What a year it’s been! Full of challenges, surprises, celebrations, and opportunities, 2021 was a true rollercoaster. Through it all, the Cognota team has been busy working hard and enjoying the journey together.
So, while we’re preparing for the year ahead, we wanted to take a look back at all the exciting developments and causes for celebration that came our way in 2021!
Growing the Cognota Family
During the past year, we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming lots of new customers to our platform. Nothing makes us happier than watching our customers create training intake systems, plan projects, and manage team capacity through Cognota and partnering with them through the journey.
We also welcomed lots of new members to the growing Cognota team in 2021. From product and engineering to sales and marketing, we’re delighted to have welcomed some new Cognotars to the pack and we can’t wait to add more in the year ahead.
Along with customers and team members, we also had the pleasure of welcoming some new members to our advisory board. Our advisors bring a wealth of experience and expertise in the learning and development industry to the table and we’re so grateful for their continued guidance and support.
Partnering With Industry Leaders on L&D Resources
Throughout the year, we published lots of resources to share with you some of the biggest trends in the industry and how to capitalize on them. From eBooks and webinars to templates and videos, it was a busy year! But we didn’t do it alone. Some of the industry’s leading experts joined us to develop truly valuable content for L&D leaders and their teams.
Early on in the year, Bianca Baumann, then Director of Learning Experiences at GP Strategies and now VP of Learning Solutions at Ardent, joined us for a webinar outlining the essential framework for digital transformation in L&D.
Soon after, Megan Torrance, founder and CEO of TorranceLearning, shared her industry-renowned expertise and practical advice on leveraging Agile principles for learning and development teams.
We also had the pleasure of hosting a webinar with Robyn Defelice, PhD. Robyn’s research for ATD on the amount of time it takes to create training formed the basis for this session on boosting operational efficiency in L&D.
In October, we joined forces with Brandon Hall Group. First, Cognota learning advisor and former CLO at McDonald’s, Rob Lauber, joined David Wentworth, Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, to discuss defining and sharing L&D’s impact with the rest of the organization. Cognota and Brandon Hall Group also produced an eBook together on the same topic.
LearnOps Leadership Series
One of the resources we were most excited about releasing this year is our new video series. LearnOps Leadership is a series that welcomes learning and development leaders from a range of industries to share their experiences and insights into all aspects of learning operations.
Hosted by Cognota founder and CEO, Ryan Austin, you’ll find all published episodes of the series here. And we can’t wait to get back to it in 2022!
Product Developments
Our product, engineering, and customer success teams have been hard at work this year to bring our customers improvements to existing features and some brand new ones, too!
One of the stand-out product developments for Cognota in 2021 was the release of Capacity Planning. With this feature, Cognota users can get instant visibility into the current and upcoming capacity of their entire learning and development team on a dedicated board. On the Planning Board, you can now also assign resources to specific projects and view team member’s availability right within a planning card.
We’re thrilled to introduce this capability for our Cognota users and to continue our journey as the first learning operations platform, purpose-built for L&D teams. Watch this space for lots more to come on the product side in 2022!
Awards and Recognition
Brandon Hall Group – Excellence in Technology Awards
This year, we entered into four categories in Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence in Technology Awards. And we were delighted to receive the news that we were awarded across all four categories!
Gold – Best Advance in Technology Innovation for the Remote Workforce
Silver – Best Advance in Learning Management Measurement/Business Impact Tools
Silver – Best Advance in Emerging Learning Technology
Silver – Best Advance in Unique Learning Technology
We’re honoured to once again receive recognition from Brandon Hall Group for our product and the team behind it.
Great Place to Work Certification
This year, we were delighted to receive certification as part of the Great Place to Work program. After extensive employee surveys across a wide range of categories, Cognota is officially a great place to work! It’s so rewarding to see the efforts our entire team puts into the collaboration and culture of Cognota paying off.
Culture Committee Initiatives
As a team, the way we work, learn, and celebrate together is super important to us here at Cognota. Although the past couple of years have been challenging while working in a fully remote capacity, it also gave us the opportunity to improve the way we connect digitally. Since we have team members located in Toronto, Mexico, Europe, and Nigeria, we had a lot of fun coming up with new ways to stay connected as a team, both in terms of work and social events.
Our Culture Committee put in lots of work to ensure that we took time to have some fun throughout 2021. We participated in quiz nights, held digital games to celebrate the Olympics, and lots more!
We also took some time to acknowledge and celebrate many important dates throughout the year. During Pride Month, the Culture Committee shared resources and videos celebrating Pride and elevating voices from the LGBTQ+ community, including a course on the origins and importance of Pride Month.
During Black History Month, the team shared facts, stories and resources to honour and celebrate the accomplishments of Black people and their communities.
With everything that’s been going on in relation to COVID-19 and remote working, the Culture Committee and Cognota leadership also wanted to take the time to emphasize the importance of mental health awareness, self-care, and open conversation around the topic. In October, this year on World Mental Health Day, the Culture Committee shared resources to spark conversation and encourage reflection. Cognota also continued our “You Day” initiative. On these designated days, all Cognota employees have the day off to spend it however they like to rest and recharge.
It’s been another amazing year for Cognota, without a doubt. And we can’t wait to continue embracing uncertainty and enjoying the journey in 2022!
