Cisco Meraki

I own the Product Enablement learning solution roadmap and development motion. We aim to educate customers and partners at the Meraki Community Learning Hub with delightful solutions that drive confidence at scale.

I work with a team of instructional designers, content engineers, project managers, a data analyst, a GTM lead, and a UX researcher.

Product Manager, Learning Solutions

I scaled design and development processes that empowered our Agile project teams to deliver best-in-class learning solutions. I'm most proud that I:

• Scaled customer completions of our online learning solutions by 4.5x in 18 months
• Increased customer and partner confidence in Meraki products by 35% with online learning
• Improved resource adoption 67% by creating a governance framework for 40+ person department
• Achieved 70% completion rate by designing the UX components and media standards for 50+ modules
• Contributed to GTM strategy and product community to grow audience engagement 20% per quarter
• Built adaptive product solution pathways by guiding dev teams to create 8+ modules per quarter

Learning Content Manager

GP Strategies Corporation

I supported and coached a team of 15-20 designers and developers who created award-winning learning solutions for Fortune 100 companies in tech, healthcare, finance, and aerospace. I'm most proud that I:

• Accomplished 92% or above for engagement, resourcing, and utilization metrics
• Owned the localization strategy across 12 clients and $750k annual revenue
• Onboarded and upskilled 50+ developers by designing an onboarding curriculum
• Improved product quality by creating design, development, and localization standards

Talent Development Lead, Content & Localization

I owned localization development. I also led a learning product framework with a cross-functional, Agile engineering team building features in Angular and Node.js. In this role I:
• Scaled from 0 to 20+ global clients in finance, healthcare, aerospace, and tech
• Consulted with executive stakeholders and customers to review features
• Maintained prioritized product roadmap and backlog for engineering team sprints

Senior Developer

As a lead developer, I helped build a program to create and localize learning solutions for global Fortune 100 clients. In this role I:

• Owned development process for creating and localizing hundreds of learning solutions
• Led client meetings, stakeholder expectations, and live working sessions with SMEs

Learning Content Developer

Option Six (startup acquired by GP Strategies)

• Managed responsive front-end learning development using HTML5, XML, CSS, & JS
• Drafted learning content and storyboard scripts for VILT, WBT, and other formats

Content Developer

Author Solutions, LLC

• Produced content for website, email campaigns, newsletters, and marketing collateral
• Implemented online shopping and checkout platform for customers

Marketing Content Specialist

Indiana University - Kelley School of Business

• Mentored business students, providing resume reviews, interview coaching, and networking connections

Career Coach

Hi, I'm Chris! I've spent most of my 20 year career in L&D in tech. 

I joined an L&D startup in 2007 and it changed my life. Since then I've led projects, teams and programs. I've been a hiring manager and sat on interview panels for 100s of candidates. 

What does that look like?

- Touched $500M in ARR SaaS bookings at Cisco by owning the Learning Product Roadmap
- Grew the Cisco Meraki online learning program 4.5x in 18 months with Agile workflows
- Led a team of learning developers building $10M in deliverables for Fortune 100 clients
- Launched a learning development framework that drove $2M annual revenue

For years, my salary was stuck under 50k. 
Why? I was waiting for others to act. 

Waiting patiently for others to:
- Recognize my value
- Implement my suggestions
- Reward my top performance
- Promote me and pay me more

Then, my mindset changed.
I started to act, and promoted myself. 

How I realized my full earning potential:
- Take calculated risks
- Start putting my ideas to work
- Discuss my career goals openly
- Find leaders and orgs who value me

You can only wait so long,
for others to act on your dreams.

At some point:
you need to take charge,
and promote yourself. 
The risk is worth it.
You are worth it.

Chris Skees

147 rejections, but it only takes one yes.

Back in 2021, during a red-hot job market, 
my job search was grueling:

- 149 total submitted applications
- 131 generic rejection emails
- 51 total interviews
- 4 final rounds
- 2 offers
- 1 job

Despite tons of experience & solid portfolio, 
it took five months to find the right job.

But remember, if you are still searching:
your new job is coming.
Just like mine did.

Job hunting can feel slow, then suddenly:
- A recruiter schedules a screen.
- You click with a hiring manager.
- Your presentation impresses.

Everything fits—just like that.
You'll land the job and it will all be worth it.

The journey might be long, 
but the end comes quickly when it’s right.

Don’t lose heart. 
Your hard work will pay off:
when you least expect it.
Keep going. You got this.

What's the compensation like in L&D?

I've been researching current market salary ranges for common L&D roles. Here's what I found.

Note: All data sourced from Glassdoor from the US national average. Less than ideal, I know.

- Chief Learning Officer: 125k - 218k
- L&D Director: 106k - 172k
- L&D Manager: 79k - 124k
- Project Manager: 77k - 129k
- Instructional Designer: 71k - 106k
- Learning Experience Designer: 69k - 108k
- Curriculum Developer: 66k - 103k
- L&D Specialist: 59k - 89k
- Corporate Trainer: 53k - 87k
- Content Developer: 51k - 85k

What do you think? Do these ranges fit with what you're seeing in the market these days?

P.S. If you do several of these roles in a single job, 
do you also get multiple salaries? Hmmm...

Meet Reuben, Director of Home Office Security & Work-Life Integration.

Time for his annual performance review!

▶ Objective 1: Stellar Home Office Security

KR 1: Reuben’s notification alerts for package deliveries are unmatched, with a record sub-5 second response time when delivery trucks arrive. 

KR 2: Squirrel intrusions down by 45%, thanks to his vigilant window monitoring. 

KR 3: A perfect 100% score in meeting interruptions during doorbell rings, ensuring the everyone on the call is aware of potential visitors.

▶ Objective 2: Championing Work-Life Integration

KR 1: Master of the 90-minute "get up and move" reminder, his mix of nudges and persuasive looks are harder than ever to ignore, resulting in 186 walks so far this year.

KR 2: Extended walk durations by 25%, effectively pushing the team to meet our 10k steps/day goal.

KR 3: Known for his timely entrances during meetings, Reuben ensures 92% of boring meetings are interrupted with an entertaining cameo.

In Summary:

Reuben has excelled in his role this year. His methods might be unconventional, but the results speak for themselves. 

Reuben, you truly are the leader we never knew we needed. We're bumping your salary to five treats a day and extra PTO time for naps.

Image Alt Text: A slightly overweight eight-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever sitting in the freshly-cut green grass at a neighborhood park wondering why his co-worker is trying to take his picture instead of throwing the frisbee.

The new Cisco Meraki Community is live!

We redesigned the Community with the same UX design system as our Meraki dashboard platform for a cohesive look and feel. 

The Meraki Community is your launch point for:
- The Learning Hub & all our technical training
- New feature and firmware release updates
- Project Gallery for Meraki use cases
- The Meraki Unboxed podcast
- Technical forums & groups

A big shout out to the team:
Caroline S.., Jayne Liu, Trisha Chang, 
& Chris Andrews, Ph.D.

P.S. Our technical training, from Security & SD-WAN to Switching, Wireless APs, and Cameras, is free and available for you--just sign up for a Cisco account.

👇 Check out the link in the comments

Join our community of 18,162 learning and development pros, educators, product managers, cybersecurity analysts, network engineers, software developers, data scientists, UX designers, PMPs, Veterans, founders, tech enthusiasts, problem solvers, and all-around awesome humans.

It's simple.

▶ Like this post
▶ Comment with your story
▶ Commence with networking

P.S. If we're not connected, send me an invite!

Join our community of 18,395 learning and development pros, educators, product managers, cybersecurity analysts, network engineers, software developers, data scientists, UX designers, PMPs, Veterans, founders, tech enthusiasts, problem solvers, and all-around awesome humans.

It's simple.

▶ Like this post
▶ Comment with your story
▶ Commence with networking

P.S. If we're not connected, send me an invite!

For years, I valued:
- Comfort
- Security
- Familiarity

Even giving up higher pay,
and growth opportunities.

But the inner voice kept whispering, 
urging me to reconsider what truly mattered:

- Value alignment
- Stimulating work
- Freedom to unplug
- Growing into my potential

You don't have to feel guilty about:
wanting more. Or different.

It's okay to change jobs, pivot, or leave. 
Even in a tough market.

Don't wait for perfect timing. 
It doesn't exist.

Listen to that inner voice. 
It requires persistence and courage. 
But it's absolutely worth it.

I built my first course in 2007 using Flash.

Software and tools come and go:
- Adobe Flash (officially retired in 2020)
- FrontPage (anyone remember it?)
- MS Clippy (The first AI?)

Timeless L&D Skills:
- Analysis: getting to the root of the problem
- Consulting: building trust and advising
- Design: solving for behavior change
- Empathy: understanding humans

I obviously don't use Flash anymore, 
or even spend time doing course dev work.

But every week, I still:
Analyze problems.
Lead with empathy.
Consult and advise teams.

Prioritize timeless skills over software trends.

P.S. What L&D skills are truly timeless?

The ultimate compensation = more control over your destiny

Inspired by my podcast conversation with Chris Skees, I created this 'Thinktivity' to help you apply a product mindset to designing impactful learning experiences. 

Chris emphasized the significance of talking directly to learners and gathering data to validate assumptions and make informed decisions, much like a product manager would engage their end user. In the episode, we discussed how it is crucial to engage in active listening to understand your learners’ challenges, aspirations, and learning preferences. 

This Thinktivity will help you explore the product mindset and consider the role of a hypothesis in the process of learning experience design. We’ve picked up this activity assuming you’ve already done the analysis and work to identify the problem you’re trying to solve!

By adopting a product mindset, L&D professionals can tie design directly to user (learner) needs and mitigate that “but I know what they need” trap.. ✨ I hope you find this tool useful!

#LearnerCenteredDesign #ProductMindset #LearningExperienceDesign #learning #development #thinktivity

Thinktivity - Learner at the Center of the Conversation

Transitioning into Learning & Development Series Kick-Off with Chris Skees, presenting; Transitioning into Talent Development: The Ins and Outs

Explore the ins and outs of leveraging your teaching and training skills into a new corporate training, instructional design, or employee development role. 

During this session, Chris is giving you the low-down about the essential strategies you need to successfully make this exciting career shift. 

After the presentation, participants will be able to ask questions and pick Chris’s brain about making the leap from education and military to the L&D industry.

https://lnkd.in/gZgbjFz3 

📅 Save the Date: Thursday, April 18, 2024
🕒 Time: 6:00PM - 7:30 PM CST
📍 Where: Zoom
🎟️ Register Now: https://lnkd.in/gZgbjFz3 

*Session will be recorded and provided to all registrants.

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