How to Be Successful in the E-Learning Industry

Here’s something that I see all the time and is common to many people in the training industry. After the project launches, a client sends a glowing email to her VP about the training rollout. She praises the whole team but doesn’t mention the instructional designer once.

That scenario plays out more often than you’d expect, and it’s worth having a plan for it. In fact, we always joke that when something is successful marketing takes the credit; and when it fails, it’s all training’s fault.

Obviously, it’s important to provide measurable value. However, a large part of success revolves around how others view your contributions. Thus it’s important to manage how you work with customers and how they understand your contributions.

If you’re just getting started, here are some things to keep in mind:

Please your customers

Your customer is whoever commissions the course. But your manager also shapes how your work is perceived, even if they’re not the direct client. Managing both relationships well is what separates designers who thrive from those who feel invisible.

Here are a few basics that make a real difference:

• Set expectations in writing. Document the project details and get sign-off before work starts. This way everyone is on the same page. I create a Service Level Agreement that documents the project details and expectations.
• Make your customers look good. Send encouraging updates and copy their managers. Pass credit along whenever you can.
• Control costs and stay on schedule. Pad your timeline a bit to account for other issues, agree on a deadline, then aim to finish early. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re early because they may not be prepared for it, but it builds your reputation and how they perceive you.
• Anticipate problems before they surface. Think through what could derail the project and have a workaround ready before anyone asks. After doing a number of projects, you should get to a point where you have a better understanding of the types of things that could derail it.

Know what the organization actually wants

It’s easy to get caught up in the craft of instructional design and building courses and then lose sight of the bigger picture. You’re hired to help the organization meet specific goals. Those goals, and the metrics used to measure them, should drive almost every decision you make.

When you sit down with a client, steer the conversation toward measurable outcomes. Ask what behavior they want to change, and what number would tell them it worked. If there’s no clear metric, like in some compliance training, track cost savings or time reduction instead.

Report your results

Good results don’t speak for themselves. You need to show your work. Here are three ways to do that:

• Measure performance before and after the training. Pre-assess learners, then compare scores after. You may not change real-world performance on your own, but you can document what shifted during the training.
• Track what was saved. Not every course has performance metrics. In those cases, measure time saved from reduced travel or in-person sessions. Compare your production costs to what an outside vendor would charge.
• Connect with the team that owns the data. Training is often just one part of a larger performance effort. Once you know what the client is measuring, find out where those numbers come from. Build relationships with the people who collect and report results.

Key takeaways

Strong e-learning careers are built on more than technical skill. The designers who last manage expectations, stay goal-focused, and tell the story of their work. Start with one or two of these habits and build from there.