Centralizing learning is not a simple task. But imagine what it must be like when your workforce spans retail stores, distribution centers, customer service, activism, product design, filmmaking, food, and even beer brewing.
This was the challenge for Patagonia’s small (but mighty) L&D team, who initially couldn’t keep up with the diverse needs of thousands of employees and external dealer partners.
But they had a brilliant idea: Instead of trying to scale up with more resources, Patagonia scaled sideways by empowering subject matter experts (SMEs) and power users across the business to lead learning initiatives.
In a recent webinar, Janice Talley, Global Org Enablement at Patagonia, shared how her team restructured L&D, built a network of power users, and launched a dealer learning portal that now reaches over 1,400 external learners, all while maintaining trust and cultural alignment.
From centralized L&D to shared ownership
When Talley joined Patagonia three years ago, she was tasked with implementing the company’s first learning management system—Docebo. Initially, the L&D function looked traditional: A small, centralized team with a handful of specialized trainers embedded in frontline departments.
But then Patagonia reorganized its L&D function, dispersing team members into different business units. It suddenly became clear to Talley that their small team would not be able to keep pace with the organization’s growth and complexity.
“We had to rethink what learning and development looks like at the company, and look at it as a shared ownership, where everyone should be involved in learning,” Talley explained.
So Talley decided to rely on SMEs and early “power users” to create and deliver learning content.
Building a network of power users
Scaling sideways began with relationship-building. Talley sought out employees already creating informal learning resources, like onboarding guides, SharePoint sites, development workshops, and gave them tools, training, and access to Docebo.
This evolved into a formal power user program, built on three pillars:
- Partnerships first: Ensuring the relationship was mutually beneficial, not just “offloading work.”
- Guardrails and resources: Creating similar course code structures, and having onboarding modules available to make content creation less intimidating.
- Ongoing community: Hosting quarterly meetups for updates, showcases, and collaboration to ensure that the SMEs and power users felt supported.
One retail operations manager, for instance, didn’t realize she was already doing the work of L&D until Talley pointed it out. She just saw a need and started building onboarding curriculum.
“So I think part of it is helping folks realize some of the work they’re already doing may be in line with learning and development already,” Talley recalled. “It’s just helping to harness and helping support what they are already trying to do.”
There was just one small thing. Quality varied. Not every SME-produced course met traditional instructional design standards. But the most important thing was that reach and impact outweighed perfection, Talley admitted.
Extending learning to external users: The dealer training program
Perhaps the most visible success of Patagonia’s sideways approach has been its dealer training program.
Previously, wholesale teams had to fly trainers to dispersed retail locations to educate more than 2,000 staff on technical outdoor products. With Docebo, the team launched a dealer-specific learning portal where external partners could self-register via QR code.
The portal includes:
- Seasonal featured learning paths
- Product training foundations
- A course library for past and supplemental content
To drive engagement, Patagonia added a clever incentive: Complete a seasonal learning path, and earn a coupon for product discounts. The result? 1,400 dealers onboarded in under a year, with 67% onboarding completion rate and 90% satisfaction rate, as well as strong adoption rates.
“Dealers are better able to right-fit our customers,” Talley explained. “It helps us as a company because we want folks using the right gear for what they’re going to use it for.”
While dispersed learning can feel risky, Patagonia leans on trust, culture, and light-touch governance. Here are some guiding principles they live by:
- Trust over control: SMEs are empowered to create content with guidance, not micromanagement.
- Cultural alignment: The LMS was intentionally designed to look and feel like Patagonia’s website, making it familiar and inviting.
- Sustainment cycles: Each year, SMEs are asked to review their content for accuracy, archiving outdated material.
Patagonia also built simple frameworks like a “content kickoff” process deck to guide SMEs through essentials like defining audiences, setting objectives, and video recording tips.
Patagonia’s lessons for L&D leaders
From Patagonia’s journey, four lessons stand out:
- Lean on culture: Tap into what already motivates your employees. At Patagonia, it was community.
- Start small: Pilot with a handful of power users, then grow.
- Provide guardrails, not roadblocks: Offer resources and guidance without over-engineering.
- Trust the process: Perfection isn’t the goal, but impact and reach are.
The payoff has been significant: Internal gains as well as a thriving dealer program that extends Patagonia’s values and knowledge far beyond its internal workforce.
As Talley emphasized: “It wasn’t perfect at the start. But we organically have a 67% onboarding completion rate of our learning path for onboarding. That’s with very little promotion or directive. And we continue to have over a 90% satisfaction rate for both our learning management system and new hires.”
Looking ahead to Inspire 2026
This webinar is just a glimpse of the conversations waiting at Inspire 2026 in Miami. There, you’ll meet L&D, HR, and Customer Education leaders from around the world, trade stories, and leave with strategies you can put into practice right away.
📍 Fontainebleau, Miami
📅 April 20–22, 2026
Join the Inspire 2026 Waitlist for first access to updates, perks, and exclusive content.
Up next: Power users at scale with CDK Global
Empowering 25,000 dealerships through distributed learning
📅 Wednesday, August 27, 2025 — 11:00 AM–12:00 PM EST
Building on what we learned with Patagonia about empowering power users, we’ll now see how CDK Global is applying a similar principle on a staggering scale. With operations spanning 100+ countries, 25,000 dealerships, and nearly half a million end users, CDK needed a way to keep learning consistent without overwhelming a central L&D team.
So, they built a distributed ownership model where Power Users inside each branch manage training locally, keeping learning relevant, scalable, and sustainable.
Join Brian Wilson and Jon Purdy of CDK Global, alongside Jamie Morgan from Docebo, as they share how CDK has turned Power User governance into a global advantage.
You’ll learn:
- A governance framework that scales across thousands of locations
- How to match permissions with business needs
- Practical ways Power Users can own content and resources with confidence
