Case study
Industry
Cloud software
Company HQ
San Jose, CA, USA
Number of Employees
+6,000
Satisfying Engineers' Need for Deeper Technical Training at Nutanix
Udemy driving business outcomes
Case study details
Nutanix is a leader in private cloud, hybrid and multi cloud computing. Gartner recognizes Nutanix as a leader positioned highest in execution in the hyperconverged infrastructure software market.
A robust engineering team with around 3,000 members powers this transformational company. On a team this cutting edge, learning and development is a top priority. Kevin Freitas, Engineering Enablement Director, and Emily Black, Engineering Enablement Program Manager, are responsible for technical upskilling. And for a team of this size, it’s a massive undertaking.
Close the technical skills gap for engineers
“Our business model depends on the relevancy and proficiency of our software developers,” says Kevin. “And so we sought to find a learning solution that supported everyone’s technical development and empowered them to keep pace in a rapidly changing, highly competitive industry.”
Plus, with a large, globally distributed team, not all engineers had access to the technical training they needed. “When I came onboard at Nutanix, deep technical training was only offered in person. Basically, if you were not at headquarters or at one of our larger distributed R&D locations, engineers were on their own to try and find the training they needed, explains Kevin.
This drove the engineering team to seek a solution that offered the best, most relevant technical content that was available whenever employees needed it.
Engineering Enablement Director
Increase technical capabilities with data and insight
While Nutanix offers LinkedIn Learning to all employees, the engineering team found the content wasn’t deeply technical nor provided hands-on experiences that drive higher rates of knowledge transfers our engineers expect. This compelled them to seek a new learning partner.
The engineering team in India took the lead on this project, exploring online technical learning solutions. They considered several options, including Pluralsight, Coursera, and Udemy. “Based on their feedback and what our engineers like in their training — which is lots of labs, lots of hands-on activities — Udemy was the winner,” says Emily.
“In comparison to LinkedIn Learning, we wanted something that was going to be a lot more technical and go deeper into things like Python and Kubernetes and all of those hot topics right now.” Emily adds that the balance between lectures and interactive activities was a huge differentiator for Udemy.
Once they’d launched Udemy, Kevin soon discovered that it wasn’t the technical course selection alone that made Udemy an ideal partner.
Engineering Enablement Director
Clear insights into adoption and results
Kevin has been impressed by the learning data Udemy puts at his fingertips. “I really enjoy the user adoption funnel and the entire reporting engine in Udemy,” he says. “The Insights and Reporting tools easily enables my team to understand usage statistics and helps us tell the story of the level of engagement across the organization.”
He can quickly see how many people are activating their licenses, enrolling, and starting courses. He can also monitor which classes are most popular to engineers, like Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide, Go: The Complete Developer’s Guide, and many other courses relevant to Nutanix.
Plus, having the data on demand has been a game-changer when it comes to keeping executives informed of engineers’ progress. “It makes our life easier when we seamlessly roll up our quarterly usage statistics for our executives and other senior stakeholders.”
Tailored communication drives learner engagement
Access to learner engagement data in Udemy also helps Emily create customized campaigns. For Udemy power users, Emily sends a list of other top courses to keep their motivation up.
If someone hasn’t started yet, “We give them the whole rundown of what Udemy is and how it can be utilized. And then people generally sign up from there,” says Emily. “We get more sign-ups and higher engagement when we run campaigns.”
Kevin notes that the Nutanix engineering team also uses the Slack integration in their ‘Udemy’ channel to share popular courses. “It’s another way we’re able to promote our learning culture and drive awareness of the week’s most popular courses.”
And all those communication efforts have paid off. 82% of Udemy license holders are actively learning on the platform and over the past 12 months, they have consumed over 1750 courses.
Kevin is also excited about the impact of learning on engineer engagement and retention. A recent employee engagement survey found that learning opportunities are one of the top reasons engineers want to stay at Nutanix.
“We are in a fortunate position to have the opportunity to leverage tools like Udemy combined with our other enablement programs to help maintain our high level of engineering retention,” says Kevin. “Before Udemy was in place, our engineering community had very limited offerings and opportunities to learn at Nutanix. Udemy has really moved the needle for us as upskilling and reskilling are more important than ever before.”
Engineering Enablement Director
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