![\"MATLAB](\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/files\/MLAnswers2.png\" "\\"Answers\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhile we\u2019re positively gobsmacked by how the community has embraced and shaped Answers into what it\u2019s become, we needed to understand what we had done right. And more importantly how we could continue to build on it.<\/p>\n
We had lots of questions, but essentially we wanted to know: 1) why are people coming to Answers, and 2) how are they using it? In June, I had a chance to ask those questions directly to several active members of the community during individual phone interviews.<\/p>\n
The first question attempted to get at people\u2019s motivations for initially coming to Answers\u2014and their subsequent decision to keep coming back. Two related factors came up as key motivators: 1) to improve their skills, and 2) to share their skills.<\/p>\n
Improve their skills<\/strong><\/p>\nWhether it\u2019s a novice using MATLAB for the first time or a power user refining their skills, people come to Answers to learn. One person said Answers was a way to, \u201ckeep my skills fresh\u201d and that it provided a \u201csource of ideas of useful things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to how people are using Answers to improve their skills, another\u00a0user described how it helped them learn Simulink. As a skilled MATLAB user, they were less familiar with Simulink. By looking at Simulink posts, they began to see how other people used the product and gained some initial insights into the system logic.\u00a0In addition to being able to ask questions of the community, they could compare their skill set to others and gauge the amount of progress they had made. Gaining confidence in their newfound abilities, they began answering questions; when no one corrected or amended their answers, they interpreted it as validating their knowledge\u2014a form of peer review.<\/p>\n
Share their skills <\/strong><\/p>\nHaving reached a level of proficiency, some interviewees are motivated to share their knowledge with the community. As one person said, \u201cI had questions and I received some answers; I think I should give that back.\u201d This sentiment of \u2018giving back\u2019 to the group was expressed by several interviewees.<\/p>\n
In terms of how the community are sharing their skills in Answers, one individual expanded the idea of ‘giving back’ by informally mentoring people: \u201cIf I have a good interaction with somebody that I\u2019ve answered a question for, I\u2019ll go and check and see if they have any other questions that they\u2019ve asked and see if I can help out with any of the other ones.\u201d By actively \u2018following\u2019 a questioner, they sought to “provide that user with a little more help\u2026that they might not have gotten before.”<\/p>\n
The exchange of information, tips and tricks among active MATLAB and Simulink users is at the heart of MATLAB Answers popularity. As one person pointed out: \u201cYou might have your experts there [at MathWorks], but there are far more out here.\u201d<\/p>\n
We couldn’t agree more.\u00a0Community experts have been the engine behind the success of Answers. Stories such as the two highlighted here give us insights into the needs of the community. By understanding how you’re using it, we can continue to improve \u00a0MATLAB Answers.<\/p>\n
So\u2026how do you<\/em> use Answers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a little over a year and a half, the MATLAB Answers community has:<\/p>\n
Grown to 20,000+ askers and answerers.
\nPosted tens of thousands of questions, answers and comments, with an average of 75 to 100… read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51,36],"tags":[246,224,223,21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}