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A Guide to Product Training LMS Software
Looking to find the best product training LMS software for your business?
If so, you've come to the right place.
Keep reading to learn:
Product training or product education is a strategy that helps customers, employees or partners realize a product's value. Product training comes in various forms, including in-app messaging, help centers, videos, blog posts, in-person seminars and public-facing academies powered by product training LMS software.
Below is an example from The HubSpot Academy.
Making courses like, "HubSpot Marketing Software" readily available to customers and prospects, it's ensuring these audiences have the resources they need to take full advantage of its product. 
This example from SEO software, ahrefs, presents its customers with a video they can watch to learn about its new Ads report in Site Explorer and the updates to its keyword database.
Finally, here's an example from Shopify's Partner Academy:
The course highlighted in green, "App Development Certification" helps Shopify app developers learn about the platform's app development tools and best practices so that they can use them to grow their business.
Since the dawn of the technological age, product training or product knowledge training has been important.
But in 2022, it's essential.
Why?
Two reasons:
Technology is hard: Most products and technology are difficult to use, especially for less technically savvy generations. Products are also constantly evolving, meaning that there will always be something new for users to wrap their heads around — think about how Apple provides resources to iPhone users when it updates its operating system.
Competition is everywhere: People use products for one reason and that's because they help them/provide value in some way. If someone doesn't know how to realize this value, they won't use the product.
Think about it: If someone downloads an app that promises to streamline their billing process, but upon logging in for the first time can't figure out how to do that, will they keep using it? Probably not or at least not as much as they would if they did. If this challenge persists, people will either abandon the product altogether or find an alternative they can use (i.e., find a competitor). Given the intense competition in the business world today, finding that competitor is just a Google search away.
More Adoption/Usage: People are more likely to use something that they understand. Whether it's an app, a SaaS product or something like Uber, if people know how to use something and how it can help them in some way, they will. For example, a Shopify customer is more likely to use its marketing capabilities if they understand how to find audiences, build campaigns and pull insights from the platform.
Better Retention: Retention goes hand in hand with product adoption/usage. The more someone sees the value of something, the more likely they are to keep using it. Using the example above, the Shopify customer who benefited from its marketing capabilities and saw results will likely keep using it.
Higher NPS: NPS or Net Promoter Score helps companies understand how happy someone is with their product (or service) and how likely they are to recommend it. If someone understands how to use a product and has seen its benefits, they're more likely to give it a high score, and therefore, recommend it to a friend or colleague.
Now that you understand why product training is so important, let's talk about the real reason you're here: Product training software.
Product training software or a product training LMS software is a tool that companies can use to create, deliver, optimize and scale a product training program aimed at accelerating onboarding, increasing retention, reducing support tickets, raising NPS and other mission-critical business metrics.
Not sure if you need product training software? Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
Here's another way to look at it: If you plan on scaling your training program to account for an evolving product and growing user base, product training software should be in your toolbox.
Once you start looking further into the benefits of product education, you’ll quickly notice that there are a lot of options from which to choose.
How do you pick the right one?
Ask yourself these questions:
What are my goals?
The first question you should ask yourself is: "What are my goals for the product training program?” Your answer should include not only what you hope your learners will get out of your program, but what you want to accomplish (i.e., faster onboarding, better CSAT, higher NPS, etc.).
With your goals set in stone (at least in the short term), you can work with the software vendor during the RFP process to make sure the software can actually help you achieve your goals.
How many people are you training and where are they located?
The number of people you're training now — and in the future — will be a big determining factor when you're selecting your LMS. Are you training just a handful or a couple thousand? Are your users localized to a region or scattered across the world? If you're only training a handful of users in relatively the same area, you may only need an LMS with more basic features. But if you're planning on training thousands of users across the world, you'll need an LMS that can keep up. Said another way, you'll need a cloud-based LMS that can deliver training at scale.
Product training LMSs come packed with features — some you need and some you may not. So, when you're going through your selection process, ask yourself which ones do you actually need right now? Do you need customization and mobile optimization? How about learning paths or surveys and quizzes? Are certain integrations a must? Think about what's important to you and what you need to launch and maintain an effective training program.
It’s clear that product education is integral to business success. It's equally, if not more, important to pick the right one.
Here's some of the best product training software available right now:
Northpass is the best training software for companies that need an easy way to provide their customers, employees and partners with product training. Ready to get started? Reach out today.
