Inside AuditBoard's Playbook: How to Relaunch and Market Your Academy

This playbook is brought to you directly from the team at AuditBoard—Elyce Ladany, Manager of Digital Education & Robyn Kim, Sr. Instructional Designer.

Relaunching an academy can feel like a mountain to climb. 

At AuditBoard, we were in the same place—facing the challenge of outdated content, a non-intuitive user experience, and the need to engage our users in new, meaningful ways. What we found is that the process, while challenging, is absolutely worth it when done methodically. We learned a lot along the way, and we’re here to share our insights to help you avoid the pitfalls and embrace the wins. 

Here’s the roadmap that gave us a streamlined, engaging, and successful academy relaunch.

Step 1: Start with a Solid Foundation

When we first looked at AuditBoard’s Academy, we knew it needed more than just a fresh coat of paint—it needed a complete renovation. We had years of content that needed to be re-evaluated. But don't panic; starting with a content audit is a manageable way to break the project into pieces. The key is understanding your audience and what will genuinely help them succeed. At AuditBoard, our audience ranges from compliance officers to auditors, so we had to take a targeted approach. It’s overwhelming at first, but a good foundation makes all the difference.

• ✅ Conduct a Content Audit
  • Look at your existing content and categorize it: what’s outdated, what’s relevant, and what’s missing? A thorough content audit can seem tedious, but it’s essential to know what you’re working with.
  • We worked with our internal Product Marketing, Product, and Implementation teams to create a Customer Maturity Model, which outlines the core functionalities users of all levels (Crawl, Walk, Run) need to know to maximize their use of AuditBoard. With this model, we looked to see what in our content was missing or outdated. 
  • Reassurance: Don’t feel like you have to throw everything out! Often, you can rework and repurpose existing content instead of starting from scratch.
• ✅ Define Your Audience
  • We broke our audience down into clear personas (from entry-level users to executives). By understanding who was using our Academy, we could create learning paths that spoke directly to their needs.
  • Rely on your subject matter experts to help define this! They know your audience the best, and they can lead you in the right direction. 
  • Reassurance: Start small. Focus on your primary users and expand from there. You don’t need to personalize for everyone at once, but having a good idea of the main personas will guide your process.

Step 2: Simplify the User Experience

Before we relaunched, we knew that one of the biggest pain points was navigation. Our users struggled to find what they needed because the structure wasn’t intuitive. We had too many different modules, no clear learning paths, and a layout that wasn’t aligned with our main brand. Our solution? Simplify, simplify, simplify. Your users don’t want to spend more time figuring out your platform—they want to start learning quickly. By focusing on the user journey, you can remove the friction that causes frustration and make the experience seamless.

• ✅ Streamline Navigation
  • Streamlined Learning Path Navigation
  • Previously, role-based learning paths were tucked away, requiring users to search a layer deeper from the homepage. However, we've significantly simplified this process. To enhance user experience and ensure faster navigation, the updated homepage now features a swim lane that focuses solely on our core products. By presenting only the most critical choices, we reduce decision fatigue and help customers get to the right place more quickly. Once on the core product page, users are seamlessly guided to curated, role-based learning paths that further narrow down the most relevant and impactful content for their specific needs.

This structure not only enhances navigation but also ensures learners are efficiently directed to content that aligns with their roles, streamlining their journey and improving engagement.

• Reassurance: You don’t need to be a UX expert to simplify navigation. Think about what your users are doing day-to-day and organize content in a way that feels natural for them. It also helps to look at your data. What are the most common questions customers are asking about the product? They may not know there is training for it, so a “Featured Courses” section could be a great way to call them out. 

• ✅ Redesign for Consistency
  • The Academy was completely redesigned to align with AuditBoard’s main website. This ensured a cohesive, branded experience across all touchpoints.
  • Reassurance: Don’t stress over perfection in design. Work with your brand guidelines and make sure your academy’s look and feel match your main website. Consistency is key, but you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Step 3: Build Relevant, Engaging Content

One of the biggest realizations we had at AuditBoard was that our content wasn’t fully aligned with user needs. We had great materials, but they were scattered and lacked direction. Our users didn’t know where to start, and we weren’t offering content in the formats that worked best for them. The solution? Personalization and variety. By creating learning paths tailored to specific roles and introducing a mix of content formats (videos, interactive walkthroughs,, and certifications), we saw engagement levels skyrocket. Don’t worry if you don’t have all the content ready—start with what you have, then iterate.

• ✅ Personalize Learning Paths
  • By creating role-based learning paths, we helped users focus on what mattered most for their jobs. It made their learning journey more direct and valuable.
  • Reassurance: Start with your most common user roles and build paths for them. It doesn’t have to be perfect from day one—you can refine and add more paths over time.
• ✅ Mix Up Your Content Formats
  • We incorporated video-based learning and interactive content, which kept users more engaged. We found that a lot of our customers want more practice, so we’ve been prioritizing interactive walkthroughs to meet their needs. Offering a mix of content styles was a game-changer for retention. We want our Academy to be a place where customers can learn, practice what they learned, and assess their knowledge. 
  • Reassurance: You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Start by diversifying a few key pieces of content and see what resonates with your users.

Step 4: Engage Early with Beta Testing

Launching without feedback is like walking into the dark. Before we officially rolled out the certifications and redesign, we ran a beta test with select users. The insights we got were invaluable—bugs we hadn’t seen, features they loved, and things that didn’t quite work. It gave us the confidence that we were on the right track and allowed us to tweak things before the full launch. Don’t be afraid to let your users in early. Customers want to be involved! Not only does it give you feedback, but it also builds excitement for what’s coming.

• ✅ Run a Beta Program
  • We recruited a group of beta testers to try out our new certifications and learning paths. Their feedback helped us fine-tune the user experience before the public launch. Beta testers play a critical role beyond simply reviewing content. Their involvement allows us to gather valuable input, refine our learning materials, and improve the overall user experience. More importantly, by engaging these early users in the process, we foster a sense of ownership and collaboration. This partnership often results in these beta testers becoming strong advocates and champions for the academy program as a whole. Their positive experiences not only validate the program’s impact but also help amplify its reach through word-of-mouth and internal advocacy.
  • By incorporating beta testers’ feedback, we’re not just fine-tuning content—we’re building long-lasting relationships that turn users into enthusiastic supporters of our learning initiatives.‍
  • Reassurance: Your beta group doesn’t need to be massive. Even a small group of engaged users can give you the insights you need to make last-minute adjustments. Work with your Customer Success and Community teams to help recruit customers! 

• ✅ Test the Full User Journey
  • We didn’t just test the content; we tested the entire user journey, from logging in to completing a course. This helped us ensure that the entire experience was seamless.
  • Reassurance: Test everything! Sometimes the smallest roadblock can frustrate users. Make sure your platform is smooth from start to finish, and don’t be afraid to tweak things.

Step 5: Market Your Academy Like a Pro

You’ve put in the hard work. Now, you need to get the word out. At AuditBoard, we tied our big Academy initiatives to our annual user conference, which was a huge boost. We coordinated our launch with key events, built out a marketing plan, and leveraged every available channel—email, social, community platforms, and even in-app messaging. This created buzz and got users excited to engage with the new content. Marketing isn’t just an afterthought—it’s a core part of a successful relaunch.

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• ✅ Time Your Launch Right
  • We launched our first certification during our user conference, and bundled our Academy redesign launch with 3 new certifications, which brought a lot of traffic and excitement. Timing is everything, so find a key company event or milestone to align with.
  • Reassurance: You don’t have to launch during a major conference, but try to align with a product release or other significant event to capitalize on existing momentum.
• ✅ Use Multi-Channel Marketing
  • From blog posts to email campaigns and social media, we promoted the Academy across every channel available to us. The more touchpoints, the better.
  • Reassurance: Even if your resources are limited, choose the channels that your users engage with the most. It could be an email campaign or a post on LinkedIn—start with the basics and build from there.

Step 6: Prove Your Success with Data

Once we launched, it was tempting to just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. But the real work starts after the launch—tracking engagement, proving the value, and continuously improving the academy based metrics. We tracked everything, from course completions to active users, and correlated that with broader business metrics like customer retention and product adoption. This gave us the data we needed to show our leadership that the Academy was a valuable business tool, not just a nice-to-have feature.

• ✅ Track Key Metrics
  • We tracked course enrollments, completions, and user engagement. These metrics gave us insight into what was working and what needed improvement.
  • Reassurance: Start by tracking the basics—completions, logins, certifications. Over time, you can tie this data to larger business goals like retention or churn reduction.
• ✅ Tie Results to Business Outcomes
  • We went one step further and tied our metrics to customer success goals, like product adoption and customer retention. This helped us demonstrate the direct business impact of the Academy.
  • Reassurance: You don’t need a complicated system. Start with basic correlations—like whether trained users are adopting new features more quickly. Over time, you’ll build a stronger case for the academy’s value.

Closing Thoughts

Relaunching an academy is a big project, but with the right approach and collaboration across teams, it can be an incredibly rewarding experience. At AuditBoard, the journey wasn’t without its challenges, but by following these steps, we were able to successfully deliver a platform that our users loved and that added real value to the business. Take your time, involve your team, and remember: a great academy isn’t just about the launch—it’s about continuous improvement. You've got this!

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