success story
How Netflix scales high-quality peer-to-peer learning with PlusPlus
+ 1,000
A small DevEd team of four supports learning for thousands of engineers
2x
Growth in internal training events after lowering creation barriers
100%
Internal workshops supported by standardized best-practice frameworks
As Netflix surpassed 200 million subscribers across 190 countries, the company’s engineering organization grew rapidly to support the scale of its global platform. Ensuring that engineers had access to high-quality onboarding, continuous learning, and institutional knowledge became the responsibility of Netflix’s Developer Education (DevEd) team — a small but scrappy group of just four people.
Rather than relying solely on centralized training, Netflix embraced a peer-to-peer learning model where internal subject-matter experts (SMEs) lead workshops and share their expertise. To support this approach at scale, Netflix partnered with PlusPlus to centralize internal learning events and empower employees to create and manage training experiences — without increasing bureaucracy or overhead.
What were the key challenges?
Netflix’s peer-led training model offered enormous benefits: deeper product expertise, stronger cross-team relationships, and learning rooted in real company context. But it also introduced challenges. Engineers are not professional instructors, and pulling them away from product work is costly if training is ineffective.
The DevEd team needed a way to ensure that workshops were consistently high quality, efficient for presenters, and valuable for learners — all while preserving Netflix’s culture of autonomy and trust. With hundreds of internal presenters and thousands of learners, scaling quality without mandating rigid processes was critical.
What approach worked?
Netflix focused on lowering barriers while raising quality.
Using PlusPlus as their internal training event system, Netflix removed friction from event creation by allowing any employee to add and host a workshop. This led to a 2× increase in internal events and created a centralized hub for discovery and registration.
To ensure quality, the DevEd team introduced self-serve instructional checklists — lightweight frameworks that encode best practices without enforcing rigid rules. Rather than teaching every presenter formal instructional design models, the team embedded proven methodologies directly into simple yes/no checklists that guide presenters before, during, and after a workshop.
This approach allowed Netflix to scale peer-to-peer learning while staying true to its culture: empowering people with principles, not policies.
“We are thrilled so many of our colleagues want to offer training, but we want to help ensure our volunteer trainers and learners are maximizing their time — because it can be expensive when it’s not done effectively and efficiently.”
Jasmine Robinson, Senior Technical Program Coordinator, Netflix Developer Education
Democratizing training at scale
Open event creation
PlusPlus enables any Netflix employee to create and host internal training events, dramatically increasing adoption and participation.
Centralized discovery and registration
All internal learning events live in one system, making it easy for engineers to find, register for, and attend relevant sessions.
Scalable support for SMEs
Internal experts can focus on sharing knowledge while PlusPlus handles logistics and visibility.
Ensuring quality without bureaucracy
Instructional checklists
Netflix encoded the ADDIE instructional design model into simple, practical checklists that guide presenters through analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.
Context-rich learning
Workshops are built around real Netflix examples, sanitized datasets, and lived experience — delivering learning that canned external courses cannot match.
Self-serve, non-mandated frameworks
Checklists are optional and self-paced, aligning with Netflix’s culture of autonomy while still raising the baseline quality of training.
What were the results?
Higher quality learning, confident presenters, and scalable impact
“We empower people to make their own choices, and rather than policies, we provide best practices and frameworks.”
Jasmine Robinson, Senior Technical Program Coordinator, Netflix Developer Education
Higher-quality workshops
Standardized checklists improved the consistency, clarity, and effectiveness of internal training sessions.
More confident presenters
Presenters reported feeling more confident, less taxed, and better prepared when facilitating workshops.
Scalable DevEd impact
A four-person DevEd team successfully supports learning for thousands of engineers by leveraging peer expertise and self-serve frameworks.
Operational efficiency
Reduced overhead
Automation and self-service tools eliminate the need for heavy coordination or approvals.
Built-in best practices
Instructional quality is embedded directly into the workflow through checklists.
Discoverability at scale
Engineers can easily find and join relevant learning experiences.
A culture of collective intelligence
Peer-led expertise
Engineers share knowledge rooted in Netflix’s real systems, history, and context.
Learning through application
Retention improves when learning is tied to real problems and prior experience.
Sustainable knowledge sharing
Best practices evolve continuously through community contribution and iteration.
Scaling learning without losing what makes it human
Netflix’s partnership with PlusPlus shows how organizations can scale learning without sacrificing autonomy, quality, or culture. By empowering subject-matter experts, lowering barriers to participation, and embedding best practices directly into the learning flow, Netflix created a sustainable system for internal knowledge sharing. PlusPlus acts as the connective tissue — enabling Collective Intelligence to thrive through people, not process.