Dojo Spotlight: 10 questions with a Dojo Black Belt

The Dojo is Domo’s on the internet neighborhood forum targeted on connecting, collaborating, and sharing finest techniques to leverage the power of the Domo system. It is monitored everyday by Domo group authorities and is a central location exactly where you can inquire thoughts, obtain responses, look for remedies, and express strategies.

Grant Smith, BI manager at Sweetwater Seem, the major on the web retailer of musical devices in the U.S., has been an lively member of the Dojo because his early times as a Domo person. The Dojo awards local community members with diverse color belts—similar to karate—as they stage up in the forum by answering and posing thoughts. This gamification method is some thing Grant, a competitor at heart, has responded effectively to. In point, Grant recently became the initial-ever Black Belt considering the fact that upping the rank issue on the Dojo. To master much more about Grant and what drove him to become a black belt, we achieved and talked it out. Here’s how the dialogue went …

Q: Grant, first of all, congratulations on getting to be the 1st-at any time Black Belt in the Dojo. Which is these an amazing accomplishment. I believe you’re in Domo all the time. Is that a truthful assumption?

A: I stay, try to eat, and breathe Domo. I’m in there every single working day, irrespective of whether it is hoping to clear up issues with all the distinct resources Domo has, creating new playing cards, dashboards and web pages, or just trying to become a superior specialized source for all the other “Domo Agents” we have in just our company.

Q: How has the Domo platform helped you individually, and how has it assisted Sweetwater Audio?

A: Every time I can automate factors, I attempt to. Domo has been a large enable in that regard, for the reason that it helps make it so quick to pull info in from a significant volume of various sources, which is substantial for an online retail organization like ours.

With Domo, we have truly been equipped to give information to stakeholders to make extra exact and more quickly conclusions. The pleasurable part is when you see that gentle change in their brain go on. They’re like, “Oh, now that I have this knowledge and I have that details, can we do one thing like this? Can we possibly search to see how our ROI is accomplishing on this giveaway?” Which is truly enjoyable to witness.

Q: So, you’ve really seen Domo impact the tradition.

A: Yeah, nearly each individual single department is utilizing Domo in one particular way or an additional now, whether or not it is the reporting aspect, the embedded analytics tool Domo Everywhere—you name it.

Q: What are a person or two issues that you would convey to a new Domo consumer?

A: It’s sort of a joke, but my go-to saying is, “There’s an API for that.” Domo is a this kind of a powerful resource. You can customise it and do a ton of neat points with it. So, for somebody new, it is just a make any difference of comprehending that you have the details at your fingertips (with Domo), and from there, it’s so easy to engage in close to with and seem at items differently and quickly.

Q: When did you truly feel like you knew that you had been going to come to be a learn of the Domo system?

A: When I was employed. Domo was model-new to me when we started the implementation process back in 2019. But my temperament is these kinds of that I needed to get possession of it. And it’s been a pleasurable encounter. I really like figuring out how to solve difficulties, or how to configure one thing.

That is why I at first went onto the Dojo. I hopped on about a thirty day period or so just after we began with Domo. I just happened upon it, actually. Again then, it was a relatively tranquil room, just because Domo’s user foundation was smaller than it is now.

I go by this philosophy of the best way to study is to educate. It is a make a difference of, “How can I response that question?” If I simply cannot respond to it, then I don’t know it. It is having that mindset of like, “Can I demonstrate it to a 5-yr-previous, or a 15-yr-old?” To clarify it involves producing certain you fully grasp it plenty of you.

I didn’t actually have a great deal of issues when I hopped on the Dojo, but other persons did. And so, when I was very first starting up out, I was like, “Oh, hey, somebody has this dilemma that they’re attempting to answer. I really do not know it.” And that would prompt me to play around with Domo, to see if I could address all those problems. Which is how I learned most of Domo—by making an attempt to reply other people’s inquiries.

Q: What is the most worthwhile element of the Dojo for you now?

A: I have been able to make a good deal of fantastic interactions with other Domo buyers. I’m in a position to decide on their brains and check with, “How do you do these issues? How do you do that?” Obtaining those people connections is really advantageous.

Q: Let’s converse about the gamification part of the Dojo. What is it about the badges and the level procedure that you like so much?

A: I’m just aggressive. I required to get to Black Belt in advance of an individual else did—which might reveal why I could or could not have been on the Dojo answering inquiries whilst I was on getaway!  If there is a leaderboard for me to test and climb, I’m heading to go for it. And it is enjoyable to get badges together the way. Being the info nerd that I am, I adore stats. I delight in striving to figure out, “OK, how a lot of points do I get for this? What’s that really worth? And are there any new badges out there that I can get bonus factors with?”

Q: What enthusiastic you to turn into a Black Belt, other than just remaining competitive?

A: I just have this passion for training and training men and women so they can get more out of the system and make awesome stuff. That is why I did a Domopalooza speak. You can talk about the item all working day prolonged, but how do you use it to your occupation, for your corporation? How do you fix issues with it? Which is what interests me the most.

Q: What does it mean to you to be a Big Domo? And what does that glance like at Sweetwater Audio?

A: As a Big Domo, I’m essentially in cost of earning absolutely sure that everybody can count on Domo and use it successfully—and that it does not turn into a swampy mess! The target is for anyone to be able to make faster, far better, and smarter decisions with facts, and a significant element of meeting that goal is to ensure that all the things in our process is well-managed and very well-governed.

As for what it appears to be like, Domo fosters a large amount of discussions around details governance, like where our facts life, what it signifies, whose definition is the appropriate definition, and so on. And it’s the foundation of an interior bi-weekly assembly that I direct all-around any new options that are offered, any new projects we have taken on, or any questions that have arrive up in the past that we now have answers to.

These conferences have also provided everyone a opportunity to type of rejoice what they’ve been in a position to accomplish with the Domo system, which can then be used by others, as effectively. That’s substantial not just on those stages, but on attaining buy-in in the course of the full organization, far too.

Q: Final concern: If you are speaking to a peer outside the house of Sweetwater Seem, what would you want them to know about Domo?

A: I would say that it gives you a ton of flexibility. It presents electricity to close end users, for the reason that it allows them to slice and dice info having said that they see in good shape. You can go very superior amount, or you can go super technological with it. It just is dependent on what specifically you’re trying to achieve.