Lessons learned
As with most projects, we found that there were many things that could be of use for others embarking on a similar journey.
Lesson #1 - Success measures – a dashboard is more powerful than single metrics of sales or Level 1 evaluation of learning
At some point in the project, we realized that the organization’s definition of successful learning products was primarily financial. This is not to say that they didn’t care about the user, but the organizational measurement to gauge this was ad hoc. As long as the overall learning products were making money, then they considered all was well. When we looked at usage rates, we realized that 60% of the revenue was derived from the attendance of one instructor-led course, and only 1% of the revenue came from online learning. We had paper copies of Level 1 course evaluations for instructor-led training, but no information indicating if the learning was successful beyond that, and no documentation on any online learning products. We proposed that the organization think about a broader set of metrics to focus the instructional design, sales, and support of the learning products. See Figure 3 for our suggested “dashboard” metrics.
We felt that these aspects were important enough to measure and track, and that the customer’s satisfaction and learning (beyond Level 1) should be considered before financial contribution, since the first two are leading indicators of success, while the last two are lagging indicators.
Lesson #2 - Needs analysis is critical – know your audience and their circumstances
One of the first concepts that we crafted was to segment the learners at a basic level. We began talking about capable, proficient, and expert users. We asked leaders to think about what they wanted – lots of capable users, who could or would use the software, or fewer, but more expert, users. The answer was a unanimous focus on capable users. This provided the first step to creating a better profile of users.
From an instructional design perspective, knowing these goals, and uncovering learner characteristics, is something that the organization needs to put effort towards. One of the suggestions that we had was to build learning products that help users solve problems. In order to do that, an instructional designer needs to know what types of problems the user would solve. Given this, it is possible to build the learning objectives and instructional activities to help them. Because of the reliance on subject matter experts as designers, this step is often skipped, as it is assumed that these folks know. However, in this situation, we felt it was important to confirm with the customer.
An additional challenge was to determine how to best to conduct a needs analysis from a business perspective. How should they decide on the types of learning products to give away for free? What types to sell and how to bundle or package them? What business model should they use – selling to a corporate buyer or an individual (this software training provides continuing education credits for an industry certification). The needs analysis has to capture more than just technological parameters and heuristic aspects; it must provide solid business rationale as well.
Lesson # 3 - Treat your learners as consumers – define, market, and listen to them as consumers
When we began to define the learner, and look at our catalog of learning products, the biggest question for us was, “How do we know which learning products are best for which learner?” We knew that connecting these two together was critical to developing the right learning architecture.
We used Amazon as our inspiration, and approached the learning architecture in a way that could dynamically deliver options based on preferences, previous purchases, product bundles, and other defined characteristics. The things we like about Amazon are that it remembers your previous purchases, offers suggestions for other products that are similar, suggests things that others like you would buy, gives user reviews, and allows you to place items on a wish list – plus it was a familiar concept. These all had direct applicability to learning products, particularly when selling them.
For example, we identified one Webinar built around “Seven Steps” the client organization offered. The 45-minute Webinar was free to customers or buyers, but we saw a potential for the organization to sell a series of follow-up synchronous online learning sessions. These would provide a more in-depth approach to help the learner apply the thinking. We did the basic math, thanks to William Horton’s article “Hey, I Don’t Cost You Money, I Make You Money” published March 26, 2002. We were able to show that if 25% of the audience who attended the free Webinar were to sign up for a series of paid one-hour synchronous sessions, it could contribute $60K. That was just one idea. We also identified that they could sell those one-hour sessions as face-to-face instructor-led workshops, both public and customized for an organization or industry. We could derive a number of other revenue-generating learning products from that concept. The key was to map out some potential scenarios for each user type and classification of learning, á la Amazon.
Lesson #4 – Learning architecture is important – have a good understanding of your business model and how it will be implemented
Using our inventory from the cataloging process, and the conceptual idea of an Amazon-like dynamic approach, we were able to create a compelling learning architecture. We recommended pursuing a reusable learning object strategy to ensure consistency and efficiency. While the organization may not achieve true “reusability” from the content, we felt that pursuing this approach would build habits of reuse. The learning architecture created scaffolding that was very useful in terms of analyzing the learning products and the users. We outlined what types of learning should be given away free, and what types had the potential to generate revenue, based on the research we had done throughout.
Lesson #5 - Strong design standards, templates, and a disciplined approach to the look and feel is important both in meeting customer expectations of the brand, and also to streamlining production process
There were many areas where better design standards would help. Firstly, when we assessed the learning products, we did a comparative section. This evaluated some procedural training that the client offered, and the results demonstrated how subtle differences in the writing of the training could confuse the user. For example, one procedure had steps that guided users through a wizard, but the writers used differing terms for the same thing in the online help versus the online learning module. Some of the aspects we looked at were quite granular, such as the use of numbering or bullets, bolding, fonts, and other aspects of a style sheet that had implications for the user. We were clear that we wanted to produce the types of learning products that would give users supreme confidence, and that would create the demand for more learning products.
Secondly, we felt that having a common set of design standards would allow for a better design process. This is not only a potential money-saver, but also one which should allow getting learning products to market faster. The common design standards, coupled with a central repository and a re-usable learning objects approach, could allow for learning products which fit seamlessly with marketing materials, and allow release worldwide simultaneously.
Lesson #6 – Consider rapid content production, and don’t ignore ongoing maintenance
Within a competitive environment, it is critical for training production teams to rapidly develop just-in-time training to offer to the market. As such, training teams need to compress traditional instructional design processes into shorter timeframes. It is not possible to go “underground” for six months to develop a new training offering. Instead, competitive environments require strategies that offer “bite size” training tools that can be bundled with complementary resources.
Moreover, learning products require frequent review, assessment, and course corrections. This is likely a common challenge for organizations, as there is a lot of effort involved in getting things off the ground, but nothing can erode your hard work over time like lack of maintenance.
When setting up any learning program, it is a good idea to build in review processes that make sense for the organization and the material. For software companies, there is often a release schedule for updates, and this is a natural time to budget small amounts of time and effort towards maintenance.
On an annual basis, gathering a group of stakeholders to review the instructional approach and strategies can help keep the content current, fresh, and interesting. Review what is working well, what you could improve, what opportunities have arisen since the last review, and what you could retire. Having a cross-functional group do this is another excellent way to draw upon other perspectives and to tie-in to different strategies. For example, the marketing group may have a new campaign that could provide an outlet for learning products. Or, you may be keen to introduce a new type of technology, and the help desk has a way of monitoring customer feedback. Moreover, the use of a customer advisory board is a terrific way to stay connected to your audience and adjust your instructional design documents.
Lesson # 7 – Foster strong partnership with other functional departments
And finally, although listed as the last lesson learned, we recognize the importance of forging strong partnerships with other functional departments. Product Management, Sales, and Marketing teams can offer a tremendous amount of customer data to help inform the design and development of new learning products. Working closely with IT and Technical Support can provide insights that will strengthen the learning products and should reduce user support calls. In return, training teams can offer customers on-the-job experience with product features and functionality.
Conclusion
Circling back to the initial question, “How can we re-purpose current learning products to grow customer training services?” we found a three-step approach helped us best inform our business decision:
- Catalog: Map the current products and how they are developed, maintained, and accessed,
- Assess: Measure learning effectiveness based on industry best practices, and
- Analyze: Scrutinize learning products according to learning personas (needs, proficiencies, and styles)
Through this project, we surfaced seven lessons learned: (1) identify success metrics, (2) conduct a needs analysis, (3) treat your learners as consumers, (4) shape a learning architecture, (5) set design standards, (6) consider rapid development and ongoing maintenance, and (7) foster a strong partnership with other functional departments. While this article focuses on development of learning products for customers, many of the lessons are applicable to internal employee training as well. We hope that when you embark on a review of your training offerings or learning products, you are able to use our lessons learned to make your life easier.
References
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Driscoll,M. (1998). Designing Web Based Training. Jossey-Bass Pfeffer.
Horton, W. (2002). Using e-Learning. ASTD.
Quinn, C.N. (2006, 12 14). Seven Steps to Better eLearning. eLearn Magazine.
Stevens, J.H. (1997). Standards for Online Communication. New York, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
