Work out what the training needs to do before anyone builds it.
Most training projects start with a format decision. A course, a video series, a workshop. That is the last decision that should be made, not the first.
What is a learning needs analysis?
A learning needs analysis identifies the gap between what people can currently do and what the business needs them to do, before any content is designed. It is the difference between training that changes behaviour and training that exists because someone asked for it.
Julia Mattey starts every engagement here. It is usually the shortest phase and the one that saves the most money, because it prevents the common failure of building a well-produced course aimed at the wrong problem.
What does an e-learning strategy actually contain?
The audience and what constrains them, the skills gap and how it will be measured, the formats and platforms that fit, the production process, and the order things get built in.
It also contains what will not be built. On most projects the useful output is a smaller scope than the one the client arrived with.
When does an organisation need a learning strategy rather than a course?
When the same training keeps going out of date, when different teams are producing conflicting material, when onboarding takes longer than it should, or when a product release cycle keeps outrunning the training that supports it.
Those are process problems. Commissioning another course solves them until the next release.
What this usually includes.
- ✓Learning needs analysis and skills gap mapping
- ✓Audience and stakeholder analysis
- ✓Format and platform recommendations
- ✓Curriculum architecture and build order
- ✓Production process design
- ✓Measurement approach
Where this has been done.
Training for rapidly evolving HCP-facing software was going out of date faster than the agency model could keep up with. Julia Mattey designed a global blueprint and production process in Articulate Rise, catalogued in Cornerstone.
Read the case study →Curriculum, learning architecture, more than a hundred instructional videos, blended programmes and the university partnerships behind them. Coventry, Bristol, Aberdeen, Nottingham and Manchester.
Read the case study →Fifteen e-learning products spread across WordPress and ActiveCampaign, migrated to Kajabi for 5,000 users. Hierarchies, sequencing, drip content and navigation all restructured on the way through.
Read the case study →Common questions.
What is the difference between learning strategy and instructional design?
Learning strategy decides what should be built and why. Instructional design decides how it is structured and produced. Julia Mattey works across both, which is why the strategy stays grounded in what can actually be built rather than becoming a document nobody uses.
How long does a learning needs analysis take?
It depends on the size of the audience and how many subject matter experts are involved, but it is usually the shortest phase of an engagement. The aim is to spend days here rather than weeks, and to arrive at the experts with specific questions rather than open ones.
Can Julia Mattey deliver a strategy without building the training?
Yes. Some engagements end with a plan the internal team executes. The strategy is written to be handed over rather than to require the person who wrote it.
Other services.
Tell me what is not working.
If your training is expensive to maintain, slow to update, or not landing with the people it is for, I can usually tell you fairly quickly whether that is a content problem, a platform problem or a process problem.