
Foundations at Relativity
4 weeksAn email to a customer, a note for the next person on the case, and a snapshot of where an investigation stands.
Customer Success
twelve weeksonlinesix to nine hours a weekin Englishfree
Product support first: you investigate a customer's issue, keep them informed and hand it on. The last project takes one incident to a success plan for the next quarter. You end each project with a 25-minute call online, and talk the last one through with a mentor from Relativity too.
People join this academy from one of three places.
01
You answer tickets as they come. Here you take five cases from the first signal to a next step, and walk somebody through each one.
02
In customer service, on a hotline or in sales. Here you learn the technical side: reading logs, investigating an issue, and telling a customer where their case stands.
03
In implementation, QA or analysis. Here you work five customer cases of your own, the last one from an incident to a success plan.
Customer interaction. A thread of communication that carries a customer through an unresolved issue: a first reply, a progress update and an escalation.

the question project 3 asks before you hand it in
If you were the customer receiving these three messages, would you know where things stand while the issue is still open?
You learn to write to a customer so they do not feel lost while nobody has solved their issue yet.
Each project is a ticket from a Relativity customer. The customer is made up, and specialists at Relativity approved the tickets and the materials.
twelve weeks, one project open at a time

An email to a customer, a note for the next person on the case, and a snapshot of where an investigation stands.

A structured account of an investigation, and a piece of reusable knowledge that outlives the individual case.

A thread of communication that carries a customer through an unresolved issue: a first reply, a progress update and an escalation.

An account of a technical issue, the reasoning behind likely causes, and an explanation a customer could understand.

A customer hit a disruptive technical issue, and confidence in the workflow is low. One document takes it from investigation to a success plan for the next quarter.
the capstone
the same five steps, in this order
step 1 of 5
Each project has readings and materials to work from.
step 2 of 5
You hand in the finished work. If you change something after that, you hand in the new version, as many times as you need.
step 3 of 5
The cohort sees your work, and you see theirs.
step 4 of 5
If it needs it, you come back with a new version and say what changed in it and why.
step 5 of 5
Screen shared, at an hour you announce. Somebody who already defended this project takes it, usually a person from your cohort. While nobody has, we take it. On project 5 a mentor from Relativity takes it together with a classmate.
Not yet goes back to the same person for another round, as many times as it takes.
Three questions people ask somebody entering the profession, and what you answer them with.
they askShow me how you handle a customer issue.
Five documents a customer or a teammate can act on, from a first investigation to a customer success plan, each defended.
they askCan you talk me through a case?
You did it five times, screen shared, to somebody who asked questions.
they askHas anyone from the industry seen your work?
A mentor from Relativity ran your project 5 defence, together with a classmate.
A certificate with your name, for five defended projects.
Relativity makes RelativityOne, software that law firms, companies and government agencies use to sort and search the documents of a legal case. People from Relativity are the mentors.
Founded in 2001. The academy programme started in 2020 and has been called Relevate since 2025.
where they are
Headquarters at 231 S. LaSalle, Chicago - 100,000 sq ft.
what they put their name on
built with
Great Place to Work Certified 2025-2026 · Chicago Tribune Top Workplaces 2025 · Diamenty Forbesa 2023 (Poland)
1,500+
people worldwide
~650
of them in Chicagoland
300k+
users of RelativityOne
~40
countries; users include 198 of the Am Law 200
Carolyn VanderMolen
program lead · Customer Success
Sean Neilsen
Jonathan Lougheed
Clare Longworth
What the twelve weeks take, and the one thing we ask for.
B2
English, every day.
Every call, every review and every defence is in English. You do not need to be fluent - you will be using it every day, and that is how it gets better.
6-9 h
A week, across twelve weeks.
Three evenings, rather than one long weekend a month.
+1 round
When a call ends in 'not yet'.
You hear what to change, you change it, and you show it again to the person who asked for it, as many times as it takes.
one more thing
A bad day costs nobody a place. What we ask for is respect - for the people whose work you read, and for the people reading yours.
one mail per cohort · unsubscribe in every mail
No. You fill in one screen with your name and your email, and you are in the cohort on the same click.
Yes. You need to be 18 or older. Nobody asks for a degree, your field or a CV.
No. Project 1 starts with how support works at Relativity: an email to a customer, a note for the next person on the case, and a snapshot of where an investigation stands.
No. Most of it is product support: investigating an issue, keeping the customer informed and escalating. The last project takes one incident to a success plan for the next quarter.
No. Somebody who has already passed the project takes your call, usually a person from your cohort, and while nobody has, we take it. On project 5 a mentor from Relativity takes it, together with a classmate.
English: the reading, the calls and the reviews. If English is not your first language, you need B2 when you speak.
Yes. A certificate with your name, for five defended projects - not for reaching the end.
Nobody can promise that, and we do not. You leave with five documents a customer or a teammate can act on, from a first investigation to a customer success plan, and five calls behind you.
No, from the first project to the fifth. There is no paid second stage. You sign no contract, and you can leave at any time. nerds.family runs the academy, and Relativity, a company from Chicago, pays for it because it wants to meet people by their work.