Instructional Design Evolution: Human Skills Matter

I know these two people are going to say what is on their mind. This conversation does not disappoint. The real value of instructional design is not the shiny output, but the behind the scenes work that happens before you touch a tool. #PerformanceFirst #AnalysisMatters

Instructional Design is Not Content Beautification “Can you just make this look engaging?” That one sentence has probably cost organizations millions in wasted training. SME: “I’ve created 110 slides. Everything is covered. Just add some interactivity.” Instructional Designer: “What should the learner be able to do after this?” SME: “They should understand the process.” Instructional Designer: “Understand… or perform?” SME: “…Well, perform.” Instructional Designer: “Then why are we explaining the process instead of making them practice it?” SME: “…Can we just add a few quizzes and scenarios?” And there it is. The biggest misunderstanding in Instructional Design. Most stakeholders think: - Content = Learning - Interactivity = Engagement - Quizzes = Effectiveness Reality? - Content ≠ Capability - Clicking ≠ Thinking - Quizzes ≠ Behavior Change If your role as an ID is reduced to: Adding icons Breaking text into slides Inserting “knowledge checks.” You’re not designing learning. You’re formatting information. Instructional Design starts where content ends. It asks: What decisions will the learner make differently? What mistakes should they practice safely? What real-world situations should they navigate? I’ve seen beautifully designed courses fail. And I’ve seen raw, simple simulations drive real performance change. Because learning is not about how it looks. It’s about what changes after it. If your learner cannot perform differently after the course… The course didn’t work. No matter how “engaging” it looked. Curious—how often are you asked to “make it interactive” instead of “make it effective”? #InstructionalDesign #LearningExperienceDesign #LXD #CorporateLearning #LearningAndDevelopment #ELearning #LearningScience #Upskilling #FutureOfWork

Why Asking the Right Questions Is One of the Most Important Skills in Instructional Design. Before any course is created, before any storyboard is written, before any tool is opened — There’s one thing that defines the quality of the final outcome: The questions you ask. Many training requests start like this: • “We need a course on this topic.” • “Employees are making mistakes.” • “Create a quick module.” If an Instructional Designer jumps straight into development, there’s a high chance of solving the wrong problem. Strong Instructional Designers slow down and ask: • What business problem are we trying to solve? • Who is the learner, and what do they struggle with? • What behavior needs to change? • When and where will this learning be applied? • What happens if we don’t solve this? These questions bring clarity. They help: • Identify real performance gaps • Avoid unnecessary content • Choose the right learning strategy • Align learning with business outcomes In many cases, the difference between: an average course and an impactful learning solution is not the tool, design, or visuals. It’s the quality of questions asked at the beginning. Because in Instructional Design, better questions don’t just give better answers— they lead to better solutions. So IDs, let me know what question did you ask from your stakeholders today? #InstructionalDesign #LearningAndDevelopment #PerformanceConsulting #WorkplaceLearning #LearningStrategy

So, what actually makes someone a strong instructional designer today...in the world of AI? Well, ya know...if you spend five minutes on LinkedIn, you might think the answer is how quickly someone can build something flashy, convert a quiz into a ping pong game, or use AI to crank out "one-click course creation." But I don’t think that’s the answer at all. In fact, I think we’re moving in the opposite direction. As tools get faster and content development becomes easier to automate, the development side of instructional design is becoming a smaller and smaller part of the overall skillset. That work still matters, of course. But what will matter even more going forward is everything around it...your ability to... - collaborate with the business - ask thoughtful questions - work with SMEs - identify real problems - make smart decisions - and navigate the messy tradeoffs that come with real-world projects. That’s the kind of work AI can’t do for you. And it’s the kind of work that separates someone who knows how to use tools from someone who actually knows how to practice instructional design. That’s exactly what Heidi Kirby, PhD and I talked about in a new conversation I’m publishing tomorrow. We get into why foundational instructional design skills matter more now than ever, why tools-first thinking is a trap, and why so much weak instructional design is being exposed right now. Because the truth is...if all you bring to the table is the ability to generate content faster, that’s not much of a flex. What will continue to matter is your judgment, your discernment, your communication skills, and your ability to solve the right problem...not just build the thing. The video goes live tomorrow, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if this conversation resonates with you or your team, it’s exactly why I created my Instructional Design Certificate Program. It’s an 8-week, live, hands-on program focused on practicing the real work of instructional design...analysis, decision-making, collaboration, and designing solutions that actually solve performance problems. The first session kicks off the first week of April...And if you enroll yourself or your team before March 20th, you can save $500 with the Founder’s Discount. 🔗 Learn more and see the upcoming dates here: https://bit.ly/4cugk7X #eLearning #InstructionalDesign #LearningAndDevelopment

Good instructional design is not just about making content look better. It’s about making learning clearer, more usable, and more meaningful. For me, instructional design always starts with the learner. Every decision I make—whether it’s structuring a module, designing an activity, or choosing a tool—comes back to one question: What does the learner need to succeed here? That means: • Designing with accessibility as a baseline, not an afterthought (clear structure, alt text, captions, color contrast, multiple ways to engage) • Building with alignment in mind (objectives → activities → assessments all working together with purpose) • Prioritizing clarity over complexity (intuitive navigation, consistent weekly structure, streamlined content) • Creating practical, applied learning experiences (real-world scenarios, meaningful discussions, opportunities to apply—not just consume) I don’t design for content delivery—I design for learning outcomes. Because when courses are intentionally designed, learners don’t just complete them… they understand, apply, and carry that learning forward. What principle guides your design decisions most?

12 Common Misconceptions About Instructional Designers… and the Truth That Changes How We Understand Their Role In many organizations, the role of the instructional designer is still widely misunderstood. It is often reduced to designing slides or organizing content, while the reality is far more complex. Here are 12 common beliefs… and what the reality actually shows: 1️⃣ Belief: Instructional designers are just slide designers. Reality: Their work begins by analyzing the problem or the performance gap before any design starts. 2️⃣ Belief: Their job is to turn content into a visually appealing presentation. Reality: Their role is to design learning experiences that lead to real performance change. 3️⃣ Belief: Instructional design starts with content. Reality: It starts with analyzing the gap between current and desired performance. 4️⃣ Belief: Every performance problem can be solved with training. Reality: Many problems are caused by the environment, processes, or incentives—not by a lack of training. 5️⃣ Belief: Instructional designers only work in the education sector. Reality: They work across all industries because every organization needs to develop its people. 6️⃣ Belief: Training is the core activity of instructional designers. Reality: Training is just one tool within a broader performance improvement system. 7️⃣ Belief: Instructional design is simply organizing content. Reality: It is a discipline grounded in learning theories and cognitive psychology. 8️⃣ Belief: Learning happens simply by presenting information. Reality: Effective learning requires interaction, practice, retrieval, and feedback. 9️⃣ Belief: The goal of training is to deliver as much information as possible. Reality: The real goal is learning that can be applied in real work contexts. 🔟 Belief: Evaluation means a final test at the end of the program. Reality: Evaluation measures changes in knowledge, behavior, and performance impact. 1️⃣1️⃣ Belief: The instructional designer’s role ends when the program launches. Reality: The real work continues through impact measurement, analysis, and continuous improvement. 1️⃣2️⃣ Belief: Instructional designers are simply content creators. Reality: True instructional designers lead the learning journey—from performance gap analysis to measuring impact. At its core, an instructional designer is not merely a content developer… but a strategic partner in developing human capability within organizations. #InstructionalDesign #LearningDesign #HumanPerformance #TalentDevelopment #LearningExperienceDesign #WorkplaceLearning

One of the most challenging aspects of instructional design is collaborating with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). This challenge doesn't stem from a lack of knowledge; rather, it arises from the abundance of it. SMEs often aim to include everything: • Every detail • Every exception • Every scenario In contrast, instructional designers prioritize a different focus: What does the learner actually need to do? Our role is not to capture all knowledge but to identify: • Critical tasks • Key decisions • Common mistakes • Real-world application The most effective learning experiences emerge when SMEs and instructional designers engage in true collaboration. SMEs contribute their expertise, while instructional designers provide the necessary structure. Together, they create impactful learning that resonates.

One of my most intriguing process since learning about instructional design is storyboarding. I used to think storyboarding was just a mere box to tick before the work started. I was completely wrong. A storyboard is where your thinking gets exposed. You cannot hide vague ideas behind good-looking slides when you are working frame by frame, deciding exactly what happens on screen, what the learner hears, what they do, and why it’s in that order. It strips design down to its skeleton and the skeleton either holds or it doesn’t. Here is what storyboarding actually does that nothing else can: ▪️ It forces sequence thinking. You stop asking what should I include? and start asking what comes first, and why? ▪️ It exposes every design gaps: A weak transition, a missing explanation, a learning objective with no corresponding activity, all of it surfaces on a storyboard before you’ve built a single slide. ▪️ It separates content from experience. Writing out what a learner sees, hears, and does on each screen makes you realize that information and learning experience are not the same thing. ▪️ It makes collaboration cleaner. A storyboard gives stakeholders something concrete to respond to before you’ve invested hours building. ▪️It trains your instructional thinking. Every frame is a small decision and making hundreds of small decisions deliberately is how your design instinct actually develops. I’m documenting my full journey into instructional design in public, the tools, the frameworks, the lessons and more. One of my key discoveries; good slides can mask bad thinking, astoryboard cannot. Are you an instructional designer? I’d love to know do you storyboard every project or only the complex ones? Tell me below. #elearningdeveloper #instructionaldesigner

One thing people rarely talk about in Instructional Design is ambiguity. When people imagine the role of an Instructional Designer, they think the process looks something like this: Clear content → Clear objective → Design course → Launch training. But in reality, things are rarely that simple. Very often, Instructional Designers receive inputs like: • “Create a training on this topic.” • “Employees are making mistakes, we need training.” • “Here is a 120-page document, convert it into a course.” Sometimes even the Subject Matter Experts are unsure about what exactly should be included. This is where Instructional Designers play a critical role. Instead of jumping straight into development, they start by bringing clarity to the chaos. They do this by: • Asking the right questions • Identifying the actual performance gap • Breaking down complex information • Structuring content logically • Aligning learning objectives with business needs In many ways, Instructional Designers act like problem interpreters. They take ambiguous inputs and transform them into clear, structured learning experiences. And that is not just a design skill. It is a thinking skill. Because sometimes the biggest value an Instructional Designer brings is not the course they build. It’s the clarity they create before the course is even designed. #InstructionalDesign #LearningAndDevelopment #WorkplaceLearning #PerformanceConsulting #LearningStrategy

If you’re an Instructional Designer… this is your reminder: It doesn’t stop here. Instructional Design is not the final destination. It’s the foundation. The goal? To grow into a Learning Strategist. Because anyone can build content. Not everyone can: 🧠 Diagnose performance gaps 🎯 Align learning to business outcomes 📊 Measure real impact 🤝 Influence stakeholders 🔍 Identify when training isn’t even the solution That’s the shift. From building to thinking. From creating to solving. From executing to leading. The strongest Instructional Designers don’t just ask, “What should I build?” They ask, “Why does this matter—and what will change because of it?” If you want to evolve, focus here: 🧩 Stop thinking in slides. Start thinking in systems. Learning lives in behavior and performance. 📈 Measure beyond completion. If nothing changes, nothing worked. 🎯 Design for action, not awareness. Knowing is not doing. 🤝 Strengthen your voice. Your ability to guide stakeholders matters just as much as your design skills. 🛠 Use frameworks with intention. ADDIE, Kirkpatrick—these are tools to drive results, not boxes to check. This field needs more than builders. It needs thinkers, problem solvers, and strategists. So yes—master your craft. But don’t get comfortable there. Grow beyond it. #InstructionalDesign #LearningStrategist #LearningAndDevelopment #LearningExperienceDesign #AdultLearning #CareerGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #Upskill #PerformanceImprovement