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Arcade Facilitator · 2x · 2023 & 2024

Twice-named Arcade Facilitator. Community work and talks.

Selected as an Arcade Facilitator for two cohorts. Ran cohort workshops, mentored builders through the labs, and gave talks at Bengaluru meetups.

  • 2Cohorts led
  • 300+Builders mentored
  • 9Talks delivered
  • 40+Labs facilitated
01Context

Bridging a global program and the local builder community.

Arcade is Google Cloud's gamified learning program for builders. Facilitators are the connective tissue between Google's curriculum and the local community shipping with it. The job: run cohorts that didn't just complete labs, but actually walked away knowing the platform.

02Approach

How I ran the cohorts.

[01]

Live walkthroughs

Weekly hands-on sessions over Meet. Screen-share through the labs, unblock people in real time, no recordings as a crutch.

[02]

Office hours

A standing slot every week for one-on-one mentoring. The completion rate doubled once this existed.

[03]

In-person talks

9 talks at Bengaluru meetups across the two cohorts. Translated the program for people who'd never heard of it.

03Featured

Where the work showed up.

01 · Cohort 1

First-time facilitator

Took the playbook Google handed over, layered live walkthroughs on top, and pushed completion rates higher than the cohort baseline.

180+ builders · above-target completion
02 · Cohort 2

Selected back

Same role, second time. Iterated the format with what worked. Bigger cohort, same energy, better outcomes.

120+ builders · improved retention
03 · Community talks

Bengaluru meetups

Took the Arcade story on the road. Translated the program for the meetup crowd. Pulled new builders into the next cohort.

9 talks · 200+ avg attendance
04Reflections

Facilitation is product work.

Live unblocks > async docs

Every lab has someone stuck at minute 12. Sitting in the call and unblocking them is the single highest-leverage thing a facilitator does.

The room is the marketing

Meetup talks were the cohort's funnel. The best builders showed up because someone in the room had been in a previous cohort.

05Artifacts

Artifacts.

Day-one welcome session
Hands-on screen-share session
One-on-one mentoring slot
Bengaluru community evening
Cohort wrap, certificates out
Cohort 2, final week