Best Resources for Product Trainers

Whether you’re looking to deepen your expertise, stay updated with industry trends, or find practical tools to enhance your workflow, the right resources are essential for continuous growth and success.

This guide will introduce you to the best resources available for product trainers, providing you with a curated selection of valuable materials to enhance your skills and knowledge.

Let’s get started!

TL;DR

This is a specialist who educates people about a company’s products or services, including new employees, sales teams, and customers.
A product trainer designs and delivers training materials, assesses learning outcomes, and uses various training methods like lectures, demonstrations, and online modules.
To excel, utilize resources like books (“Telling Ain’t Training”), webinars (Userpilot Events, Mind the Product), blogs (Userpilot Blog), podcasts (The Product Experience), and certifications (Certified Professional in Learning and Performance).
Essential tools for product trainers include Userpilot for user onboarding, Pendo for product insights, Appcues for creating walkthroughs, etc.
Interested in enhancing your training programs? Consider Userpilot for its engagement features and analytics capabilities. Book a demo today!

What is a product trainer?

A product trainer is a specialist who educates people about a company’s products or services. They can train various audiences, including:

New employees: Equipping them with the knowledge to effectively use the product within the company.
Sales teams: Helping them understand the product’s features and benefits to better sell it to customers.
Customers: Providing them with the knowledge to use the product to its full potential.

What does a product trainer do?

Product trainers typically develop training materials, deliver presentations, and assess learning outcomes. They may also use various training methods, like lectures, demonstrations, role-playing exercises, and online modules.

In short, they bridge the gap between a product and its users by ensuring everyone has the knowledge to use it effectively.

Product trainer’s main responsibilities

Product trainers play a crucial role in ensuring that employees, customers, or partners understand and effectively use a company’s products or services. Their responsibilities are diverse and can vary depending on the industry, company size, and product complexity. However, here are some core duties:

Design and develop training materials, including presentations, workshops, webinars, e-learning modules, and hands-on exercises.
Deliver engaging and informative training sessions tailored to different audiences and learning styles (i.e. onboarding new employees and customers on product usage).
Troubleshooting technical issues and providing product support.
Stay up-to-date on product updates, new releases, and industry trends.
Gather feedback from trainees and stakeholders to assess training needs and identify areas for improvement.

Product trainers play a crucial role in driving user adoption and ensuring the success of any product. Here are some of the best resources for product trainers, categorized to help you find exactly what you need:

Best books for product trainers

To excel in this role, continuous learning and development are essential. Here are five books highly recommended for product trainers, covering various aspects of training, product management, and customer success:

“Telling Ain’t Training” by Harold D. Stolovitch & Erica J. Keeps: A classic on the science of adult learning and how to design effective training programs.
“Design for How People Learn” by Julie Dirksen: Explores cognitive science principles and translates them into actionable strategies for creating engaging learning experiences.
“The Lean Product Playbook” by Dan Olsen: Provides a framework for building products that customers love, with valuable insights for trainers on understanding customer needs and validating product ideas.
“The Effortless Experience” by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman & Rick DeLisi: Provides a framework for delivering low-effort customer experiences and improving customer loyalty.
“The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson: Offers insights on how to challenge customers’ assumptions and create buying urgency, relevant for trainers involved in sales enablement.

Best webinars for product trainers

Webinars offer a convenient and accessible way to gain valuable insights, learn new strategies, and connect with industry experts. Here are some highly recommended webinar sources for product trainers:

Userpilot Events: Focuses on product growth and user onboarding, crucial for understanding user behavior and crafting effective training programs. Their webinars cover topics like user journey optimization, feature adoption analytics, and user engagement strategies – all feeding directly into your training initiatives.
Mind the Product Webinars: Known for their high-quality webinars on various product management topics, including training and onboarding. Their sessions often feature industry experts sharing their knowledge and experience.
Pragmatic Institute Webinars: Provides webinars on various aspects of product management, including training and development. Their sessions often focus on practical skills and real-world scenarios.
Product-Led Growth Collective Webinars: This community-driven platform offers webinars on various aspects of product-led growth, including user onboarding and product adoption.

Best blogs for product trainers

Here are some of the best blogs for product trainers, offering practical guides, expert interviews, and actionable advice:

Userpilot Blog: Offers in-depth guides, case studies, and actionable advice on creating effective onboarding experiences, improving product adoption, and driving user engagement.
Product Talk: Features interviews with product leaders and experts, offering insights into their strategies and tactics. Covers a wide range of industries and company sizes.
Roman Pichler’s Blog: Offers in-depth articles and resources on applying agile methodologies to product management. Provides valuable insights for trainers who want to create flexible and adaptable training programs.
ProductPlan Blog: Provides practical advice and templates for creating effective product roadmaps. It also offers insights into prioritizing features, aligning stakeholders, and communicating product strategy.

Best podcasts for product trainers

Curious about what the top product trainers are listening to? These are the podcasts generating buzz in the community, packed with insights and discussions to help you stay updated:

The Product Experience: Hosted by product experts Lily Smith and Randy Silver, this podcast goes deep with industry leaders, covering a wide range of topics relevant to training, including user onboarding, product adoption, and customer success.
Rocketship.fm: It is a great podcast for getting inspired and motivated. It’s packed with stories of entrepreneurs who have overcome challenges and built amazing products.
Masters of Scale: Hosted by Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn), this podcast explores how companies grow from zero to a gazillion. While not directly focused on training, it offers valuable lessons on scaling products and building successful teams.
The Knowledge Project: Hosted by Shane Parrish, this podcast features in-depth conversations with experts from various fields. Trainers can gain insights into topics relevant to their work, such as learning, communication, and decision-making.

Best certifications for product trainers

The best certification choice for you will depend on your specific career goals and interests. Nonetheless, here are some of the most highly regarded and widely recognized certifications for product trainers:

Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP): This is considered the gold standard for training professionals. It covers a wide range of competencies, from instructional design and delivery to evaluation and performance improvement.
Certified Professional in Training Management (CPTM): This certification focuses on the management aspects of training programs, making it ideal for trainers who aspire to leadership roles.
Certified Professional in Online Learning (CPOL): This certification from the Association for Talent Development (ATD) focuses on the design and delivery of online learning experiences. It covers topics such as e-learning design principles, technology tools, and learner engagement strategies.
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO): This certification focuses on Agile product management principles and practices. It equips trainers with the skills to effectively manage product backlogs, prioritize features, and collaborate with development teams.

Best tools for product trainers

As a product trainer, leveraging the right tools can make all the difference in delivering high-quality, impactful training experiences.

So here are the top 10 tools that product trainers can use to create effective training programs:

Userpilot: Userpilot is your one-stop shop for creating smooth and engaging user onboarding experiences. With interactive walkthroughs, targeted messages, and personalized guidance, you’ll have users mastering your product in no time. The data-driven insights also help you continuously refine your training strategy.
Pendo: This product experience platform provides deep insights into how users interact with software. By understanding user behavior and gathering feedback, trainers can tailor their materials to real user needs and drive product improvements.
Appcues: A low-code user onboarding platform that works for both web and mobile applications. It simplifies the creation of intuitive walkthroughs and tooltips.
UserGuiding: Similar to Appcues, UserGuiding also offers user surveys and NPS tools. This enables trainers to gather valuable feedback during the onboarding process.
WalkMe: Reduces the need for manual support by guiding users through complex tasks and processes. It also comes with AI chatbots to provide real-time assistance.
Usetiful: Usetiful’s flexibility allows trainers to create a variety of training materials for different stages of the user journey.
HelpHero: It is a knowledge base platform that allows you to build a self-service resource center for users.
HelpScout: It is a customer support platform with a robust help desk and live chat features.
Intercom: Intercom allows trainers to proactively engage with users and offer personalized support with targeted messages and AI chatbots.
Spekit: Spekit is a just-in-time learning platform that integrates with various tools to deliver contextual training and knowledge reinforcement.

Conclusion

Professional growth is a continuous journey, and investing in your development is key to staying competitive in the field.

We hope this guide has equipped you with the tools and knowledge needed to excel in your role.

Looking into tools for product trainers? Userpilot is an all-in-one product platform with engagement features and powerful analytics capabilities. Book a demo to see it in action!

Best Resources for Product Trainers

TL;DR

Product Teams Can Use Userpilot to:

What is a product trainer?

What does a product trainer do?

Product trainer’s main responsibilities