Snap partners with Google Cloud to upskill teams around the globe

Snap inc., the developer of the Snapchat platform, has become a global leader in the social media industry. Snap runs its business on Google Cloud, and relies on Premium Support to optimize its cloud business imperatives. Snap sought new ways to extract business value from their cloud data, so turned to their assigned Google Technical Account Management team to develop a means to strengthen and expand cloud skills to meet their goal.  The Technical Account Managers (TAMs) serve as an extension of the Snap Engineering Program Management team to deliver deep expertise of Google Cloud and guide Snap in their cloud journey including mapping the essential cloud skills for Snap to achieve broader business strategy.  Since Snap employees had varying levels of cloud expertise, it meant that their TAM team needed to design a tailored learning program to optimally meet Snap’s needs.

The TAM team engaged with Google Cloud Customer Experience (CCE) team which included cloud support, learning, consulting, customer success and customer insight and advocacy services. The Google team leveraged a Skill Training Survey for the Snap team to identify, extract and map existing skills to the level of targeted cloud skills that would enable them to design a learning curriculum to boost employee productivity, enable efficient scaling and strengthen the mitigation of technical issues while optimizing their environment for issue prevention. In addition, Google Cloud offered instructor-led virtual training focused on Looker, Kubernetes and others topics of interest and a tailored Snap Global Training Program was launched in the last quarter of 2022.

By including training for Looker, it expanded Snap employees’ ability to reach data-driven decisions. Snap also took advantage of the Google Cloud Skills Boost licenses delivering access to a learning platform with over 700 courses and learning labs,  included with Premium Support. 

Next, the TAMs and CCE teams were tasked to raise internal awareness of the global Snap training program, so they developed a comprehensive marketing and communications plan to drive promotion over a twelve week period to prospective trainees through newsletters, email groups, Slack channels, Engineering meetings, and an internal site dedicated to Snap training resources. 

“Partnering with Google to provide Snap engineers with learning opportunities aligns with Snap’s values of Kind, Smart and Creative.  Investing in growing our team member’s skills helps them personally advance and helps our business achieve our goals.”—Michele Vaughan, Snap Engineering Program Manager

The Google-led Snap Global Training Program includes hands-on, instructor-led training, in-person gamified Cloud Hero Learning Events, and access to on-demand Google Cloud Skills Boost labs. Over 100 trainees at Snap initially participated in the instructor-led training, and more than 500 employees completed the on-demand labs. This training program has enabled Snap employees to develop and strengthen skills in the targeted cloud areas including data visualization, AI and ML, and Kubernetes. In addition, the program ignited a Looker Advisory Professional Services initiative to advise Snap with best practices and improvements for the usage of Looker. These skills enable Snap to extract increased value for their cloud data and guide the future of their business for sustaining a competitive advantage in a dynamic marketplace. 

To learn more about how Google Cloud Customer Experience can support your organization’s business transformation journey with cloud support, learning, consulting, customer success, and customer insight and advocacy services, visit:

•  Premium Support to empower business innovation with expert-led technical guidance and cloud support

•  Google Cloud Training & Certification to expand and diversify your team’s cloud education