Happy New Year! 2021 was a big year for the Blue Prism Community – we did a redesign, introduced Community Coins, began celebrating our members of the month, hosted 24 Hour Challenges, won awards, introduced new Local User Groups, had our very first Community Holiday Hunt – and much more. We combined all of that with the same discussions, answers, events, and everything else that makes the community a great place to be. Join us as we look at some of the highlights of the year.
Community became a triple award winner
The efforts of our Blue Prism Community team were recognised by the wider online community industry in 2021. We were humbled to receive three industry awards: the Jaw-Dropping Design award at the Higher Logic Super Forum awards; Best Recognition and Awards Program in The Community Roundtable Network’s Community Leadership awards; and the Best Customer Success Community in the CMX Community Industry Awards.
For the Jaw-Dropping Design award, we were able to highlight some of the new features introduced with our redesign earlier in the year. The highlights of these were the new personalised profile section, our ‘Getting Started’ and Announcement sections. Our goal was to create a more personal experience when signing into community, and the judging panel agreed that these aims were met with the design produced. Read more about the Community redesign, below. 
For the Best Recognition and Awards Program award, we highlighted some of the activities that take place every day on the community, like our badge system, Community Coins and our MVP program. We were able to share with the judges how these efforts led to improvements in the quantity & quality of answered questions, the impact of our MVP program and the number of badges & engagement points earned on the community.
For the Best Customer Success Community Award, we were able to prove that our comprehensive Community program was a step above the rest. With programs like 24H Challenges, User Groups, Community Coins, MVPs, Product Research Program, ideation, and more, we showed that the Blue Prism Community offers a robust and engaging platform on which users can collaborate around the Blue Prism product and build a network of RPA professionals all in one place. To be recognized by CMX, one of the leading influencers in the industry, alongside some of the best-in-class communities is a great honor. We are beyond excited to be recognized for such a major award!
Community got a fresh new look
Earlier in 2021 we launched a brand-new look for the Blue Prism Community. We prioritised creating a more personal and streamlined experience, which saw the creation of our community dashboard. The dashboard incorporates several unique design elements:
- A personalised profile section that displays profile info, points, and number of unread notifications, along with quick links to better navigate the community.
- A new Getting Started section that includes a dynamic list of key actions to complete in order to get the most out of the community. This section utilises automation rules to only display relevant options.
- Community announcements which cover relevant Community programs, product announcements, and more.
These new features were added to a more general refresh of the look of community to provide an improved overall experience. The dashboard was particularly successful, with significant increases in visits to some of the pages featured in quick links – for example, a 42% increase in idea creation after the launch of the new design.
A year of 24-Hour Challenges
Community hosted 3 standalone 24-hour challenges in 2021. These attracted over 150 participants and covered several the products, including Blue Prism, ALM, Hub, Decipher and Interact. Our 24-hour challenges afford a great way for global teams to get together virtually in a mini hackathon-style competition. Challenges are aimed at developers and are open for both customers and partners. Each challenge is specially designed to test participants’ understanding of Blue Prism development best practices while pushing their technical abilities to their limits.
Any questions? Q&A launched in 2021
Community gained a new discussion style in 2021, with the introduction of Q&A posts alongside our existing Discussion post type. Asking a question, as opposed to posting a discussion, introduced some new options to make the community a more intuitive place. Q&A threads can have answers marked as helpful, which is a great way for the person asking the question to identify the best answer. You can also mark a question post to indicate that you have the same question, which saves needing to post and allows you to follow for any new answers.
Since launching Q&A in the first half of the year, we’ve seen almost 350 individual questions posted, with over 1,200 answers that makes asking a question is a great way to get help from one of the many experts on the community.
Community Coins, Local User Groups, and many more new features
2021 was a great year for new features and programs on the community:
- Our Local User Groups program launched in 2021, so far we have 27 groups spanning 6 continents and over 600 current members.
- We launched Community Coins, with over 400 coins awarded so far from our coin challenges.
- Introduced the Was This Helpful? option to community discussions & Q&A, giving you the chance to share targeted feedback to help make the community an even better resource.
- Hosted the Community Holiday Hunt with 5 weeks of fun festivities around the community to celebrate the holiday season.
- Introduced the Community Member of the Month award
With plenty more in store for 2022, we're looking forward to another great year on the Blue Prism Community. We'd love to hear about your standout community moments from 2021 in the comments, below.
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