Executive summary

Using Khoros Community, Autodesk engaged knowledgeable and passionate superusers of its software and successfully included them in Autodesk customer support and product development. Autodesk produces software for people who make things, including the industry-standard 3D modeling and animation program Maya and design program AutoCAD. Professionals from many fields have used Autodesk software throughout their careers and many love sharing their wealth of knowledge to help others—Autodesk needed a way to capture their passion and share their knowledge within a community, so they turned to Khoros.

In 2012, Autodesk launched their “Expert Elite” superuser group of 62 members on their Khoros Community to drive engagement, foster peer-to-peer support, and improve their digital Customer Experience (CX). This recognition program calls attention to users who contribute a significant amount of time, knowledge and assistance to customers on forums within the community, and in doing so it spurs even greater collaboration and contributions from superusers. In order to find their Expert Elite, each year Autodesk reviews around 350 nominations and evaluates candidates based on the volume of their contributions, the caring sentiment of their conversations, and their knowledge of solutions. In the end, only 80 or so are accepted into the recognition program. Expert Elites greatly appreciate the recognition for their contributions and earn the ability to influence future products. Seeing that these superusers had great ideas, Autodesk decided to have them sign NDAs and continues to give them access to product divisions so they can have open dialogues with internal thought leaders so they can suggest new product features and get the knowledge they need to keep providing great support to peer users. The group has now grown to 400 members representing 50+ countries.

As a result of leveraging peer-to-peer support on their Khoros Community, Autodesk has built a strong sense of loyalty into their community and increased the support available for customers. In 2017 alone, the Expert Elite group delivered 25,000+ accepted solutions, and their solutions have been viewed over 7 million times. The end result of the recognition program is a true peer-to-peer community space, where customers ask technical and subject matter questions, share suggestions and answers, support overall product mastery, and collaborate in real-time.

“Our Expert Elite members are a family. These superusers work together to tackle product challenges, share insights, and enjoy the company of other members either face to face at events or online.”

— Katinka Sante
Senior Program Manager, Strategic Programs, Autodesk, Inc.