Which Team Should Own Training? Hint: It Doesn’t Matter!

Where does your training team sit? Is it under Customer Success? Professional Services? Human Resources? Support? Somewhere else?

We’ll let you in on a secret: If your training charter aligns with your organization’s broader goals, it really doesn’t matter who the Education team reports into. Whether training falls under Customer Success (as 46% of respondents to our 2020 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report indicated), Professional Services (17%), Marketing (10%), or somewhere else, it is essential that you’re in an organization that helps your program get the continued visibility and resources it needs to succeed.

Irrespective of where training sits, one of the most effective ways to gain visibility and showcase the broad value of education is to maintain a highly cross-functional mindset. Your company is full of subject matter experts (SMEs) and individuals with institutional knowledge that can be a boon to your program. With this in mind, how do you start (or continue) to build relationships with other teams across your organization? Here are a few areas of partnership to consider:

• Gather content ideas with associated priority from the Support team to help your team proactively reduce support ticket volume.
• Consult with subject matter experts (SMEs) from Product, Customer Success, and Services while developing content. The Customer Success team, in particular, can share priceless insights into customer needs and preferences.
• Get access to design and content resources from the Marketing team to develop more engaging content.

Your Education team’s success relies heavily on input from other teams, so creating and maintaining relationships across the organization is crucial. If you’re not already working cross-functionally across your company, there’s no better time to start than right now!