“Powerful training sessions”: How Atlassian trainings helped this non-profit company help others

Innovation DuPage (ID) is a nonprofit incubator and accelerator that unites startup entrepreneurs and small business owners with the people, resources, and programs that support their growth. More than a nonprofit: The young startup incubator and accelerator is a community focused on the needs of other startups. To better help others scale, they required deeper knowledge in using Jira and Confluence to strengthen their organization’s internal infrastructure. Trainings from Actonic empowered them so that the company can support others more efficiently in the future.

“The customized journey was brilliant at Actonic.”

Why a training was needed

For almost a year, ID has been using Confluence as an intranet and knowledge base, but practical tips for optimizing their use cases were lacking. Another problem was that their original documentation was housed in Google Drive or even Slack – a unified location of resources was not yet in place and the technical know-how to unify the scattered information was missing.

In addition, the company consists of a diverse team with staff members of varying ages, backgrounds, and levels of technical experience. They were looking for a way to bring all team members to a common level of knowledge. When Innovation DuPage heard about Jira as a powerful project management software and the integration of Confluence, it was clear that the current conditions had to change.

The way to Actonic

“Thankfully, we found Actonic. The experienced consultants patiently answered all of our questions and delivered powerful training sessions with additional materials and practical information”, says Katie Uram, manager of member experience at Innovation DuPage.

She researched these Atlassian tools online and happened across downloadable resource guides on Actonic’s website. Then she discovered the training portfolio and was immediately intrigued and hopeful that a training by Actonic would help the company move forward.

Despite the six-hour time difference between Actonic and Innovation DuPage (located in Germany and Illinois, respectively), communication was not a problem at any point.

“Communication with the Actonic team was easy”, Ms. Uram says. “From our initial point of contact with our trainer, everyone we interacted with was very responsive, kind, and experienced.”

How the training looked like

There were two 4-hour training sessions focused on Jira, and two, 4-hour training sessions for Confluence. First, there was an initial call with the trainer. He asked them questions about their needs, challenges, how they utilize the software, and goals for the trainings.

From there, the trainer tailored the curriculum to their team’s specific needs. The trainings themselves were a mix of theory and hands-on exercises, which allowed the Innovation DuPage team to learn and practice the concepts at the same time. The Actonic Trainer provided exercises during the sessions, answering all questions along the way. After each session, he provided them with a summary of the content covered in addition to a slew of materials including guides, videos, and links to help them continue learning.

Why trainings by Actonic make the difference

“The training was not a cut and copy presentation, but rather custom-tailored to our needs expressed in the first call”, says Ms. Uram. Especially the fact that the trainer also took time after each session to answer questions and provide important guides was a great value add for innovation DuPage. Thanks to the learned best practices, the company will be able to better support other companies scale in the future.

“The customized journey was brilliant at Actonic. The training was really helpful, and it was a great experience.”

About the company

Innovation DuPage (ID) is a non-profit organization located in Illinois, US, that connects startup founders and small business owners with people, resources, and programs to support their growth.

The interview partner

Katie Uram, manager of member experience

Katie grew up in the Chicago suburbs and has been working at Innovation DuPage since its launch three years ago. Here, she supports member startups’ growth through expanding services, connecting them to needed resources, and informing ID’s culture.