Creating personalized learning experiences to increase engagement
To prepare for the launch of a new platform I worked with learning experience designers to create high-context, personalized learning experiences that would drive deeper learner engagement and satisfaction and better business results.
My role
Product design
Team
Product manager
3 Learning experience designers
The Background
The LifeLabs team wanted to scale by offering self-service digital memberships. High-context learning experiences could be a key to success.
LifeLabs Learning is a B2B professional training company that offers 2-hour live soft skills workshops both in-person and virtually as well as on-demand courses and resources. The company became successful selling private programs to one client at a time. In order to scale, they added a self-service digital membership. To counteract the steep drop-off rates typical of digital learning, the LifeLabs product team decided to experiment with a few approaches to high-context, personalized learning experiences to maximize engagement.
Why High-Context Learning Experiences?
72% of people expect personalized experiences
According to a 2021 McKinsey Report, 72% of people sxpect the businesses they buy from to recognize them as individuals and know their interests
Only 23% of employees are engaged at work
According to a Gallup Poll of over 120,000+ people, only 23% were engaged at work in 2022. Disengagement can lead to high turnover and lost productivity.
Adults learn best when the application is clear
According to Knowles' andragogy learning theory, there are six pillars of how adults learn. All are related to meeting the the learner where they are with material that is relevant to them.
High-Level Success Metric
80% of learners attend at least two workshops within 90 days.
80% is the industry-standard rebooking rate. Initial research suggested that if a learner attended 2 workshops, they would likely attend more. Clients expect this level of engagement.
Impact Goals
Increase client satisfaction, attendance and retention rates.
Automatically increasing learner participation without additional sponsor effort increases their return-on-investment.
Increase product adoption and revenue.
Increased attendance rates and satisfaction scores inspire clients to hire LifeLabs and expand their existing programs.
Decreased administrative burden.
Inspire high learner registration so the internal team doesn’t have to coach sponsors to increase attendance.
Actual Project Outcomes
We decided to buy, not build our platform.
We realized that we needed a “pretty good” fast solution fast more than we needed a custom-fit solution that would take more time. As a result, we white-labeled another company’s platform, and have not shipped the features we prototyped—yet.
We validated the need for high-context, personalized learning experiences.
Our research confirmed that providing learners with workshop recommendations tailored to their experience, upcoming challenges and organizational goals would boost registration and engagement. Creating these experiences is still on our product roadmap. Just a little further down the road.
We upleveled each other and turbocharged our team collaboration style.
We learned how to solve problems together and build off of each others’ subject matter expertise. I got the Learning Experience Designers using FigJam, and they got me reading up on LifeLabs behavioral units and the six stages of the employee lifecycle. Our trust and creativity became stronger than ever.
User Research and Jobs-to-be-Done
Learners needed to know how workshops were relevant to their current challenges and to their team to register and stay engaged.
We interviewed 6 learners, 13 sponsors, and 10 internal team members about the LifeLabs Learning learner experience, and used common themes as the basis for learner-centered Jobs-to-be-Done statements.
User Problems
Guilt about time away from work. “Two hours is a lot of time to carve out during the middle of the work day for a workshop.”
Irrelevant or redundant content. “The workshops cover topics in such an elementary way. It feels like they are intended for people new to the workforce.”
Lack of social context. “Sometimes it’s difficult to know which workshops are relevant for my organization and to stay motivated. I’d like to be able to see what others recommend and share my progress with them.”
Project Goals
We set to prototype experiences that would curate workshops based on learners’ personal and team needs so the value of the commitment was clear.
I prototyped a different solution with each of the three Learning Experience Designers on our team. Each one focused on one of the goals below.
A concrete link to key goals. When I feel guilty about taking time to focus on professional development, help me see how it can increase personal and organizational growth.
Relevant, timely help. When learners struggle to find for relevant workshops, help them identify the ones that best align with what they need right now.
A learning community. When I want to use LifeLabs content to grow as a leader, connect me with other learners so we can motivate each other, share learnings, and discuss how to apply them at work.
Solution 1: Linkup Map Maker
Helping learners make the link between their learning experience and organizational success
Our programs lacked focus. Our platform didn’t support aligning programs to client goals, which could be a key differentiator.
Learner filling out a Linkup Map Maker survey to help them make the connection between their next workshop and a company goal and figure out how to fill in the gaps between them.
The problem
Guilt about time away from work. “Two hours is a lot of time to carve out during the middle of the work day for a workshop.”
The goal
Clarify the benefit. When I feel guilty about taking time for a workshop, help me see how it can concretely increase personal and organizational growth.
The solution
Start with why. One of the core LifeLabs “Behavioral Units” is called a LinkUp. It’s an explicit connection of an action to its goal. When someone understand why they’re doing something, they can make better decisions about how to do it and they are more motivated to take action related to it. We decided to practice what we teach and apply this to the task of taking a workshop.
End with better follow-through. We designed an in-app survey to help learners create a LinkUp Map connecting their workshop to one of their company goals in order to not only improve engagement, but also behavior change and business impact results afterwards.
Rachel, Learning Experience Designer
“I had an aha moment and realized that our digital learning experience should put our core intellectual property into action, improving our key metrics and showing the efficacy of our approach at the same time. There are many potential extensions of this idea.”
Solution 2: Prime Performance Coach
Directing learners to timely content to help them transform their careers
The learner receives an email notification to review their Learning Report and share it with their manager. On the platform, they see a notification to take a workshop to prepare for an upcoming work milestone.
The problem
Irrelevant or redundant content. “The workshops cover topics in such an elementary way. It feels like they are intended for people new to the workforce.”
The goals
Relevant, timely content. When learners struggle to find for the right workshop for them, help them the ones that best align with their experience and current needs.
The solution
Just-in-time learning. We designed an onboarding survey to glean where a learner’s role level (independent contributor, manager, or director) and what professional milestones were coming up for them at work (big presentations, performance reviews, etc). Based on that information, we created notifications recommending learning actions at strategic times. For example: “Your review is two weeks away. This would be a good time to take a feedback workshop.”
Proof of progress. In addition, we designed a weekly one-question survey prompting the learner to record occasions when they put a LifeLabs Behavioral Unit into action. At the end of the quarter, we notified them that their Learning Report was available for them to review and to share with their manager if they wished.
Nyasha, Learning Experience Designer
“As a learning experience designer, I was used to doing everything myself. This project taught me that it’s important to bring in the product designer immediately because the two disciplines influence each other a lot.”
Solution 3: Skill Set Progress Tracker
Motivate learners to build new skills with social sharing
A learner checks their progress toward achieving various Skill Set badges on their dashboard, and checks their organization’s page to see who has LifeLabs’ Learning questions or successes that they can respond to.
The problem
Lack of social context. “Sometimes it’s difficult to know which workshops are relevant for my organization and to stay motivated. I’d like to be able to see what others recommend and share my progress with them.”
The goal
A learning community. When I want to use LifeLabs content to grow as a leader, connect me with other learners so we can motivate each other, share learnings, and discuss how to apply them at work.
The solution
Give bragging rights. We organized our workshops into groups based on what skill set they related to so that if you took all the workshops in a given group, you earned a Skill Set Badge that you could share within your organization, or even on LinkedIn. Learning widely relevant skills is a reward in itself, but it’s more fun when you can show it off a little.
Provide community support. Learner often struggle with similar problems related to how to apply the learning in their roles, or even just how to navigate the nuances of their workplace culture. We designed a way for them to share in each others successes, and to provide support and advice to others who were in the same boat as them.
“I knew that social context and accountability was key to successful learning, and after hearing it from learner interviewees, I knew I had to run with it. I cannot wait until we get the chance to implement this.”
Tara, Learning Experience Designer