For many of us, a career path isn’t a straight line but something full of exciting twists and turns. That’s definitely the case for Paige Stewart, a former teacher turned content developer at Applied Systems who also runs the Pendo User Group (PUG) in Denver.
To learn more about the role Pendo played in her career trajectory, our Community team sat down with Paige.
Tell us a bit about your career progression. How did you go from being a teacher to becoming a Pendo expert at Applied Systems?
When I left teaching in 2022, I knew I wanted to work in the tech space, but I wasn’t sure which field made the most sense for me. With a teaching background, I felt I could probably go into data analytics, UX, or customer success with the experience that I’d had and a little bit of upskilling. But, I was worried about dedicating all of this time and money to getting a certificate in one of these areas if I was unsure whether they would be a good fit. I had just stopped being a teacher, and I didn’t want to repeat that pattern. So, I leaned on the hard skills that I did have, which were writing and educational software.
That landed me in a technical writing role in the EdTech space. At the time I started, the team was installing Pendo into the knowledge base, which allowed me to get firsthand experience tagging pages and features and working with the data in Pendo. After less than a year with that company, a Pendo administrator position opened up, and I knew I had to jump on it. Everything that I was interested in before—data analytics, UX, CX—was all wrapped into this one platform. And I loved the work immediately.
Press fast forward, and less than a year later, the opportunity I’m in now came up at Applied Systems. For me, it goes without saying that Pendo has been the driver in my career development over the last three years!
Awesome. Is this what you saw yourself doing at the start of your career? (I’m assuming not since you went from teaching to this, but…)
Not at all. My first year of teaching was during the 2019-20 school year—the first year that schools were closed by the pandemic. It’s fair to say that what I saw myself doing for my future pretty much immediately changed in year one. Obviously, this experience also gave me the opportunity to work remotely and leverage educational software to get my job done. So, while it was chaotic and unprecedented, it opened my eyes to other possibilities in the tech space.
Can you touch on your first introduction or experience with Pendo?
My first experience with Pendo was as a technical writer, and it just so happened that the team I was hired onto was organizationally positioned with the Pendo team. Pendo had already been installed across most of the company’s large product suite, and they wanted to get Pendo in the knowledge base so they could get establish KPIs and leverage that awesome in-app guidance that everybody loves.
That all happened right when I got hired, and I immediately knew I was interested in Pendo. It aligned with all of my other potential career interests, so I said, “Yeah, I definitely want to help with this project.” That was my first experience with Pendo, and my love only grew there!
How did Pendo help you grow in your career? (I know that’s a pretty big question.)
It is a really big question. I mentioned previously that I didn’t want to put time and money towards getting a certification in a field if I wasn’t sure it was right for me, and, coming from the education sector, I also didn’t know much about the different stakeholders in the product space.
Pendo has given me experiential knowledge in every single area that I had an interest in before: I’ve gained insight into UX principles and best practices. I’ve gotten to participate in data analysis to inform product development decisions. I’ve worked directly with clients to solve friction points, and I’ve connected with product professionals all over the world by being a part of the Pendo community.
Pendo is clearly responsible for fast-tracking my learning as I entered into an entirely new career. It allowed me to speak the language of and truly understand the priorities of people who work in product. And so, whatever the future holds for me, I feel confident that Pendo will continue to be that catalyst for my career growth.
What has your experience been like with the Pendo community, and how has being a Pendo User Group (PUG) leader shaped the direction that you’ve gone in your career?
If anyone out there is thinking, even for a second, about becoming a PUG leader—do it! Being a PUG leader has been nothing short of amazing. The community programs team at Pendo makes getting the events up and running such a breeze. They’re so great to collaborate with, and there are a lot of benefits to being a PUG leader for you personally. Being one hasn’t necessarily shaped my direction. However, it’s helped me establish myself as a Pendo enthusiast, which positioned me pretty well when applying for the role that I have now.
What is the biggest thing that you’ve learned from working with Pendo?
This is a really tough question because I’ve learned so much. However, I would say that the biggest thing that I learned is that being customer-centric and being product-led are the same thing.
Pendo allows us to remove guesswork when it comes to understanding: What’s difficult for our users? What experiences do they really love, and how can we drive them toward value? All of this leads to delivering functionality that users need, enjoy, and want to return to time and again. That’s the biggest takeaway I’ve gained from my experiences working in Pendo.
When you were beginning your Pendo journey, what were some helpful resources? Our Pendo Connect slack community, our different certification courses, etc.
Kudos directly to the teams that create all of these resources because I am their number one fan!
I use all of the educational resources pretty much daily, but I would say if you’re someone who is just getting started with your Pendo journey, go and get the Pendo Essentials certificate based on what you’re working in (whether it’s mobile or web). That course is stellar and is hands-down the best place to start, in my opinion. Not to mention, it looks great on your LinkedIn profile!
From there, I would recommend going through any Pendo Academy courses that feel relevant to you. I like the recent additions of the Pendo by Use Case and Pendo by Persona courses. I recommend those often. They’re a great way of understanding how you can best leverage Pendo for your unique responsibilities.
Then I’d say join Pendo Connect on Slack! You can learn so much by just being a fly on the wall for conversations that happen there. There are some real Pendo superusers that participate in those spaces, and it’s a really great, supportive community.
I also want to shout out Pendo’s Knowledge Base—I’m in it every single day. It’s so easy to navigate and get the information I need, whether for myself or others. So, yeah, I love all of the learning resources you offer, and they’ve been immensely helpful for me over the last few years in learning about Pendo.
Apart from using the resources that you listed, what advice would you have for somebody who’s in a similar situation to you? Maybe they’re looking for a career shift or in the early days of using Pendo.
I actually have a concise answer for this one: Put yourself out there if an opportunity excites you. As I look back on how I’ve grown in my career over the last few years, I jumped on the chance to start working in Pendo and did the same to make Pendo my whole job, even though there was a lot that I didn’t know (yet!).
Growth happens when you show up and do the things that you don’t feel like you’re qualified to do. As I just mentioned, all sorts of resources and support are in place to make it possible, but it starts with you saying, “Yeah, sign me up!” So, put yourself out there and go for it.
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