CELab - Ep 173 - From Helldivers 2 to St. Vincent: Surprising Lessons for Customer Education Leaders

In this end-of-year special, Adam Avramescu and Dave Derington look back at 2025 through the lens of the things they love most outside of work: video games and live music. They unpack how titles like Helldivers 2, Peak, and Megabonk model great onboarding, community-based learning, and continuous engagement—and what Customer Education and Customer Success teams can steal from modern game design.

On the music side, they explore Louis Cole, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Black Country, New Road, St. Vincent, and Tune-Yards. Adam and Dave connect venue, context, and stagecraft to how we design learning environments, build resilient teams, and foster community around our programs. If you’re thinking about onboarding, product adoption, AI-era education, or how to keep your learners coming back, this episode is packed with fresh, unexpected parallels.

Key topic bullets (Customer Education & CS–focused)

• Onboarding by design: How Helldivers 2 uses scaffolding, mission flow, and “muscle memory over menus” to teach complex mechanics—mirroring ideal SaaS onboarding.
• Context > content: Why the venue (Small venue vs. big noisy hall) transformed Louis Cole vs. King Gizzard orchestral shows—and how that maps to learning environments and attention.
• Performance support vs. upfront training: Games as a model for balancing early instruction with in-the-moment guidance.
• Community-based learning: Peak as a metaphor for learners pulling each other up the mountain via collaboration and shared discovery.
• Resilient teams after setbacks: Black Country, New Road rebuilding after losing their lead singer—parallels to CE teams navigating layoffs and org changes.
• Emergent learning & retention: How Megabonk and other games keep players experimenting and returning, similar to driving ongoing product adoption.
• Edges and surprise in learning: St. Vincent and Tune-Yards using surprise, constraints, and audience participation to create memorable experiences—vs. bland, predictable training.
• AI and emergent workflows: Early thoughts on how AI products shift education from “where to click” to “how to think and prompt.”