CU*Answers kicked off year three of its popular Executive Study Boot Camp program, welcoming 20 credit union professionals to a year of intensive interactions and collaboration around the subject, “What Makes Data Valuable?” In January a second group of ten participants will meet to kick off the “Building Solutions in a Cooperative” Boot Camp.

Boot Camp participants agree to commit a total of eight full days to the program, spread across quarterly two-day sessions, with travel costs to CU*Answers’ Grand Rapids campus covered by the CUSO. Participants receive an up-close-and-personal experience with CUSO insiders, covering subject matter at a level much deeper than typical focus groups or education events.

This year CU*Answers is also launching the “Developer’s Help Desk Project Boot Camp,” which will give participants a hands-on, do-it-yourself experience building new solutions. Boot Campers will work directly with CUSO developers and technicians on their own project ideas, such as designing a new mobile app, or integrating with a new third-party vendor, or creating new features for existing member products and services.

“My favorite thing about Boot Camps is how both the boot campers get a real insider look at how the CUSO works, and in turn we get to add their valuable insights and perspective to everything we do,” said Dawn Moore, CU*Answers VP of Product Design. “And this year it was great to see how the word has spread across our client base and we have so many people eager to participate. Our first session was nearly standing-room only!”