Five Questions to Ask Before Your Team Builds Training

“We need training.”

It’s one of the most common ways a learning project begins.

A new process is launching. Performance isn’t where leaders want it. Employees are making mistakes. A system is changing.

And almost immediately, the conversation turns to the solution.

Should we build eLearning?

How long should the course be?

Do we need a video?

When can it launch?

But there’s a step missing.

We haven’t diagnosed the problem yet.

Before deciding what to build, learning teams should answer five questions.

1. What Is Happening Today?

Start with observable performance.

Not:

“Employees need to understand the process.”

Instead:

“Employees are skipping three steps in the process.”

The second statement gives us something we can investigate.

2. What Should People Be Doing Differently?

Define the desired behavior.

What should someone actually do after the intervention?

If we can’t answer that clearly, we’re probably not ready to design training.

3. What’s Preventing That Behavior Today?

This may be the most important question.

Perhaps people don’t know how.

That’s a learning problem.

But perhaps they know how and the system makes the task unnecessarily difficult.

Or managers reward a conflicting behavior.

Or information isn’t available when it’s needed.

Training won’t remove those barriers.

4. What Does the Learner Need in the Moment of Work?

Sometimes the answer isn’t another course.

It may be:

A checklist.

A decision tree.

A quick reference.

A template.

A manager conversation.

A redesigned process.

Performance support can sometimes solve a problem more effectively than formal instruction.

5. What Business Outcome Should Change?

Training completion isn’t the outcome.

Ask what the organization expects to see differently.

Fewer errors?

Faster decisions?

Higher customer satisfaction?

Improved safety?

Greater confidence?

Better adoption?

Now learning can be connected to something that matters.

From Course Builder to Performance Partner

Modern tools—including AI—will continue making content creation easier.

That makes diagnosis more valuable, not less.

When almost anyone can create something that resembles training, experienced learning professionals can bring something different to the table:

The ability to determine what should be created in the first place.

At Tilak Learning Group, we start with the problem.

The people.

The barriers.

The desired performance.

And the business outcome.

Then we determine what solution makes sense.

Because sometimes the right answer is a course.

And sometimes the most valuable thing a learning partner can say is:

“You don’t need training for this.”

Tilak Learning Group
Strategy • Design • Development • Accessibility • Performance