Welcome to the Hitchhikers Program

Author: Liz Frailey, VP Developer & Admin Experience
Blog Date: September 2020

You've Arrived!

Welcome to Hitchhikers! We are so excited to have you join our mission of creating amazing search experiences for brands of all sizes.

The Hitchhikers Program

A little over a year ago, our small team set out to make it possible for anyone to build experiences on the Yext platform with the right level of training and the right set of tools. We researched learning platforms, we reconceptualized product features, and we used our own employees as guinea pigs for how we talk about and deliver product training.

When creating Hitchhikers we truly wanted to build a unique program from the ground up. Our goal was to build a community that could provide value to anyone around the world who wanted to learn more about Yext, and the world of search — from our longtime clients and partners who are in the platform everyday, to a search enthusiast who has no prior experience with our brand.

To us, Hitchhikers is more than just a program, it's a philosophy that we call "The Hitchhiker Lifecycle". It's the dedication to doing more, to constantly evolving, to embracing challenge, to ongoing improvement.

But, what is Hitchhikers?

If you haven't completed it already, you can earn the Hitchhikers badge and learn all about the program in the Hitchhikers Track! I wouldn't want to spoil the fun of earning your first badge, but here is a quick introduction to what you can expect:

The Hitchhikers Program is designed to train power users to optimize search experiences and develop solutions on top of Yext's technology, especially the Knowledge Graph, Pages and Answers.

There are 2 main components to the program:

Learning Platform - A comprehensive platform to train you on how to get the most out of the Yext Search Experience Cloud.

Community - A place to ask questions, learn best practices, and connect with peers. The community will include an online forum as well as offline activities and opportunities.

Those are the two main components, but they are just the beginning of the cool features you can find in the platform. You'll notice interesting and unique touches throughout the platform, our team had a lot of fun as we built the site and I hope it shows! My personal favorite part of the Hitchhikers platform are the in-platform challenges. You heard that right, you actually get hands-on in the Yext platform and we automatically check your work for you!

What should you do next?

Completing the Hitchhikers track is the best way to get your lay of the land around here. Oh and did I mention you get to earn your first badge?

After that? The Hitchhikers platform is your frontier to explore. You'll have the opportunity to:

Engage with power users in the community by asking (or answering!) a question
Complete quizzes and hands-on challenges to see how fast you can rank-up
Check out exclusive blogs written by the Yext product experts
Register for Hitchhikers-only webinars and events
And so much more

If you need anything please do not hesitate to reach out! Your feedback helps us to build a more valuable program to Hitchhikers around the world.

Liz Frailey
Chief Executive Hitchhiker

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