Discovery / Background Meeting
For larger corporate projects I follow the SAM model. SAM is an agile process that when used properly gets us to the best possible solution concept by brainstorming ideas at the start, throwing out ones quickly that aren’t optimal, and ultimately saving time and costs by the time we get to development. I liken it to home building. The better we concept the needs at the start and see it come together, the higher confidence that the finished product will be excellent and hit all of your expectations. For smaller projects with less variables, interactions and performance complexity, one or two iterations work well. For larger scale projects I try to go for three concepts to get to the ultimate solution.
The Discovery Meeting is an opportunity to uncover some critical analysis of your needs and goals. The goals outlined below will apply to most any corporate project. For less corporate and more general informational training with fewer performance objectives and treatments, the meeting questions will be paired down. These meetings were almost exclusively held in person some years back, but with a remote workforce the transition to holding effective online sessions has become a critical skillset for any learning development team. Fortunately, there are some great tools to help expedite and record the process.
Meeting Goals
- What is the expected performance outcome? This often determines the type of product that needs to be created.
- Who is the target audience?
- Will there be different audiences requiring branched experiences?
- Is this a new process or upskilling of current performance gaps?
- What has worked well in the past? What has not?
- How does the work flow from one area to another?
- What training is currently available?
Iterative Design
Iterative Design gets us off on the right foot. We first create an outline / storyboard to make sure that course topics, interactions, challenges and feedback fully covers what was discussed in Discovery in an easy to update format. What starts as a textual outline will end in a Design Proof stood up in the final development tool itself. This is where Review 360 commenting is a huge benefit. Together we will review a few visual prototypes that follow the storyboard. Keep in mind, the less interactive a course is the quicker the prototyping and proofing process will be. The more complex the course, we want to make sure we have it right before we build the final.
Iterative Development
Not unlike design, Iterative Development can be anywhere from one to three quick rounds. This is made up of the Alpha, Beta and Gold product iteration process. Once again, we will use Review 360 to gain comments after each phase and apply them to the next phase.
The Alpha product has to be what we call an MVP product, or “minimally viable”. That means it is fully functional based on all objectives and ready to be road tested. If it had to be released today, it would be complete and successful.
For many smaller projects, completion is often approved after the requested Beta updates are made. In the case of new corporate systems where new rules and functionality may be developed by IT concurrently with our project, we may get to Gold before a rollout is warranted.