Challenges is one of the formats in the Popscale platform – behavior moves into the real world.

Popscale · Challenges

Take the training out into the customer interaction.

Give your employees concrete assignments to carry out in real situations. Follow up on what happened, reflect on the outcome, and build behaviors that hold even when the pace picks up.

Example of a Challenge

The behavior: Ask at least two open questions before you present a solution.
The situation: In your next three advisory customer interactions.
The purpose: To understand the customer's goals and obstacles before a recommendation is given.
The reflection: Which question gave you the most new information? What did that change in your recommendation?

Concrete behaviors

Make it clear what the employee should try, not just what they should know.

In real situations

Move the training from the app to the customer interaction, the team, or the actual task.

Reflection and follow-up

Help the employee learn from the outcome and formulate the next step.

Why Challenges.

Training creates no value until it is used.

It is entirely possible to understand a method, pass a quiz, and perform well in a Roleplay without the new behavior automatically following you out into everyday work.

Understanding is easier than doing

An employee can know that open questions matter and still fall back into old habits when the customer is standing in front of them.

New behaviors disappear when the pace picks up

When the queue grows, the next meeting starts, or a customer gets frustrated, familiar ways of working easily take over.

Leaders rarely see the transfer

Completed training shows that someone took part. It does not show what the person has actually tried, learned, or needs to practice more in everyday work.

The chain that ties it together.

The training starts in Popscale. The behavior develops in the real world.

Step 1

Train

Knowledge and skill are built in Popscale.

Step 2

Perform

The behavior is tried in the real customer interaction.

Step 3

Reflect

The employee describes what happened and what it led to.

Step 4

Get feedback

The reflection is assessed and answered.

Step 5

Next step

Coaching, a new Roleplay, or a harder Challenge.

Many kinds of action.

Make the next step concrete.

A Challenge can be used to activate a specific behavior, to apply new knowledge, or to help the employee observe their own everyday work in a new way.

Try a new behavior

Give the employee a clear behavior to use in one or more real customer interactions.

Ask two open questions before you recommend anything
Summarize the customer's needs in your own words
Always ask whether the customer wants a clear next step
Acknowledge the customer's feeling before you suggest a solution

Use new knowledge

Put a product update, a campaign, or a method into practice in an actual conversation.

Explain the new offering to five customers
Use the new needs model in three customer interactions
Present the campaign starting from the customer's needs
Try the new wording for a common term

Observe the customer interaction

Help the employee notice patterns, reactions, and situations that would otherwise pass unnoticed.

Note which objections keep coming up during the week
Notice when customers start to hesitate
Observe which questions create the most engagement
Identify a moment where customers often become uncertain

Follow up on a real situation

Let the employee return to a specific event and learn from it.

Reflect on a difficult customer interaction
Describe what made the customer change their mind
Identify a behavior that worked particularly well
Put into words what you would do differently next time

Train leadership in everyday work

Challenges can also be used for behaviors that indirectly affect the customer interaction.

Give concrete feedback to an employee
Run a short reflection with the team
Ask an employee what they need to practice more
Highlight a good customer interaction and make the behavior visible

Build repetition over time

A single attempt can create insight. Repetition helps the behavior become part of everyday work.

Repeat the same behavior in five customer interactions
Complete a Challenge every day for a week
Increase the difficulty step by step
Follow up the same behavior in different customer situations

Clear assignments.

A good Challenge leaves no room to wonder what should be done.

"Give better service" and "sell more" are not useful assignments. A Challenge needs to be concrete enough for the employee to carry it out, reflect on it, and understand whether anything actually changed.

The behavior: What should the employee do?
The situation: When and where should it happen?
The purpose: Why does the behavior matter?
The scope: How many times should the behavior be tried?
The boundaries: What does the person need to keep in mind?
The reflection: What should the employee answer afterwards?

The clearer the behavior, the context, and the reflection, the easier it becomes to turn the training into real practice.

How it works.

From a prioritized behavior to learning in everyday work.

Define the behavior

Start from something you want to see more of in the customer interaction – for example better needs analysis, clearer explanations, or more confident handling of dissatisfaction.

Assign the right people

Give the Challenge to the relevant roles, teams, or participants in a Journey.

Carry it out in the real world

The employee tries the behavior in real everyday work, not in a simulated situation.

Report back and reflect

Afterwards, the employee briefly describes what was done, what happened, and what they learned. The reflection is assessed and answered.

Follow up with the right next step

The reflection can be followed by Coaching, a new Roleplay, feedback from the leader, or a more advanced Challenge.

An example from start to finish.

A method only becomes valuable when it is used.

The company wants to improve the needs analysis in the customer interaction.

Episode: The employee listens to a short episode about the company's model for needs analysis.
Coaching: The AI coach runs a spoken quiz and lets the employee practice formulating open questions.
Roleplay: The employee meets an AI customer who gives short, vague answers unless the right follow-up questions are asked.
Challenge: Use at least two open questions in your next three customer interactions. Summarize the customer's needs before you recommend a solution.
Coaching again: The coach follows up on which questions worked, what the employee discovered, and what should be tried next time.
Insights: The leader sees which teams have completed the activity and which obstacles or lessons keep coming up.

Every format has its job.

Challenges don't happen in the conversation with AI. They happen in the real world.

Episodes

Knowledge is introduced in an accessible listening format.

Coaching

The AI helps the employee understand, practice, reflect, and formulate the next step.

Roleplays

The AI plays the customer in a simulated interaction.

Challenges

The employee carries out a concrete behavior in the real customer interaction or workflow. No AI in the activity itself – it happens in the real world.

Studies and Assessments

Studies can help the organization understand which behaviors need to be developed. Assessments can be used when defined knowledge or capability needs to be assessed.

The coach can prepare and follow up on a Challenge. The activity itself is what happens between those two conversations.

Insights for the leader.

Follow completion. Understand what happens in everyday work.

Follow reported completion

See which Challenges have been assigned, started, and reported as completed.

See lessons and obstacles

Identify recurring themes in employees' reflections – for example what felt difficult, or which customer reactions came as a surprise.

Spot what needs more training

If many people run into the same obstacle, the next step can be a shared Episode, a skills drill, or a Roleplay.

Prioritize the follow-up

The leader can focus their time on the teams, situations, and behaviors where extra support makes the biggest difference.

The reflection is assessed against your criteria. Whether the behavior was actually carried out in the real customer interaction, however, rests on the employee's own description – a completed Challenge is therefore not an independent verification of exactly what happened.

Clear boundaries.

Train behaviors without collecting unnecessary customer data.

Challenges should focus on what the employee did and learned, not on documenting individual customers.

Avoid sensitive data

The employee should not enter customer names, contact details, or other identifying information in their reflection.

Report at the behavior level

Focus on the question that was asked, the reaction that was observed, and what the employee learned.

Don't record without proper support

A Challenge should not ask for audio or video recording of customer interactions unless the business has a separate and properly established setup for it.

Frequently asked questions.

About Popscale Challenges.

What is Popscale Challenges?

Challenges are concrete assignments that the employee carries out in real everyday work. The purpose is to turn knowledge and training into actual behaviors, followed by a short reflection that is assessed and answered.

Are there different types of Challenges?

Yes, two: reflection and action. A reflection assignment asks the employee to think something through and describe it, while an action assignment asks the person to do something concrete in everyday work and then report on it. The content of the assignment can then be designed freely.

How do Challenges differ from Coaching?

In Coaching, the employee develops through dialogue with the AI coach. In a Challenge, the person carries out a behavior in the real world. The coach can be used before or after the Challenge for preparation and reflection.

How do Challenges differ from Roleplays?

Roleplays simulate a customer interaction with an AI customer. Challenges are used in real customer interactions or work tasks. A Roleplay can therefore prepare for a Challenge, and a Challenge can show whether what was practiced is actually being used.

How is a Challenge followed up?

The employee briefly describes what was done, what happened, and what they learned. The reflection is assessed against the criteria you have set, and the employee gets written feedback.

Can completion be verified?

Whether the behavior was actually carried out in the real customer interaction rests on the employee's own description. What is assessed is the reflection. If the business needs stronger verification, the setup should be complemented with manager follow-up or feedback from colleagues, for example.

Can different roles get different Challenges?

Yes. Challenges can be adapted to role, team, experience level, current topic, and the situations the person meets at work.

Can a Challenge be part of a Journey?

Yes. Challenges are often used after an Episode, a Coaching session, or a Roleplay to let the employee apply the knowledge or the skill in the real world.

Can the coach follow up on a Challenge?

Yes. The coach can ask what happened, what felt difficult, what outcome the person saw, and what should be tried next time.

Can Challenges be given in several languages?

Yes. The instruction to the employee can exist in several languages, so the same assignment can be used in teams that work in different languages.

Can Challenges be used outside the customer interaction?

Yes, when the behavior is clearly connected to the customer interaction. It can be leadership, feedback, onboarding, or team routines that affect how customer-facing employees act in everyday work.

What information should the employee include in their reflection?

The reflection should focus on the employee's own behavior, observations, and lessons. Sensitive or identifying customer data should not be included.

Book a demo.

Which behavior do you want to see more of in everyday work?

We'll show you how a Challenge works – the assignment, the reflection, and the follow-up. Before we meet, think about which behaviors would make the biggest difference in your customer interactions.

Start from a real need

Describe what your employees know today and what you want them to actually start doing.

Make the next step concrete

We'll show you how the behavior, the situation, the scope, and the reflection questions can be phrased.

Connect the activity to a Journey

You'll see how it can be prepared through Episodes, Coaching, or Roleplays and followed up through Insights.