October 15, 2025 • 24 mins
Head of Nexthink's Digital Community and User Groups Jon Leighton rejoins Reality Bytes with Tom, Sean, and Dina to explore how community remains the beating heart of Digital Employee Experience (DEX).
Fresh from Experience London and heading into Experience Boston, Jon shares how Nexthink’s Ambassador Program, user groups, and learning initiatives empower practitioners to grow, collaborate, and lead change. From storytelling and communication to real-world impact and career development, this episode celebrates the people and connections driving DEX forward.
Learn more about becoming a Nexthink Ambassadors here: https://nexthink.com/nexthink-ambassadorÂ
Take a DEX Management Certification here: https://dex.nexthink.com/dex-management-certification/
Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex) Â
Learn more about AI Drive here and Nexthink Adopt here
Fresh from Experience London and heading into Experience Boston, Jon shares how Nexthink’s Ambassador Program, user groups, and learning initiatives empower practitioners to grow, collaborate, and lead change. From storytelling and communication to real-world impact and career development, this episode celebrates the people and connections driving DEX forward.
Learn more about becoming a Nexthink Ambassadors here: https://nexthink.com/nexthink-ambassadorÂ
Take a DEX Management Certification here: https://dex.nexthink.com/dex-management-certification/
Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex) Â
Learn more about AI Drive here and Nexthink Adopt here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome it, change Makers to the Deck Show with Tim
Flower and Tom mcgra Let's get into it. Hello, change Makers,
Welcome to the Deck Show.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Show within a show within the show. It's that's special
Reality Bikes, that special edition of Reality Bites where me
and the team get to talk to fascinating next thing
as we have a privilege of calling colleagues and you'd
almost think it was the dog days of summer. We've
only got Sean and Diana here with me to welcome
our guest today. But that's not because it's everyone's on
(00:34):
summer holidays. It's because everybody's moving between experienced locations. We
had London last week and we saw many of you
there live. It was wonderful to see and meet so
many listeners and hallo if you came and said hello.
It was lovely for Tim and I to meet you
there and hopefully everybody enjoyed the show. We released from
experienced London last week and this week of course we
(00:57):
have experienced Boston always is if anything even more special
occasion or just a special occasion, I should say, And
what better guest to welcome back to Reality Bias Maybe
maybe apart from Sam John, our first returning Reality by
his guest.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
It's John Layton, of course, friend.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Of the show, supporter of the show, and as I
say returning guests, John, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
How you doing. I'm doing brilliantly. Thanks Tom, and I
feel honored to get a second opportunity to hang out
with some of my favorite next. Thing is wonderful to.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Be here, beautiful And you know, like I always, I
always try and I do mention when I get the opportunity.
But so many wonderful guests down the years we've had
through your recommendations and introductions, so we really we don't
just consider you a friend of the show, but what
you know, one for team and I.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Love that and you know we're blessed in the sort
of role I do. We met so many interesting people
with a story to share, and when we can bring
them in to have a conversation with you and see,
that's just phenomenal. We love doing that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
We love to receive and to speak and John to
kick things off. Maybe because many people in the dex
community listen to the show will know you personally, some won't,
and they won't even know what it is you do.
So what is your kind of quite unique remit here
at Next Thing.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah sure, so, folks, my name is John Layton. I
run a number of our community programs at Next Think,
and all of those programs are really about how do
we help professionals learn, grow, and of course deliver value
back into their organizations. I think, you know, we take
this really seriously when you think about tom I mean,
collectively our community is positively impacting kind of the working
(02:42):
lives of what twenty million plus people around the world.
So we fit this a really important mission, take it
really seriously, and that really drives a lot of our
efforts around community.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Nobody downs your conviction on that front, John, And we've
just got to see you in personal experience, and maybe
by the time this airs, we'll will likely be in
Boston together all being well, my goodness, Maybe just use
experience itself as a sort of illustration of your role
(03:15):
and go into some of the things you get up
to at these world famous tex events.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah sure, I mean, listen, listen. Being in London just
such an incredible experience, and I think honestly we feel
blessed to be able to spend that time with our
Next Think customers, our Next Think community. Just hearing about
their real world success is the progress they're making, you know, Tom,
I think we live and breathe here and next thing right,
it's an incredible place to work. But I'll tell you
(03:41):
what it's so inspiring when we spend time with our
customers and here about their wins, their stories, what it
means to them, I think, you know, as you know,
we had so many of our customers take to the
stage and experience to share their story. That's a key
part of you know, what we're driving via the community,
creating that opportunity for them to raise their voice, you know,
(04:02):
and we believe there's a ton of value to our
customers in going on stage, you know, talking about the
business value of their decks initiatives. When we think about
it in that way, every IT program, you know, requires
continuous funding, and I think we were able to help
DEX professionals practice you know, the art storytelling. They're going
(04:23):
to need that when they're trying to influence their leadership,
you know, with the hard day to the proven value,
but also the act of storytelling. And I think aside
from the stage presence, you know, we really want to
honor the members of our Ambassador program in both London
and Boston. You know, these are the true pioneers of decks,
so we love just to take that extra time and attention,
you know, really make sure they have a great experience
(04:44):
and create that dedicated time for them to kind of
meet with one another as well. So I think you
folks will have seeing some of the artwork we co
created with our ambassadors, which we absolutely loved. It was
really reflecting their version of the dex equation. Incredible, a
sort of diversity of thought in terms of what they
came up with, but you know, real consistency in the theme.
(05:06):
So Tom, I'd love to encourage our audience here to
go and check out that artwork and get the views
of what the dex equation is from our ambassadors directly.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Ie more generally, where does community fit into the broader
dex picture and why do you think it matters so much?
Why is it such an important component of decks as
a technology in general?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, I think listen even beyond dex right, you know,
next thing is we're a cloud, we're a SaaS company,
and I think you know today it's it's non negotiable
that you have a great product, and you know, folks
We're blessed. We've got incredible product team. There's an incredible
vision and we see all of that, you know, energy
(05:48):
and thought from our product teams bringing that to life
in the products. Right. But when you're working with some
of the biggest organization the brands in the world, we
also have to think about the other part of SaaS.
You know, great software is essential, but what about the
as a service? And I think for next think that's
about having a really great onboarding experience. You know, we've
got a phenomenal set of professional services teams helping people
get started. It's about how do you educate yourself? You know,
(06:11):
all of the free learning courses that ago in the
team put together really high quality instructional design. You know,
it's even in the small spaces. It's the high quality documentation,
easy to consume, easy to understand, our support team, and
also an incredible level of guidance provided by our customer
success teams. You know, I think are those elements as
the as a service part of SATs you know, really
(06:33):
really important. So I think when it comes to community,
that's about how do we bring our customers together, whether
it's online, whether it's virtual, whether it's in person really
with a drive for them to share the solutions they're building,
also to share their challenges and actually to provide inspiration
to one another on the art the possible. I think
it was one of our ambassadors, Bob, and he said
(06:55):
this beautifully. He could have said, the only limit to
then the value Next Thing can provide is in the
is in the imagination of our engineers. So I think
you know one of the elements you know that we.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Really that's a crazy great quote.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
It's beautiful, isn't it. I love it, and it's just
but it gets to the heart of where you know,
our customers connect with one another. It's a whirlwind of inspiration.
They're bouncing off one another and I've witnessed it firsthand
when they're crowdsourcing together trying to find common solutions, you know,
So you know that becomes really important. And then you know,
(07:31):
I'd also say, I think some of our customers actually
have a dex team, right, It's incredible. They've got I
don't know three four five people dedicated to Next Thing
and driving improvements. And when you're in that scenario, you've
got people to bounce ideas around with and to inspire you,
but other customers. Actually it is a team of one
and that can be a little bit of a lonely place.
(07:52):
So I think that's where our community can step in
as well. And you know, it's great to see people
reaching out across our community and in sparring those folks
that there were maybe a team of one. It's it's
super to see the community support those folks as well.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
That's fantastic. Totally align with that, and how much of
this connects to the demands DEX places on practitioners, those
party of one or people who are having dex ops teams,
especially in learning to engage colleagues with a new way
of thinking about their IT estate and then finding ways
to make that data speak to you.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, it's a really important point. I think, you know,
my six and a half years or so at next thing,
I think I can say I've yet to meet a
DEX professional that couldn't wrap their hands around the tech
side of decks, right, But what we saw was this
gap emerging around how do you operationalized decks? And a
(08:51):
lot of that comes down to challenges really around organizational
change management more than the technology. It's about how people work,
how people think, what are the metrics that they've been
measured by. Especially you know in typical IT organizations with
strong leaning into IT and itsm you know, the metrics
in those environments sometimes haven't changed in twenty or thirty years. Right,
(09:12):
So it's actually a deep rooted organizational change that can help. Now,
just to be clear, I mean, I see you know,
I've seen customers roll out next thing because another tool
in the talk, and they've achieved incredible results. Right. It's
just when I see organizations that are starting to talk
about experience, you know at the C suite and in
(09:34):
IT leadership, and that thread runs all the way down
and it becomes more of a mindset change. I think
that's where organizations are kind of three four five xing
the improvements they can make, right, And I think in
our user groups it's a really common theme. You know,
how do we drive adoption? How do we get more
folks across it? Everyone's incredibly busier course, right, but how
(09:57):
do we get more people just starting to think about
ingesting nexting insights and data into existing processes, or how
do we ensure that DEX teams are really able to
reflect the business value of the the improvements they're putting together.
That's where a lot of the conversations are taking place
around our user groups.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Totally agree, John. I think community itself and all of
the different activities we do they are pivotal in connecting
the mesh and connecting the dots, whether it's around the process,
the people, technology value, or how we are having communication
in base.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Right, So you've spoken, sorry, Dean, is that communication piece
absolutely vibe to right? And it's been true. It's been
wonderful watching some of our customers actually really really put
Are we encouraging them to do this right? We're encouraging
them to think like a marketier And it sounds alien
to it, folks, but you know, actually, when you can
put a brand behind your decks initiative, and we've got
(10:55):
some customers that have done this incredibly well, that brand
you start to use to build trust with your employees, right,
that actually we do care about your experience, that we're
listening and we're going to act on that. So that
communications piece of dex maturity really really important.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Totally agree. And you've spoken before about next Thing's partnership
with its customers and partners. Can you expand on what
that means in practice and how next Thing strives to
stay attentive to the needs of its customers organizations.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, sure, so I listen. I think it's multifaceted. I think,
you know, in many areas, I think the partnership approach
I always like to think about partnership with a capital
per right, it's not a partnership a convenience. We're deeply
invested in our customers winning, in our customers being successful,
and I think that starts with the people we work
with on the ground. But in one level, you know,
(11:51):
we've got a super team of client directors in customer
Success who sort a laser focused on helping customers realize value.
And ideally that's just not about traditional IT metrics of value,
it's how does that align with business value? So beyond
techs ops, it's the business lens that our teams are
focused on. And you know, and I get to see
(12:13):
all of those feedback loops as well, the feedback loops
and next Thing between our frontline teams talking with customers
all day every day, and the channels that they're able
to bring those insights back and feed our product teams
just phenomenal. You know, Clearly there's also the continued investment
in our community programs as well, in making the time
(12:34):
to create these opportunities for customers to learn from one another.
But we also learn a ton from those engagements as well.
We learn a ton from the tech cafes where customers
come on and you know, talk to one another and
hear from our product teams. Our product folks are just
always so willing to either jump on a call with
(12:55):
a customer or come along and share their insights and
sort of product insights. Event Honestly, you know, for me,
this is what now my fourth software company in fifteen
years since I moved across from being an operational a T.
And I've worked in some organizations where kind of product
were kept at an ivory tower, you know, really difficult
(13:16):
to just have a sensible conversation. There is just none
of that here at the next thing. There's just a
desire for our product teams to work as closely to
our customers as possible, to kind of learn what's working,
to learn about new challenges. And I think you know
that that manifests through a brilliant research team we have
with Patrick Mark Orehana this sometimes on this show, right,
(13:38):
you know, all of that together just creates a wonderful
opportunity for us just to learn from the people that
are doing the real hard work on the ground across
our customer base.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Hey, John, I'm curious how much of that ethos, the
focus on customers and collaboration you're speaking about, stems from
having a CEO founder who helped develop the technology and
still take such a hands on interest and how it's
being used to help customers.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, it's a great, great question, Sean, I mean, and
I remain, of course in awe at Pedro not not
just the vision and the continual drive, even after twenty years,
to continue to enhance that vision and make it a reality,
you know, between Pedro and Sam that you know it.
(14:27):
I've been blessed to be a number of our experience
events each year, and always Pedro and Sam talk about
kind of the next big thing coming and they make
a commitment, and what's wonderful is then next thing honors
that commitment and generally, by the time the next experience
event kind of rolls around, we're kind of showing off
the kind of the thing they teased the year before.
(14:50):
So it's just super the cious you know, as a
hugely innovative organization, but also honoring our commitments. You know,
when we say something, we're going to do it, So
that's brilliant. And then and honestly, a part of the
kind of or a Pedro I think, is just how
approachable he is. You know, we hosted an ass Pedro
Anything session for our ambassadors a month or so ago,
and he spent an hour with our ambassadors live right
(15:13):
just talking, you know, taking their questions, just having a conversation.
So he's such a kind of natural in those sorts
of environments. So we see that experience as well. You know,
he's of course he's a really busy guy, but he's
always making time to talk to our ambassadors, to talk
to our customers, to understand them, and even you know,
(15:33):
the the overriding kind of community ethos really comes from
Pedro and really permeates through the company. And that's been
the way from the very start twenty years ago. You know,
this idea that if we could get together this community
of DEX professionals and listen intently to them, that's going
(15:53):
to help us drive the right product innovation and produce
solutions to the problems they face.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Good stuff all right. Let's talk then about career prospects
for any DEX practitioner in the field right now twenty
twenty five. What opportunities are out there that are emerging.
How can Next Thing support those people as they develop
their expertise and grow their careers.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, sure, so listen, I don't think it comes as
a shock to any of us. It is tough out
there right now, isn't it across many sectors and it
folks are not immune to that. But we do strongly
believe that by developing both a deep understanding of decks
and the value at decks, and then tying that to
sort of practical understanding and expertise within the next Thing solution,
(16:42):
it becomes a great differentiated for folks in the job market. Right.
I think now we're always standing by the support DEX professionals,
whether they'ret one of our customers or not. And in fact,
in the last year or so, you know, we've been
fortunate enough to help a number of people kind of
move into new roles and sort of continue their career
(17:03):
as a DEX pro And at the same time, we've
witness folks getting promoted based on their efforts, getting bonuses
really down to the value that the dex's initiatives they're
leading a driving So we definitely feel it's a strong
differentiator for folks. We encourage people to get involved, to
learn more, and you know, as a I'll call it
(17:28):
a slight side project. You know, we keep track of
what we call a next think alumni, and that's folks
that for whatever reason may not be working at one
of our customers anymore, but we're always on hand to
try and offer them some support, try and help them
get connected to others in the community to find that
next role. So it just goes way beyond this notion
(17:51):
of the fact that someone works at a customer or not.
It's really about just trying to support DEX professionals and
deliver on that career growth promise that we believe in.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Very cool, all right, at the highest level, I'm if
I'm understanding you correctly, then I guess the partnership with
individuals kind of comes to life through the Ambassador program.
Is there anything you haven't yet mentioned that's particularly exciting
or unique about this initiative.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, I think we've perhaps touched on a couple of
pieces earlier in the conversation, but I would say, what
one of the things we're really trying to do with
our ambassadors, we're not kind of bound by Next Think
is a piece of technology. Right. Like I said earlier,
I think all of our ambassadors just have been able
to wrap their hands around next Think is a set
(18:43):
of capabilities really without too many problems, And of course
the latest versions of Assist make it even even easier
to do that. I've got to tell your story. Actually,
I met a brand new customer three or four weeks
ago based over in San Francisco, and we hadn't even
they were literally just deploying the collectors, right, and they
(19:05):
hadn't even had any of the wonderful professional services engagement
that we do to on board folks. And yet on
day one, once those collectors are out, they were already
using assist and starting to bring data back, starting to understand.
I think they described it to me as the best
onboarding type technology they'd ever seen in their career from
(19:26):
a SaaS company. So, you know, I think that that
ASSIST capability is absolutely phenomenal. But going back to the ambassadors,
I think, you know, it goes beyond just the tech, right,
It's really about how do we support them in the
broader set of skills you need as a dex pro.
(19:46):
For the last couple of years, you know, we have
a deep interest in sort of XLA Next Think apart
or a founding member of the XLA Institute. So you know,
for the last couple of years, we've run x l
A training for ambassadors, We've hosted store retelling workshops, We've
led sessions on things like influence and adoption strategies on
how to measure value again from that business lens, how
(20:09):
do you tie in the value to it, to the
value that brings to your organization. So I would say
that's you know, we're really excited about twenty twenty six
and our ambassador planning, but it's about again, it's it's
more than just learning about the tech. Our AGGA and
the Learn team do a phenomenal job of providing training
in those areas. So this is more about what are
(20:30):
those other skills sometimes called the soft skills right that
are going to help you develop your career and also
to drive this adoption of Next Think and increase the
value that it delivers in your organization.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Wonderfully said as ever, John, and you know, just you know,
as important as as community is that to that part
of as a service that is constitutive of what Next
Think covers. You know, I think you're as in important
a part of that community. You know, I know you're
Your reputation is absolutely phenomenal among so many DEX practitioners,
(21:06):
and and and so much. The next thing puts on
so real pleasure to have you back on the show.
Always appreciate your contributions to to Next Think in the
DEX community, both in and out of the context of
the DEX show, and and and great to see you.
Last question then for you, how can people listening if
they're not already get involved in in the community stuff?
(21:27):
And then you've ambassador programs and such like.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Sure, well, well, firstly, listen, you're way too kind. We
couldn't do what we do from a community without having
a great product at the heart of it. Right at
customer success teams couldn't do what they do so well
without a high quality product. So it's a you know,
a one team effort. And even in the community space,
(21:52):
there's a whole team of us from Andrew Charlotte, Sarah Ever,
kat Yanella Josh All driving this same sit right, So
even even within our team. It's a huge team effort.
By no means just me, but I think you know
to answer the question. You know, for our current customers
and partners, go search for next Think community, right, Go register,
(22:13):
Come and be part of that conversation. It's dead easy
to go and do that. You go and find us, register,
come and be part of the conversation.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
For future customers, I mean, if you're already talking with
our teams, we'd love you to come along and be
part of the community. Come along to the events here
from other customers and go take a look at that
kind of phenomenal sort of learn training that I've been
bigging up. So Sadel there really as well. Go search
for next Think Community, go and register, and then the
team will be in touch to help you get on
(22:43):
boarded into community and come and be part of it.
And I think for those that are like I'll say,
on the Periphery, which is a great book by the way,
I just read, for those on the periphery that are
just really learning about decks, finding out about the concepts,
just interested in knowing more. Tom, the work you and
the team have done with the deck Shub, what a
phenomenal place for folks to go and learn from other
(23:05):
people in the industry, from ourselves. You know, so many
batter customers, as you said, sharing what they're doing on there,
shown the deck SERTs that you work really hard on
putting together what is it now, seven or eight deck
SERTs that folks can go and take for free on
the Deck's Hub. You know, all of those things are
a great way for people to get connected to our
community and goes without saying, Tom the podcast as well,
(23:30):
a brilliant way to stay connected and tune into what's
handing in the deck space.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's a love fest, ladies and gentlemen. But what on it?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Just Tom?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, but what a better excuse to fill those show
notes with a useful useful links and resources or any excuse, John, any.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Excuse to have you back on the show.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And I guess about the time this goes live, I'll
be seeing you again in person and hopefully many listeners
out there at Boston and experience and I look forward
to that.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Thanks so much. Yeah, come see aer Ambassador Hub. Would
be delighted to get you connected to some other customers
in Boston and obviously a massive array of high value
sessions and tom they get to meet you.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Indeed, indeed, quiet quiet the occasion worth.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
For price of particular.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Learn to make sure that you never miss an episode.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your
favorite podcast player. And if you're listening on Apple podcasts,
make sure to leave a rating of the show. Just
tap the number of stars you think the podcast deserves.
If you'd like to learn more about how next Thing
can help you improve your digital employee experience, head over
to nextthink dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Thank you so much for listening. Until next time,
Welcome it, change Makers to the Deck Show with Tim
Flower and Tom mcgra Let's get into it. Hello, change Makers,
Welcome to the Deck Show.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Show within a show within the show. It's that's special
Reality Bikes, that special edition of Reality Bites where me
and the team get to talk to fascinating next thing
as we have a privilege of calling colleagues and you'd
almost think it was the dog days of summer. We've
only got Sean and Diana here with me to welcome
our guest today. But that's not because it's everyone's on
(00:34):
summer holidays. It's because everybody's moving between experienced locations. We
had London last week and we saw many of you
there live. It was wonderful to see and meet so
many listeners and hallo if you came and said hello.
It was lovely for Tim and I to meet you
there and hopefully everybody enjoyed the show. We released from
experienced London last week and this week of course we
(00:57):
have experienced Boston always is if anything even more special
occasion or just a special occasion, I should say, And
what better guest to welcome back to Reality Bias Maybe
maybe apart from Sam John, our first returning Reality by
his guest.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
It's John Layton, of course, friend.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Of the show, supporter of the show, and as I
say returning guests, John, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
How you doing. I'm doing brilliantly. Thanks Tom, and I
feel honored to get a second opportunity to hang out
with some of my favorite next. Thing is wonderful to.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Be here, beautiful And you know, like I always, I
always try and I do mention when I get the opportunity.
But so many wonderful guests down the years we've had
through your recommendations and introductions, so we really we don't
just consider you a friend of the show, but what
you know, one for team and I.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Love that and you know we're blessed in the sort
of role I do. We met so many interesting people
with a story to share, and when we can bring
them in to have a conversation with you and see,
that's just phenomenal. We love doing that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
We love to receive and to speak and John to
kick things off. Maybe because many people in the dex
community listen to the show will know you personally, some won't,
and they won't even know what it is you do.
So what is your kind of quite unique remit here
at Next Thing.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah sure, so, folks, my name is John Layton. I
run a number of our community programs at Next Think,
and all of those programs are really about how do
we help professionals learn, grow, and of course deliver value
back into their organizations. I think, you know, we take
this really seriously when you think about tom I mean,
collectively our community is positively impacting kind of the working
(02:42):
lives of what twenty million plus people around the world.
So we fit this a really important mission, take it
really seriously, and that really drives a lot of our
efforts around community.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Nobody downs your conviction on that front, John, And we've
just got to see you in personal experience, and maybe
by the time this airs, we'll will likely be in
Boston together all being well, my goodness, Maybe just use
experience itself as a sort of illustration of your role
(03:15):
and go into some of the things you get up
to at these world famous tex events.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah sure, I mean, listen, listen. Being in London just
such an incredible experience, and I think honestly we feel
blessed to be able to spend that time with our
Next Think customers, our Next Think community. Just hearing about
their real world success is the progress they're making, you know, Tom,
I think we live and breathe here and next thing right,
it's an incredible place to work. But I'll tell you
(03:41):
what it's so inspiring when we spend time with our
customers and here about their wins, their stories, what it
means to them, I think, you know, as you know,
we had so many of our customers take to the
stage and experience to share their story. That's a key
part of you know, what we're driving via the community,
creating that opportunity for them to raise their voice, you know,
(04:02):
and we believe there's a ton of value to our
customers in going on stage, you know, talking about the
business value of their decks initiatives. When we think about
it in that way, every IT program, you know, requires
continuous funding, and I think we were able to help
DEX professionals practice you know, the art storytelling. They're going
(04:23):
to need that when they're trying to influence their leadership,
you know, with the hard day to the proven value,
but also the act of storytelling. And I think aside
from the stage presence, you know, we really want to
honor the members of our Ambassador program in both London
and Boston. You know, these are the true pioneers of decks,
so we love just to take that extra time and attention,
you know, really make sure they have a great experience
(04:44):
and create that dedicated time for them to kind of
meet with one another as well. So I think you
folks will have seeing some of the artwork we co
created with our ambassadors, which we absolutely loved. It was
really reflecting their version of the dex equation. Incredible, a
sort of diversity of thought in terms of what they
came up with, but you know, real consistency in the theme.
(05:06):
So Tom, I'd love to encourage our audience here to
go and check out that artwork and get the views
of what the dex equation is from our ambassadors directly.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Ie more generally, where does community fit into the broader
dex picture and why do you think it matters so much?
Why is it such an important component of decks as
a technology in general?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, I think listen even beyond dex right, you know,
next thing is we're a cloud, we're a SaaS company,
and I think you know today it's it's non negotiable
that you have a great product, and you know, folks
We're blessed. We've got incredible product team. There's an incredible
vision and we see all of that, you know, energy
(05:48):
and thought from our product teams bringing that to life
in the products. Right. But when you're working with some
of the biggest organization the brands in the world, we
also have to think about the other part of SaaS.
You know, great software is essential, but what about the
as a service? And I think for next think that's
about having a really great onboarding experience. You know, we've
got a phenomenal set of professional services teams helping people
get started. It's about how do you educate yourself? You know,
(06:11):
all of the free learning courses that ago in the
team put together really high quality instructional design. You know,
it's even in the small spaces. It's the high quality documentation,
easy to consume, easy to understand, our support team, and
also an incredible level of guidance provided by our customer
success teams. You know, I think are those elements as
the as a service part of SATs you know, really
(06:33):
really important. So I think when it comes to community,
that's about how do we bring our customers together, whether
it's online, whether it's virtual, whether it's in person really
with a drive for them to share the solutions they're building,
also to share their challenges and actually to provide inspiration
to one another on the art the possible. I think
it was one of our ambassadors, Bob, and he said
(06:55):
this beautifully. He could have said, the only limit to
then the value Next Thing can provide is in the
is in the imagination of our engineers. So I think
you know one of the elements you know that we.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Really that's a crazy great quote.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
It's beautiful, isn't it. I love it, and it's just
but it gets to the heart of where you know,
our customers connect with one another. It's a whirlwind of inspiration.
They're bouncing off one another and I've witnessed it firsthand
when they're crowdsourcing together trying to find common solutions, you know,
So you know that becomes really important. And then you know,
(07:31):
I'd also say, I think some of our customers actually
have a dex team, right, It's incredible. They've got I
don't know three four five people dedicated to Next Thing
and driving improvements. And when you're in that scenario, you've
got people to bounce ideas around with and to inspire you,
but other customers. Actually it is a team of one
and that can be a little bit of a lonely place.
(07:52):
So I think that's where our community can step in
as well. And you know, it's great to see people
reaching out across our community and in sparring those folks
that there were maybe a team of one. It's it's
super to see the community support those folks as well.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
That's fantastic. Totally align with that, and how much of
this connects to the demands DEX places on practitioners, those
party of one or people who are having dex ops teams,
especially in learning to engage colleagues with a new way
of thinking about their IT estate and then finding ways
to make that data speak to you.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, it's a really important point. I think, you know,
my six and a half years or so at next thing,
I think I can say I've yet to meet a
DEX professional that couldn't wrap their hands around the tech
side of decks, right, But what we saw was this
gap emerging around how do you operationalized decks? And a
(08:51):
lot of that comes down to challenges really around organizational
change management more than the technology. It's about how people work,
how people think, what are the metrics that they've been
measured by. Especially you know in typical IT organizations with
strong leaning into IT and itsm you know, the metrics
in those environments sometimes haven't changed in twenty or thirty years. Right,
(09:12):
So it's actually a deep rooted organizational change that can help. Now,
just to be clear, I mean, I see you know,
I've seen customers roll out next thing because another tool
in the talk, and they've achieved incredible results. Right. It's
just when I see organizations that are starting to talk
about experience, you know at the C suite and in
(09:34):
IT leadership, and that thread runs all the way down
and it becomes more of a mindset change. I think
that's where organizations are kind of three four five xing
the improvements they can make, right, And I think in
our user groups it's a really common theme. You know,
how do we drive adoption? How do we get more
folks across it? Everyone's incredibly busier course, right, but how
(09:57):
do we get more people just starting to think about
ingesting nexting insights and data into existing processes, or how
do we ensure that DEX teams are really able to
reflect the business value of the the improvements they're putting together.
That's where a lot of the conversations are taking place
around our user groups.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Totally agree, John. I think community itself and all of
the different activities we do they are pivotal in connecting
the mesh and connecting the dots, whether it's around the process,
the people, technology value, or how we are having communication
in base.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Right, So you've spoken, sorry, Dean, is that communication piece
absolutely vibe to right? And it's been true. It's been
wonderful watching some of our customers actually really really put
Are we encouraging them to do this right? We're encouraging
them to think like a marketier And it sounds alien
to it, folks, but you know, actually, when you can
put a brand behind your decks initiative, and we've got
(10:55):
some customers that have done this incredibly well, that brand
you start to use to build trust with your employees, right,
that actually we do care about your experience, that we're
listening and we're going to act on that. So that
communications piece of dex maturity really really important.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Totally agree. And you've spoken before about next Thing's partnership
with its customers and partners. Can you expand on what
that means in practice and how next Thing strives to
stay attentive to the needs of its customers organizations.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, sure, so I listen. I think it's multifaceted. I think,
you know, in many areas, I think the partnership approach
I always like to think about partnership with a capital
per right, it's not a partnership a convenience. We're deeply
invested in our customers winning, in our customers being successful,
and I think that starts with the people we work
with on the ground. But in one level, you know,
(11:51):
we've got a super team of client directors in customer
Success who sort a laser focused on helping customers realize value.
And ideally that's just not about traditional IT metrics of value,
it's how does that align with business value? So beyond
techs ops, it's the business lens that our teams are
focused on. And you know, and I get to see
(12:13):
all of those feedback loops as well, the feedback loops
and next Thing between our frontline teams talking with customers
all day every day, and the channels that they're able
to bring those insights back and feed our product teams
just phenomenal. You know, Clearly there's also the continued investment
in our community programs as well, in making the time
(12:34):
to create these opportunities for customers to learn from one another.
But we also learn a ton from those engagements as well.
We learn a ton from the tech cafes where customers
come on and you know, talk to one another and
hear from our product teams. Our product folks are just
always so willing to either jump on a call with
(12:55):
a customer or come along and share their insights and
sort of product insights. Event Honestly, you know, for me,
this is what now my fourth software company in fifteen
years since I moved across from being an operational a T.
And I've worked in some organizations where kind of product
were kept at an ivory tower, you know, really difficult
(13:16):
to just have a sensible conversation. There is just none
of that here at the next thing. There's just a
desire for our product teams to work as closely to
our customers as possible, to kind of learn what's working,
to learn about new challenges. And I think you know
that that manifests through a brilliant research team we have
with Patrick Mark Orehana this sometimes on this show, right,
(13:38):
you know, all of that together just creates a wonderful
opportunity for us just to learn from the people that
are doing the real hard work on the ground across
our customer base.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Hey, John, I'm curious how much of that ethos, the
focus on customers and collaboration you're speaking about, stems from
having a CEO founder who helped develop the technology and
still take such a hands on interest and how it's
being used to help customers.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, it's a great, great question, Sean, I mean, and
I remain, of course in awe at Pedro not not
just the vision and the continual drive, even after twenty years,
to continue to enhance that vision and make it a reality,
you know, between Pedro and Sam that you know it.
(14:27):
I've been blessed to be a number of our experience
events each year, and always Pedro and Sam talk about
kind of the next big thing coming and they make
a commitment, and what's wonderful is then next thing honors
that commitment and generally, by the time the next experience
event kind of rolls around, we're kind of showing off
the kind of the thing they teased the year before.
(14:50):
So it's just super the cious you know, as a
hugely innovative organization, but also honoring our commitments. You know,
when we say something, we're going to do it, So
that's brilliant. And then and honestly, a part of the
kind of or a Pedro I think, is just how
approachable he is. You know, we hosted an ass Pedro
Anything session for our ambassadors a month or so ago,
and he spent an hour with our ambassadors live right
(15:13):
just talking, you know, taking their questions, just having a conversation.
So he's such a kind of natural in those sorts
of environments. So we see that experience as well. You know,
he's of course he's a really busy guy, but he's
always making time to talk to our ambassadors, to talk
to our customers, to understand them, and even you know,
(15:33):
the the overriding kind of community ethos really comes from
Pedro and really permeates through the company. And that's been
the way from the very start twenty years ago. You know,
this idea that if we could get together this community
of DEX professionals and listen intently to them, that's going
(15:53):
to help us drive the right product innovation and produce
solutions to the problems they face.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Good stuff all right. Let's talk then about career prospects
for any DEX practitioner in the field right now twenty
twenty five. What opportunities are out there that are emerging.
How can Next Thing support those people as they develop
their expertise and grow their careers.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, sure, so listen, I don't think it comes as
a shock to any of us. It is tough out
there right now, isn't it across many sectors and it
folks are not immune to that. But we do strongly
believe that by developing both a deep understanding of decks
and the value at decks, and then tying that to
sort of practical understanding and expertise within the next Thing solution,
(16:42):
it becomes a great differentiated for folks in the job market. Right.
I think now we're always standing by the support DEX professionals,
whether they'ret one of our customers or not. And in fact,
in the last year or so, you know, we've been
fortunate enough to help a number of people kind of
move into new roles and sort of continue their career
(17:03):
as a DEX pro And at the same time, we've
witness folks getting promoted based on their efforts, getting bonuses
really down to the value that the dex's initiatives they're
leading a driving So we definitely feel it's a strong
differentiator for folks. We encourage people to get involved, to
learn more, and you know, as a I'll call it
(17:28):
a slight side project. You know, we keep track of
what we call a next think alumni, and that's folks
that for whatever reason may not be working at one
of our customers anymore, but we're always on hand to
try and offer them some support, try and help them
get connected to others in the community to find that
next role. So it just goes way beyond this notion
(17:51):
of the fact that someone works at a customer or not.
It's really about just trying to support DEX professionals and
deliver on that career growth promise that we believe in.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Very cool, all right, at the highest level, I'm if
I'm understanding you correctly, then I guess the partnership with
individuals kind of comes to life through the Ambassador program.
Is there anything you haven't yet mentioned that's particularly exciting
or unique about this initiative.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, I think we've perhaps touched on a couple of
pieces earlier in the conversation, but I would say, what
one of the things we're really trying to do with
our ambassadors, we're not kind of bound by Next Think
is a piece of technology. Right. Like I said earlier,
I think all of our ambassadors just have been able
to wrap their hands around next Think is a set
(18:43):
of capabilities really without too many problems, And of course
the latest versions of Assist make it even even easier
to do that. I've got to tell your story. Actually,
I met a brand new customer three or four weeks
ago based over in San Francisco, and we hadn't even
they were literally just deploying the collectors, right, and they
(19:05):
hadn't even had any of the wonderful professional services engagement
that we do to on board folks. And yet on
day one, once those collectors are out, they were already
using assist and starting to bring data back, starting to understand.
I think they described it to me as the best
onboarding type technology they'd ever seen in their career from
(19:26):
a SaaS company. So, you know, I think that that
ASSIST capability is absolutely phenomenal. But going back to the ambassadors,
I think, you know, it goes beyond just the tech, right,
It's really about how do we support them in the
broader set of skills you need as a dex pro.
(19:46):
For the last couple of years, you know, we have
a deep interest in sort of XLA Next Think apart
or a founding member of the XLA Institute. So you know,
for the last couple of years, we've run x l
A training for ambassadors, We've hosted store retelling workshops, We've
led sessions on things like influence and adoption strategies on
how to measure value again from that business lens, how
(20:09):
do you tie in the value to it, to the
value that brings to your organization. So I would say
that's you know, we're really excited about twenty twenty six
and our ambassador planning, but it's about again, it's it's
more than just learning about the tech. Our AGGA and
the Learn team do a phenomenal job of providing training
in those areas. So this is more about what are
(20:30):
those other skills sometimes called the soft skills right that
are going to help you develop your career and also
to drive this adoption of Next Think and increase the
value that it delivers in your organization.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Wonderfully said as ever, John, and you know, just you know,
as important as as community is that to that part
of as a service that is constitutive of what Next
Think covers. You know, I think you're as in important
a part of that community. You know, I know you're
Your reputation is absolutely phenomenal among so many DEX practitioners,
(21:06):
and and and so much. The next thing puts on
so real pleasure to have you back on the show.
Always appreciate your contributions to to Next Think in the
DEX community, both in and out of the context of
the DEX show, and and and great to see you.
Last question then for you, how can people listening if
they're not already get involved in in the community stuff?
(21:27):
And then you've ambassador programs and such like.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Sure, well, well, firstly, listen, you're way too kind. We
couldn't do what we do from a community without having
a great product at the heart of it. Right at
customer success teams couldn't do what they do so well
without a high quality product. So it's a you know,
a one team effort. And even in the community space,
(21:52):
there's a whole team of us from Andrew Charlotte, Sarah Ever,
kat Yanella Josh All driving this same sit right, So
even even within our team. It's a huge team effort.
By no means just me, but I think you know
to answer the question. You know, for our current customers
and partners, go search for next Think community, right, Go register,
(22:13):
Come and be part of that conversation. It's dead easy
to go and do that. You go and find us, register,
come and be part of the conversation.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
For future customers, I mean, if you're already talking with
our teams, we'd love you to come along and be
part of the community. Come along to the events here
from other customers and go take a look at that
kind of phenomenal sort of learn training that I've been
bigging up. So Sadel there really as well. Go search
for next Think Community, go and register, and then the
team will be in touch to help you get on
(22:43):
boarded into community and come and be part of it.
And I think for those that are like I'll say,
on the Periphery, which is a great book by the way,
I just read, for those on the periphery that are
just really learning about decks, finding out about the concepts,
just interested in knowing more. Tom, the work you and
the team have done with the deck Shub, what a
phenomenal place for folks to go and learn from other
(23:05):
people in the industry, from ourselves. You know, so many
batter customers, as you said, sharing what they're doing on there,
shown the deck SERTs that you work really hard on
putting together what is it now, seven or eight deck
SERTs that folks can go and take for free on
the Deck's Hub. You know, all of those things are
a great way for people to get connected to our
community and goes without saying, Tom the podcast as well,
(23:30):
a brilliant way to stay connected and tune into what's
handing in the deck space.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's a love fest, ladies and gentlemen. But what on it?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Just Tom?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, but what a better excuse to fill those show
notes with a useful useful links and resources or any excuse, John, any.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Excuse to have you back on the show.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And I guess about the time this goes live, I'll
be seeing you again in person and hopefully many listeners
out there at Boston and experience and I look forward
to that.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Thanks so much. Yeah, come see aer Ambassador Hub. Would
be delighted to get you connected to some other customers
in Boston and obviously a massive array of high value
sessions and tom they get to meet you.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Indeed, indeed, quiet quiet the occasion worth.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
For price of particular.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Learn to make sure that you never miss an episode.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your
favorite podcast player. And if you're listening on Apple podcasts,
make sure to leave a rating of the show. Just
tap the number of stars you think the podcast deserves.
If you'd like to learn more about how next Thing
can help you improve your digital employee experience, head over
to nextthink dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Thank you so much for listening. Until next time,
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