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5 episodes with ken babcock
2 episodes with ken babcock
2 episodes with ken babcock
In this episode, Ken Babcock, co-founder and CEO of Tango, discusses the evolution of Tango from a documentation tool to a comprehensive platform that enhances sales team efficiency through process automation and AI. He emphasizes the importance of process in driving innovation and consistency within organizations, particularly in the context of revenue operations. Ken also shares insights on targeting sales teams, leveraging Tango internally, and the critical role of company culture in scaling businesses effectively.Ken discusses the essential components for scaling a business effectively, emphasizing the importance of culture, leadership, and process. He highlights the need for accountability and metrics to drive performance, as well as the significance of reinforcing communication within the organization. Ken also addresses the necessity of adapting to change and leveraging technology to enhance scalability, ultimately stressing that user adoption is a critical metric for success.Find more at revopschampions.com
In episode 23 of the Change Enablers podcast, hosts Ken Babcock and Rocco Seyboth share Tango's big news: the release of Nuggets, post-it notes for your business applications. What's covered:Top News (where Ken and Rocco bring the most relevant Change Enabler stories to discuss)Atlassian State of Teams Report (1:43)Whatfix announced their series E fundraising round at $125 million (12:59)Tango launches Nuggets! What does this mean? Users of Tango will be able to use Nuggets for unstructured text links to your knowledge base, Tango workflows right on the page where you can start a guided (Guide Me) experience, links to Loom or how-to videos, and more (18:39)The Ops Hotline (our very own advice column for Change Enablers).Audience member submission: “ The things Joey from Cox said about the “forgetting curve” really resonated with me. Everyone here complains about trainings, turns their video off, multi-tasks and pretty much ignores me. Then I end up answering the same questions over and over. I want to do something different but I'm not sure how to explain that I'm just not doing training sessions anymore. Any suggestions?” ---Where to find your host, Ken: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/bigredbabzWhere to find cohost Rocco Seyboth:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roccoseyboth/Like what you heard? Subscribe, leave us a review, and let us know who in Operations, IT, and Enablement should be our next guest.
In this episode of Change Enablers, host Ken Babcock dives deep on digital adoption with Matthew Belli, the global IT product owner at Nestlé. From Bay Area to Milan, Italy resident, Matthew experienced a life-changing move during Covid as Nestlé brought him on to expand WalkMe's utilization within the company from a single app to over 200.Throughout the conversation, Matthew shares his strategic approach emphasizing teh need to understand team and individual goals, identify daily pain points, and improve processes through a consultative sales-esque approach. Rather than aggressively push for an "internal sale", Matthew focuses on listening to user experiences to determine if solutions like WalkMe are a good fit at all. The two also highlight the dynamic nature of digital ecosystems and the continuous need for effective change management strategies within large organizations like Nestlé, which need to balance user training and technology improvements while addressing the rapid changes in applications and processes.Tune in for: • Matthew's story relocating from California to Milan for Nestlé• Navigating corporate marketing complexities• Understanding team needs and addressing pain points with a therapy-like approach• The importance of customization amid common hesitations and challenges • Creating value slides to summarize project objectives and outcomes• Personalized use cases with KPI metrics samples• Navigating stakeholder engagement amid role transitions• Matthew's initial opposition to hiring external consultants for support• The necessity of digital adoption beyond UI and trainingWhere to find Matthew Belli:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-belli-25bb041a/• Nestlé: https://www.nestle.com/Where to find your host, Ken: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/• Tango: https://www.tango.us/Like what you heard? Subscribe, leave us a review, and let us know who in Operations and Enablement should be our next guest.
Ken Babcock, Co-Founder of Tango and Zachary Dewitt of Wing Venture Capital, is in the show today to give us the nit and grit on how their company achieved 10,000 sign-ups in just less than two weeks. These business connoisseurs will also guide us through how we should target the right buyers and celebrate our end-users success—ensuring that there's connectivity between what you're building and what your customers need. They will also reveal the story behind Tango and how it evolved throughout its first initial launch. Grasp as much knowledge as you can by listening to these two geniuses. Show Notes [2:12] Tango helps create a flexible documentation tool that allows you to generate documentation for your workflow. And alleviate your maintenance burden. [7:13] On optimizing the right go-to-market [9:23] What other tools is Tango replacing, and what do you need to do for the documentation you are creating? [15:40] The importance of setting up suitable measurement gates and understanding when to know how things are successful [16:31] How does the operation cadence work? [18:18] Being data-driven is important and complementing that with a customer focus [23:00] Why is it essential to be time-bound? [23:47] Honing your most active users in the pilot is key [24:47]On Finding different company sizes and types to understand your customer and your persona [34:49] Sales vs. Product led is different in terms of messaging [36:12] There's a different approach to targeting buyers and users [39:27] What does it take to have your first successful launch? [45:55] Your end-users success will eventually become your success About Ken and Zach Ken is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tango. Before diving into the world of Tango, he spent more than four years at one of the world's famous platforms, Uber. After learning the depths of entrepreneurship at Atomic VC, he teamed up with his co-founders and founded Tango in 2020. Zachary "Zach" Dewitt is a partner at Wing Venture Capital. Wing Venture helps founders establish businesses around their ideas. In the company, Zach mainly focuses on enterprise application, technology and product-led growth to propel businesses forward. Links: Wing Venture Capital Tango Product Hunt Profiles: Zach Dewitt Ken Babcock
We're back with another State of Change Enablement with your host, Ken Babcock and special guest, Rocco Seyboth.In this episode, the two dive deep in the world of Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) starting with:Top News ranked on the Mango scale (where Ken and Rocco bring the most relevant Change Enabler stories to discuss) • SAP's acquisition of WalkMe (2:04)Not-Obvious News• 12 famous ERP disasters, dustups and disappointments (17:11)The Ops Hotline (think of it like Tango's advice column. Real questions submitted by real people)• Submission 1: Can a Digital Adoption Platform replace our Learning Management System? (30:02)Spicy Nuggets (featuring the funniest and most relatable comments on Tango's top Instagram and TikTok posts)• The lonely life of a Change Enabler, portrayed by cats slapping each other of course"In these moments my mantra fills my head "I have bills, alcohol is not free, they don't have Red Bull in jail, stay calm""The problem also stems from frequency of the process. If you do it once in a blue moon, people forget. Best to have clearly written instructions on your policy manual.""I'm embarrassed to say, I'm that coworker. working memory issues from ADHD is a real thing."---Where to find your host, Ken: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/bigredbabz• Tango: https://www.tango.us/Where to find cohost Rocco Seyboth:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roccoseyboth/Like what you heard? Subscribe, leave us a review, and let us know who in Operations and Enablement should be our next guest.
In this episode of the Change Enablers, host Ken Babcock dives deep with Joey Papania, the Senior Manager of Learning & Development (L&D) at Cox Media. Joey shares his unique career trajectory, moving from an account consultant to a key player in L&D, highlighting his enthusiasm for coaching and teaching. The conversation focuses on the critical role of L&D in software implementations and new initiatives. Joey stresses the need for early involvement of L&D in strategy and budget discussions to influence successful rollouts. He shares the common challenges during implementations, like data migration issues and communication hurdles, urging the focus to be on improvement rather than perfection. He also highlights the importance of using quantitative data to create compelling cases for L&D initiatives, ensuring they align with business goals and solve real problems, rather than just providing generic training.What's covered:• Effective sales and marketing training• How (and why) to build a learning organization• Aligning front-end training with business goals• Challenges in sustainable training strategy implementation• The impact of an empathy-driven approach to training• Adapting to the modern age (the end of memorization?)• Maximizing mental energy with TangoLike what you heard? Subscribe, leave us a review, and let us know who in Operations and Enablement should be our next guest.
In this episode, Ken Babcock welcomes Ben Gardner, VP of Customer Experience and AI Strategy at Salesloft onto the podcast. Fun fact: Ben was the champion of the first-ever Tango pilot!Ben brings extensive experience in SaaS and leadership, with a unique background transitioning from a high school math teacher to the software industry. With 8 years of experience in SaaS, 10+ years in leadership and 3 years in education, he has his fair share of leadership and team building experiences under his belt.This episode centers around an ongoing Salesforce migration Ben led at Salesloft, which aims to consolidate and unify data across platforms from recently acquired companies. This migration is handled meticulously, with an eight-month lead time and a sandbox environment for user acceptance testing. Listen for insights on: ways to get a deep understanding for your end users day-to-day processes through ride alongs, involving employees in decision-making, and clearly communicating the reasons behind changes to gain buy-in the importance of ensuring a smooth transition by enlisting a diverse team and maintaining legacy systems as a fallback optionLessons on what not to do from personal software rollout experience at past companiesthe role of ongoing monitoring, feedback mechanisms, and open communication to address issues promptly.the challenges in adopting new software, the necessity for thorough testing, and the common pitfalls of underestimating change management.Like what you heard? Subscribe, leave us a review, and let us know who in Operations and Enablement should be our next guest.
Ken Babcock, co-founder and CEO of Tango, shares his transformative journey of redefining workplace training and learning. With a bold decision to leave Harvard Business School amid the pandemic, Ken and his team harnessed their insights into workplace inefficiencies to create Tango, a revolutionary platform that digitises the traditional job-shadowing experience, enabling asynchronous, on-demand learning.In this episode, we delve into:The evolution of Tango from an initial concept of 'Twitch for work' to a robust tool for creating accessible, real-time documentation of software processes.Practical advice for entrepreneurs on narrowing focus to meet customer needs effectivelyKen's personal growth strategies, such as the importance of executive coaching and strategic time management to enhance decision-making and mental health.For more on how Ken Babcock is steering Tango to innovate within the tech and training landscape, follow him on LinkedIn. More from James: Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
We now live in a world where “the workplace” can mean a lot of different things — and that has a huge impact on the workforce. The transition to hybrid and remote work environments can come with a host of benefits, like time freedom and location flexibility, but it also comes with its own unique challenges. In particular, how do you foster a strong culture that supports people when everyone is distributed? How can you create a sense of connection with others when you haven't met them in person? And how do you make sure your company's values are constantly aligned with your people's values?Ken Babcock is Co-Founder and CEO of Tango, a business productivity software company that improves how organizations capture and transfer knowledge through their documentation solution. He is joined by Allie Klun, Head of Brand Strategy at Tango, to talk about creating an environment that is focused on helping people be their best at work no matter where they are. Learn more and find the complete show notes at https://www.conniewsteele.com/podcastResources:Connect with Ken: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/ Connect with Allie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allieklun/ Tango's Team Building Questions: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AuzvEOMsYTTf08GM-wXCRGkZUMQGN23npL3ScUBYZ3o/edit#gid=0 End of Week Reflections: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-p5FhmE1gU3Q6P48zpx4DNP4bG2xuU-2-ftqXg6phpRi9FQ/viewform
Automatically capture any process and turn it into a step-by-step interactive walkthrough that makes it easier to get work done. Tango makes it easier to get work done by automatically capturing any process and turning it into a step-by-step interactive walkthrough. With our browser extension and desktop application, teams can instantly document, share, and get the information they need—when and where they need it. Connect with Ken
This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to take the pain out of software training. My guest is Ken Babcock, Co-founder and CEO of Tango. Ken Babcock spent most of his career in the Bay Area at Uber, where he held roles in Launch Operations, Data Science, and Product Strategy from 2014 to 2018. In 2019 he decide to do his MBA at Harvard Business School. But shortly in, he and his co-founders, Brian Shultz and Dan Giovacchini, dropped out of Harvard during the pandemic to start Tango. Today he's the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which takes the pain out of documenting processes by automatically generating how-to guides while you work. Since then, the company has grown to over 350,000 users and is trusted by people and teams at organizations, including Netflix, IBM, Salesforce, Nike, and more. Tango has been recognized as a finalist for Product Hunt's Product of the Year, Google's 12 Favorite Chrome Extensions of 2022, and Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech for 2022. They have raised $19.7M in venture capital funding to date. Their mission: building a future of work where processes are easier to document and faster to follow. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Ken to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the way we capture and transfer knowledge. Ken shares how the company went from idea to GTM in literally months due to how the problem was exposed during Covid. He shares stories about how he overcame their biggest hurdle for growth: how to market their solution. And he shares some of Tango's secrets to spark viral growth and increase conversion from free to paid plans. Here's one of his quotes What we saw with a lot of our users is that their prior way of doing something was taking screenshots, manually going in and annotating the screenshots, dumping them into a Word doc, and typing it all up. And so the old way of doing things was so clunky. It wasn't anything that was rocket science. But it was extremely tedious. And what we found with the market is everybody knows that this is a problem. What we realized was that people actually didn't know that there would be a solution out there. So that was the hardest part: How do we shift our marketing strategy, knowing that our best users, the people that are doing things the old way, aren't even going to know that they can solve their own problems? During this interview, you will learn four things: Why putting all functionality in your Free plan is a good thing That product market fit is an illusion, and how to go about that How to stay ahead of the market and user expectations What's the magic combo of core principles to create alignment and scale in your organization For more information about the guest from this week: Ken Babcock Website Tango Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Eric is joined by Ken Babcock - Co-Founder and CEO of Tango.Tango takes the pain out of documenting processes by automatically generating how-to guides while you work.Ken's career started in consulting and took a quick turn when he joined Uber in 2014, where he stayed for 4 years. He managed to wear many hats there, which gave him a ton of super valuable experience being part of one of the biggest rocket ships of our generation.Now, he's leading a team of 40 at Tango with over 400 active users.At Uber, Ken quickly learned how to ramp up new markets and gain a ton of velocity when scaling, which ultimately led him to discover the product market fit for Tango.One piece of advice that changed Ken's business trajectory was to take a manual process that helped scale Uber, and create a tool that helps automating or enabling it.Ken's approach to product strategy is to set your non-negotiables early, and to keep to the principle of having a generous pre-product. Drive product-led growth through the value that your product brings, and start charging based on usage when the time comes.When it comes to user testing, Ken believes being reactive is not the best course of action. Instead, you need to stay in your lane and stand by your principles. After all, what works for customers today becomes their baseline expectation, but they'll still expect more as time goes on.Tango's first product is all about knowledge capture - enabling the user to document their processes in a simple manner is a game changer for successful onboarding and delegation.Their second product enables their users to have intuitive, feedback-based walkthroughs of new processes, and help identify missing links in pre-built processes while enabling constant improvements.Check out the full episode to learn how to successfully delegate through excellent documentation!HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 The Beginnings of Ken's Career03:18 How Tango Came to Be04:37 Ken's Learnings From Scaling Uber07:28 Economies at Scale & Launching Uber in Miami09:26 The Challenges of Scaling 12:04 What Product Strategy Really Means16:41 Ken's Process to Developing Core Principles 21:35 Don't Compromise on UX and Data24:08 First Use Cases of Tango26:59 What Tango Does Differently 30:18 The Recurring Challenges of Delegation33:28 Eric's Approach to Delegation 34:55 Stories of Tango's Client-Facing Day to Day37:25 Ken's Leadership Principles40:51 Eric's Experience With Overbearing Leadership43:30 Scaling With Transparency Connect With Ken - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com
Join Susan Sly in this interview with Ken Babcock, the Co-Founder and CEO of Tango, a company that captures step-by-step processes and turns them into interactive walkthroughs. Ken shares his experience as a startup founder and CEO, shedding light on the challenges and responsibilities of the role. He highlights three key aspects of his role: hiring and retaining the best talent, ensuring the company's financial stability, and effectively communicating the company's story internally and externally. The discussion delves into the dynamics of venture investing and the impact of economic uncertainties on raising funds. Ken reveals how the fundraising market has become more challenging, with increased scrutiny from investors. He discusses the importance of storytelling and confidently conveying the company's vision to attract potential investors. About Ken: Ken Babcock is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which takes the pain out of documenting processes by automatically generating how-to guides while you work. His company has grown to nearly 300,000 users and 35 full-time team members. Tango's been recognized as a finalist for Product Hunt's Product of the Year, Google's 12 Favorite Chrome Extensions of 2022, and Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech for 2022. Tango has raised $19.7M in venture capital funding to-date. Connect With Ken: Website https://tango.us Linkedin Tango @trytango Linkedin Ken @kenbabcock Twitter @Tango_HQ TikTok: @trytango About Susan: Susan Sly is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of RadiusAI, a tech investor, best-selling author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and host of the highly acclaimed podcast – Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. Susan has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television, The CBN, The Morning Show in Australia and been quoted in MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, and more. She holds Certificates in Management and Leadership, Technology and Operations, and Strategy and Innovation from MIT. Susan is the author of 7 books. Her book project with NY Times Best Selling Author, Jack Canfield, made six Amazon Best Selling lists. Connect With Susan: Twitter @Susanslylive Twitter @rawandrealentr1 LinkedIn @susansly Facebook @susanslylive Website https://susansly.com/ Join the Raw and Real Entrepreneurship Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/rawandrealentrepreneurs Join Susan's Insider's List https://susansly.com/insider/
Take Back Time: Time Management | Stress Management | Tug of War With Time
In this era of technological rise, everyone is bound to adapt to technology to make things easier. Which of these emerging technologies can be useful for time management? Ken Babcock, the co-founder and CEO of Tango, dives into embracing emerging technology for time management in the workplace. Tango operates within its space to serve users with a better way to do tasks. The tool Ken creates helps by getting the documentation for teams to spend less time finding the documents. Focus and invest in the right tools to achieve better outcomes. Tune in to this episode with Ken Babcock today!Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://pennyzenker360.com/positive-productivity-podcast/
How do you become a company owner, especially with few resources or capital? Ken Babcock, Co-Founder and CEO of Tango, offers his insights on this episode of The Tech Trek. Ken also discusses several key moments in his career with host Amir Bormand. Show Notes 03:23 - Ken discusses his past experiences with Uber and Atomic. 08:05 - How do you know when you're ready to start a company? 11:43 - Going back to school vs. searching for more opportunities. 20:26 - How can you resolve your weaknesses as a founder? 27:28 - Do priorities and goals change during your tenure as a founder? About: Ken Babcock is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which allows users to create step-by-step how-to guides with perfectly cropped screenshots, in seconds. Ken, along with his co-founders Brian Shultz and Dan Giovacchini, dropped out of Harvard Business School during the pandemic to start the company. Since then, the company has grown to over 300,000 users and 35 full-time team members. Tango's launch on Product Hunt in September 2021 earned many accolades: #1 Product of the Day, #1 Product of the Week, and one of four finalists for Product Hunt's Product of the Year. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)
Today we're going to talk about the value of showing vs. telling in order to improve the customer experience. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Ken Babcock, Founder & CEO of Tango, a platform that allows users to create step-by-step tutorials of any process with an aim at increasing your company's CX. RESOURCES The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Don't miss the upcoming CXPS conference, May 8-11 in Durham, North Carolina. It's for professional services firms that want to focus more on the customer experience. Go to: https://clientexperience.org/cxps-conference/ to register and use the code AGILE200 to get $200 off your ticket. The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Today we're going to talk about the value of showing vs. telling in order to improve the customer experience. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Ken Babcock, Founder & CEO of Tango, a platform that allows users to create step-by-step tutorials of any process with an aim at increasing your company's CX. RESOURCES The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Don't miss the upcoming CXPS conference, May 8-11 in Durham, North Carolina. It's for professional services firms that want to focus more on the customer experience. Go to: https://clientexperience.org/cxps-conference/ to register and use the code AGILE200 to get $200 off your ticket. The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Ken Babcock, CEO of Tango, a how-to guide building platform that's raised $20 Million in funding, about why cumbersome knowledge exchange practices might be the main thing holding businesses back in 2023, and why Tango is determined to overhaul the entire space. By providing automated tools for the production and distribution of detailed tutorials from ‘star-performing' staff, Tango is helping people learn, grow, and innovate together better than ever before. We also speak about exactly why the knowledge exchange space as it stands is in dire need of an upgrade, why Tango has no problem with problem awareness in their market, how PLG just made logical sense for a product addressing the pain points of ordinary team members, and how working at uber through some tough times helped Ken map his own business decisions moving forward Topics Discussed: Ken's pre-Tango career, from dropping out of Harvard Business School to spending a few years at Uber, and the lessons he learned moving forward The problem with contemporary how-to approaches, whether they be document based or screen recordings How, despite being hugely problem aware, many of Tango's potential clients don't know what to google when they might need some help Why PLG made perfect sense for a product that has virality built in through the distribution of learning tools Why Tango stayed away from a feature heavy ‘additive' approach to developing their solution, keeping things simple and easy to communicate The role of tech influencers in product development, and how they helped Tango get things right
Ken Babcock, along with his 2 co-founders, dropped out of Harvard Business School during the pandemic to launch their business, Tango, a SaaS company that helps users create beautiful step-by-step tutorials of any digital process without the performance art of video recordings. As a graduate student at Harvard Business School with a keen interest in what makes high performing teams tick, Ken and his friends honed in on documentation as a key challenge affecting team performance. Because documentation is something people don't like to do, given the amount of time it takes and how quickly it can become out of date, Ken's group set out to create a solution to lower the barrier to creating documentation. Today, their SaaS solution, Tango, has over 200,000 users. In this episode, Ken tells us about the decision to drop out of Harvard to pursue his business idea, how they funded the business, their user-centric approach to growth, and the elements that have led to their success. Ken explains how Tango works to document processes and how it's being used with different clients. Ken explains why he and his co-founders pursued funding early on and one aspect that made their business especially attractive to investors. Next, he shares the one steadfast focus that has helped them drive the company forward and build an award-winning product, and how their innovation efforts are driven by using data to gather customer feedback.Finally, Ken discusses what it's like to work with co-founders and the culture they've established that has been key to their success. He also mentions how well TikTok has worked for Tango in attracting customers, the exciting new things they are developing, and the difference between what he learned in business school compared to what he's experienced in the real world of starting a business.Skip to Topics:1:59 - How an interest in team performance led to identifying a problem to solve6:47 - Description of the solution they developed & how it works7:44 - Different use cases for the Tango product9:50 - The biggest roadblock for people to do documentation11:49 - Making the decision to drop out of Harvard to pursue the business12:28 - How the pandemic exposed an urgent need for Tango's solution14:00 - Securing funding to start the business14:49 - The tactic that helped Tango secure funding16:03 - The key ingredient that has contributed to the company's progress17:49 - The data-driven approach they take to innovation20:46 - What it takes to establish a good working relationship with co-founders25:19 - A user and product-led approach to growth 28:22 - Using a top of funnel sales strategy29:24 - Their success using TikTok to attract customers32:56 - Tango's big mission and the cool things Tango is working on for the future 36:24 - What Ken says is different about what you learn in business school vs. what's real about running a businessFind Ken at:Website: https://www.tango.us/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/Visit Stephanie at: https://stephaniehayes.biz/Follow me on Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | TwitterSupport the show
Ken Babcock grew up outside of Buffalo, and as such.. is a big Bills fan. He attended Cornell, and has spent time in NYC, San Francisco and now Chicago. He's a family man, with an 11 month old, and loves to ski. His favorite mountain was Tahoe, specifically Palisades, where he mentioned spending many hours on the slopes. He mentions that his busy life of a startup and family life is a dangerous cocktail, but one that is worth drinking.Back in 2019, he and his current co-founders met each other at Harvard Business School. After digging into team performance, they started asking questions around the barriers to increasing team performance, specifically in replicating high performers. The dialed it into process replication, and started down the road to build a tool to make this not only possible... but easy.This is the creation story of Tango.SponsorsAirbyteDopplerHost.ioIPInfomablSupportZebraLinksWebsite: https://www.tango.us/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
In this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with Ken Babcock, Co-Founder & CEO of Tango.Ken shares his passion for helping individuals and organizations make documentation easy, passive, and less time-consuming. He understands that creating documentaries can be so tedious. His goal? To make the processes and visual format of tango very easy for someone to follow, and for creators to easily change or remove steps whenever they want.Ken also says that tango serves a variety of documentation purposes – from best practice procedures to internal training – the tool can be that top layer. He says it's a great tool for creating custom documents and workflows for any type, then sharing and exporting them easily. He explains how the tool works and what makes it better than the old way of creating documentaries. He also shares some of the features of Tango, including screenshots, automated description, and URL generation.Key Points from the Episode:How to Use Tango?Better Ways for Agencies to Use TangoPractical Tips for Attracting Attention at the StartAbout Ken BabcockKen Babcock is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which allows users to create step-by-step how-to guides with perfectly cropped screenshots, in seconds. Ken, along with his co-founders, Brian Shultz and Dan Giovacchini, dropped out of Harvard Business School during the pandemic to start the company. Since then, the company has grown to over 200,000 users and 35 full-time team members. Tango's launch on Product Hunt in September 2021 earned many accolades: #1 Product of the Day, #1 Product of the Week, and one of four finalists for Product Hunt's Product of the Year. More recently, Tango was recognized by Fast Company in their 2022 Next Big Things in Tech issue and by Google as one of twelve of their favorite Chrome Extensions of 2022. Tango is backed by Tiger Global Management, Slack Fund, Salesforce Ventures, Atlassian Ventures, Wing VC, GSV, General Catalyst, Red Sea Ventures, and Outsiders Fund. Prior to HBS, Ken spent most of his career in the Bay Area at Uber, where he held roles in Launch Operations, Data Science, and Product Strategy from 2014 to 2018.Ken holds a Bachelor's degree from Cornell University, where he met his wife, Colleen. Together they live in the Chicagoland area with their Havanese poodle mix, Balboa, and infant son, Quinn. Ken's an avid skier, Bill Simmons listener, and chicken wing enthusiast.About TangoTango's free-to-use product is a Chrome Extension that automatically creates written, step-by-step how-to guides in real-time without the need for video recording. Users complete their process in the browser while Tango transcribes actions, URLs, and screenshots. The resulting how-to guide can be easily pasted or exported to commonly used knowledge bases and learning management systems.Tango believes everyone should feel empowered to be the best at what they do. That's why we've made it their mission to support individuals and teams on their path to success, and make their lives easier along the way. They want to transform the world where work is easier to do, learning on the job is frictionless, knowledge sharing helps teams thrive, and no one is held back by a lack of know-how.Links Mentioned in this Episode:Want to learn more? Check out Tango's website at www.tango.usCheck out Ken Babcock on LinkedIn at
My guest today is the co-founder of Tango! Not the Dance! Or a Dance Studio…. But an amazing tool to map out & write out processes in your organisation! In our Contact Centre Industry we live and breath processes and process improvements! We love it, I love it! Yet when it comes to documentation of said processes; the “How to” - then I often times find that these so important documents a) don't exist b) are not complete c) are outdated! Tango will allow you to get on top of your process mapping! Ken's promise is “you can create guides in seconds” Links: Tango: https://www.tango.us/ Ken on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/ Contact us at info@rutzconsulting.com or email me directly marianne@rutzconsulting.com Website: https://rutzconsulting.com/ This Podcast is produced by: Andrew Madden Photography & Media Production
Founders love a good stretch target. The only problem is this can often put them under massive pressure. This is exactly what happened to my guest today. Ken Babcock's wife Judy was set to give birth in a month and Ken used that deadline to place a somewhat self-imposed timeframe on his fundraising round. Find out what happened in this session. Want to know how Future Fit you are? Take 3 mins to benchmark yourself with our Peer Score test on peer-effect.com. You might discover some surprising gaps! Or just follow James on LinkedIn for more thoughts around coaching and being future fit.
A podcast about work, the future and how they will go together
If no one is in the office, how can you create a culture? On this episode Linda Nazareth talks to Ken Babcock, CEO and co-founder of Tango, a browser and desktop application that automatically generates how-to guides. Ken leads a fully remote team of 30 people s and he has come up with some strategies and best practices to build connection and culture, and he shares what works and what practices organizations might consider implementing as they move into the next phase of living – and thriving – with remote work. Guest: Ken Babcock CEO and Co-Founder, Tango Ken Babcock is the CEO and co-founder of Tango. Before setting out on a mission to help people be their best at work, he spent 4+ years at Uber riding the rollercoaster of a generational company. After getting his feet wet with entrepreneurship at Atomic VC, he went to Harvard Business School, where he met his co-founders. Links: https://qz.com/how-a-fully-remote-team-of-30-manages-to-create-vibrant-1849649918 https://www.tango.us/?utm_source=Quartz+at+Work&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=Quartz+Remote+Work+Byline
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of... Product Mastery Now with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About the Episode: Today we are talking about getting attention for your product launch. Joining us is a co-founder who got his product to #1 Product of the Day, #1 Product of the Week, and a finalist for Product of the Year on Product Hunt. That's a lot of attention. His name is Ken Babcock, and he is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango. Tango allows you to simply create step-by-step tutorials of anything you do in a web browser or on your computer desktop—it simplifies creating instructions or workflows. Prior to Tango, Ken spent most of his career in the Bay Area at Uber, where he held roles in Launch Operations, Data Science, and Product Strategy.
Lessons from launching a #2 Product of the Year on Product Hunt – for product managers Today we are talking about getting attention for your product launch. Joining us is a co-founder who got his product to #1 Product of the Day, #1 Product of the Week, and a finalist for Product of the Year […]
The 15th episode of our podcast features Ken Babcock ‘13, co-founder of Tango, a company that helps you to create beautiful step-by-step how-to guides with screenshots. He talks about how his product, a free-to-use Chrome extension, works to capture and create written, step-by-step how-to guides in real-time without the need for video recording, solving a time-consuming problem for anyone who has to document a process.
Ken Babcock is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which allows users to create beautiful step-by-step tutorials of any digital process without the performance art of video recordings.In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Ken talks about finding, hiring, and onboarding Tango's chief of staff, Angela, who was an executive assistant. He shares a bit about how Angela has helped their company and team in a short amount of time.Sponsor -> leaderassistant.com/goodyShow Notes -> leaderassistant.com/189Book and Workbook -> leaderassistantbook.comPremium Membership -> leaderassistant.com/membershipEvents -> leaderassistantlive.comFree Community -> leaderassistant.com/community
Are you ready to save hours on documentation? Ken Babcock is making it much easier for business owners to document procedures with Tango. His company has developed a browser extension that automatically records your process, step by step, so you don't have to worry about the details. Inspired by his experience at Uber with quick growth and turnover, Ken cares deeply about making knowledge sharing simple. What are you waiting for? Listen now and cut down on time consuming procedures!About Your Host DCA Virtual Business Support President Denise Cagan has been working with small businesses for over 20 years. She has served on the boards of professional organizations such as Business Leaders of Charlotte (BLOC) and the National Association of Women Business Owners Charlotte (NAWBO). Denise is also a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program, which is a program for small businesses that links learning to action for growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Denise is recognized as a facilitator, problem solver, and builder. She enjoys speaking to business groups about social media for small businesses and motivating remote and work from home (WFH) teams. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Quality Systems Management from James Madison University. She has extensive experience in helping small businesses grow through outsourcing solutions providing administrative, creative, marketing, and website support. Connect with Denise DCA Virtual Business Support website. View and listen to Podcasts with Denise Cagan LinkedIn
Ken Babcock is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which allows users to create beautiful step-by-step tutorials of any digital process without the performance art of recording Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Ken, along with his co-founders Brian Shultz and Dan Giovacchini, dropped out of Harvard Business School during the pandemic to start the company. Since then, the company has grown to nearly 50,000 users and 20 full-time team members. Tango's launch on Product Hunt in September 2021 earned many accolades: #1 Product of the Day, #1 Product of the Week, and one of four finalists for Product Hunt's Product of the Year. Ken spent most of his career in the Bay Area at Uber, where he held roles in Launch Operations, Data Science, and Product Strategy from 2014 to 2018. In this episode, Ken shares how we can use business process documentation to drive growth and mitigate risk. Insights he shares include: How Tango came about and got to where it is todayWhat are the use cases of Tango? How does it make a difference to a businessHow to bring data-driven lessons from Uber to drive business growthWhat are the benefits of business process documentationIssue of creating documentation vs having documents easily foundHow to reduce uncertainty and risk via business process documentationHow to correlate content governance and business process documentationAddressing issues of complianceand much much more ...
Ken Babcock is the co-founder and CEO of Tango, which allows users to create bespoke, flexible, and aesthetically pleasing step-by-step tutorials. Ken was a former product lead and data scientist at Uber and managed to secure the same investors as Slack! Join Ken and Ryan as they discuss Ken's entrepreneurial journey and his tips for viral growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS Referrals and influencer marketing have been two of the biggest go-to-market strategies Tango have implemented. They are a product-led growth company so casting a wide net and endorsements are key. An influencer's following isn't the most important metric, a sometimes narrow, but targeted audience is more effective. Tango allows you to create documentation in your flow of work. As you work, Tango creates a step-by-step link in the background. It then allows you to edit all in one place. After working at Uber, Ken was inspired to go to Harvard business school in preparation to start his own entrepreneurial journey. This is where he met his co-founders for Tango and he dropped out mid-way to start Tango, a risk that paid off. The referral-driven elements of Tango have been really powerful for their growth. The pain points around documentation are mostly felt by the end user, which is why Tango focus on being a product-led company. Knowing that customer service teams are one of their main demographics, Ken and his team focused on influencers that work within this space. BEST MOMENTS “There's a collaborative element to Tango that brings a lot of users onto the platform” “It's packaging a lot of stuff that's freely available but disparate and putting it all in one product” “It was a culture of the best idea wins…people were really empowered to take action” Do You Want The Closing Secrets That Helped Close Over $125 Million in New Business for Free?" Grab them HERE: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets Ryan Staley Founder and CEO Whale Boss 312-848-7443 ryan@whalesellingsystem.com www.ryanstaley.io EPISODE RESOURCES www.tango.us https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock ABOUT THE SHOW How do you grow like a VC-backed company without taking on investors? Do you want to create a lifestyle business, a performance business or an empire? How do you scale to an exit without losing your freedom?Join the host Ryan Staley every Monday and Wednesday for conversations with the brightest and best Founders, CEO and Entrepreneurs to crack the code on repeatable revenue growth, leadership, lifestyle freedom and mindset.This show has featured Startup and Billion Dollar Founders, Best Selling Authors, and the World's Top Sales and Marketing Experts like Terry Jones (Founder of Travelocity and Chairman of Kayak), Andrew Gazdecki (Founder of Micro Acquire), Harpal Sambhi (Founder of Magical with a previous exit to Linkedin) and many more. This is where Scaling and Sales are made simple in 25 minutes or less.Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecretsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Do company values really matter? They do if you are looking to scale a business. In order to scale you need the strongest people, but the strongest people don't need you…or your company. What High performers need is to understand how your company brings value to their world, personally & professionally. And how we bring value through value alignment. Value alignment is the catalyst for performance and retention. When a person is misaligned with the company values, they underperform and/or leave. As a startup company, every person who is misaligned is a setback of 3-6 months of productivity. So, before you hire another person, incorporate your values into the interview to encourage the strongest people to join your company. Giving your business the fuel for success. Guest Bio: Ken Babcock is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which allows users to create beautiful step-by-step tutorials of any digital process without the performance art of video recordings. Ken, along with his co-founders Brian Shultz and Dan Giovacchini, dropped out of Harvard Business School during the pandemic to start the company. Since then, the company has grown to over 150,000 users and 25 full-time team members. Prior to HBS, Ken spent most of his career in the Bay Area at Uber, where he helped scale launch operations through playbooks and best practices. TODAY WE DISCUSS: Why building your interview around your values is so important How to build your interview to gain evidence of value alignment Challenge today? Bringing values into the interview process Defining how to show up for an interview Principles of how we evaluate people Training people on how to interview Why is this important to the company? Every hire is important Critical that the process was not shooting ourselves in the foot Great experience brings great people Rick's Nuggets Defocus on skills. How do we solve the problem? Framework for Evaluating for Values Define Your Values Training Defining what a good/bad answer is ▶️ Take Action Avoid indecision and move past points of uncertainty. Value speed.
SaaS Scaled - Interviews about SaaS Startups, Analytics, & Operations
In this episode, we're talking to Ken Babcock, Co-Founder of Tango. Tango is a platform for building beautiful step-by-step how-to guides with screenshots, in seconds. Ken talks about meeting his co-founders at Harvard Business School and how the project got started, and we go on to discuss how well-defined processes and documentation can make a company much more scalable. How has the pandemic and the rise of remote work affected the need for clear instructions and documentation? We talk about how SaaS companies can help other businesses transition to the digital world and the role well-documented processes play here. Is there a difference between B2B and B2C SaaS companies when it comes to digital transformation? We also discuss how companies might sometimes grow too fast and hinder progress this way. Finally, we talk about the pros and cons of VC funding and what the near future holds for Tango. This episode is brought to you by Qrvey The tools you need to take action with your data, on a platform built for maximum scalability, security, and cost efficiencies. If you're ready to reduce complexity and dramatically lower costs, contact us today at qrvey.com. Qrvey, the modern no-code analytics solution for SaaS companies on AWS.
Welcome to another episode of Grit Files! Joining us today is Ken Babcock, Co-Founder and CEO at Tango. Tango's free-to-use product is a Chrome Extension that automatically creates written, step-by-step how-to guides in real-time without requiring video recording. Users complete their process in the browser while Tango transcribes actions, URLs, and screenshots. The resulting how-to guide can be easily pasted or exported to commonly used knowledge bases and learning management systems. They are inspired by a world where work is easier to get done, and learning on the job is frictionless. Tune in to learn more on this!
Welcome to another episode of Grit Files! Joining us today is Ken Babcock, Co-Founder and CEO at Tango. Tango's free-to-use product is a Chrome Extension that automatically creates written, step-by-step how-to guides in real-time without requiring video recording. Users complete their process in the browser while Tango transcribes actions, URLs, and screenshots. The resulting how-to guide can be easily pasted or exported to commonly used knowledge bases and learning management systems. They are inspired by a world where work is easier to get done, and learning on the job is frictionless. Tune in to learn more on this!
On this episode of The Cam & Otis Show we have Ken Babcock. He is the Co-Founder of Tango Technology, a team that created a Chrome Extension which automatically creates written, step-by-step how-to guides in real-time without the need for video recording.Users complete their process in the browser while Tango transcribes actions, URLs, and screenshots. The resulting how-to guide can be easily pasted or exported to commonly used knowledge bases and learning management systems.Before founding Tango, he worked in Uber across the areas of Operations, Data Analytics, and Product Strategy.As always this show is brought to you by Tribe and Purpose. You've put the work in but you're not sure how to reap the rewards. It's time to focus on the success you have planned for yourself and your team.The Tribe + Purpose team can guide you to build on that success to have even more.Learn more at www.tribe-purpose.comand connect with Ken on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/Or his website: https://www.tango.us/Youtube Link to Episode: https://youtu.be/4pQIrM9ECCg
Ken is the Co-Founder and CEO at Tango, a platform that allows users to create beautiful step-by-step tutorials of any process with an aim at increasing your company's CX. During the pandemic, Ken and his partners decided to drop out of Harvard Business School to found Tango They've ever since, grown their business to 50,000+ customers and have been recognized multiple times as the #1 Product of the Day/Week on Product Hunt, and 2022's most popular Chrome Extension. Key Takeaways. How the three friends; Ken, Dan and Brian's shared passion in team performance led them to work together in starting TangoInformation sharing. Why working as a team in an organization is important for flawless information flowKnowledge management. Trying to brainstorm some of the best way that an organization can create, share and store collective knowledge for future useBuilding Tango; A tool that creates better teaching and learning experience for people involved in documentation and the people receiving itOvercoming the barriers that an organization faces when trying to adapt to new ways of serving its customersUsing Tango for improved customer service, product walkthroughs, support teams and organizational teamwork Connect with Ken LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/ Website - https://www.tango.us/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/bigredbabz?lang=en
In this episode, we are joined by Ken Babcock, Co-Founder at Tango. Tango's free-to-use product is a Chrome Extension that automatically creates written, step-by-step how-to guides in real-time without the need for video recording. Users complete their process in the browser while Tango transcribes actions, URLs, and screenshots. The resulting how-to guide can be easily pasted or exported to commonly used knowledge bases and learning management systems. Today, Ken explains what differentiates Tango from the rest. Tune in to learn more on this!
Tango is the only workflow intelligence platform that helps teams be their best at work by transforming process documentation from a chore they must do into an opportunity for continuous collaboration and improvement. After two years in business, Tango's identity felt fragmented and ready for a strategic upgrade. Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney chats with Tango co-founder Ken Babcock about our work together and why they chose to prioritize brand, even before their public product launch. 0:00 - Intro 2:50 - How did you know it was time to rebrand? 7:07 - What was the decision making process for finding the right agency? 10:31 - What was the most challenging part? 13:19 - What was the most rewarding part? 15:54 - What was the most surprising aspect of the project? 17:08 - How's the new brand performing? 26:24 - What advice would you offer to anyone considering a rebrand? - Focus Lab is an established B2B brand agency that believes, without question, that the most successful companies are the ones who invest in branding. Focus Lab creates transformative B2B brands that resonate with their customers and stand out as industry leaders. Through a proven process and a shared commitment to create unforgettable experiences, we develop true partnerships that help B2B brands become their boldest, most original selves. FOLLOW US: ►Podcast: https://anchor.fm/focuslab ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuslabllc/ ►LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/focu... ►Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/focuslab ►Web: https://focuslab.agency Looking for a brand agency? We would love to hear from you. Email us: hello@focuslab.agency
Ken Babcock, Co-Founder of Tango and Zachary Dewitt of Wing Venture Capital, is in the show today to give us the nit and grit on how their company achieved 10,000 sign-ups in just less than two weeks. These business connoisseurs will also guide us through how we should target the right buyers and celebrate our end-users success—ensuring that there's connectivity between what you're building and what your customers need. They will also reveal the story behind Tango and how it evolved throughout its first initial launch. Grasp as much knowledge as you can by listening to these two geniuses. Show Notes [2:12] Tango helps create a flexible documentation tool that allows you to generate documentation for your workflow. And alleviate your maintenance burden. [7:13] On optimizing the right go-to-market [9:23] What other tools is Tango replacing, and what do you need to do for the documentation you are creating? [15:40] The importance of setting up suitable measurement gates and understanding when to know how things are successful [16:31] How does the operation cadence work? [18:18] Being data-driven is important and complementing that with a customer focus [23:00] Why is it essential to be time-bound? [23:47] Honing your most active users in the pilot is key [24:47]On Finding different company sizes and types to understand your customer and your persona [34:49] Sales vs. Product led is different in terms of messaging [36:12] There's a different approach to targeting buyers and users [39:27] What does it take to have your first successful launch? [45:55] Your end-users success will eventually become your success About Ken and Zach Ken is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tango. Before diving into the world of Tango, he spent more than four years at one of the world's famous platforms, Uber. After learning the depths of entrepreneurship at Atomic VC, he teamed up with his co-founders and founded Tango in 2020. Zachary "Zach" Dewitt is a partner at Wing Venture Capital. Wing Venture helps founders establish businesses around their ideas. In the company, Zach mainly focuses on enterprise application, technology and product-led growth to propel businesses forward. Links: Wing Venture Capital Tango Product Hunt Profiles: Zach Dewitt Ken Babcock
Ken Babcock is the Co-Founder of Tango Technology, a team that created a Chrome Extension which automatically creates written, step-by-step how-to guides in real-time without the need for video recording. Users complete their process in the browser while Tango transcribes actions, URLs, and screenshots. The resulting how-to guide can be easily pasted or exported to commonly used knowledge bases and learning management systems. Before founding Tango, he worked in Uber across the areas of Operations, Data Analytics, and Product Strategy. ------------------------------------------------ Connect with Ken on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/ Follow him over Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigredbabz Add Tango to your chrome browser for free: https://www.tango.us/ ------------------------------------------------ Marti Sanchez is a world-citizen entrepreneur who loves to write about himself in third person. Listen as I invite world-leading CEOs, business leaders, and special guests to get brutally honest about everything from current events to untold, raw stories. This unfiltered, hilarious, and surprising podcast is like Forbes but with cuss words. Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Marti__Sanchez LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsmartisanchez/
Ken Babcock is a cofounder of Tango. With Tango, create process or product documentation on-demand.★ Support this podcast ★
Prof. Garrison Sposito, soil scientist at UC Berkeley, is an active teacher and researcher. Prof. Sposito describes how soils form, how soil science has matured and talks about the influence of Hans Jenny on his work and life.TranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 3: [inaudible].Speaker 2: [inaudible].Speaker 3: Welcome to spectrum the science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, a biweekly 30 minute program [00:00:30] bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 1: Good afternoon. My name is Brad swift and I'm the host of today's show. Our interview is with Professor Garrison's Pasito, the Betty and Isaac Barsha, chair of Soil Science in the College of natural resources at UC Berkeley. Professor Sposato is an active teacher and researcher. This show is part [00:01:00] one of two parts today. Professor Saucito describes how soils form. He explains how soil science has matured and talks about the influence of Berkeley legend CNE on his work and life. Professor, Gary's Pasito Speaker 4: come to spectrum. Thank you very much. Glad to be here. Speaker 1: To start, would you give us a brief overview of soil and how it forms Speaker 4: in the simplest way to say this soil is the [00:01:30] weathered earth material on the land, the surface of the land. It can extend to fairly great depths depending on how much weathering goes on because weathering is what creates soil. There are two main factors that are involved. One is the percolation of water from rainfall percolates downward and this causes weathering the other, which is critically important and that is the biology that goes on in soil. That is to say the the microbes, [00:02:00] the worms, all of the creatures that live in soil and the roots of plants, which in fact contribute greatly to what happens in the soil to make it soil. Ultimately what happens is that the, what's called the parent material, which is the material from which the soil starts, which could be anything from a cooling volcanic ash material to wind blown dust like it is in China or in the Midwest of the u s or rock material that has come in from somewhere else, from transport [00:02:30] by a river, whatever it is. Speaker 4: That's some geologic material. And at that point in time when it sits still long enough to have percolating water and creatures start to live in it, that starts it on the way to becoming a soil. What are the various timelines that can be involved in that process? They're long, they're long timelines relative to human standards. So for a soil to form in a way that one would be recognizably say, oh that's a soil. And I'll say in a moment here, [00:03:00] what tells us, oh that's the soil can easily be half a million years to really to see the development. Obviously there are soils that are younger than this, but in general it takes a long time. In California we have soils that are a million years old and we have soils that are 15,000 years old, but they formed slowly by our standards. Now the way that we tell them as soils and not simply some weathered rock or whatever is that they have layering, they're called horizons in the [00:03:30] discipline of soil science. Speaker 4: This layering is caused by the percolating water, which moves material downward and then deposits it at some point because the water stops percolating. And secondly, the biological creatures are involved in the dissolution and dissolving of the minerals that are in the rock material. So the layering is coming about from both loss of material and accumulation and that layering tells you it's a soil, but it happens slowly. It's a slow process. [00:04:00] How much variation is there worldwide and soils? Quite a lot. What one should know is that there are large classification units of soil which are based on climate and there are 12 of them. For example, a soils that are permanently frozen such as those in the Arctic zone. Those have a certain name, they're called Jelly sols from a French word. That means to freeze soils that are found in the human tropics that are very red [00:04:30] from the iron minerals in them and highly weathered and so forth. Speaker 4: They're called oxy Sauls and so on. Now within them are sub classifications and the one that corresponds to what a species would be in biology is called a series. There are about more than 20,000 soil series or species in the United States. There are probably upwards of several hundred thousand different soil series worldwide, so the soil series are [00:05:00] mapped so we know where they are and these maps are available online for California and for many parts of the world, it's probably the most important aspect of first getting to know soils is to prepare a map with the series in it. And for that reason, the gates foundation has given a friend of mine, Pedro Sanchez, $20 million to provide a digital soil map of Africa so that we have a, an understanding of all the African soils and this is in conjunction with improving agriculture. [00:05:30] You've got to know the soil characteristics before you can start to do anything with US soil. And this is the first step. Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 1: this is spectrum on k a l x Berkeley. I'm talking with Gary's Pasito, a soil scientist at UC Berkeley Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 4: in the development of soil science. Have there been [00:06:00] dramatic epics where certain discoveries were made that changed the game, so to speak? Not so much as discoveries as in really large groups of people of a certain kind working towards similar goals. For example, the late 19th century is characterized at a time when earth scientists began to look at soil as useful for study in its own right. And the first things that they did was to try to understand how they formed [00:06:30] as weathered materials and secondly, to begin to try to classify them in some way. That period lasted until, well, it's still ongoing. I suppose, but it was really pushed forward around the turn of the century. And one of the largest names in that field at the time was Eugenie Hilgard for whom Hilgard Hall on the Berkeley campus is named. He was trained as a geologist. He was the state geologists from Mississippi and he was hired here at Berkeley as the second professor [00:07:00] of agriculture. Speaker 4: The first one, I think he was here only for a couple of years and a lot of people don't know this, but Berkeley began as an a and m campus, agricultural, mechanical, and that's what it was supposed to be. That was it. And the first agriculture professor thought that's what it ought to be. And the regions didn't agree. And so they fired him and they hired Hilgard and heel guard. They said, we want you to understand that you're part of a larger, more general campus than simply agriculture. But it's very important to the state of California [00:07:30] that you develop agricultural emphasis on your work with soil. And one of the first things he did was to go around the state and sampled the soils. And he prepared the first soil map of California, which you can see in Hilgard Hall. But he also helped classify and he also discussed something about how soils form. Speaker 4: So that was one great group. Then came another group of people who did a lot of their work in the 1930s and forties of the last century. These [00:08:00] people in soil science all came from other disciplines and to a large extent they did. So because of the depression. A good example of sterling Hendricks who was Linus Pauling's, first Grad student at cal tech, he worked on the structure of minerals with Pauling cause that's how Pauling made his first famous set of discoveries and couldn't find a job as a physical chemist. There just wasn't a demand. And at that time, and so he did find a job with a USDA US Department of Agriculture and he spent a whole career [00:08:30] there. He did work on minerals. He was the first one really just show that crystal and minerals existed in soils. People thought it was just sort of stuff. They didn't know what it was. Unfortunately, they developed the tools at cal tech among other places, and palling made great use of these train Hendricks to do this. And then Hendrix got a job with a USDA, began to study plants as well, and actually made a name studying plants. Another example, Albert van Zillow, Speaker 4: who took a phd under John Lewis here at Berkeley, who was [00:09:00] the Louis Hall's name for him, Fan Solo couldn't get a job except down at the citrus experiment station in Riverside. So he went down there as a chemist, if you know Lewis, his work, he was a great contributor to the branch of physical chemistry called thermodynamics. First thing vast law did was supply it to soils. And that's stood the test of time. It's been very, very useful. And finally I mentioned Han CNE who got his phd in physical chemistry in Zurich. Switzerland couldn't find work anywhere. [00:09:30] Left, immigrated to the u s first to the University of Missouri. And then in 1936, uh, he was able to secure a job up at Berkeley in a plant science unit, uh, teaching some things about souls, but all of these people were in there. Others I could name were quote, forced to come into soil science because it was opportunity. Speaker 4: Actually one of my own mentors, Royal Rose Street, uh, here at Berkeley, I was a grad student at Berkeley and soil science right in Hilgard Hall. In fact, uh, he was [00:10:00] a student of joke. There's a show called over in Chemistry and Nobel laureate. His thesis was on the properties of liquid hydrogen, and yet he was one of the great soil chemists after the 30s. So these people all turned their skills to, to soil because it was an unknown with respect to the application of exact sciences. And the discipline made huge bounds because of this, because they were so well trained. Actually the depression was one of the best things that ever happened to soil science because it got all these great minds [00:10:30] working. They couldn't find work elsewhere if there had been good times. Who knows? Now finally, there's another one that most people agree was very important and it also relates back to exact sciences. Speaker 4: And that is all the advances that took place in the latter part of the, of the last century in disciplines such as molecular biology or chemistry at the molecular scale. And to some extent physics. These disciplines were really producing very interesting results. And so for example, [00:11:00] methods of molecular biology were applied in microbiology of soil to characterize the organisms that were living there such as bacteria. And these methods are very important because most of the bacteria and the other tiny organisms in soil cannot be grown in culture, meaning you can't take them out of the soil and grow them in the lab. Probably less than 10% can be grown this way. They're just out there wild in the soil. But the new methods of molecular biology didn't require that they allowed you to fingerprint [00:11:30] literally through the DNA of these organisms who they were. And this was applied to soils and chemistry evolved, all these very fancy techniques for investigating minerals or any solid actually, but minerals in particular and so on. Speaker 4: So the people in soil science were aware of these things and they took all these methods in and they made great strides with these approaches. Not so much the people, but simply the methodologies made their way into the discipline. And that legacy has gone on for some time now. Right [00:12:00] now we're, we're sort of still taking advantage of it. What I see happening now is the soil scientists are beginning to join with other people in ecology and climate change so that they're part of a larger team, let's say, which is working toward trying to understand how the global system actually functions and what role soil plays in that. I would say that's the next thing that's going on, a kind of cross disciplinary interaction. But these other three epochs everyone recognizes as really important to the advancement of the discipline [00:12:30] and none of them really were created by the discipline itself. They came from happenstance, from circumstance and depression. I mean, you know, I suppose right now there may be, there'll be some very brilliant students who, who might've stayed in chemistry or physics or whatever who will come into soil science. In fact, I know this is true at Berkeley. I'm seeing it happen. Speaker 3: [inaudible] you are listening to spectrum on k a l x Berkeley. Today's guest [00:13:00] is professor Gary [inaudible]. We are about to talk about his research. Speaker 4: How about your research? How has it evolved over your career and your studying soil? Actually, I'm an anomaly. It's true that I took a degree here in soil science under a professor named Ken Babcock and another name Roy Overstreet, whom I mentioned earlier in conjunction with joke. [00:13:30] Babcock was my main guiding professor and I did a thesis, uh, which had a very large amount of chemistry and physics in it because I thought that those disciplines should be applied to soil in a very fundamental way. And after I did that, Professor Babcock said, well this is good work, but don't expect to get a job because nobody's interested in this. And he was right and there wasn't any interest in it. People told me, for example, that chemistry doesn't apply to soil [00:14:00] is too complicated. It doesn't work. You can't talk about it this way. So I got a job in the cal state system teaching for nearly a decade. Speaker 4: And then my major prof told me about Pam Cock, that a professor at Riverside, by that time there was a campus at Riverside, uh, had suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack in his fifties, and they were looking for someone to replace him and they thought they should go in a fundamental direction more so than they had. And so I thought, well, maybe after [00:14:30] 10 years, my time has finally come. So I got a job down there and that worked out pretty well. And then I ultimately transferred up here because I wanted to work on forest is soils. And we have a forestry oriented, uh, unit up here. So I'm, I'm a little bit different from the usual because most people in my field would have come through a kind of agronomic background with let's say a little dash of chemistry and a little dash or biology and so forth. Speaker 4: And they're generalists or their pathologists. So they're trained in earth science and they look at cell formation. [00:15:00] But I came into it from a very fundamental point of view. So I kind of waited around for my opportunity to, to bring this to bear. And what I'm speaking of really is a molecular scale approach to understanding soil. That's what they thought didn't apply. That was so complicated. You could, and in fact, what has evolved is that actually works out pretty well for the same reason that molecular biology helps medicine. So does them like it or approach to soils help agriculture or any of the other applications [00:15:30] they might not have thought. So at first in either discipline, but in fact it's true. So now what I've seen it evolve is a recognition that is actually useful, uh, over time. And what I do with my work is to try to be ever more molecular using the latest methods from chemistry and physics in that direction to try to understand how soils function. Speaker 4: And it works out pretty well. And there are tools which, uh, have been developed in those disciplines that can be applied [00:16:00] with some care because we have very heterogeneous material. It's not to a pure substance. So that's where the art comes in and understanding how to use these techniques in ways that won't fool you, but it does work. And so that's it. So it's evolved simply, I get to be the person I want it to be when I was in Grad school by just simply waiting long enough, one of the former deans at the college of Natural Resources here defined a distinguished professor as someone who's outlived his enemies. I wouldn't say that I, that's [00:16:30] a little strong in a, in a bit cynical, but what I would say is that if you believe in what you're doing in your, you persevere, probably you will find that it gains some acceptance. And I'm living proof of the late bloomer theory of, of that sort of thing. And I think most of my colleagues would agree that finally now the world seems to understand that yeah, you can do molecular scale work on something as complicated as a soil. Speaker 3: You are listening to part one of [00:17:00] a two part interview with Gary [inaudible], a soil scientist at UC Berkeley. The show is spectrum and the station is k a l. X. Berkeley. Speaker 4: Describe what Hahn's Yannis impact has been on your thinking about soil and how has his work informed yours? Well first of all I mentioned he was trained as a physical chemist and then he found that he wasn't able to get work in Zurich [00:17:30] and so he wanted an academic career. So he came to the u s after he got here, especially in Missouri where he began to just learn the soil. He traveled around Missouri and I've seen the photographs that he's, that he took of the landscapes and began to learn about and think about soils. And Hilgard had already pioneered a little of this in of thinking about what things do come together to form a soil. Obviously you need some earth material to start with. You need organisms, you need time and so on. So Yeni [00:18:00] codified all of this in a book which he published 70 years ago, last year called factors of soil formation. Speaker 4: And if you look at it from my point of view, what you see is a book about soil, organizing the soil and thinking about the way it formed, the way a physical chemist, and I don't mean the chemistry, I mean the logic of it is like a physical chemist. Actually a person in thermodynamics in physical chemistry would think about it effectively. He was using chemistry as the metaphor in which to place soil science [00:18:30] and it was an astounding book and it's still today read very profitably. We all had benefited from this. That said, Hans [inaudible] was a personal friend of mine and I spoke at his 85th birthday, which was celebrated up here for example, and I traveled with him to field sites and so forth and listened to him talk about soils and so forth. So he clearly had a strong personal influence on me as well. Speaker 4: He was a very mild mannered person, very thoughtful, very strict in his beliefs. [00:19:00] He was also quite a good artist. He drew all the illustrations for his books himself, which he never mentioned in the book. You wouldn't know except they all look the same and it's, it's him. Art and agriculture were the two big loves of his life and he combined them as best he could in his own work. But he was trained as a physical chemist. So he had that really keen analytical mind and that was clear from his approach to the subject. So I would say he was an influence in the way he influenced every person and soil science through his work. But he also was an influence to me personally because [00:19:30] I could see how this person was living his life and initially doing a lot of hard work to do what would be called the normal science, meaning pushing the data points and doing the things that advanced the technique of the science. Speaker 4: And then as he got older, he began to think about soils as a resource and their conservation. And he realized that a lot was not being done that should be done. And so he began actively to work toward conservation, working with conservation groups and others [00:20:00] to to help in that. Even though that doesn't require a chemical background for sure to do, but he realized how important it was. So that's what I'm seeing with myself as well. Soil is a resource now is suddenly loomed again is a big deal because of agriculture and because of the world of the world we're living in. And so I see that that's something I should do as well. So he's a role model in that sense. Speaker 1: This concludes part one of our two part interview with Professor Gary [inaudible]. Tune in two weeks from [00:20:30] today for part two in part two professors placido talks about the interaction with water and soil, chemical and organic inputs that get applied to soil, good stewardship of soil and industrial agriculture. A regular feature Speaker 6: of spectrum is dimension. A few of the science and technology events happening locally over the next few weeks. Rick [inaudible] and Lisa [inaudible] joined me for the calendar. Our last episode of spectrum featured [00:21:00] Tony Rose and Michelle Houben guy who talked to us about the young makers program that teams up high-schoolers with adult mentors to make things for make affair. You can see their work at the seventh annual bay area maker fair on Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th at the San Mateo Event Center one three four six Saratoga drive in San Mateo is like Bernie Man Without the drugs sandstorms and nudity c creative and resourceful people involved with science and technology, engineering, food and arts and craft [00:21:30] one day. Tickets are 27 50 for adults, 1654 soons and $12 for children ages four to 12 check out makerfair.com for more info. That's maker F a I r e e.com Speaker 7: Saturday May 19th the science at Cau Lecture series presents Professor Ruth Tringham, founder and director of the UC Berkeley multimedia authoring center for teaching in anthropology. She is also the creative director and president [00:22:00] of the Center for digital archeology. Her lecture is titled Reconciling Science and the imagination in the construction of the deep prehistoric past. In the lecture. She will introduce some of the ways in which as an archeologist writer, she is exploring an alternative way of writing about prehistory in which the imagination that conjures up sentient prehistoric actors is entangled with the empirical scientific data of archeological excavations. That's tomorrow at the genetics and plant [00:22:30] biology building room 100 at 11:00 AM Speaker 6: there is a partial solar eclipse this weekend. You can learn about it and observe it for free at the Lawrence Hall of Science one centennial drive in Berkeley from one to 8:00 PM on Sunday the 20th or view it from Chabot at 10,000 skyline in Oakland for $5 between five and 8:00 PM with the maximum eclipse at 6:32 PM Susan Frankel is presenting in the long now seminar series on Tuesday May 22nd from seven 30 to [00:23:00] 9:00 PM at the cal theater in San Francisco's Fort Mason. Her talk on Eternal Plastic, a love story discusses how plastic now pervades civilization and why its cheapness has made it the basic material of the throwaway culture. One third of all plastic now goes into disposable packaging. It's durability means that any toxic events persist indefinitely in the environment. [inaudible] plastic presents a problem in temporal management of the very long term and the very short term. How do we get the benefits of plastics amazing durability [00:23:30] while reducing its harm from the convenient disposability. Visit [inaudible] dot org for tickets which are $10 now news with Rick and Lisa, Speaker 7: the May 8th New Scientist magazine reports that recent technological in neuroscience such as functional near infrared spectroscopy allows researchers to watch young baby's brain in their initial encounters with language. Using this technique, Laura and potato and her colleagues have Gallaudet university in Washington d C [00:24:00] discovered a profound difference between babies brought up speaking either one or two languages. Popular theory suggests that babies are born citizens of the world capable of discriminating between the sounds of any language by the time they are a year old. However, they are thought to have lost this ability homing in exclusively on the sounds of their mother tongue. That seemed to be the case with monolinguals, but potato study found that bilingual children still showed increased neural activity in response to completely unfamiliar languages. [00:24:30] At the end of their first year, she found that the bilingual experiences wedges opened the window for learning language. Speaker 7: Importantly, the children still reached the same linguistic milestones such as their first word at roughly the same time as monolingual babies. Supporting the idea that bilingualism can invigorate rather than hinder a child's development. Bilingualism improves the brains executive system, a broad suite of mental skills that center on the ability to block out irrelevant information [00:25:00] and concentrate on a task at hand. Two languages are constantly competing for attention in the bilingual brain. As a result, whenever bilingual speak, write or listen to the radio, the brain is busy choosing the right word while inhibiting the same term from the other language. It is a considerable test of executive control, just the kind of cognitive workout that is common in many commercial brain training programs, which often require you to ignore distracting information while tackling [00:25:30] a task. Speaker 6: Nature News reports on an article published on May 4th in science that blonde hair and people from the Solomon Islands in Melanesia evolves independently from Europeans, Stanford geneticists, Carlos Bustamante and his team compared the genomes of 43 blonde and 42 dark haired Solomon Islanders, and revealed that the islanders blonde hair was strongly associated with a single mutation in the t y r p one gene. That gene encodes an enzyme [00:26:00] that influences pigmentation in mice and humans. Several genes are known to contribute to blonde hair coloration in Europeans, but t y r p one is not involved. About one quarter of Solomon Islanders carry the recessive mutation for blonde hair and the mutation accounts for about 30% of blondes in the Solomon Islands. We used to Monte. I thinks that Melanesian mutation might have arisen between 5,000 and 30,000 years ago, but does not know why, nor does he know why. This mechanism differs from that of European blindness Speaker 7: research [00:26:30] published in April Steele Physical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union states that for the first time scientists have captured images of auroras above the giant Ice Planet Uranus. Finding further evidence of just how peculiar a world that distant planet is detected by means of carefully scheduled observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. The newly witnessed Uranian light show consistent of short-lived, faint glowing dots, a world [00:27:00] of difference from the colorful curtains of light that often ring Earth's poles. Auroras are produced in the atmosphere as charged solar wind particles as they accelerate and the magneto sphere and are guided by the magnetic field close to the magnetic poles. That's why the Earth Auroras are found around the high latitudes. While working as a research physicist in the space science lab at UC Berkeley in the early 1980s professor John T. Clark of the Boston University Center for Space Physics Observed [00:27:30] X-ray sources from ground-based telescopes and found the first evidence for an Aurora on Uranus. The voyager to fly by in 1986 confirmed that your readiness was indeed a strange beast. Dennis now a better understanding of your rain. Renesas magnetosphere could help scientists test their theories of how Earth's magnetosphere functions. A crucial question and the effort to develop fusion reactors. Speaker 6: Science insider reports this week that the newly proposed helium Stewardship Act [00:28:00] of 2012 Senate bill two three seven four would maintain a roughly 15 years supply of helium for federal users, including the holders of research scans. It would also give priority to federally funded researchers in times of shortage. If Congress fails to renew provisions of the 1996 law that is expiring next year, the u s will discontinue sales from the Federal Reserve, which is responsible for 30% of the world's helium. This would be a big problem for manufacturers of semiconductors and microchips as [00:28:30] well as users of magnetic resonance imaging and other cryogenic instruments. Penn State Physics Professor Moses Chan praises the bill testifying that liquid helium may account for up to 40% of the total budget of some grants is only criticism of the current bill is no provision to reward those who recapture helium used in research. Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 1: [00:29:00] spectrum podcasts are now available on iTunes university. Go to the calyx website. There's a link to the podcast list in the spectrum show description. The music hard during the show is by Astana David from his album folk and acoustic. It has made available through a creative Commons attribution license 3.0 Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 1: production assistance has been provided by Rick Karnofsky and Lisa kind of. Yeah. Thank you for listening [00:29:30] to spectrum. If you have comments about the show, please send them to us via email. Our email address is spectrum dot k a l x@yahoo.com Speaker 2: join us in two weeks at this same time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Coast to Coast, with Robert Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams from Law.com's arsenal of law bloggers. Why aren't there more lawyers doing pro bono work? We explore that with special guests Mark O'Brien, Deputy Director of Probono.net, a non-profit organization in NYC that provides access to justice through innovative technology and volunteer lawyer participation and Ken Babcock, the Executive Director and General Counsel for Public Law Center in its 24th year providing free civil legal services for residents in Orange County, California. And as the Supreme Court approaches a new session, what's in store - what are the cases to watch? We're thrilled to have on the show, Marcia Coyle, Washington Bureau Chief for the National Law Journal and Commentator for PBS. We know you won't want to miss news from the Blogosphere too!
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