Tech Community Building

What if the most important AI role in your organization requires zero technical expertise? This isn't a provocative question for the sake of being provocative. It's a genuine insight from watching dozens of organizations struggle and succeed with AI adoption. Because here's what most miss: This isn't a technology adoption curve. It's a human transformation curve. And the people who catalyze that transformation often aren't the technical experts. If your organization is betting big on AI engineers while ignoring community builders, you might as well light your transformation budget on fire. I watched a Fortune 500 company spend millions on AI talent only to see adoption stall in the low teens %. Meanwhile, a government agency with a tiny fraction of that budget achieved organization-wide transformation mostly through the efforts of a single individual passionate enough to organize monthly Zoom calls. One of my most-beloved recent posts describes how a Facility Manager at the National Park Service—with no technical background whatsoever—built an AI tool in 45 minutes that's saving thousands of days of labor across the park system. Adam, the facility manager, created a simple tool that automated the creation of complex funding request documents. The impact was staggering: what used to take days now took minutes. His colleagues started sharing the tool, and soon facility managers across the country were using it. People loved this story because it showed that AI impact doesn't require a computer science degree or coding expertise. Just curiosity, a clear problem, and 45 minutes. But here's what I didn't tell you in that post: Adam's breakthrough wasn't spontaneous. It was the direct result of someone working upstream. Want to identify the Adams in your organization and unlock opportunities like the one he found? You need to look farther upstream to a role I've rarely seen discussed: the Convener. At the National Park Service, that person is Cheryl Eckhart. While many organizations are busy chasing the shiny new AI tools, Cheryl was doing something far more radical: creating a space where people could actually use them. Months before Adam built his tool, she had taken the initiative to start convening a community of practice around AI. With no technical background herself, she understood something more fundamental: people need spaces to learn, experiment, and share. Cheryl signs every email with "Today is a great day for learning"—a philosophy that defines her approach. She's not an AI expert; she's a catalyst who creates the conditions for others to become AI experts. What does this look like in practice? Detailed notes from what I’ve seen in Cheryl and other conveners in the full post linked below (LinkedIn character limits!). cc Christa Stout

Technical leadership isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about creating a framework where the right answers can emerge. 1 / The best leaders don’t rush to provide solutions. Instead, they frame the problem so the team can see it clearly and then step back. Leadership isn’t about showing what you know — it’s about empowering others to think. 2 / In technical fields, complexity is the enemy of progress. Great leaders aren’t adding layers; they’re stripping them away. They know that simplicity and clarity are often harder to achieve but lead to solutions that last. 3 / And the strongest leaders don’t seek followers; they build thinkers. A team that only executes orders will eventually stall. A team that questions, explores, and challenges assumptions will find breakthroughs you can’t plan for. True technical leadership isn’t about controlling every detail — it’s about fostering an environment where innovation thrives. Thoughts??

The Paradox of Growth: The Bigger You Get, the Less You Know I came across something that stuck with me: When companies scale, they gain users — but lose understanding. Not because they stop caring, but because their customer feedback starts living everywhere — support tickets, sales calls, forums, surveys, social media, and app store reviews. That thought really made me pause. I’ve seen this firsthand. When a company is small, every piece of feedback feels personal — every bug report or review has a face behind it. But as you grow, those voices scatter across platforms and departments. Support sees the frustration, sales hears the hesitation, leadership sees the numbers — and somehow, everyone’s looking at the same customers, but no one’s hearing them anymore. That, in my opinion, is the quiet cost of growth. This is the problem Enterpret is solving — by helping teams stay in tune with their customers even as they scale. Here’s how it works: → It collects real-time customer feedback from 55+ channels — support tickets, sales calls, social media (X, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook), app store reviews, community forums, surveys, Slack, and more. → It analyzes all that feedback using AI and tells you exactly what to fix or build next. → It maps everything through a customer knowledge graph that connects feedback, complaints, and requests by channel, user, and payment data. → It even provides a chat interface where you can directly ask questions, and AI agents that flag bugs or issues automatically. That’s why teams like Notion, Perplexity, Canva, Chipotle, and The Farmer’s Dog use it — to make sure customer voices never get lost in the noise. In my view, the real lesson here isn’t about using more tools — it’s about staying close to the people you build for. Here’s how I’d approach it: ✅ Centralize every piece of feedback — even if it’s messy. ✅ Look for patterns instead of isolated complaints. ✅ Use AI systems like Enterpret to uncover the “why” behind what customers say. Because in the end, growth shouldn’t make you deaf. It should make you listen better — just faster. How does your team make sure you’re hearing what customers really mean, not just what they say? #CustomerFeedback #AIProducts #ProductStrategy #VoiceOfCustomer #Enterpret #Leadership

Sales folks, take note! Spamming a target company's employees with your services and requests for meetings will result in your company making its way onto a buyer's blocklist. As a buyer in the localization industry, I receive dozens of emails and LinkedIn requests every single day from vendors looking to showcase translation, AI, QA services, and more. It's not humanly possible to give personal replies to every outreach. When vendors can't get through to me, they often reach out to everyone on my team... and sometimes to many others across my company. I'd love for this practice to stop. It wastes valuable company time and makes a vendor appear desperate and non-strategic. Here's what to do instead: 1. Appeal to ego! Invite a target company’s decision-maker to a panel, or start a vlog series and ask buyers to appear and discuss industry topics. It’s also a great opportunity to reposition your company as a thought leader. 2. Offer genuine insight, not just services. Share a case study, white paper, or benchmarking data that’s actually useful to the buyer’s role, and do it without a sales pitch. 3. Build a reputation before you build a pipeline. Comment thoughtfully on posts. Contribute to community conversations. If you consistently show up with value, you’re far more likely to get noticed. 4. Target smarter, not broader. Don’t shotgun your message to an entire company. Learn the org. Understand the buyer’s scope. Then send one well-researched, personalized note that shows you actually did your homework. 5. Focus on mutual value. Can you help solve a known pain point or offer perspective on something changing in the market? Frame your outreach around collaboration, not consumption. 6. Use timing to your advantage. Keep tabs on when companies are hiring for roles associated with your offerings, launching in new markets, or attending conferences. That’s when buyers are more receptive to new solutions. 7. Lead with generosity. Offer a no-strings-attached resource, intro, or suggestion that doesn’t benefit you directly. Reciprocity is a powerful trust builder. And please! Don't ever ever call me on the phone! ;)

Is your leadership's management philosophy stuck in the 1960s? Let's redefine it: Leadership by Being Engaged. The concept of "management by walking around" came from Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard (HP founders) in the 1960s, popularized by Tom Peters in 1982, and gets used today to describe what's missing in #remote work. "The expected benefit: by random sampling of events or employee discussions, managers are more likely to facilitate improvements to the morale, sense of purpose, productivity and and quality... compared to remaining in a specific office area, or the delivery of status reports." The literal concept doesn't work if your managers have people who are working in multiple locations, now the majority case. 60 to 80% of all "enterprise" company managers now have #distributed teams. 100% of Fortune 500 Execs have teams that are #distributed today, according to Atlassian (kudos Molly Sands, PhD). #RTO mandates rooted in this philosophy are trying to return to a world that no longer exists. Leaders need a both/and approach. Get employees together to jump-start #belonging, and build better #culture and #performance by being involved in the digital #collaboration tools that your teams use every day. Let's redefine a philosophy rooted in co-location into one for the #digital age. Four starting points for leaders looking to get digitally engaged: 🔸 Increase transparency. Internal transparency around clear goals and realistic progress against them drives focus on outcomes, and builds trust. 🔸 Get engaged in the work. Execs need to stop saying "Teams/Slack etc are for the kids; you'll find me in email" and get into the tools people use every day to work through account issues, project updates, and problem solving. 🔸 Participate in digital communities. Social forums at work build belonging. That cuts across everything from an Abilities ERG to Sneakerheads. Finding community at work boosts retention; even leaders need to find that. 🔸 Get a reverse mentor. Being available and engaged digitally can feel foreign as a leader, and initially scary to a team. Find a digital native in your organization who can coach you! What's your take? Retire the phrase, or revive an important concept?

This AI Workflow Automates Networking (n8n + ChatGPT): When I was networking, I felt overwhelmed. Not only was talking to strangers way out of my comfort zone... But keeping track of new contacts, existing contacts, and previous conversations was overwhelming. Not to mention trying to figure out what the heck to even say to these people. If you're struggling with any of those things? This video is for you. I'm going to teach you how to use a combo of n8n + ChatGPT to build a workflow that automates everything outlined above. We work with hundreds of private clients every year in our job search coaching program. That experience has confirmed two things: 1. Networking is far and away the most effective way to get hired right now 2. Most people don't have a good system for networking, and don't get traction as a result This video is going to show you how to set up and automate a crazy effective networking system, including: ✅ A "Second Brian" For Your Networking Efforts You need a central hub to store all of the information from your networking - names, emails, interests, dates of last convos, notes, etc. Here's a screenshot of a version of what I used for my job search (there's a link grab a free copy of this template in the YouTube video description). This n8n workflow is going to automate everything for you after you add a new contact to your sheet. 🤖 Automated Updates The workflow is set up to scan your email at regular intervals looking for messages from your networking contacts. When it finds them? It uses that context to do all of the tracking and brainstorming for you. ✏️ Automated Conversation Notes The workflow is also going to turn emails from your contacts into short summaries so you never forget what you spoke about. The summaries will automatically update with every email your contact sends you. 🧠 Automated Next Steps (Adding Value) When a conversation is updated, the workflow will brainstorm ways that you can add value to your contact. Then it will upload those ideas in a "Next Steps" column so you can easily locate them and take action. 🗓️ Automated Follow Up Deadlines Finally, the workflow will recommend follow up deadlines that are in line with the conversation and the next steps you're taking. Did your contact ask for a PDF you mentioned? It'll tell you to send that today. But if they told you try a 2 week course on AI fundamentals? It'll recommend following in, say, 2.5 weeks. The best part? You do NOT need to be technical or no how to code to set this up. The whole thing should take you about an hour and you'll have an automated networking system to supercharge your job search. Also, the video comes with: ✅ A free copy of my Google Sheet networking track ✅ A free copy of the n8n template that you can plug and play ✅ The exact ChatGPT prompts I spent hours dialing in for this use case All for free in the video description: >> Click here to watch the full video: https://lnkd.in/eCW5EMZ8

I do dozens of interviews with top CMOs every year. I always ask what the best performing marketing channel is. And right now everyone is saying events. Post COVID events are back, but also now in an AI world, I think there's a stronger appetite to get out and connect with real people vs. just getting answers from ChatGPT. But: like anything in marketing, running events just because everyone else is doing them is a great way to set money on fire (and still not drive any incremental business). Whether it's a booth at a trade show. A VIP dinner. A 500-person conference. They can all work. They can all flop. The difference: having a real plan and strategy for that event going in. Why do it in the first place? (which continues to be the most important lesson in marketing - what's in it for me? what's the hook? why should people come to our thing?) We talked to two event experts on the Exit Five pod recently Stephanie Christensen and Kristina DeBrito — and here are 5 keys they shared for B2B event success: 1. Pick the right format. Not all events do the same job. Big splash? Go flagship. Want pipeline? Try VIP roundtables. Tiny budget? Host micro-events around existing conferences. Set real goals. 2. “Leads” are not enough anymore. Are you driving awareness? Accelerating deals? Generating pipeline? Define this upfront—or you’ll waste time measuring the wrong stuff. There are more metrics than just "did we get leads from this event" and in today's world leads are tablestalkes. 3. Align your team, bro. Sales and marketing must move in lockstep. Slack alerts for registrations. Sales meeting updates. Leaderboards. It all matters. This is a team effort. 4. Make it memorable. People forget panels. They remember custom pancakes and great venues. Was the food good? Did the WiFi work? Did Oprah show up? Just kidding. Making sure you'r reading. But think surprise and delight, not branded frisbees. 5. Put the work in on the follow up. Events don't close deals - follow-up does. Segment attendees. Create custom offers. Babysit the handoff to sales like your job depends on it. Because it does. You just went shopping and got all these fresh groceries - dont let them spoil. B2B buyers want real connection again. Events can create that. Are you feeling this desire for events? Are you doing events in your business right now? Let me know...

Getting the right feedback will transform your job as a PM. More scalability, better user engagement, and growth. But most PMs don’t know how to do it right. Here’s the Feedback Engine I’ve used to ship highly engaging products at unicorns & large organizations: — Right feedback can literally transform your product and company. At Apollo, we launched a contact enrichment feature. Feedback showed users loved its accuracy, but... They needed bulk processing. We shipped it and had a 40% increase in user engagement. Here’s how to get it right: — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟭: 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 Most PMs get this wrong. They collect feedback randomly with no system or strategy. But remember: your output is only as good as your input. And if your input is messy, it will only lead you astray. Here’s how to collect feedback strategically: → Diversify your sources: customer interviews, support tickets, sales calls, social media & community forums, etc. → Be systematic: track feedback across channels consistently. → Close the loop: confirm your understanding with users to avoid misinterpretation. — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟮: 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 Analyzing feedback is like building the foundation of a skyscraper. If it’s shaky, your decisions will crumble. So don’t rush through it. Dive deep to identify patterns that will guide your actions in the right direction. Here’s how: Aggregate feedback → pull data from all sources into one place. Spot themes → look for recurring pain points, feature requests, or frustrations. Quantify impact → how often does an issue occur? Map risks → classify issues by severity and potential business impact. — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟯: 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 Now comes the exciting part: turning insights into action. Execution here can make or break everything. Do it right, and you’ll ship features users love. Mess it up, and you’ll waste time, effort, and resources. Here’s how to execute effectively: Prioritize ruthlessly → focus on high-impact, low-effort changes first. Assign ownership → make sure every action has a responsible owner. Set validation loops → build mechanisms to test and validate changes. Stay agile → be ready to pivot if feedback reveals new priorities. — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟰: 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 What can’t be measured, can’t be improved. If your metrics don’t move, something went wrong. Either the feedback was flawed, or your solution didn’t land. Here’s how to measure: → Set KPIs for success, like user engagement, adoption rates, or risk reduction. → Track metrics post-launch to catch issues early. → Iterate quickly and keep on improving on feedback. — In a nutshell... It creates a cycle that drives growth and reduces risk: → Collect feedback strategically. → Analyze it deeply for actionable insights. → Act on it with precision. → Measure its impact and iterate. — P.S. How do you collect and implement feedback?

My nonprofit friends, if you are diving into AI for your nonprofit for the first time, start with your mission, not the tech trends. In my work, here is how I approach it – the "2-for-1" approach: ask two questions instead of one. This post is to give you some examples of this approach. When an organization starts exploring AI, the first step is often finding relevant use cases. Those use-cases often stay limited to task-first examples. But there’s a big difference (and bigger returns) between approaching AI from a task-first mindset vs. a mission-first mindset. Here are some examples of how you can reframe your questions using this "2-for-1" approach to ensure that AI advances your organization’s purpose—not just your processes. Example 1: Task-First: ● How can AI help us handle data faster? Mission-First: ● How can we better understand and serve our community’s unique needs? ● How can AI help in that understanding? Example 2: Task-First: ● What processes can we automate to save time? Mission-First: ● Focusing on which tasks can give us joy and fulfill our goals on commitments towards our communities? ● Are any of them repetitive tasks where we can use AI to save time? Example 3: Task-First: ● What can AI do to help us report our metrics? Mission-First: ● Do our current metrics enable us to track, measure, and report our progress in ways that best serve the community? ● How can AI help track and measure that progress? Example 4: Task-First: ● How do we make sure we’re using AI responsibly? Mission-First: ● How do we, collectively as an organization, act with care, transparency, and ethics on our commitment to our community? ● How do we live those values when we use AI and technology? Mission-first questions can lead to AI solutions that strengthen our promise of community trust and reinforce organizational values. AI can be a powerful ally in this work, but only if we approach it with purpose. In the coming days, I will share more examples in the next edition of Dear Human (the email edition of my newsletter). Sign up via https://lnkd.in/gUK-6M_Y Oh, and the AI Advancement Lab is now open for January enrolment! https://lnkd.in/gVRCHmsk #nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #community