Tonight, I was walking around the city, no real destination, just passing by stores and shops. What struck me was the line-up of people in various stores and shops. The exact same pattern everywhere: people in line, on their phones. Now, this is nothing new of course. We’ve seen this kind of behaviour more and more over the last couple of years. Why it struck me today was that I just had read IBM’s report on closing the skills gap. There has been some chatter around it on LinkedIn a while back as well (see thread and link to report here). There is a ton of good insight and surprising facts. Two things really jumped out at me:

First, approximately 120 million professionals need to be reskilled to deal with AI and new digital business environments. Yet the biggest gaps are not digital skills, but behavioral skills. And here I am walking around the city, seeing people, young and old, in an environment in which they could easily practice these behavioural skills. Yet, everyone chooses to hide behind their phones. Isn’t it ironic that the very technology that is disrupting not just our personal lives, but our professional careers could be the very reason that we actually have these behavioural skills gaps? 

The second fact that stood out to me has to do with the question who’s responsible for reskilling. The report states: “In addition, many executives tell us it’s not the enterprise’s responsibility to provide reskilling and retraining. According to a recent survey on AI and ethics, only 38 percent of CHROs say their organizations have an obligation to retrain or reskill workers impacted by AI technology. If nations aren’t prepared for the challenges associated with adopting intelligent automation and most CHROs don’t believe reskilling is the organization’s responsibility, what is the path forward?” Clearly, things need to change in the educational system, before workers join organizations. But at the same time, I feel very strongly about an organization’s responsibility to retrain if they want to stay competitive. We live in interesting times and learning professionals, in my humble opinion, have a responsibility to consult organizations when it comes to reskilling. We are in dire need to address these challenges head-on and offer employees the best possible options to fill the skills gap. 

Let’s take a step back, understand employees’ needs and personalize training, reskill staff as needed, cross-train them and find roles within our organizations that might be a better fit for them. It’s not rocket-science, but someone has to take responsibility! 

I recently switched to a different internet provider and was really impressed by the entire experience. Once I had decided on the plan, I received an email informing me about my purchase and my upcoming appointment for a technician to come in. The time and date wasn’t the same than originally mentioned to me on the phone, but that wasn’t a problem. A link allowed me to change the appointment to my desired time and day, which I did, and again, received an email confirmation with the updates. Then, 24 hours before the appointment, I received a text message asking me to confirm, and someone from the company called as well leaving a voicemail. That was the first time that I was a bit taken aback. I had the hardest time understanding what the person was trying to tell me. If it hadn’t been for the text message, I would have not known what the call was about. It was loud in the background, the person didn’t start talking until about 5 seconds in, and I could clearly tell he was reading a script, way too fast and in broken English (English isn’t my first language either so I can say things like that!). Anyway, the next day, the technician comes in, I get my internet, and I receive a text message and email after, informing me that the job was done and asking me for some quick feedback. Two days after that, I received another phone call from the company. I missed the call and they didn’t leave a voicemail (right away, I checked my connection to make sure it still worked….I mean, I don’t know why they called!). Two days after that, they call again, I pick up and I could swear it was the same person who called me the first time! Again, I didn’t understand a word. After some back and forth, I figured he just wanted to know if I had questions, and of course, if I was interested in buying more stuff. Fair enough.

Why am I telling you this long story? Well, the company did an excellent job mapping out the user journey, figuring out different toucpoints where they should engage with me, managing my expectations, providing the service, getting feedback, and even adding an upselling opportunity. But they dropped the ball with the phone calls. Clearly, the person calling is makes minimum wage, follows a script, works in a call centre, and he simply doesn’t like his job. I get it, but I heard it in his voice and it changed how I felt about the entire experience, and the company.

All that to say, there is lots of talk in L&D about learner journey mapping, and the learner experience (which I’m a big fan of as well), but it’s not enough to identify all the different touch points at which we interact with our learners. We also need to take a close look at what we are actually delivering at these touch points. And I feel that we aren’t doing a good job at that right now. We are so happy that we came up with a great learner journey, that the content becomes secondary. But we can’t put lipstick on a pig. If your content, and content delivery to make the connection to my internet story, isn’t up to par, our learners won’t really be engaged. Maybe we even push them to the other side and they are more turned off than ever!

So next time you plan out a learner journey, think about how learners will perceive your content, how they will interact with it, how it will make them feel, and how it impacts the overall experience. You can have the greatest learner journey, but if you break that trust at one step during the process, if you miss the mark, if you don’t deliver what they really need and expect, it can negatively impact your entire training program. Focus on the learner and remember that creating the experience isn’t enough, you have to fill in the gaps with engaging content that resonates with your learners.

Like most people in 2019, I do enjoy the occasional podcast here and there. I recently came across “The Chernobyl Podcast”, which explains how the HBO hit show written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck, was made (I have to admit, I haven’t watched the show yet) .To really enjoy the podcast, you gotta watch the show first though. Anyway, I still did listen in a bit and was struck when Craig said (warning: spoilers ahead) “I showed the explosion right in the beginning. I also showed that Valery Legasov, the main investigator, committed suicide in the first couple of minutes. People would have googled this right away anyway.”

I really like this approach. Craig knew, people watching the show would pick up their smartphones and research the events while they are watching. This is what we do nowadays. We are ever connected and can quickly find answers to questions. The brilliant piece for me here is that Craig anticipated what viewers would do. 

Take this and apply it to L&D. When was the last time you anticipated what your learners would do? Instead of creating linear training programs, anticipate what your learners really want, and what they would do even if you spoon-feed them content. Two main options come to mind. 

First, look at data that you can leverage to make educated decisions. What content has been used in the past, what keywords are learners searching for, when do they access content, do they use their mobile phones or a desktop, do they like and share content? This information is extremely helpful. As we all know, actions speak louder than words. 

Second, armed with data, host a hackathon or design thinking session in which you identify learner segments and personas. This way, you can better understand what your learners think and feel, see, hear, and do. You want to identify their pain points and understand what drives them. Going through the exercise of creating personas will help you do exactly that. Ideally, you want to create 3-5 learner personas that represent your typical learner. From there, you can anticipate what content will resonate the most with each persona and start building your content. The best part is, you just increased the chances of content actually being consumed because you identified the learners’ needs and personalized the learner journey as much as possible.

L&D professionals have to start anticipating more with the help of data and design thinking in order to stay afloat. Otherwise, we will drown. 

Want to learn more about learner personas, and other cool tactics you can borrow from marketing? Check out my Little Black Book of Marketing and L&D.

“I don’t like it, but I can’t really say why.”…..“Once I see it, I will be able to tell you if it is what I had envisioned.”…..“I can tell you what I don’t like about it.”

We all heard this feedback from clients before, or even our own internal teams. Design reviews take patience and understanding, but if run well, are certainly an invaluable source of feedback. But what makes a good design review and how can you get the most out of it to elevate your digital learning experiences?

What Is a Design Review

Just to be clear, I’m not referring to instructional design here, but the design of the digital learning experience overall (something overlooked too often): the graphic user interface (GUI), images and photographs, buttons and icons, the user flow and the user experience all of these elements create. First and foremost, the design of any digital learning experience needs to be evaluated against project requirements and outcomes. Yes, it’s not just the content and the instructional design, but the design overall!

Usually, design reviews can be found in product development, but with learning experience design on the rise, L&D professionals should take a good look at this practice. It is a step in which design and development work together and talk about sketches for page layouts, mock-ups of icons and imagery to get feedback on all of these design decisions. It’s not a pitch, but a process to evaluate and critique current design work.

How Do I Conduct a Design Review?

Design reviews are best conducted in a face-to-face or virtual meeting. It’s imperative for the teams to be together, discuss and evaluate work to date and agree on next steps. A design review cannot be conducted through email or instant message. You might be able to share some additional thoughts after a design review meeting, but ensure you make the time to meet in person first. It’s worth it.

It can be helpful to decide on a formal process that supports collaboration, creates a productive environment, is repeatable and most important of all, leads to an improved design. Some rules you could incorporate include:

• Have at least one design review session per project
• Have no more than 6 people in one session
• Bring in different people all the time to broaden point of views
• Bring in people that aren’t familiar with the project to get a fresh perspective
• The primary designer should lead the session

Steps to Take Before a Design Review

Most important of all, the lead designer needs to keep the session moving and under one hour. That means, organization and preparation are key. Once the people that need to attend have been chosen, send a meeting invite and state the overall project overview, the goals and outcomes, as well as timelines, deliverables and constraints. This way, everyone can come prepared to the session. It might be helpful to create a checklist or template to ensure all points are hit. Before the session starts, ensure you have everything ready that you want to show, including mock-ups, prototypes and examples from other projects that could help inspire the team.

Steps to Take During a Design Review

To start the session, the lead designer should state the goals of the design review and what she hopes to achieve at the end of it. Ideally, limit the number of outcomes per session to really focus on only a couple of elements instead of trying to save the world all at once. It is best to write the outcomes on a whiteboard for everyone to see. Question to cover could include:

• What are the first impressions from a 1-second or 5-second test?
• What do we want the learner to do on this page?
• Is that call to action obvious?
• What happens if we remove a section?

Participants should be given ample time (15-25 mins) to explore materials, prototypes and mockups themselves without interruption before going into a productive discussion. Encourage them to take notes throughout, prioritize their feedback, and focus on the end user experience.

Then it’s time to dive into the discussion. Everyone in the room gets to share one piece of feedback at a time; the group then discusses it before moving on to the next item. Capture all feedback in digital format so it can easily be accessed later. No decisions are made during this step. Not everyone will always agree on everything so here are some tips to keep the session moving:

• Avoid feedback that’s subjective or emotional
• Don’t let discussions drag and one person dominate the room
• If people disagree on an idea, write it down for later
• Have participants vote on ideas
• Not every feedback is good so plan to disregard ideas

With ten minutes to spare, wrap up the session and let everyone know that notes will be shared. This way, participants can add more feedback if they wish.

After The Design Review

The lead designer needs time to iterate and think about each piece of feedback. The designer makes the call on what feedback to keep and what feedback to disregard. Remember though, you are not your design so check your ego at the door and really listen to the valuable feedback that was shared. Prioritize the items you wish to change and turn them into actionable items to be addressed by the appropriate people.

A well-organized design review not only supports collaboration within your team, but helps to strengthen your team overall as well as the learning experience. You might even consider adding your clients or learners to these meetings. Designers might find it challenging in the beginning to run design review sessions, but over time, they will be an invaluable tool in your toolbox to help you elevate digital learning experiences.

The phrase “marketing mix” refers to the tools and tactics a company uses to reach its marketing objectives. In L&D, we usually don’t think about all the tools and tactics we have available to pursue our objectives, learning experiences as products, or how to promote and place them within our organization. There is a lot to be learned from marketing.

What Is a Marketing Mix?

In a nutshell, the marketing mix positions the right product, at the right place and price, at the right time. It is most commonly known as the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion.

Through research, marketers ensure that they have the right product in place. Furthermore, they have to keep an eye on declining sales and the possibility to reinvent the product to stimulate more demand. The main question that they need to answer is, “What can I do to offer a better product?” Marketers often look at what customers want from a product, how and where they will use it, and even what the name of the product should be.

Price determines a company’s profit and has a big impact on the marketing strategy by affecting sales and demand of the product. Place dictates how customers access the product. Marketers need to understand their target markets well in order to develop the right distribution strategy. Questions they ask might include where potential customers look for the product and how different distribution channels are accessed.

Lastly, promotion helps marketers boost brand recognition and sales. Marketers often ask themselves about the best time to promote a product and if social media can help promote the product, and they might look at the promotion strategies of competitors. In the services industry, we can often find a modified version of the 4Ps: the 7Ps. This model adds people, process and physical evidence to the mix.

Create an L&D Mix to Engage Learners

In L&D, we can leverage some of this thinking to deliver more effective training. People are the target audience for whom we build our product. L&D professionals already carefully analyze their audience to ensure a learning solution meets their needs.

The product is a particular learning solution, such as compliance training. It is not enough to look at the content itself; L&D professionals should consider how to make this solution better in order to achieve higher completion rates. A simple “click-the-next-button” module is most likely not enough. Instead, think about how you can use a story to draw the learner’s attention to the course and keep them engaged throughout it. Come up with a more catchy title for the course, instead of just calling it “Sexual Harassment Course.” Continuously watch analytics and data to ensure the product meets your objectives. If not, you might have to reinvent the learning solution.

Price might not seem like a component of the L&D mix, but costs need to be considered as training solutions are developed. As L&D professionals come up with exciting ways of delivering training, often, the price tag goes up. It will be your task to sell the higher price tag to your stakeholders and, at the same time, show the value the learning solution brings to the table.

More often than not, training solutions are still delivered through LMSs, which means the place in the L&D mix is often predetermined. However, L&D professionals should consider other access points, such as intranet sites and YouTube. Think about how learners are accessing the course (i.e., mobile versus desktop). Use LMS data and Google Analytics to better understand how and when learners access content. This analysis will help place the product in the right spot.

Promotion strategies are rarely considered when creating new learning solutions. The success of a course is often measured through completion rates, among other metrics. Adding the course to an LMS and sending an email to all employees isn’t enough. L&D professionals should think about ways to promote the product, create excitement and engage learners from the get-go. Think posters, teaser videos, informal lunch meetings or flyers on employees’ desks. Be creative, and see your completion rates go up. To further investigate, ensure you are using additional data points wherever possible, and take evaluations and test results into account.

Process is the overall project planning, from the first ideation to design and all the way through to the end product. It should include all stakeholders. Project management tools can help L&D professionals stay organized.

Free Tools to Help Create An L&D Mix

It might sound daunting to look at L&D through a marketing lens, but there are many helpful free tools out there to get you started. First, to work collaboratively with the rest of your team, find a project management tool that allows you to capture all elements of your L&D mix in one place.

There are also free resource that offer hundreds of designs for your promotion strategy. On these websites, you have access to basic backgrounds, layouts, illustrations, shapes, icons and charts. Once you created a design, you can download it as a JPG, PNG or PDF. Also look for a simple-to-use video tool. These tools are a great way to create online videos and animations that you can share on your social media channels. Some offer predefined slide layouts to choose from and the ability to customize text and color and even add music.

If you feel that a video is too long for the message you want to convey to your learners, or you want to bring some pep to your promotion strategy, try using GIFs. Online programs offer the ability to record a section of your screen from which to create a GIF. Try to keep the GIF frame to the area of interest, and refrain from too much scrolling. You will achieve the best outcomes if your GIF is seven to 10 seconds long.

Marketing and L&D have more in common than we might think, and L&D professionals should not shy away from taking a peek into the marketer’s toolbox to create learning experiences that stick.