Company: Autodesk, Inc., San Francisco, CA
Nomination Submitted by: Spur Reply
Company Description: Autodesk is a leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, and has been developing design and make technology since 1982. Known for AutoCAD, Revit, and Maya 3D, Autodesk offers the broadest portfolio of 3D software for global markets, serving customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, media and entertainment industries.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year - Technology Industries
 Nomination Title: Autodesk’s Skill Ready and Leadership Ready Program
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated achievement since July 1, 2022, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Briefly describe the nominated organization or individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 199 words used.
Autodesk’s mission is to empower everyone, everywhere to design and make anything.
In service of this mission, Autodesk equips its employees with the resources necessary to support its customers in finding solutions to the big and small challenges they face today. This typically looks like feature and launch-centric enablement, providing customer-facing teams with need-to-know information for their conversations with customers. But the recent Role Excellence initiative launched by Autodesk’s Global Revenue Enablement (GRE) team focuses on continuous skill development to better empower teammates within their roles.
The initiative includes the Skill Ready and Leadership Ready programs, a pair of complementary programs that work in tandem and use data to drive progressive skill development and enable effective coaching within Autodesk’s worldwide sales and customer success teams. Skill Ready is a digital learning experience that uses prioritized skill development plans for individual contributors (ICs). Leadership Ready is a frontline manager-only program that provides managers with a skill coaching framework that supports Skill Ready.
In developing the programs, the GRE team aligned priority sales and customer success skills with Autodesk's broader business objectives. This approach links employee development and proficiency to Autodesk’s ongoing ability to empower and deliver value to their customers.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 203 words used.
Regularly awarded as one of the best places to work, more information on how Autodesk enables its employees to do their best work can be found here.
We’ve also included the following supporting materials:
- Skill Ready Presentation (video): voiceover describing the building and deployment of the skill development framework. This presentation ncludes additional details about the initial enablement challenge, the priority skills and proficiency levels, the content development process, and how the Skill Ready and Leadership Ready programs work together.
- Leadership Ready Presentation (video): brief program overview hosted on internal SharePoint provided to managers to illustrate program goals and value
- DIY Workshop Kit (pdf): Leadership Ready program asset provided to managers, enabling them to customize their own workshops based on the skills they’d like to target with their teams
- Leadership Ready Manager Coaching Guide (pdf): Leadership Ready program asset depicting the different proficiency levels as well as guidance on coaching 1:1 and 1:many
- Learner Self-Assessment (image): depicts IC experience during the self-assessment portion at the beginning of the program; learners retake this assessment on a quarterly basis
- Team Performance Summary (image): depicts manager’s view of the heatmap of their team’s skills, and an overlay of top 10 prioritized skills per team
- Outline the nominated achievement since July 1 2022 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
Executive leadership needed insight into the sales and success teams' skill bench and an objective way to determine skill gaps. With limited information on individual and team proficiencies, managers also needed help determining where to start their coaching efforts. Learners also found closing skill gaps daunting as there were over 100 curated skill and competency paths, each with eight proficiency levels.
GRE thus spearheaded a transformative enablement approach to address these challenges: the Skill Ready and Leadership Ready programs. GRE collaborated with leadership to create a refined list of 24 priority skills (Collaboration, Value Discovery, Objection Handling, etc.) with five proficiency levels ranging from just starting (Onboarding) to comprehensive knowledge and practical ability (Proficient; Expert).
ICs begin their Skill Ready journey by completing the newly created self-assessment form. Self-assessment scores are averaged with the manager’s skill assessment of the IC to determine the IC’s starting proficiency level for each skill. With the skill baseline established, ICs begin self-paced learning from their unique proficiency level to further advance their skills.
Managers now have the data and insight to monitor progression and to tailor team and IC coaching to the assessed proficiency level. Leadership Ready program assets (Manager conversation guides, “Meeting Hacks and Habits” document, DIY Workshop Kits) provide managers with skill-focused materials for coaching during existing 1:1 and team meetings. Managers are freed from the administrative burden of establishing new review cadences and are empowered to coach individuals and teams at their current proficiency level for the skills requiring attention.
- Explain why the achievement you have highlighted is unique or significant. If possible compare the achievement to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 244 words used.
The program’s methodologies are noteworthy. Bloom’s Taxonomy and GROW (Goal, Reality, Obstacles, Way forward) coaching methodology are widely respected approaches to curriculum and personal development. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy for skill level design lends to a customized and adaptive learning approach for progressive skill development and retention. Learners first go through the theory in the skill modules, then apply the knowledge within the flow of their work interactions, and then return for continued learning. From GROW, the GRE team created the GROWth coaching framework, adding Tasks and Habits that provides managers with action-based prompts to steer their coaching practice.
A pilot of the Skill Ready and Leadership Ready program launched in August of 2024 to 300 ICs and managers in the sales and success org. User feedback illustrated the value of the program’s data-driven framework. Prior to the pilot, leadership believed collaboration and objection handling would be the skills learners were least proficient in. However, completed skill assessments identified storytelling & persuasion as actual skill gaps. The initial assessment ensured managers have factual – rather than assumed – insight into their team’s proficiencies with clear baselines and paths for growth. This objective insight also ensured enablement resources were properly allocated.
The program rolled out to the remaining 2200 team members in September 2024. Since then, 337 ICs have increased their skills by at least one proficiency level. Managers have also reported a marked improvement in employee engagement and effectiveness in customer interactions during sales calls.
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