[Share your AEP Onboarding feedback] Show and tell your Community

[stephaniedam]

👋Hi Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) Community! Nice to e-meet you. I’d love to learn from you all when it comes to onboarding as a net new customer. 

Q: When you were a net new customer implementing AEP from scratch, can you share an asset (for example: links to free courses, documents, videos 📑📚📹) that helped you with onboarding to AEP? In your response to this discussion, can you include:

• The asset

• The goal of the asset  

• Who it's for  

• What works well/what does not  

• What learning material is missing/what did you wish you had? 

This will help us all learn together, and will help me develop future onboarding content for you all. Feel free to browse Perspectives on Experience League here for some examples of the content I will develop with your feedback. 

Thank you in advance for your time and I look forward from learning from everyone. ❤️

[SaurabhCh3]

Love this question — onboarding to Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) can feel like drinking from a firehose at first, so having the right resources early on makes a huge difference.
When I was part of a net-new AEP implementation, a few assets really stood out for helping me (and my team) ramp up. Here’s what worked, what didn’t, and what I wish I had at the time:

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🧭 1. Get Started with Adobe Experience Platform — learning.adobe.com

Goal: This 1-day course helped us understand AEP’s architecture, data ingestion flow, and how profiles and audiences actually come together.
Who it’s for: Great for anyone starting fresh — business users, analysts, or engineers who want a structured foundation.
What worked well: It’s hands-on enough to make the concepts stick, and the explanations around identity stitching were super clear.
What didn’t: Being a single-day session, it doesn’t go deep into custom implementations or edge-case data flows.
What I wish I had: A companion checklist for “Your first 30 days in AEP” — something to track progress and align cross-functional teams.

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🧩 2. Adobe Experience Platform Documentation — experienceleague.adobe.com

Goal: The official doc hub — everything from schemas to data ingestion and activation.
Who it’s for: Data engineers, architects, and anyone who needs to understand how the pieces fit technically.
What worked well: Super comprehensive and up to date. It’s my go-to reference when I get stuck.
What didn’t: It can be overwhelming — there’s so much content, and it’s easy to get lost without a starting point.
Wish list: A curated “implementation playbook” that connects the dots — from contract → sandbox → first audience activation.

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🧱 3. Getting Started for Data Architects & Engineers

Goal: A guided, hands-on walkthrough for data ingestion, schema design, and API setup.
Who it’s for: Technical implementers — engineers and architects.
What worked well: Loved that it’s practical — you actually do the steps in the UI and APIs, not just read theory.
What didn’t: Would be nice if it included a few “business context” examples (e.g., how a marketer would use that data later).
Wish list: More interactive labs or sandboxes to experiment safely.

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🧠 4. AEP Tutorials Library

Goal: Short, snackable videos covering specific tasks (like creating datasets, setting up identities, or using Query Service).
Who it’s for: Anyone who prefers visual learning.
What worked well: Perfect for “just-in-time” help — you can pause, follow along, and repeat.
What didn’t: Some tutorials are a bit dated or assume prior setup.
Wish list: Role-based playlists — one for marketers, one for engineers, etc.

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🏗 5. Implement Web SDK for AEP

Goal: A step-by-step tutorial for setting up the Web SDK and data streams on a sample site (Luma).
Who it’s for: Front-end devs and data collection teams.
What worked well: Finally demystified how data actually flows into the edge and profiles.
What didn’t: It’s purely technical — doesn’t cover business activation or how those events feed use cases.
Wish list: A follow-up example showing those same events powering personalization in AJO or CJA.

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🧩 6. AEP Training & Learning Resources Hub

Goal: Central hub that links to all the courses, tutorials, and documentation.
Who it’s for: Great starting point for new teams.
What worked well: Clean layout — easy to find what fits your role.
What didn’t: Some links bounce between Experience League and Learning, which can confuse newcomers.
Wish list: Interactive “choose your role” wizard that recommends resources dynamically.

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🧪 7. AEP Foundation Course (Exam Prep)

Goal: Build foundational knowledge of AEP concepts (also helps for certification prep).
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants to ensure they understand the fundamentals.
What worked well: Free and simple — good “intro” for teams before training budgets kick in.
What didn’t: Not hands-on; focused on theory and terminology.
Wish list: Interactive quizzes or sample project files.

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🎓 8. Experience League – New User Onboarding Guide

Goal: Explains how to use Experience League effectively — navigation, playlists, tutorials.
Who it’s for: New Adobe users just learning where to find resources.
What worked well: Great meta-onboarding — teaches you how to learn.
What didn’t: It’s platform-agnostic; doesn’t focus specifically on AEP.
Wish list: A tailored “AEP onboarding” version of this same guide.

[dwright]

Hi @SaurabhCh3 ,

Thanks for taking the time to make this detailed reply. I build and/or maintain some of the content you referenced (the Getting Started for Data Architects and Engineers, the tutorial videos, and the Implement Web SDK content specifically). This is very useful feedback and I will study it to see where I can make improvements.

[PavanBa2]

Hi Adobe Experience Platform Community!

When I first onboarded to AEP, I found that hands-on, visual learning made the biggest difference in understanding how all the components connect.

🎥 Asset: My YouTube walkthrough — “Getting Started with Adobe Experience Platform (AEP)”

🎯 Goal of the asset:
To provide a step-by-step overview of setting up AEP from scratch — including schema creation, dataset setup, data ingestion, and validation. It’s designed to help new users confidently move from the UI basics to actual implementation.

👥 Who it’s for:
Anyone new to AEP — especially data engineers, marketing ops teams, or analysts beginning their first build in a sandbox environment.

✅ What works well:

• Simple explanations of AEP concepts like schemas, datasets, and identity stitching

• Practical walkthroughs instead of theory-heavy training

• Covers common issues (like data ingestion errors or schema validation problems)

🔍 What could be improved:
I’m planning to add real-world integration examples — like connecting AEP with Marketo and Snowflake — to help show full ecosystem workflows.

💡 What’s missing / what I wish I had:
A guided, end-to-end project template that ties ingestion → identity → activation together with test data. That would make it easier for new users to see how AEP’s pieces connect in practice.

I’d love to hear what resources helped you the most or what topics you think deserve deeper coverage — this way, we can co-create even stronger onboarding content for future AEP users.

[mbr4n]

When I first started with AEP, most of my learning came from hands-on exploration paired with Experience League documentation. I’d dive into a topic, try it out, and then use the docs to fill in gaps or confirm what I was seeing.

Asset: Adobe Experience Platform overview

Goal: Step-by-step guidance across all AEP capabilities

Who it’s for: Anyone implementing or exploring AEP

What worked best for me was experimenting directly in AEP and connecting with Adobe’s Support and Ultimate Success Team whenever I hit a wall. I even reached out to a few PMs and engineers at times, and everyone was super generous with their insights.

If I could add one thing, it would be a guided, end-to-end walk-through showing how all the pieces connect across AEP. The certification exam prep guide has actually become a great structured way for me to revisit everything in order!

[Merm2]

Use case builder that would provide a step by step on getting you to end result with related videos to show and explain what is happening 

[dwright]

Hi @Merm2 ,

Do you have any specific use cases in mind? Is this the kind of format you have in mind? (first link reviews the use case, second link contains videos showing and explaining). Should we be doing more content like this?

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-platform/rtcdp/use-cases/personalization-insig... 
https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-platform/rtcdp/use-cases/personalization-insig...

[TylerKrause]

Hey Stephanie - when we were originally implementing we were very reliant on Consulting and Experience league - good news: information has since become way more accessible!

One hidden gem I've discovered is the Adobe Experience Lab YouTube Channel!

The goal of this channel is democratizing knowledge, and giving additional tips and tricks that may not be included in the Experience League documentation.

The topics and learnings discussed are such a great creativity starter and have inspired many thoughts I may have not had without watching the videos.

There are also so many perspectives, recorded webinars, and venues for making the information accessible nowadays.

[anishraul]

Asset:

A custom screen-recorded walkthrough (simple Loom-style video) created in-house, using our own data, schemas, and use cases instead of Adobe’s sample environment.

Goal of the asset:

Introduce AEP from the ground up, but in the context of how we are using it. Not a product tour — a “this is what it looks like here” baseline.

Who it’s for:

Marketing practitioners who need to understand how segments and profiles come to life in campaigns

Data engineers who need clarity on ingestion, identity stitching, governance, and data flows

What works well:

• Uses real datasets and fields, so people immediately understand the relevance
• Gives a shared vocabulary early (schema, dataset, identity, activation, etc.)
• Organized with timestamps so different teams can jump to what they need
• Hosted on an internal page that can be updated with new versions as the implementation matures

What doesn’t work well:

• Becomes outdated quickly unless someone owns revision updates
• Doesn’t replace foundational learning for people completely new to CDPs
• Only works if paired with a structured onboarding plan for new hires

Supporting learning materials we used:

LinkedIn Learning for general CDP concepts

Experience League for product-level depth

Internal wiki + documentation library

What’s still missing / what I wish we had:

• A role-based learning track (Marketer Day 1 vs Engineer Day 1 vs Analyst Day 1)
• Standard playbooks for common tasks like QA’ing identity stitching or building multi-event segments
• Real examples of operating models from other companies (not just sanitized decks)
• A template for aligning people, process, and tech up front — instead of backfilling governance later

[dwright]

@anishraul ,

That's amazing that you did that at your company. Nothing is going to beat training materials that showcase your own data and use cases.

I create tutorials for Experience Platform, including many of the ones @SaurabhCh3 mentioned in their post. While obviously, I can't create detailed tutorials for every customer, maybe I can help put together some templates so other customers can do what you did? I will DM you if you are open to discussing this.

[sessoms25]

When I was a new AEP customer the Experience League documentation & the Adobe Learning portal were my initial reference points as well as any video content via YouTube & the Adobe channels.

• Goal: AEP overview & understanding
• Who: New users - business, technical, marketing, etc..
• What worked: Definitions, reference points & visuals
• What did not work: Unique business use cases & instance implementation for me specifically
• What was missing: Context to how our team was deploying & approaching AEP - this has been improved over the years

[TanuJa1]

Here are some of the perspectives from my onboarding experiences - 

🧩 1. Prerequisites

Before onboarding , here are some of the steps my company followed along with help of Adobe team - 

• The organization is provisioned for Adobe Experience Platform (or connected apps such as Real-Time CDP, Journey Optimizer, Customer Journey Analytics, etc.).
• Since I was the system admin, I was provisioned with Admin Console access.

👤 2. Adding the User in the 

Adobe Admin Console

1. Go to adminconsole.adobe.com.
2. Select your organization (tenant).
3. Navigate to Users → Add User.
4. Enter the user’s email address and name.
5. Choose the product:
   → Adobe Experience Platform
   → or Adobe Journey Optimizer / Real-Time CDP / CJA depending on the license.
6. Assign them to a Product Profile).

🧭 3. Assign Roles & Permissions in AEP

After the user logs in to experience.adobe.com:

1. Go to Adobe Experience Platform → Permissions (if you have admin rights).
2. Assign Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) permissions
3. Map the user’s profile to the correct sandbox.

🧠 4. Configure Sandboxes .

what worked was the documentation provided by Adobe. But time was of the essence .

We needed simplified documentation for onboarding for new user. Along with simplified functionalities .

i wish we had a marketer vs Dev vs D&A persona documentation for onboarding such users 

[nappandey]

Hi AEP Community,

For my community contribution, I focused on creating a space where Adobe practitioners and data strategists can share ideas around how AI and data intersect to drive intelligent personalization.

Who it’s for:

This community is designed for Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) users, consultants, and marketing engineers, people who are passionate about making data actually work to create real-time, human-centered experiences.

What works well:

• The best part has been the collaborative exchange, seeing how others apply AEP in completely different industries really sharpens your own perspective.

• The supportive tone within the community also stands out. It’s not just about tools or features, but about learning from practical stories and wins.

What could be better / what’s missing:

• Sometimes discussions stay too product-focused. I’d love to see more use case storytelling showing outcomes and impact instead of just features.

• It would also help to have cross-community bridges, where Adobe experts can learn from parallel ecosystems like Salesforce, Google, or Tealium.

What I wish we had:

A structured AI Agent knowledge hub inside the community, where members can test-drive and co-create use cases for Adobe’s AI agents and GenAI features as they evolve.

[TJJa]

Well, I don’t have a specific asset to share, but I can share my experience from implementing Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) completely from scratch.

As soon as we signed the contract and started the implementation, we quickly realized that not everything promised during pre-sales aligned with the real-world setup. It became a deep, hands-on learning journey — a lot of trial and error, discovery through documentation gaps, and late nights on the keyboard.

Our biggest sources of help were Experience League and peer conversations. These proved invaluable for practical guidance and learning from others’ real implementations. Through this process, we successfully provisioned multiple sandboxes, established solid architecture standards, implemented IAM best practices, and built governance guardrails.

However, the adoption curve was slow, largely because of the steep learning curve and limited “end-to-end” implementation references that connect all pieces (data ingestion, identity, activation, and governance).

What worked well:

Hands-on experimentation and reverse-engineering from Experience League content.

Peer discussions and community forums for troubleshooting real use cases.

What didn’t work as well:

Lack of prescriptive, scenario-based implementation guides.

Limited architectural blueprints that reflect multi-sandbox enterprise governance.

What’s missing / what I wish I had:
A comprehensive “AEP from Zero to Production” playbook — something that bridges conceptual documentation with the real operational sequence: provisioning → schema design → identity setup → data onboarding → activation and monitoring.

[SarahMasters]

The ADLS instructor led trainings were invaluable in my onboarding: https://learning.adobe.com/learn-by-product/experience-platform.html

I’m a hands on learner- these gave me a great understanding of the platform- from a high level to a very granular/tactical level. 

The experience league documentation was helpful later on to help me understand more specific topics.