Investing in your team’s professional development is a great way to attract talent, increase performance levels and sustain your competitive advantage. Effective trainings make learning new skills and new technologies both a fun and efficient experience. Over the years, Big Nerd Ranch has conducted hundreds of trainings for major enterprises (like Facebook) and startups (such as Nextdoor) alike. Along the way, we’ve learned that the success of trainings depend on how well the organization understands its own needs. If you’re considering a training session, be sure to ask yourself these five questions first.

1. What are your goals?

Always start with the big picture. What are you looking to accomplish with this training? Are you trying to prepare employees to take on a more senior role? Fill in a skills gap required to take on a new project? Get up to date with the latest advancements in tools and platforms? The answers to these questions will help you identify the best training company for your needs.

2. What type of training is right for you?

Maybe you need everyone on your team to learn a new set of skills, and quickly. In that case, consider a corporate training course, where your entire team receives the same materials and instruction in a time and place that works for them. Or perhaps you have a smaller subset of employees who need to advance their skills in an intensive training. In that case, the bootcamp approach is a better fit.

3. What does your team already know?

Take stock of the skills your team is already bringing to the table. You may have graphic designers who want to learn mobile design or developers who want to learn how to build for a new platform. Identifying your team’s strengths will help you choose the right training to fill in the gaps. At Big Nerd Ranch, we offer a range of courses—intermediate and advanced, from web development to iOS, Android, design and more—to ensure your team gets the individualized training it needs.

4. What does your team wish they knew?

An effective way to win major loyalty points with your team is to demonstrate you care about their growth and development. In fact, a recent Gallup study found that 87% of millennials say that professional development or career growth opportunities are very important to them. Take advantage of this opportunity to ask your team members which skills they’d like to add to their portfolio and what types of projects they want to undertake. Engaging them in the process is mutually beneficial and will go a long way in building team loyalty.

5. How will you define success?

Whether you’re hoping your team improves productivity or learns a new language, it’s important you have a solid understanding of your desired outcomes from this training. If you’re clear about your goals and metrics of success, you’ll be able to select a training company who can cater their courses to satisfy your objectives.

Have questions? We’re here to help. And we know what we’re talking about. Nineteen of America’s 25 most popular apps were built at companies whose engineers were taught by Big Nerd Ranch, and we’ve trained over 14,000 students in our bootcamps.

All that to say, we can help you figure out how to get the best possible training for your team. If you’re looking to get started on that process, fill out a free needs assessment, and we’ll be in touch!

The post 5 Questions to Ask Before You Train Your Team appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

Homonym disclaimer: We’ll be discussing mobile apps in this post; not kinetic sculptures, Canadian rock bands, or the Southeastern port city that gave us Tim Cook, Winston Groom and Jimmy Buffett.

Right now is a great time to be a mobile-centric business because more than 6 billion people have access to a mobile device—that’s more than 80% of all people worldwide. On top of that, the average consumer spends over 30 hours per month in mobile apps. Is your company positioned for success in this mobile-centric world?

If your business hasn’t yet built that much-needed app, you’ve come to the right place. For more than 15 years, Big Nerd Ranch has helped our clients execute their mobile strategy by building world-class web, iOS and Android apps, as well as training their engineering teams in new mobile technologies. We’ve been at this mobile thing for a while now, and we can help you benefit from the massive shift toward mobile.

So why should your company build a mobile app?

Your Audience Is Mobile

Regardless of your product or service, or whether you are a B2B or B2C organization, your website is more likely to be viewed on a mobile device than on a desktop. With more people consuming information on mobile devices, your business must not only be there, but you must consider how your brand engages with your audience for all of those micro-moments. The right mobile app can extend your brand’s reach, boost customer engagement or meet your mobile workforce’s demand for increased productivity while on the go.

Websites Alone Don’t Cut It Anymore

Businesses of all sizes use their website as the hub of information and customer engagement, and chances are your business has a mobile-responsive website. However, many responsive websites treat customer interaction on a mobile device as an afterthought. Many websites are designed primarily for desktop browsers, and the responsiveness might mean nothing more than shrinking the copy and switching from landscape to portrait orientation. Providing your audience with a high quality mobile app, whether web or native, means your company is more accessible to a large mobile audience.

Common Problems a New Mobile App Can Solve

• Low new customer acquisition via mobile devices
• Low productivity from a field-based workforce
• Low consumer ratings of your current mobile app
• Low customer engagement on your responsive website via mobile device
• Slow-loading responsive website pages
• Conversion rates from a desktop far outpace conversion rates from a mobile device

Take Advantage of Our Knowledge Base

When you have a mobile strategy and you are ready to build a great mobile app, then now is the right time to talk to Big Nerd Ranch. Our approach focuses on understanding your company’s goals and objectives, and we will let you know quickly if our team has the right skills to develop the apps that will set you up for success.

The post Why Mobile: Staying Competitive in a Mobile-Centric World appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

I just attended Money20/20, which in its first five years has grown to become the largest financial technology, or FinTech, conference in the world. With over 11,000 attendees from more than 3,000 companies and 75 countries, the conference boasts a very impressive range of technology topics that are trending the financial sector. If you like learning about what is next big thing in banking, payments, financial services, currency and commerce, then this is the show for you.

Finance’s Technological Renaissance

After three days of panel discussions and dozens of meaningful conversations, it is clear to me the financial sector is in the middle of a technological renaissance. Companies of all sizes are blazing new trails in fields like biometrics, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

We will soon live in a world where everyday items like cash, credit cards, and passwords will go the way of the dinosaur, replaced by digital cryptocurrencies, mobile wallets, and facial recognition. With every innovation comes an improved customer experience, and since we are all consumers of financial services, the excitement at the conference was palpable.

But What About Security?

Amongst all of the excitement, I also noticed a divergent theme woven throughout the entire conference. There is a tug of war between customer experience and security, and the financial industry is forced to wrestle with this dilemma. Let’s take another look at the examples I mentioned above: digital cryptocurrencies, mobile wallets, and facial recognition. The purpose of each is to provide a better customer experience. However, many attendees will return from the conference with a nagging question: When we blaze new trails in the customer experience, are we exposing the customer to new threats?

Difficult problems, by their very nature, require solutions that are difficult to find. At Big Nerd Ranch, we have worked alongside some of the world’s most innovative companies over the past fifteen years. As their guide, we have blazed new trails in technology and solved dilemmas like customer experience versus security. Just remember that behind every Lewis & Clark expedition, you’ll find a capable guide like Sacagawea. As you set off to blaze new trails in financial technology, let us be your guide. Contact Us to get started.

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