Jillian Bejtlich (Community Lead at Calendly) on Cultivating Customer-Led and Data-Driven Communities

In this episode, Jillian Bejtlich, Community Lead at Calendly, discusses her journey towards community management, which began in an engineering-focused household. Describing her path as non-traditional, she emphasizes the importance of flexibility and adaptability in community management strategies. Jillian shares her experiences working in different industries, including engineering software and defense manufacturing, and how users drive the function and form of communities. She also highlights the increasing role of AI in community management and how it can aid in content creation and strategizing, while also posing new challenges for community moderators.

• (00:40) Jillian's Early Engineering Career and The Unexpected Path to Community Management
• (05:00) Finding The Science in Community Building
• (06:55) Consulting for The Community Roundtable
• (09:25) Innovation in Defense Contracting
• (13:14) Returning to SaaS and Identifying Constants in Community
• (16:02) Customer-Led Community Identity Development
• (17:20) Calendly's Community of Inspiration
• (19:50) Advice for Community Managers 
• (21:43) The Impact of AI on Communities
• (25:18) Peer Nomination

Stay tuned through the end of the show (25:18) to learn: 

• In which country Jillian thinks pineapple can be served on pizza (and in which country it should not). 
• Who Jillian thinks we should interview next.

Featuring:

Jillian Bejtlich (LinkedIn)

Sunny Manivannan (LinkedIn, Twitter) 

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