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3 Ways To Build Successful L&D Solutions
Ross Stevenson
June 18th, 2024
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Today’s Thoughts ☠️
Ahoy there 👋,
The seasonal allergies aka Hay fever struck me down this week.
I’ve spent my last 7 days wandering around like a ghoul from a horror film. Video calls this week have been prefaced with an explanation that my red nose and bleary eyes are not a product of a cocaine and champagne weekend.
One day, I’d love to learn why the planet I live on wants to try to kill me for 3 months of the year.
Alas, we’re talking too much about me, again!
Today, we’ll explore 3 ways to create a successful L&D solution your audience will care about.
Get your tea or beverage of choice ready, 🍵.
We've got lots to discuss!
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In today’s chat:
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THE BIG THOUGHT
3 Ways To Make Your Audience Care About Your L&D Product
You after using these insights
Like you, I recognise that a lot of the world is run on how well you can sell a product to end users.
This is no different in the L&D world.
Your work doesn’t end with designing a solution. You have to convince people to use it. So, we must learn how to position our fabulous learning products and experiences to succeed.
What’s the number #1 thing you need to do when launching your L&D product?
You need to sell the outcome, not the product.
Not doing this can quickly condemn your product to the graveyard.
I’ve seen several L&D products fail not because they sucked, but because users weren’t aware of the outcome and how it will transform them for the better.
It’s useful to find your best position with your end users. It’s helpful to consider:
Why is this thing useful for them?
How will it improve their life?
These are the questions that we have to answer as L&D pros.
April Dunford, seasoned product positioning consultant and author of “Obviously Awesome“, perfectly frames what we need to do, sharing:
“It is the concept which defines how your product is best in the world at providing some sort of value to a special set or segment of customers who care about that specific value you provide them with.”
Here’s how I learnt from positioning mistakes earlier in my career 👇
1/ Sell less, Solve Problems
No one cares about the product you’ve built.
They care about how it will solve their problem and improve their life. It’s wise to get clear on the answers to these early in your design phase.
They’ll pay dividends when you reach the time to market.
I’ve fallen into this black hole earlier in my career. Build stuff and expect people to organically be excited about it because it helps them, right?
❌ Wrong.
We’re driven by a bounty of emotions.
In the workplace, both social standing and money move mountains in people’s minds. Will x product make them smarter? Tell them. Could an outcome be making more money? They should know.
Key to note: Don’t lie or clickbait. That’s just dumb.
Whatever promise you make must be delivered upon. Be smart with your words and intent.
I hit brick walls because I was trying to sell the L&D solution, not the problems it solved. Consider this next time you’re seeking buy-in from stakeholders and end users.
What problem are you solving?
2/ Less Robot, More Human
Most course and resource titles suck.
They’re often so vague, we leave the participant confused as to why they’re useful for them. This is super unhelpful.
When users don’t behave the way L&D teams expect them to with content and courses, they blame the individual. That’s easy to do, yet rarely the real reason. Instead, look to the experience they engage with.
Writing well, especially for attention, is a key component of our life and practice.
If you present a fabulous learning solution to your audience with boring and basic words, do you expect fireworks of excitement?
I think not!
Putting this into practice
In the visual example, we get real on how feedback is hard.
We must relate to our audience.
Talking like a robot and saying “Improve your feedback” is boringly flat. It doesn’t spark as an aspirational statement, right?
I find it helpful to meet people as a fellow learner because we all are. Recognising the activity of feedback is hard and you find that too, helps set a co-partnering context.
3/ Talk Skills, Not Features
Share the benefits your audience will get by engaging with your product.
Don’t share a feature list of what it contains. Yes, that means those huge bullet lists that feature on too many course pages.
Tell the story of how it will transform them.
The visual above works because we promise to build the desired outcome. We’re positioning our product to the audience which will get the most value from it. Just like April Dunford advises.
We’re sharing 3 tips on FB to use immediately.
You’ll learn how to share feedback like a pro (tactical promise)
You’ll understand how to improve and feel better about the process (outcome).
And, all in one sentence.
The BEST framework to nail your product positioning
What I’m about to share with you is a real-world superpower
I use this framework to clarify my thinking across so many creative tasks.
I keep this in my note-taking app. It comes from marketing guru Ann Handley’s book, Everybody Writes.
I always need to be laser-focused on:
Why am I building x thing?
Who is it for?
Why should they care about it?
We don’t need to fill up the world with more generic content/courses.
This framework will help you make sense of everything. You’ll want to keep a note of this somewhere.
Why am I creating this? What’s my objective?
What is my key take on the subject or issue? What’s my thesis? My point of view?
And, finally, the critical So what/Because exercise: Why does it matter to the people you are trying to reach?
Don’t overcomplicate this.
Write down what comes to mind and cut away the fat later. Your final act is to put all of this into one sentence.
As an example.
Let’s say I’m working on an idea around generative AI upskilling for an L&D team.
My answers would look like:
To help L&D pros figure out how to intelligently apply gen AI tools in their work vs using 1000s of tools for no reason.
My key take is to assess tasks we do to see where/if gen AI tools can enhance what we do.
It matters because you need the right tool for the job and to understand the latest world developments in work. Gen AI isn’t the answer to everything. But, you shouldn’t ignore it if it can help.
In one sentence: Help L&D pros make the right choices with AI tools with a solid assessment framework.
If I were building an L&D solution, that sentence would be my mission. This clarity enables me to design, position and promote effectively.
Final Thoughts
Our work has never been about design alone.
Product positioning and long-term promotion are a huge part of what we do. Why spend precious time crafting a high-quality L&D product, only to let it die days after its release? That makes no sense to me.
Consider how you can put into practice what we’ve unpacked today.
Till next time.
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SMART THOUGHTS
🤔 Use these 5 steps to become AI confident
All this AI stuff gets weirder than a Stephen King novel every day.
You might be more confused than rewatching The Shining, and that’s not your fault. I put together this little video guide to help you cut through the noise and arm you with what you need to know.
💡 How to know what not to do
The best advice I ever share is “Figure out what you don’t want to do”.
It seems counterintuitive, I know.
However, it seems to have helped a lot of people, including me. The best way to know what you want to do with your time and life is to deeply understand what you don’t want to do.
Dive deeper into that thought.
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