Please confirm training by Scott Friesen

[Russ Porter]

I'm new to Trello and have some start up questions. I watched a tutorial video on youtube by Scott Friesen who indicated he was a certified trainer for Trello. He reached out wanting me to pay him an hourly rate for personalized online training. I just wanted to confirm that he is a legitimate and approved employee of Trello's staff. My initial question was to start up with the free 1-week offer and to receive some set up instructions. Before I move forward with Scott Friesen, I wanted to make sure his employment/verification with Trello is legitimate. Please advise before I move forward. Russ Porter

[Daydreamer Mike · Accepted solution]

Hi @Russ Porter 

Just for clarity, this is a public Community so while there are Atlassian employees in here, the chances are you'll have your question by other contributors or an Atlassian Community Champion (like me).  

So onto your question, Scott is a very well known productivity specialist who has been around a long time.  He has been a long-time endorser of Trello and has expertise in this area for sure.
But he IS NOT an Atlassian employee, Community Champion or Atlassian partner.  These are the kind of credentials that you would look at for due diligence with some level of endorsement from Atlassian.  

However, It is worth mentioning that Trello sits outside of the normal "Authorised Partner/consultant" route that you get with most software tools.  So, you are always likely  to be talking to someone who is an independent consultant and this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

There is no official, Atlassian endorsed Trello certification (yet...watch this space🤞).  So the "Certified Trainer" will most likely come from training courses he has taken or created for Trello, independent of Atlassian.

I am in and around all of the Trello consultants and know of Scott but have not worked closely enough with him to form any kind of judgement on the services he's offered. But, I have watched a fair few of his videos and he comes across very well to me. He has been doing it for a long time, has a lot of followers and industry recognition.  You don't tend to get that by being rubbish.


A couple of tips and thoughts...

1. Atlassian does have some free courses for Trello that you can check out:
   
   https://community.atlassian.com/learning/hub/all-learning-paths/path/get-the-most-out-of-trello 
   
   
2. There are lots of free articles and guides right here in the community, but also check out the Trello queen and my good friend @Brittany Joiner Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@britt_joiner 
   
   
3. This article has a list of Trello consultants who work in and around the Atlassian community.  Even just for due diligence, I recommend reaching out to a couple. 
   https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Trello-articles/Trello-Consultants-Right-Here-In-The-Community/ba-p/1983694 
   
   
4. I am obviously biased but in my humble opinion, no one in the Trello consulting world knows more specifically about Trello than @Brittany Joiner and me 😉 

[Brittany Joiner]

Aww I am honored! And right back at ya - I'm not taking new clients at the moment unfortunately (lots of folks want Trello consulting!) but that list has a great list of folks on there, include Mike!

I do however have a free newsletter with all sorts of Trello resources, and a YouTube channel with lots of content that might be able to answer some of your questions so when you get to a consultant you can make the most of your time with deep dive questions specific to your workflows!

[Dirk Lachowski · Accepted solution]

His LinkedIn says nothing about being an Atlassian employee. As far as I know, there’s also no official “trainer certification”. That sayed, you maybe do not need a trainer to use Trello, there’s tons of free learning material on the Atlassian site. Some starters:

• https://community.atlassian.com/learning/path/get-the-most-out-of-trello
• https://community.atlassian.com/learning/catalog?product=Trello