Building a learning organization from scratch at Ledger

Learning as a growth driver

For Ledger, L&D is business-critical. In a complex space like blockchain and digital assets, foundational knowledge is paramount, and players need to move quickly to stay ahead. Paul Baudouin, Head of Learning at Ledger, put it simply: "If an employee doesn't understand the DNA of our company, what product we are selling, they lose time."

Leadership recognised that standardising and accelerating product knowledge, security practices, and role-specific skills was essential for scaling effectively and maximising operational efficiency. This realisation made learning central to Ledger's mission: proactively equipping people with the knowledge required to protect customers, maintain product integrity, and scale effectively. Paul explained the vision: "We needed to create one Ledger team – to give us a common language." That common language centers on a shared understanding of what cryptocurrency is, how blockchain works, and why security matters.

The first step was building out the 'Minimum Viable Knowledge' (MVK) program, Ledger's flagship onboarding experience. The MVK program ensures that every new employee, regardless of technical background, understands Ledger's products and how their role connects to the company's mission.

The philosophy behind Ledger’s L&D initiatives

Learning at Ledger follows one clear principle: start with the skill gap and design to close it. Paul believed that L&D should begin by identifying what learners actually need to succeed in their role, then build content and practices that target that need . These learning programs directly impact business outcomes, from negotiation skills for sales teams, to public speaking training for leaders and technical expertise for engineers.

But identifying skill gaps isn't enough. Ledger treats learning as a product – programs must be useful, usable, and desirable, so employees choose to engage with them.

By pairing needs-driven content with product-quality delivery, each program is developed collaboratively with the teams who know what success looks like, ensuring training both targets the right problems and becomes something employees actually want to engage with.

Why Ledger chose Sana

L&D at Ledger started with basic tools: Excel spreadsheets, Google Workspace slides, and scattered documentation. Paul recalls the challenge clearly: "I did one year of L&D with pure spreadsheet files, and then decided, never again." This drove the decision to invest in a proper learning platform.

Ledger ran a carefully considered RFP process with clear criteria: ease of use, beautiful design, seamless integration with existing systems like Workday and Okta, and the ability to scale. The initial shortlist included solid platforms that checked several boxes. A few weeks before the final decision, Ledger took a step back to reevaluate. Rather than making a decision based purely on feature checklists, Paul and the team asked themselves: what would actually make day-to-day life easier for learners, creators, and managers?

The choice came down to more than features. "It was a mix between gut feeling and business view – what is the trajectory of the company? " Paul explained. “Sana’s UX was a key driver, because it’s going to be a platform people use every day.”

Early adoption across engineering and other technical teams confirmed they'd made the right choice.

Sana’s impact

Being a data-driven organization, one benefit stood out immediately: integration with existing systems. "It amazes me – because basically we have integrated Workday and Okta into Sana without doing anything," Paul noted. "We can do reports per executive per team and it's already provisioned. One month of work in two hours."

Content creation improved dramatically as well. Pelin Kayalar, Learning Designer at Ledger, initially had concerns: "I'm used to using other content creation tools where you have too many options and too much freedom. When I first started with Sana Learn, I was skeptical, but then I understood the vision. The main purpose is to make the journey of a content creator a simple pathway. Now the process of creating good-looking content has become much easier for me and for the internal content creators."

Beyond aesthetics, Sana Learn is solving everyday problems for Ledger. When departments wanted to archive internal video libraries and make them searchable, Sana’s AI Tutor feature enabled employees to ask questions about lengthy sessions instead of going through hours of content. "We have content that's two hours long," Pelin shared. "It's so easy if you have a question – maybe you already attended the session – you just go to the AI tutor, ask a question, and get the reference and answer"

The finance team now uses Sana Learn to host tutorials on Ledger’s finance system, Payflows, reducing the daily questions they field on Slack. "The Finance team reached out and said, 'We want to create a tutorial – how to create a payflow,'" Pelin explained. "Because of the AI tutor, it's easier to manage for them instead of having to respond to multiple Slack messages per day. Now they just have to send a message saying, 'Here’s the tutorial. If you have questions, ask the AI tutor first.'"

Decentralizing knowledge sharing

Ledger's next phase is fully decentralizing content creation. Rather than the L&D team being the sole creators, departments and subject matter experts are building training directly in Sana. Paul's philosophy is clear: "No one will master the work expertise, tech expertise, or sales expertise more than the people themselves. So being able to work together is why I like Sana. We'll cook together – you'll tell me exactly what you want, and you'll be there to build the program with me."

Ledger is also investing heavily in impact measurement beyond NPS scores. "Next year will be about post-training surveys to capture the success of training," Paul emphasized. "This is something that from a learning admin standpoint changes your life because this is going to be in a category I like to call not only learning, not only training – because at the end it's a productivity win."

The focus is on measuring what matters: Do managers see tangible performance improvement in the person that has been trained? In six months, have trainees seen an effect in their performance? That's what Ledger wants to understand.

Looking ahead

The partnership between Ledger and Sana has been built on a shared vision: "We have different teams with different levels of maturity. What I like is being able to crack a few teams to make sure they understand that training can help them, that they can invest time and that it has an impact. It's about promoting something that makes people happy, gives them new skills, and doing it fairly across the company."

With Sana Learn, Ledger is building a learning organization where knowledge is visible, accessible, and strategic. This ensures that as the company continues to scale, every employee has the foundation to succeed. "We have all the content everywhere, but we don't always know who has read what," Paul says. "What I want to do is to bring something solid – to have a picture of where we are, where we want to go, get the metrics and data, and to be scalable. We now have the potential to do that"