How Seismic Scaled CS by Unifying Education, Community & Advocacy with Melissa VanPelt

How Rewst Uses AI to Raise the Bar on Course Quality with Clea Mahoney

What does it actually take to build an AI workflow that holds the bar on quality? Not the theory — the real thing, with all the context window limitations, mid-project pivots, and "why are you failing me, Claude?" moments. Clea Mahoney is a Learning Experience Design Manager at Rewst, a workflow automation platform for managed service providers, and the CE challenge there is one of the most complex I’ve come across. Every single customer is building something different, which means there's no standard, no one-size-fits-all. She has to figure that out fresh every time. What makes this conversation so good is that Clea isn't talking about AI in theory. She walks us through the actual workflow she's built inside Claude to audit, update, and maintain her course library — from the Notion drafts to the instructional design rubric she trained Claude on, to the multi-chat structure she uses to keep context windows from getting overwhelmed. It’s specific, it’s practical, and it’s the most honest account you'll hear of what it actually takes to build an AI workflow that holds the bar on quality. In this episode, we get into: * The course audit lifecycle she built — and how it's still evolving * Why breaking work into focused, separate chats is the key to quality output * How human expertise remains non-negotiable in the review process * What it feels like to manage a "team" of AI agents instead of humans Oh, and baby Willow made a cameo. That's just how we do things here. Find Clea on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleamahoney/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleamahoney/]  Connect with Samantha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/]    Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:44 Clea's Journey in Customer Education 06:34 Understanding Roost and Its Challenges 08:50 Adapting to Team Changes and AI Integration 11:04 Transitioning to Claude AI for Workflow Design 13:40 Developing Effective Curriculum with AI 18:47 Iterating on Course Design and Content Creation 21:59 Incorporating Feedback for Quality Content 24:38 Adapting Terminology for User Understanding 26:49 Breaking Down Complex Processes 30:41 Automating Course Updates and Maintenance 35:48 The Role of Human Expertise in AI 37:53 Managing AI Agents as Team Members 41:37 Continuous Optimization in Learning Design

Building for the Agentic Learner With Talya Reynolds

In this episode of CX Signals, Samantha sits down with Talya Reynolds, former Manager of Customer Education, AI & Automations at Pendo, to explore what it looks like to build customer education infrastructure for a world where the learner is no longer always human — and why the people who understand how to design for learning are about to become the most important people in the room. Talya stumbled into customer education the way most of us do — sideways, and completely by accident. A master's in conflict resolution, early instructional design work, a CS role at a boot-stage startup — none of it was planned. By the time she landed at Pendo, her north star for years, her conviction was clear: customer education's biggest problem wasn't content — it was that the field had never learned to define the business problem it was actually solving. What makes Talya's perspective so sharp is how far ahead of the curve she was building. At Pendo, she owned "Pendo on Pendo" — their own in-product learning experience — which gave her a rare opportunity to architect a fully orchestrated learning motion using the very tool she was educating customers on. What she discovered reframes the debate our industry keeps having about whether academies are dying. They're not dying. The learner is changing. We dig into how Talya went cross-functional — aligning marketing, lifecycle, community, and CS teams around shared definitions of adoption and health. We get into the data infrastructure behind it: combining Salesforce, Zendesk, and unstructured call data to build a true picture of user maturity. And we go deep on modular content architecture — why managing bite-sized, tagged content from a single source of truth is the foundational move that makes omnichannel orchestration actually possible. The boring infrastructure work, it turns out, is what makes the agentic future viable. In this episode, we cover: * Why the agentic era doesn't kill academies — it demands better ones * How Talya used product telemetry, ticket data, and AI to build a unified picture of user maturity at Pendo * Modular content architecture: the unglamorous unlock for in-product delivery, omnichannel distribution, and AI personalization * Cross-functional alignment — how she got marketing, lifecycle, and CS on the same page without stepping on toes * Curating the corpus: what it means for CE leaders to define guardrails, build feedback loops, and govern agentic learning * Getting your team bought in on AI: why a skills hackathon changed everything If you've been feeling the pressure of AI adoption and wondering what your role looks like on the other side of it, this episode will reframe the whole conversation. Chapters: 00:10 The Signal 02:05 Falling Into Customer Ed Head Over Feet 07:44 From Order Taker to Learning Orchestrator 11:36 Pendo on Pendo — The Dream Come True 22:14 The Cross-Functional Long Game 30:56 Modular Content Is the Infrastructure Play 39:00 When the UI Disappears — The Agentic Future 44:52 Stop the Fear, Start With Your Team Connect with Talya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillglynn/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillglynn/]  Connect with Samantha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/]    Connect with Courtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/]

How LinkedIn Is Orchestrating Seamless Digital CX at Scale with Jill Glynn

---------------------------------------- In this episode of CX Signals, Samantha sits down with Jill Glynn, Director of Customer Engagement at LinkedIn, to explore what it really looks like to orchestrate a fully connected digital CX motion — across academy, community, in-app, and scaled email — and why the unsexy work of content architecture is the thing that makes all of it possible. Jill leads scaled learning, digital engagement, and community across some of LinkedIn's most complex enterprise products. She didn't build that scope overnight — it's the result of years of deliberate organizational alignment, pulling digital CS, customer learning, and community under one roof before moving the whole function into marketing. What stands out most is how grounded she is in the fundamentals. Jill believes personalization at scale isn't a technology problem — it's an architecture problem. If you haven't done the unglamorous work of tagging your content, mapping it to product actions, and auditing what's actually driving outcomes, no amount of tooling will save you. We dig into what it takes to move from a "more is more" content strategy to a simplified happy path model, how LinkedIn measures learning effectiveness through Action Learner Rate — whether a customer takes a specific product action within seven days of completing a course — and why years of diligent content tagging is now the foundation powering their content lake, in-product help experiences, and AI personalization roadmap. The unsexy stuff, it turns out, was always the strategy. Here's some of what we cover: * Why content architecture is the unglamorous unlock for personalization, AI, and in-product learning * How LinkedIn uses "stuck user moments" to identify where customers fall off — and meet them there * Action Learner Rate: measuring whether learning actually drives product behavior * Building cross-functional alignment with sales, CS, and product — and what finally made it click * The vision for contextual, in-the-flow-of-work learning at LinkedIn's scale If you're in customer education, digital CS, or CX leadership, this episode is a masterclass in what it looks like to build for scale without losing the signal. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:09 Jill Glynn's Career Journey 01:09 The Evolution of Customer Success at LinkedIn 04:00 Understanding LinkedIn's Product Offerings 06:40 Onboarding New Customers 09:21 Simplifying the Customer Experience 12:10 Personalization and Content Architecture 14:42 Governance and Content Management 23:59 The Importance of Historical Archives 24:34 Foundational Elements for AI Success 26:36 Personalization in Education and Training 28:54 Community Engagement and User-Generated Content 32:04 Leveraging Data for Customer Insights 36:02 Connecting Learning to Business Outcomes 42:07 Collaboration Between Teams for Success 49:40 Embracing Simplicity in a Fast-Paced Environment 50:44 Key Takeaways for Effective Team Strategy Connect with Jill Glynn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillglynn/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillglynn/]  Connect with Samantha Murray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/]    Connect with Courtney Sembler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/]

How ZoomInfo Made Digital Onboarding a Growth Engine with Mary Iapicca

In this episode of CX Signals, we sit down with Mary Iapicca, VP of Customer Experience at ZoomInfo, to explore what it really looks like to build a post-sale CX operation from the ground up — and how a deliberate, segmented approach to onboarding becomes the foundation for a truly scalable customer experience. Mary oversees 7 functions at ZoomInfo: onboarding, technical implementation, customer education, community, customer success, delivery, and CX operations — across a team of over 250 people. And she didn't inherit that scope. She built it, one function at a time over four years. What stands out most isn't just the scale of what she's built, but how she thinks about growth — both for her customers and her own career. Mary believes you don't need to pitch your way into expanded scope. You just need to be the name that comes up in the room when a decision needs to be made. That philosophy shapes everything, from how she's designed her team structure to how she approaches her own professional development. We dig into what it actually takes to design and execute a segmented onboarding transformation at scale — the kind that runs 1,500 new projects a month — and how moving to a more digital model unlocked data and personalization capabilities that a fully human-led motion simply can't match. Mary makes a compelling case that digital isn't a lesser experience; it's often a better one, precisely because of the signals and insights it surfaces. A moment that stuck with us? Mary shares how ZoomInfo analyzed whether customers who received a fully digital experience versus a hybrid one actually differed in adoption or satisfaction — and found they didn't. That insight freed up her team to redeploy resources, up-level talent, and build a smarter, more personalized motion at scale. In this episode, we get into: * Designing a segmented onboarding model that scales to 1,500 new projects a month * Why digital CX unlocks personalization and data signals that human-led motions can't match * How unifying seven post-sale functions under one leader creates a more orchestrated customer experience * The career philosophy of building readiness before opportunity, and why that's more powerful than pitching for scope * Connecting CX to go-to-market: why adoption is the real product launch Chapters: 00:10 — Introduction 02:17 — From High School Teacher to Tech Executive 06:56 — Building One Function at a Time: How Mary Grew Her Scope at ZoomInfo 13:30 — Career Progression: Why Being the Name in the Room Beats Pitching for Scope 17:52 — Why ZoomInfo Unified Seven Post-Sale Functions Under One Leader 27:47 — CX as a Go-To-Market Engine: Why Adoption IS the Product Launch 35:11 — The Onboarding Transformation: Scaling to 1,500 Projects a Month 43:06 — Why Going Digital Unlocked Data, Signals & Personalization at Scale 49:10 — The Future of CX: AI, Digital Motions & What's Coming Next 50:41 — Advice for CX Leaders Modernizing Their Post-Sale Experience Follow Mary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwislotski/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwislotski/]  Follow Samantha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/]    Follow Courtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/]

How Seismic Scaled CS by Unifying Education, Community & Advocacy with Melissa VanPelt

In this episode of CX Signals, we sit down with Melissa VanPelt, VP of Customer Success at Seismic, to explore what it really looks like to unify education, community, advocacy, and digital CS into one cohesive operating model — and how that kind of consolidation becomes a growth engine at scale. Melissa has spent the last ten years at Seismic, helping grow the business from $10 million to over $400 million in ARR. Along the way, she's built and led nearly every function that touches the post-sale customer experience — not as separate initiatives, but as a single, interconnected system designed to drive adoption, retention, and expansion at scale. What stands out most isn't just the scope of what she's built, but how she thinks about it. For Melissa, every customer is a learner, and every interaction is a moment to educate, enable, and move them forward. That philosophy shapes everything — from how her team designs digital journeys to how they measure customer health. We dig into what it actually takes to bring decentralized programs together onto a single platform, why unifying your tech stack unlocks a level of customer insight most teams don't have, and how Seismic is building what Melissa calls "systems of customer obsession" under a new CEO who has made the customer journey a company-wide mandate. One of the standout moments? Melissa describes how consolidating community, university, and digital journey data into a single health model is surfacing risks faster and enabling her team to trigger the right intervention — human or digital — at exactly the right moment. It's a masterclass in what proactive CS actually looks like in practice. Here’s some of what we cover: * Building a unified digital CS motion without losing the human touch * Using education, community, and advocacy as a flywheel for expansion * Why customer health scoring needs to go beyond product usage and support tickets * Designing cross-functional content strategy across the full customer lifecycle * Scaling impact through systems — not heroics If you're in customer success, customer education, or digital CX, this episode will challenge how you think about the post-sale experience and what's possible when you stop treating these functions as silos. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and Background 02:38 Career Journey and Customer Education 04:50 Transitioning to Customer Education and Community Building 07:51 Integrating Functions for Cohesive Customer Experience 10:30 Hyper-Growth and Customer Centricity 12:03 Structuring for Customer Centricity 16:23 Digital and Human-Led Customer Success 17:17 The Need for Digital Engagement 19:59 Enhancing Human Interaction through Digital 22:15 Data Architecture and Customer Insights 25:38 Evolving Business Ecosystems 26:02 Cost-Efficient Growth Strategies 27:10 Customer Marketing and Revenue Expansion 30:16 Cross-Functional Collaboration for Customer Success 34:01 Future Objectives and Customer Education 40:03 Advice for Aspiring Executives Follow Melissa VanPelt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-vanpelt/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-vanpelt/]  Follow Samantha Murray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/]    Follow Courtney Sembler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-sembler/]