Q for internal trainers! What are your preferred methods for training your staff on Bluebeam?

Aily Roper

Hi all, my name is Aily, and I'm the Manager of Customer Education at Bluebeam - nice to meet you!

I want to learn how you prefer to train, onboard, or up-skill your internal employees on everything Bluebeam, so I can make sure we're allocating the right resources to the right kinds of training (aka help me help you!). If you choose "Other" - please elaborate in the comments!

I'm curious to hear from you all - and if you have anything to add, feel free to comment and discuss with peers or direct message me to start a conversation 🤗

Ari S Rejtman

Instructor-led online training

Hi Aily! I find a bit of resistance from some of my colleagues when offering to train them in the use of Bluebeam Revu. I approach this by asking them how they use PDFs and learn more about their workflow. Subsequently, I offer to train them for only 1-2 hours, especially since half of my colleagues are "very busy" and don't prioritize training over getting work done (This is regardless of whether or not they're using Revu efficiently and rely on me for assistance with using Revu consistently). Once training is scheduled, we usually train remotely online even if we're in the same office due to their computers not being laptops. If they get stuck or have issues, they can share their screen, and if they have hardware issues, I can get up and go assist them.

Angela Aff

@Rebecca Yu @Carina @Rob Meredith - TCCO-SDI - I know the three of you are heavily involved in training at your companies!

Carina

Instructor-led classroom training

Tough only having 1 option to choose!

For Corgan, we do in-person & online training through a company-wide "semester" multiple times a year. These are recorded for later watching - but live are always the best ❤️

However, we have been wanting to do more Short video tutorials (30 sec-1 min) for a while, it's just having the time to be able to do this that's causing a delay.

Rebecca Yu

Instructor-led online training

I agree with Carina that we do a lot of these options and choosing one is hard.

We offer live instructor led trainings multiple times per year on the basics and specific courses to go deeper, all of which are recorded and available on demand. We also have weekly tips shared with our user group that are available to all employees. We also have bi-monthly user group meetings where we go over the most recent tips and any common questions that have been asked, which are also recorded. When working with users directly for support, there's almost always an opportunity to offer to show that user at least one additional tip beyond what the initial question was about. I have been using that grassroots level of sharing to build rapport and never forcing people into training, just continually making it available (no matter how much I want to make it required!)

We do not have the short 30-60 second tutorials on tools or workflows and would really love to either grow that or have that as a resource to point to from Bluebeam.

Aily Roper

@Ari S Rejtman Great points, I was actually talking to @Rebecca Yu and @Carina earlier this year about in-context/in-app training and how it can help with those busy folks who want to dive right in but get stuck at a certain point 😄 I can personally say I am a "dive right in" type, hah.

Follow-up Q: for busy folks, do you ever recommend Bluebeam University so they can take self-paced courses?

Aily Roper

@Carina - what kinds of topics for short form videos were you thinking? We have a large library of short how-to videos, but we've been working on updating them and expanding the topics. We may be able to help out here if it's widely applicable/not specific to a single company's workflow… collab 2024? 👀

Aily Roper

@Rebecca Yu - can I ask where/how you share these weekly tips with your company? The Tips and Tricks page has become quite active and once we've fully gone live in July I'd love to see if this page is a helpful hub for your users looking for tips & starting discussions about them with the wider community, if that helps you at all.

Same question for you, too: what kinds of topics for short form videos are most helpful? Basics, getting started? Tips & tricks? Workflow-specific how-tos?

Ari S Rejtman

Instructor-led online training

@Aily Roper Aye, most people want to "dive right in" and learn what they "think" they need. I help everyone learn about efficient profile customization and navigation before delving into their specific workflow. Without those key basics, people won't know that certain functions exist and will get used to using the default "Revu" Profile (I find it to be inefficient, and it doesn't have the "Status Toolbar" turned on, for example, along with other things like "Save As" and the "Edit" toolbar).

I rarely mention Bluebeam University to our clients because I'd rather have them train with me first for many reasons. After our training, they sometimes ask if there are other resources available, so I share our tutorials on our website and YouTube channel first. If they want to become a Bluebeam Certified User, I guide them and let them know that the Bluebeam University exists. Most of them know this due to the BBU being mentioned in their welcome emails from Bluebeam directly. To be honest, the BBU competes with our training services, and we have no incentive to promote it.

Rebecca Yu

Instructor-led online training

@Aily Roper - I share the tips I create to our intranet page on Bluebeam. We have links to all our recorded trainings there as well. For things that are generic, I like pointing to the Bluebeam site within my posts. For our specific workflows or even for generic workflows that aren't explained on the site, then I write up my own. Users always want to know how to simply combine or move pages around or convert to another format. Or they want to know options for how to do something. What are all the ways you can convert files depending on how they are selected or which tool you chose to use? So I would like to see more videos covering the basics and getting started. Also something pointing new users to selecting the appropriate profile (for their company or simply from the options included).

Doug McLean

Instructor-led classroom training

I much prefer leading a group of no more than 5.
I like to start with, "Ok, what are you currently doing?", then see if there's a better way. (Usually there is)
I like to ask questions, find out how they're using Revu in their daily workflows. Then look to see if we can improve the way its being used.
One of the best tips I can offer though, is tell the user to change their profile to Revu Advanced. That subtle change to the interface can actually open people's eyes to the possibilities.

Iharned

Feature overview videos (5-10 mins)

This is so dependent on the group and level of instruction. We have our group of "onboarding videos" that take a user through setting up the profile and tools, as well as basic usage, which is typically enough for the field team, but when it comes to advanced usage I agree with a lot of the posts here, dependent on the specific things they are trying to accomplish. Making a video or training for each function is typically less useful or efficient as one only comes across using things like Dynamic Fill once in a blue moon. A lot of that training ends up being a quick stop at the desk. Printing little quick references does help, such as common keyboard shortcuts or how to manage groups in Projects.

Luke Shiras

I don't consider myself an in-house trainer as much as an in-house "go-to guy" . That said, I have typically done a tips and tricks during our weekly staff meetings. This serves two purposes - one, it shows staff some of what's possible with Bluebeam and how they can use it right now, and two, shows them that I can help them do what they're wanting Bluebeam to do.

Often I'm just sharing basic features but mostly I'm also showing how approachable I am to answer questions and how patient I am when explaining how to do something. I find that one-on-one, task specific training works best but the group training exposes them to the potential of using Bluebeam.

Sbenjamin

Self-guided online course

Haha Like everyone else I wanted to select more than one option. Depending on the person we try to offer a variety of ways a person can learn the processes.

DwaneLindseyFGM

Webinar (live or recorded)

With having 8 offices across 5 states, webinar style training is pretty much my go to. And actually, in 2020, it was required as I had to implement BB when everyone was working from home.

Live webinar style, 1-hour long sessions max. Some topics, 30 minutes or less is all that's needed, but I don't then go into another topic, that's a different training session.

Everything is recorded and then posted on our intranet for future viewing, be it someone missed the training or new employees that need to get up to speed can watch the recording. Saves me time to not have to train every single new employee.

If it's more of a "hey, you can do this" type of "tips and tricks", then likely a recorded video that's posted on the intranet and a notification sent to users that a new tip is available.