In this edition of Bright Lights, we introduce another key PeopleFluent team member: Strategic Product Adoption Manager, John Rockett. When he’s not at work, John loves cooking, gardening, and traveling. Let’s get to know him better!

Hi John! What’s your role at PeopleFluent? How long have you been with the company?

I joined PeopleFluent in 2019, and I am currently Strategic Product Adoption Manager, focusing on our Learning product. I work on solutions that keep the client engaged and focused on driving the success of the LMS toward their business objectives. My role involves meeting with clients on a regular basis, post go-live, to review how the user experience is going, and providing pre-sales demonstrations of the LMS. I also work to review current functionality and any additional business needs that clients may have.

Before PeopleFluent, what did you do for work?

I was a Learning Management System Administrator for an engineering services company. Before that I worked as a teacher and as a traveling consultant, delivering training across the world.

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What skills are needed to be successful in your role?

Customer service is primary—putting the customer's needs first and then pairing the technology in such a way to meet those needs. It's also important to have a really good understanding of our product, our business objectives, and where PeopleFluent is going. We want to make sure that clients are happy with the product they’ve invested in, that’s the key to success.

Knowing how to write a good report is also integral to what I do, including having an understanding of relational databases and SQL. Analytics can show us: Did we effectively train everybody? Did we see an improvement in the issues we were training for? It can be difficult to measure the results, but I’ve worked really hard on how to analyze the return on investment.

What skills would you like to develop in the future?

Technology is constantly moving forward, and it can be very complex. I’m always making sure to stay up to date with the latest trends in our field, ensuring I’m good at what I do.

How would you describe your team dynamic?

In my team, we’ve close to a hundred years of experience working within our field. It's impressive how long people have been in their industries—they know what they want to do, they're very comfortable in their roles. Our team has tons of experience, the good parts and the bad parts, and they really want to help our clients move the dial.

What’s your favorite aspect of your job?

It's the customer interaction. Even though I work remotely, I'm on calls with people around the globe. I get to meet all sorts of cool people. My goal is to help customers with their unique business challenges, so it's all about being in a partnership with our clients.

Aside from the client aspect, I really like working with my team within the learning product. You can never know everything about a particular product because it’s just so vast. I reach out to individuals who may have more experience than I do, and I learn every day.

Have there been any projects that you’ve been particularly proud to work on?

There’s a particular client that continually presents unique business opportunities, and challenges us to make better software. They once moved to a new solution away from PeopleFluent, and were struggling to implement the new elements. The client asked us to show them how PeopleFluent could help meet their needs. We spent hours and hours working through their business process together. We continued to develop our product to meet their specific needs. That's pretty cool. I'm happy to say that each team had their role in making sure that they're getting what they need.

What’s your favorite work perk?

We're a global company—I sit in Denver, but have colleagues around the world. I can have early morning calls, I can have late night calls, but everybody recognizes that you need to take time for yourself, too. There’s a lot of flexibility at PeopleFluent. We're not a 9 to 5 company, we just get the work done, and work that way. We take that global aspect to heart—we show up whenever the client needs us.

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What are you doing when you’re not at your desk? What are some of your favorite hobbies/pastimes?

I love cooking. Every night I try to think of something different or unique to eat. I've watched a lot of cooking shows this year. I also created a garden for myself because, you know, I'm not young anymore, so what do I do? I started gardening! Those are some of the things I like to do on the side.

We have five kids, and they’re located all over the place. My wife and I love traveling, and since our kids are spread out, we like traveling to them and enjoying activities where they are. I've got three kids in college, one's in the Navy and one is still in high school.

What’s something you wish you’d known at the start of your career?

If I look back, my advice to myself is: find a good manager, stick with them, and you'll never really work a day! A good manager makes work not feel like work—they develop you and want to see you be very successful. On the other side, a bad manager can cut you to the core. With a bad manager, it's all about them.

I've got a really good manager—she lets me manage my own time and manage my own set of expectations around my particular product. I've had really good managers over the years and I've had some really poor managers. You're going to know pretty quickly, whether or not you're in the right situation. You’re not going to fix a bad manager, so you basically need to just move on. There's always another opportunity out there, so work with people who want to work with you.

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