really sets us apart in the industry.
Mariola: Thank you so much for participating and offering your expertise, Luke and Shannon. Education is a top priority not just for our Product Marketing team, but for Cast & Crew as a whole. Our goal is to always ensure we’re driving the best possible product experience by providing multiple learning tools and methods. And a large part of that is working to continuously improve efficiency so that our customers can quickly become experts on our whole collection of products and solutions. We’re excited to continue upleveling our education offerings with more opportunities for interactive learning in the future.