By Corey Tomlinson, from Legal Futures’ Associates Nuix
It’s no secret that enterprise software, Nuix products included, often has a significant learning curve that users need to navigate. Over the years, software companies have developed kind of a standard toolkit for their users that include many of the same ingredients: blogs, videos, training, and product sheets are standard.
And while these resources are incredibly valuable, they cannot match the positive impact that peer-to-peer interactions have with other users of the same products. These experiences are rich with practical advice, real-world examples, and best practices born from trial and error.
Unfortunately, in-person community events haven’t been possible over the past few months, and it’s anybody’s guess when we’ll be able to gather in one spot again in the future. While this understandable and necessary caution has limited our options, the need for community has arguably never been greater.
ENTER NUIX VIRTUAL USER GROUPS
Rising to meet the needs of our customer communities around the world, over the past several weeks we hosted three online virtual user groups. These meetings, ranging from 90 minutes to over three hours long, were designed to fill the void left by the absence of in-person gatherings. With content driven by customers and partners and even opportunities for virtual drinks together, we got to ‘see’ over 600 Nuix users over the course of the three events and received incredible positive feedback from our guests.
“In our first virtual User Group, we had 124 in attendance from law firms, legal service providers, government, and corporate,” said Simon Barnier, Strategic Sales Executive in Sydney and the mastermind behind the APAC User Group. “We again mixed up the event from previous user groups, with differing agenda items continuing to generate momentum and new attendees. Another highlight of the User Group was the focus on development—what we have achieved in the last four months, what we have planned, and an opportunity for the community to rank those development items.”
“Building culture around our products by facilitating user-to-user communication, leveraging our clients’ positive experiences with Nuix, and giving our users a place to feel at home and be part of a community were all big pieces of our User Group,” said Andy Ward, eDiscovery SME and the driving force behind the EMEA User Group.
“The detailed, packed agenda for the North America Nuix Discover User Group closely mirrored our APAC User Group earlier this year,” said JR Jenkins, Head of Marketing. “We included demos of recently released features in Nuix Discover and a look at the 2020 product plan. The best part, however, was getting direct feedback from our users on the current software and our vision for Nuix Discover in the near future.”
PLANS FOR FUTURE USER GROUPS
Speaking of the future, this past round of virtual user groups is likely not the last. While uncertainty abounds about opening offices and returning to something resembling ‘normal,’ these events offer the best opportunity to remain connected with each other.
“We plan to keep the same general format for future user groups,” said Andy Ward. “A three-hour event featuring four content sessions and a Happy Hour. The underlying theme will continue to be ‘for users, by users’ and we’ve already started taking steps for the next event and have some creative ideas to further spark attendee numbers and interaction.”
“In every user group we’ve held since December 18,” explained Simon Barnier, speaking about previous live events in addition to the most recent virtual event, “we’ve continued to reinvigorate the agenda and bring in guest speakers—previously we had ex-US Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich. At our next event, we have a special guest planned that we’ll announce to the invitee list and we’ve also continued to keep in touch by holding other user group community-based events, which is making our engagement with customers and prospects a better experience every time.”
WE’LL SEE YOU SOON
While we can’t wait to see you again face-to-face, hopefully soon, we’re committed to remaining patient and taking the safest path back to in-person meetings. Virtual user groups fill the need for community and work because so many of our guests and presenters were actively engaged during the events and flexible when the situation demanded.
Nuix users and partners can expect to hear from us shortly with invitations to our next round of virtual user group meetings, and we’ll be sure to update our Events page when the time is right for new live events. Until then, we look forward to seeing you, even if it’s only through a camera on a computer screen.
Feature photo by: Asim18
