When Udemy’s then-CEO Gregg Coccari rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to mark the company’s IPO in late 2021, he welcomed a $400 million payoff to a big bet: that by transitioning from a consumer-focused marketplace to a hybrid model serving both enterprises and individuals, the company could become a force in the online learning space.
The changes at Udemy in recent years extended far beyond the ambitious business model pivot: the company invested in AI-powered personalization and learning experiences, expanded into emerging markets, built innovative partnerships, added new business and technical content to its course catalog, and set up offices in new geographies.
As they transformed Udemy into one of the world’s leading online skills marketplaces and e-learning providers, executives at the company were keenly aware of the impact that so much change could create on company culture, community, and alignment. The realities of remote and then hybrid work only amplified these considerations.
True to Udemy’s ‘courageously experimental’ value, Udemy’s CEO Greg Brown and then-SVP of People Cara Brennan-Allamano sought an innovative way to communicate the changes to employees and continue to engage them in Udemy’s culture as the company evolved.
Here’s why they turned to Spokn.
In 2023, Greg Brown, then CEO of Udemy, had been hosting an internal podcast for nearly a year. It had been the perfect fit for the world of remote work, when employees were tired of Zoom and he sought a way to communicate that was personal but asynchronous.
But as employees returned to offices, teams expanded globally, and the pace of change accelerated, Udemates had less time to spend listening to fifteen-minute podcasts. With the company expanding globally, it was especially important to give new teams exposure—and even more important for Udemates and leaders to have more personal, trust-building touchpoints with each other, both in person and remotely.
The need for human internal communications was stronger than ever before, but the internal teams tasked with leading it were stretched. Udemy needed a faster, easier solution for creating human communications that captured the attention of busy employees around the world without losing that authentic personal touch that could transcend time zones.
Udemy found its answer in “Spokn Stories,” a new product that would enable Comms and People teams to create TikTok-style videos starring employees and leaders in minutes.
After previewing the product before its release, Greg Brown immediately saw the potential and encouraged Udemy’s CMO, Genefa Murphy, to explore it.
Lightning struck for Genefa, too. Her deep expertise in marketing had taught her the potential of ‘social-style’ video. She knew that for employees flooded with lengthy Slack and email messages, “Spokn’s TikTok-style approach stands out and captures people’s attention, and the bite-sized length keeps it interesting and fun. It forces people to really think about what they want to communicate.” Hearing from peers and leaders in a far less formal, more authentic medium also provided a way to build trust at a time when the culture needed it.
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Despite the significant potential of video, Genefa had learned from experience just how challenging it could be to collect and create authentic videos: “From getting people to record in the correct orientation, to keeping them on topic, to tracking down and organizing clips, adding captions, editing it all together, and adding branding, it could be ‘death by a thousand paper cuts,’” she explained. And that was for a marketing team with a video editor.
What surprised Genefa so much about Spokn was how much faster and simpler it made that process, automating many of the steps and turning the rest into simplified workflows that didn’t require any editing experience. For Genefa, because the videos were so fast and easy to make, it meant three things:
She could tap a popular format while saving time. “Spokn gives us the gift of time. It helps us to be efficient and effective by packaging videos in a super simple and easy way—and a way that inspires,” she explained.
She and her teams could use video in ways that were previously impossible. “We use Spokn for a whole variety of use cases here at Udemy. Whether it's capturing the voice of our Udemates on topics that matter like BEDI (Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion), hearing from Udemates about how a project went, introducing new Udemates to the team, capturing testimonials from our employees or our managers about what's inspiring them and how they're learning, or putting together compelling and inspiring videos for our company all-hands.”
“We use Spokn for a whole variety of use cases here at Udemy. Whether it's capturing the voice of our Udemates on topics that matter like BEDI (Belonging, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion), hearing from Udemates about how a project went, introducing new Udemates to the team, capturing testimonials from our employees or our managers about what's inspiring them and how they're learning or whether it's putting together compelling and inspiring videos for our company all hands.”
She could democratize video content creation, making Udemates more self-sufficient and freeing up her precious video production resources for high-production projects. As she explained, “With Spokn, the videos look really professional and really clean. We can set up brand guidelines so no matter who at our company makes the videos, they all look like Udemy.”
Genefa dove into Spokn and personally created the company’s first video, a thank-you message from her executive team colleagues to employees. “It was just as easy as the Spokn demo claimed,” she explained, “and I finished my first Spokn project in under 30 minutes.” When she shared the video on Slack, employees responded exactly as she hoped: “The authenticity of the format resonated. After a challenging year, employees appreciated hearing from leaders in a more human format.”
Given how easy Spokn was to use, Genefa encouraged her Marketing and Customer Success teams to consider creative ways to tap the video format. “I was already sold on the format, but even so, I was pleasantly surprised by the enormous range of use cases that Spokn supported,” she explained.
Learning is the heart and soul of Udemy. The company is committed to continuous improvement, both by leveraging its own courses as well as specialized learning programs like mentoring and new manager training. Given the exceptional learning opportunities that Udemy offers, ensuring employees are aware of them and excited to take part is crucially important.
“Spokn became a valuable tool for promoting our own initiatives through learner testimonials, like participants in mentorship cohorts describing the benefits and Udemates sharing their favorite Udemy courses,” Genefa explained. “Udemates responded differently when hearing from their peers, as they described the impact of investing time in these programs.”
Spokn’s impact went beyond promoting learning programs; it also helped Udemy turn its top performers and internal experts into learning content creators. For example, Udemy asked experienced Customer Success Managers (CSMs) to share their top tips in a video for new CSMs and invited leaders of highly engaged teams to share advice on leading through change.
Because recording a clip takes less than a minute and requires no special equipment, it was easy to get internal experts to agree to participate. Getting learners to engage was similarly simple. “Because the content was created by recognizable ‘internal influencers,’ it was hyper-relevant to our context. And the TikTok-style format made it attention-grabbing, too,” said Genefa.
Like most technology companies, Udemy was under pressure to perform and transform in 2024. “Change management became a major point of focus,” Genefa explained, “and Spokn emerged as a helpful tool for tapping internal influencers to support these changes.” To encourage employees to take advantage of new AI tools, for example, the company’s CEO recorded a video making a personal call to action.
Spokn helped Udemy tap the power of peer influencers, too, in the rollout of a new internal innovation project, “Skunkworks.” Genefa saw that “Early adopters shared how access to the project had saved them time and transformed how they engaged with their customers. The credible ‘what’s in it for me’ content helped to popularize the innovation library and boost usage.”
As Udemy expanded into additional geographies, it became more and more difficult to create a sense of connection and appreciation across geographies. Spokn became an easy way to celebrate employee milestones, whether an executive welcoming new hires by video, new hires themselves recording a self-introduction, or group goodbye videos for departing teammates.
In one memorable farewell video, over 25 team members recorded their best wishes for a long-time leader who was departing. The videos, so quick to put together, “became a human artifact that amplified our ‘earnestly authentic’ value in a really meaningful, low-cost, and lightweight way,” said Genefa.
BEDI communities play a crucial role in supporting Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (BEDI) at Udemy. At 10 groups and counting, nearly half the employee population is engaged in a BEDI group. But amplifying those voices isn’t always easy—especially with BEDI leaders juggling the demands of work in a fast-moving company. Spokn provided an easy way for BEDI leaders to elevate voices from their community around observances like Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Women’s History Month, and to recap highlights with a year-end video.
“The ease of recording on Spokn is so different from traditional videos, which can feel quite intimidating and corporate. Spokn’s product design is more comfortable and familiar, and that comes across in how employees tell their stories using Spokn,” explained Genefa. Crucially, “the simplicity of editing the videos made it possible for BEDI leaders to do on their own, meaning that they could personalize their stories and move fast without dependencies on centralized creative resources.”
As Genefa wrapped up another yearly recap video from the Executive Leadership Team, she reflected on all the ways that her team had relied on Spokn. “We promoted learning and change management internally, we made it easier for our leaders to communicate important messages to our global audience, and we elevated the voices of diverse Udemates. But even so, I feel we’ve barely scratched the surface with what Spokn can do at Udemy—both for our employees and our broader audience of global learners, organizations, and instructors.”
Seeing is believing. Hear Genefa describe Udemy’s partnership with Spokn in her own words here.
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