Interview with Stakeholders

Who did we interview?

We tried to cover all of our stakeholders in our interviews. The learners of Acronis Certified Engineer (ACE) program are the resellers and technical supporters in the reseller partner companies. Although our design is for Acronis, we had constraints on reaching out to the learners at first. Besides, we also believe that learning from existing training programs in the industry can broaden our horizons and gain more insights. We have the following stakeholders in our interviews:

• Trainer (learning consultants): design and deliver the training to the learners.
• Cybersecurity engineer: use cybersecurity products and take training from other companies
• Expert in cybersecurity: professors/professionals in cybersecurity. They have experience in general cybersecurity training.
• Acronis partner: trainees who took the courses before.

How did we conduct the interviews?

We reached out to 12 interviewees and covered all the roles we mentioned above via LinkedIn, emails and Acronis network. Before the interviews, we created a protocol for each interview to define the goals, procedures and questions. We customize the interview for each role. Here is a protocol overview for Acronis trainers:

• Problem statement: overview of the existing training program; training materials; learning goals and expectations; course design process; learners and learning outcome
• Study objectives: The study we conduct can provide insights and perspectives on problems Acronis training team have regarding designing the training materials and help us get a deeper understanding of the courses we are designing for the product.
• Method description: Semi-structured interviews and contextual inquiry
• Detailed interview questions
• Logistics & Scheduling

What did we get from the interviews?

We get some initial insights from our interviews. Each role contributes their experience and understanding from their own perspectives. Here are several insights we want to share with you:

• Time constraints. The trainees need to learn several products from different companies at the same time. They also have their own work and need to support the end users. They want less time but more flexibility in training. However, trainers feel it’s still not enough for them to cover all the content they want to teach.
• Prior knowledge. Trainees in the same training program have different prior knowledge. Some of them are experienced resellers and already took the training before. They only want to learn the new updates. Others may just enter the industry and don’t know much about Acronis products. How can we tailor the training for each one since we have hundreds of learners at one time?
• Real-world scenarios. Different from K-12 education, the motivation of the trainees in industrial training is to solve the problems in their work. They want the outcome in the real world. It’s critical for us to help them learn the knowledge and skills in their real work efficiently.