CrowdStrike employees may be at the very forefront of their respective fields, but it takes a culture of constant learning and development to maintain their edge. Here to talk about how he helps develop programs to build and enhance skills of all types is CrowdStrike Senior Manager for Learning and Talent Lowell Doringo.

Q. Tell us about your role and what drew you to CrowdStrike.

I am a Senior Manager for Learning and Talent. My primary role is to lead and deliver learning and development (L&D) opportunities for all CrowdStrikers and make sure they have the knowledge and skills they need to do their jobs. That can be any number of things: leadership training, developing technical skills, team building exercises, remote work strategies, and standard workplace training like compliance, and health and safety.

While my background has been in entertainment and hospitality, my passion has always been in the learning and development space. I was drawn to CrowdStrike because I could see that the company post-IPO was really investing in employee development as it was growing.

It's an exciting opportunity as an L&D industry professional to join a company making that kind of commitment and be on the team that builds out the practice from scratch. It’s especially exciting in a place like CrowdStrike, where the pace is fast, the technology is changing and the mission matters.   

Next, we look at customers that could be affected and quickly organize a response from all facets — customer success, engineering/ProdSec, Technical Analysis, Falcon Complete, incident response, OverWatch™, Intel, legal/compliance — pulling that information as quickly as possible and getting it to the customer. I work with these functional team leads, VPs and the communications team to get a coordinated message out quickly.

Q. Tell me about your typical day.

I usually begin and end most days by teaching a class on Zoom. I lead our Falcon Forward: Managing CrowdStrikers program, which is a three-month program designed to train and develop people managers up to the director level to gain key leadership and management skills, specifically around CrowdStrike managerial processes.

When I’m not teaching, I take part in a lot of meetings. Some of them are creative, where we brainstorm future courses and content. Others are very strategic, where we're thinking about issues like how to incorporate our company’s core values into L&D programs.  

Finally, a lot of my day is spent heads down building and designing courses. That means writing out scripts, creating PowerPoint presentations, putting together e-learnings, literally anything that goes into creating learning at CrowdStrike. Our team is relatively small, which means we do it all. While the pace and scope can sometimes be challenging, it’s also fun because you have creative license for how to build and operate your programs. 

Q. What do you like most about your job?

The most rewarding part of my job is when a CrowdStriker sends me a message telling me that they were able to apply something they learned in class in their day-to-day life — or, even better, that they’re not just using the skills in their role but teaching other people how to do it. It's the transfer of knowledge that keeps me motivated. There's no greater satisfaction than seeing the impact of your work. That tells me I did my job.

Another thing that I love about working at CrowdStrike is that we continuously iterate and improve our programs. We want to make sure that from a data perspective, we're hitting our goals and using participant feedback to raise the bar. That’s a really important quality because the world is changing rapidly.

For example, when in-person gatherings were limited over the past two years, you couldn’t just bump into somebody in the break room and strike up a conversation. So we found ways to use L&D offerings as a catalyst for building connections through classes, breakouts, Slack channels — all kinds of places since in-person learning and interaction were limited. We really had to rethink our programs so that they not only worked in a remote environment but they also fulfilled that need for personal connection.

Q. As a Learning and Talent professional, what is something you’ve learned and implemented for yourself since joining CrowdStrike? 

CrowdStrike is a remote-first company, and this is my first time working in such an environment. I'm the first to admit I had some difficulty adjusting. I'm used to being around people — I get energy from being with others. Being alone in a room all day was definitely an adjustment for me. Working at CrowdStrike, I’ve developed ways to adjust to this new way of thinking and manage those issues and find new sources of connection. I've also learned to create boundaries for myself so that I can be productive and present, but also know when to sign off and make sure I take time for myself. 

Q. How would you describe the culture at CrowdStrike?

Fast. Things here are fast! I've never worked in an environment that moves as quickly as CrowdStrike. That can present opportunities as well as challenges. It's a blessing because when you have ideas, one of the best things that can happen is to see it quickly come to fruition. The amount of projects that I've helped launch in just the past year outnumbers what I've done in other companies over the course of many years. At CrowdStrike, it's incredible to see the speed with which we make action happen, which in turn accelerates our reach and impact. That's a great feeling!