3 mistakes I've made as a Learning Designer
It was January 2020, right before COVID hit. I flew to San Jose, California for the annual Associate for Talent Development (ATD) Tech Knowledge Conference. I was meandering the conference floor when Brian Washburn, a friend and leader in the learning space walked up to me. He pulled me aside to record for his L&D podcast, Train like you Listen.
We're chatting it up when Brian asks something along the lines of, "What's the title of your memoir in 6 words?"
As a 90s kid, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" One of Ms. Frizzle's famous catchphrases in the 1990s animated show The Magic School Bus. I loved how she embraced the positive in things we see as mistakes or negatives.
And yes, I admit, I have made a lot of mistakes throughout my career. I'm sure I will make a lot more too. And it's okay. Everyone makes mistakes. It's a part of learning.
In the summer of 2021, you may have read an article about an intern at HBO accidentally sending out an empty test email to a good portion of customers on a mailing list.
It may have been a mistake but it also exposed a flaw in a system that could prevent similar mistakes from reoccurring.
Mistakes are an opportunity to make improvements, not just for yourself but also others. I know I'm turning my mistakes into something positive when I have learned from them or I've taken an action that can help myself and others in a similar situation.
So, what about those mistakes that I've made? Here are 3 mistakes I made while I was working as a learning designer.
1. That time I coded a guide that no one else could update
What happened: I have to admit that I have been a repeat offender when it comes this one. My partner was in a coding boot camp and I decided I would learn how to code as well. At the time there weren't really any responsive cloud based authoring tools available. With code I could create a similar experience to those tools.
I was working on a project to help candidates through on-boarding. A large chunk of the population used mobile devices, so I decided to code a responsive site. About two years down the line the guide needed a major overhaul due to changes in law. I was the only person who could update it but at the time I was on another project. Thankfully by then our team had a cloud based authoring tool that made it easy for anyone to update content. Soon after I moved the content to the new tool there were updates that needed to be made on a regular cadence.
What I do differently: I'm all for coding when the benefits for the user outweigh the risks. If the content cannot be updated and needs to then what good is it? If anything it's more of a risk to the users. When it comes to coding, there also needs to be permanent roles on the team that have those skills or at least easy to follow documentation on how to make changes. Moving forward I ask questions like, Is there any chance this content will change? Who will need to update it if so? Can any other technology accomplish the same thing in a way that saves time and has less requirements? Later down the line my team created a matrix that helped us determine when to use what technology related to specific needs.
2. When I corrupted a course right before the launch of a program
What happened: I was in my first role at Amazon and I was about to launch a course related to a very special package delivery initiative. I had just started on-boarding on using our learning management system. I published the course. Everything worked flawlessly. Users started to take the course.
Someone pointed out information that needed to change. I modified the course and it was updated for everyone who was in progress, completed, or hadn't started it yet. What I didn't realize was that the edit I made changed the course structure and it broke the whole course. I'm talking the whole thing. The screen looked like a tv had been dropped from a 5 story building and you tried to turn it back on. It was that bad. I panicked. Luckily my mistake was one that was easy to reverse before damage was done. I called over my manager who quickly helped me to fix the error.
What I do differently: I sometimes ask to shadow and record an expert when it comes to new or infrequent high risk systems tasks. I ask questions that will help me identify what will happen if I do things in a certain way. What is the impact to our learners?
Later when I became a people leader we made it a part of our team process to engage with our LMS experts when it came to more complicated high risk tasks that we didn't conduct frequently. Also, when in doubt ask for help. If you've done your best and you're still uncertain it's more than okay to ask for help. Lastly, test, test, test. Especially test in a sandbox if you have one available.
3. When I spent a weekend creating a course that 5 people took
What happened: That week I was assigned to create a course for the launch of a system. It was a last minute need. The course was filled with practice simulations to help learners get used to the new system, similar to other launches. My stakeholder was adamant that the course had to be ready to assign by Sunday. It would be Monday in the country that it was launching in that week and people needed time to practice. If the learners didn't know how to use the system there would be issues potentially involving a loss of money. I was told there would be a few hundred people who needed it. I worked all weekend to get the course out. By the time the course had been out for a month 5 people had taken it. I had never set any boundaries or expectations with my stakeholder. I just said yes and begrudgingly kept working.
What I do differently: When hearing about the requirements, (knowing there could be a loss of money) I should have stated alternative temporary solutions that I could commit to in that timeframe and to make plans for practice as a fast follow. I also never put together a plan on communications for the course. My stakeholder stated they would own them. Following up I found out the course had been communicated through an email which wasn't effective. Now I take much more of a consultative approach, I have hours pre-scoped for different types of work (which I shared with others on my team). I offer multiple solutions to my stakeholders outlining the best solution, what it will take, and why. At the start of my projects I include a list on who owns what when it comes to communications and details around how materials will get to learners.
What's one mistake you have made in the past and what do you do differently now? Share in the comments.
-Mel
My favorite shortsighted blunder was when my team was getting drunk on the fact that we could create click-through simulations (way back in the day when this was a new thing). So, we created a high-fidelity how to log into the system simulation. We were so proud of ourselves. Looked JUST like the system. Worked beautifully. Then, after launch, someone just said "if someone has an issue logging in, wouldn't it be more helpful to have something printed they could look at instead of making them go to a simulation?". One facepalm and a few minutes later, a much less overengineered and much more effective PDF onesheet was born. Any time I start to get shiny object syndrome, I relive this moment and ground myself.
This past month, I have been part of a process of filming new physical therapy instructional videos for a client. During this process, I created a very detailed excel sheet with every single piecce of information that I thought would be necessary. It wasn't until a meetinig this past week that a cco-worker of mine mentioned that they were looking through the excel sheet that I created for over 30 minutes trying to figure out what each tab meant and what how it fit in the bigger picture of the videos that were beiing filmed. It was then I realized that I had spent so much time creatinig something that only I understood without realizing that others would be affected by that. I was fortunate enough that I was able to make the changes necessary to make it easier for all to understand moving forward. I'm with you in point #1, I am guilty of it.
Well, I actually started learning Graphics design 6 years ago, after taking so many courses, I then decided to learn motion graphics, then 2D animation, 3D modeling and was on my way to 3D animation, that wasn't the real mistake, the mistake was that I wanted to sell all of them at once, which is kinda crazy now that I think about it, what was I actually thinking back then... It's was after a few questions and failures, of course, I then realized I had to go back to my roots and grow from within, improve on myself and focus. Mistakes I feel like I made though are much but what I appreciate is the lessons learnt from it. ❤️
This is a great
Someone passed on this anagram by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam that I’ve been reflecting on. FAIL = First Attempt In Learning That combined with quotes by Ms. Frizzle, and I’m inspired to brush of the dirt and ice the bruises. Thanks for the great post