“My ambition is to provide a next-generation learning experience”
In less than three years since its launch, FintechOS Academy gathered 1300+ FintechOS practitioners across 98 financial companies – and numbers are growing as you read this. Why is the Academy at the core of FintechOS? And what is Roxana’s most secret desire about this project? She explains in this interview for inside.fintechos.com.
When and how did the FintechOS Academy start? Share some “behind the scenes” information with us, please.
May 10th 2021 was the day when the first member of the Academy team joined FintechOS. Yet, the way most people know us – by academy.fintechos.com – was launched for employees in October that year, and publicly on November 4th, during FintechOS Leap event. Releasing an academy in a couple months was a bold feat. Doing that in such a short time as a new team was challenging. It was tough, I’ll give you that. But, all in all, it baselined who we are today and gave us the confidence that we are a different breed of Learning&Development people.
Learn more about the FintechOS learning experience strategy.
What were the milestones in the Academy’s life? And what triggered them?
Our highest point yet is designing and launching the FintechOS certification program. Over 300 practitioners have registered and completed this training, which makes it the primary platform for campaigning and enabling our community on the latest FintechOS version.
But looking back, our first milestone was the 2021 Leap event. That’s when we publicly announced the launch of academy.fintechos.com, deployed in 9 weeks, an industry record time – the industry standard is 6-9 months. Seeing it live and running was a key moment for us in the Academy team. From then on, we joined most community events, including the latest Community Tech Preview 23. We’ve been nominated for learning awards twice, and that was a great recognition of efforts and innovation, while we’ve also been through some strenuous releases. We’re doing our best to turn each of these moments into an opportunity to finetune our ways of working and enjoy the process.
How large is the community that you and your team built around FintechOS Academy?
We are currently servicing over 1300 FintechOS practitioners from 98 finance companies. The numbers grow daily.
How would you describe this community in a few words?
Committed. We see an average of 9 courses completed by every person who joins the Academy, and that makes up for a practice-oriented type of learning.
How did you feel on stage at our last event in Bucharest? Is there something that you wanted to share with the audience – and forgot, or missed?
Like a rockstar (inside joke). The energy in the room was over the roof, and channeling that in your message is the best a speaker can wish for. I was pondering on pointing to the team while on stage and shouting kudos. I didn’t do it thinking it’d disrupt the agenda, but I can’t promise a thing for next session.
Why do you think this Academy is at the core of FintechOS?
Because we touch on most functions, processes, and audience categories. There are very few departments in FintechOS we haven’t reached out to or serviced – and the same applies to our partners, all of which register for training as part of their onboarding. We are an R&D function but conducting on-site training with partners and clients got us into customer servicing. We own the branding and design of all things Academy, chime into leads conversion and do social media and email campaigns for our new programs.
But mostly because academy.fintechos.com is the home for new hires, as well as onboarding partners. It’s also an open door for prospects to dive into our technology.
What are the plans for 2023?
We will expand our curriculum to service additional audience categories, including sales teams and technical solution architect roles. Certification exams are now available remotely, and that will remain on of our focus areas throughout the year. And the cherry on the top comes with the next generation of FintechOS user experience for which we will provide an integrated learning journey, so practitioners can train in the flow of work.
What hashtag would best reflect FintechOS Academy – and why?
To be pragmatic, I’ll go with #fintechosacademy on LinkedIn – which stores posts made by certified FintechOS professionals, badges and training news. It’s a wall of fame and speaks for itself.
Share with us your most secret desires about this project.
My ambition is to provide a next-generation learning experience that brings together the FintechOS solution creators and the fintech community. We are the only fintech enablement platform to provide training on an open-registration, open-catalog policy – and there’s enormous potential to scale that.
Which is your favorite quote?
Self-irony is the one thing to save the world, so I’ll say, “The greatest strength of mind is to eat one peanut.”
