UPDATE: Thanks everyone! We’ve got all the responses we need for now.
Now that we’ve moved into our new office space, we’d like to experiment with some ideas for training customers in person.
Are you a paying 37signals customer who’d like to have a personalized one-hour training session for you and/or your co-workers? Our learning theater at the new 37signals office in Chicago is now operational and soon we’d like to start bringing in customers to show them the ins and outs of our products.
If you’re interested, please email sarah [at] 37signals [dot] com for more information.
Jay Owen
on 19 Aug 10Would love to. Unfortunately we are in Florida.
Laura L Scott
on 19 Aug 10Would love it!!! Come to NYC!!!
Clint Eagar
on 19 Aug 10I’d love to be a trainer!
SH
on 19 Aug 10@Laura, we’d like to bring training to other cities in the future, but for now we’re going to practice in our own office.
@Clint, the training will be done by our support staff, so unfortunately we’re not able to accommodate others who’d want to train. Sorry about that.
Anonymous Coward
on 19 Aug 10The company I work for is located in the west suburbs of Chicago. We began using the basic version of Basecamp about a month ago. I’m interested in your experiment.
Megan Johnson
on 19 Aug 10Sorry – didn’t mean to be anonymous.
jDeppen
on 19 Aug 10Record the sessions for others to watch on the web.
Neil Kelty
on 19 Aug 10In regards to @Clint for @37signals…
You really should consider creating a Certified Consultant/Trainer program for people that you vouch for – take a look at Dave Ramsey’s ELP program.
Chandler
on 19 Aug 10I’m just a one person shop—well the only person out of a 2 person firm located in Chicago. But I’d be interested.
Joseph Garven
on 19 Aug 10@jDeppen, that is a GREAT IDEA!! @SH, I have always wanted something visual to show my staff and partner companies on how to use Basecamp and other 37 products! An online video would be super awesome and useful!!
SH
on 19 Aug 10We’ll be posting videos of public training sessions we do later on down the road. Right now we’re focusing on private sessions, so we probably won’t make those viewable online.
Gary
on 19 Aug 10Nice idea for those in the US. It’s a good thing your products are so self explanatory, no training needed really, just a “nice to have” if you’re in the Chicago. We’ve been using Basecamp for a month and it feels like it’s been ages.
David Friedman
on 19 Aug 10We are in the area and would be happy to be a beta test!!
Jennifer Lach
on 19 Aug 10We just started using Basecamp and it’s going to fall to me to train the rest of the agency. Is Madison to far away for you to come?
Tom Rose
on 19 Aug 10I could do it.
Shar Carpenter
on 19 Aug 10Come to Dallas – pretty please!
Adam
on 19 Aug 10http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch14_Zero_Training.php
JSWEb
on 19 Aug 10We are in the UK
How about offer a WEB BASED session? Share screen and audio chat.. Now we would jump at that offer.
Anonymous Coward
on 19 Aug 10Who needs training on Basecamp?
It doesn’t do much [by design]. Are you helping users learn how to use a mouse?
Anonymous Coward
on 19 Aug 10http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch14_Zero_Training.php
qft
Anonymous Jerk
on 19 Aug 10I’d have to agree with my step-brother Coward. But in all seriousness, I think it’s a good idea. I know a few folks in my office that could use both “how to use a mouse” and “how to use Basecamp” training.
And to continue the trend: Come to Houston! I promise sweat, humidity and plenty of dummies :)
Mohammed
on 20 Aug 10Hey can you do virtual training? Web casts?..etc.
Anonymous Coward
on 20 Aug 10cool, will come.
andy
on 20 Aug 10I am partly excited about the training opportunity (our drupal shop WHQ is in Chicago) but partly skeptical – you’ve made it so easy we’re not sure what you can train us on.
Jeremy Woolf
on 20 Aug 10To Mohammed’s point, I’d be very interested in virtual training. We’re using Basecamp worldwide and it would be good to get basic and advanced training for my staff.
clayton bain
on 20 Aug 10In Chicago for work in the next few weeks/months, would love to swing by and really learn how this is supposed to be used….
Maxime Brusse
on 20 Aug 10I’d love to be a trainer as well!
Ric Cortez
on 20 Aug 10Can you do a webinar or just transmit the video to us? Im from Manila and my co-workers would really appreciate that.
SH
on 20 Aug 10There’s a lot more planned down the road, everyone. This is just one part of our first experiment in connecting with our customers in person. We’re focusing on one thing at a time.
Erika Wagner
on 20 Aug 10I would love to get some interactive ‘training’ on how to take basic use of Basecamp to the next level. Maybe the real benefit is the ability to ask questions while actually walking through the application and explaining what you want to accomplish with the information in Basecamp.
Hendrik-Jan Francke
on 20 Aug 10No thanks :-) In all the years I have used BaseCamp, only once did I give a client a demo/training session. Everyone just gets it. I had a few clients who were nervous but once they logged in the first time, they were happy it was so easy to use.
Mike
on 20 Aug 10Awesome! We’re in Ohio but would love to come to Chicago to check it out. Keep up the good work 37.
Kelli Sudduth
on 20 Aug 10Would love web or onsite training!
Steve Monsen
on 20 Aug 10I love the idea of training. We have over 100 employees that need to know how to use Basecamp. Problem is that we are a nonprofit and can’t afford to send everyone to Chicago from Milwaukee to train.
Have you thought about training people to become certified to train others? I would be interested in that.
Richard
on 20 Aug 10Just my opinion, but if you need to train customers on how to use a web application, perhaps the web application has some usability issues. I always find peoplesoft apps horribly made and requiring hands-on training. You don’t want to be like that.
Michael
on 20 Aug 10In this case training is valuable because it should result in higher rates of enthusiastic user adoption.
Crazymfr
on 20 Aug 10The real problem we face is getting OUR clients to use basecamp. Would love to see or hear some examples of how other Basecamp users get their clients to use and continue to use the software past initial training. Also, curious as to how 37signals would approach the situation.
Thanks.
BradM
on 20 Aug 10I’m curious as to the extent that this training experiment will cover? For 2 reasons:
1) You’re calling it an experiment, which makes me think that the sessions will be unconventional
2) Your products are pretty simple to use. How much training would one need?
Carol
on 20 Aug 10I’d be interested, but I’m in Oklahoma. I like the web based training idea!
SH
on 20 Aug 10I’m curious as to the extent that this training experiment will cover? For 2 reasons:
1) You’re calling it an experiment, which makes me think that the sessions will be unconventional
2) Your products are pretty simple to use. How much training would one need?
We’re calling it an experiment because we’ve never done it before. We had no idea if we’d get zero requests or 100 requests. We don’t yet know what the people who’ve requested training want out of it, or what we should focus on for them. An experiment is a good way to test the waters and see if something is worth a full time investment.
We don’t really think people need “training” for our products. They are built to be easy to use without manuals, in depth explanations and such. But we also know from recent experience that there are some features we can help our customers use better, so that’s where we’d like to start off with any training we offer.
Heather
on 20 Aug 10We are in Milwaukee and we would be interested in a training session at your Chicago office. We utilize Basecamp for tracking all of our projects and we currently have the Plus Package and we will be upgrading to Premium within the next few months. Thank you! HB
John Sostak
on 20 Aug 10We would like to attend, but not sure if we need training, or just a couple of demonstrations.
1. Basecamp, how do you search with in a project, or accross the entire system? Sometimes one of our clients or colleagues address a message or to-do, and it is tough to track it down.
2. Backpack, how can we sort the pages better? I have to many pages , example, passwords should be a parent of many smaller pages.
Love your products, keep up the great work, and thank you.
Sam Araki
on 21 Aug 10With anything NEW, many folks get immediately freaked out of having to learn ANOTHER new thing.
Basecamp in it’s purest form, though, is so user friendly that the basics of what 95% of users would use it for is pretty easy to figure out with an open mind.
It’s a short 2 minute complete overview of WHAT Basecamp is that is more important than anything for newbies.
Abel Bognon
on 22 Aug 10I am locate at Abidjan Ivory Coast and it takes long to come over there but I will still put things together and see if I could make it up
Anonymous Coward
on 22 Aug 10I think it is important to remember that training in person is great, but making great products are better.
Think Gmail: Gmail NOT Google Wave: Google Wave
TomTJM
on 22 Aug 10We are actually using for a contract manufacturing shop. Works great, would like to be able to work a simple spreadsheet file online instead of downloading and uploading again.
Also – Training near Phoenix?
Katie Kirkland
on 23 Aug 10Another Basecamp user that is voting for training sessions via Webcast. Please and thank you!
Hilary Marsh
on 23 Aug 10We’re in Chicago, and I’d love to have some training for my team! NAR actually has several different Basecamp accounts, so maybe we could all consolidate for a session!
Thanks,
Hilary
This discussion is closed.