John Nikula Email & Phone Number

Boston, Ma, Us

Promoted to Director after adding responsibility for legacy product account management and growing the team to 25 members globally. Reported directly to the Chief Revenue Officer starting in 2022 and served on the Senior Sales Leadership Team (typically reserved for Vice President+). Continued to refine the processes and techniques of the team, which provides both account management and customer success engagement to Bullhorn’s 6,500+ SMB customers. In 2024, led the Relationship Management group’s move from the Bullhorn Sales organization to the Customer Success organization, to better align behind a common mission of optimizing gross retention. Launched customer NPS in SMB, with a score of 39 at last measurement. Fostered an environment of support and growth for the Relationship Management team members; the most recent employee engagement survey resulted in an employee Net Promoter Score of 42.

Boston, Ma, Us

Brought onboard to remake the SMB account management team with a new mission to maximize customer retention as well as upsell additional solutions.Rebranded the team as Relationship Management and seeded a new culture and mindset. Instituted KPIs, incentives, and work processes aligned with the north star of churn reduction. Established regional Team Leads and nurtured them into Manager roles as the team grew.In first two years with Bullhorn, drove 40% reduction in SMB churn.Named to the 2019 Achievers Club for the Sales organization. During the COVID-19 pandemic, defined communication triage processes and oversaw invoice and contract relief practices to support 5,000+ customers in crisis.

Lowell, Ma, Us

Transformed the existing Custom Education practice based on a new charter to provide customer services that drive adoption of Kronos by their end users. Analyzed market need and defined a variety of new user adoption consulting and change management services to supplement existing education consulting and course customization offerings. Delivered $3.5M of annual revenue from 100+ customers, at 41% margin (111% of target).Instituted a Prosci-based change management methodology for customer implementations with targeted activities for customers, Kronos project managers, and Kronos User Adoption Consultants. Redesigned Kronos’s approach to Train-the-Trainer; bookings of the revised Train-the-Trainer grew over 300% and customer satisfaction averaged 9.1 out of 10. Fostered relationships with several Kronos Partners and contractors to augment team capability. Created a new management position within the practice and mentored the hire from an individual contributor to a seasoned people manager who scored 95% on Kronos’s Manager Effectiveness Index.

Lowell, Ma, Us

Managed practice that provided education consulting and course customization services to Kronos customers. Improved processes for scoping engagement level of effort, gathering and validating customer requirements, staffing engagements, and managing customer projects. Evangelized services internally and with customers, and supported custom education marketing and sales opportunities. Within two years, reduced customer escalations by 55% while improving employee engagement of direct reports by 32%.

Lowell, Ma, Us

Led a team of instructional designers responsible for designing the curriculum for Kronos’s $14-19M customer training business. Implemented a new model for audience analysis and task-based learning object design. Deployed a new learning content management system for single-sourcing ILT, WBT, and performance support content. Created new ILT and WBT templates and ratified new visual design standards. Won Kronos Education’s annual Shining Star and People’s Choice awards twice each.

Responsible for all content created for Comet Learning products and client service projects. Reoriented services to reflect changing corporate strategy and target marketplace. Managed majority of Comet’s client service projects. Developed marketing content and supported sales engagements.

Responsible for the design and development of Instruction Set’s ILT curriculum, and for the content design of Instruction Set’s WBT curriculum. Managed internal staff and numerous contractors. Spearheaded curriculum strategy planning, course development process definition, and instructional design methodology refinement.

Managed redesign of Instruction Set’s ILT curriculum for self-study WBT. Instrumental in the creation of a dual-use content design process for ILT and WBT. Served as lead designer for the company’s initial client WBT projects.

Managed development and maintenance of Instruction Set’s curriculum of 200+ days of IT instructor-led training. Served as both lead instructional designer and editor for most projects. Managed internal and external development costs.

Developed and edited courses in Instruction Set’s IT curriculum. Managed course customization projects and new-hire training program rollouts for major clients.

Generated sales leads in a variety of sales territories. Promoted to become Instruction Set’s first Account Manager for the Mid-Atlantic, established market presence and generated the territory’s first repeat clients. Transferred to the company’s flagship territory, New England, and grew the territory’s revenue 15% in five months.

Bachelor'S, Philosophy

Graduate Courses, Instructional Design